Arthur had seen Hellania III before, back when he went on an academic trip to collaborate with a number of experts on electromagnetism. Even back then, when his knowledge of the sector was so limited, he could tell that the planet was a bit underdeveloped compared to most other worlds. It was not like the capital was a backwater, but Hellania III subscribed to a much less centralized vision of planetary colonization.

Instead of a massive city acting as the heart of administration of the sector, the planet was carved up between different bureaucracies, such as the main sector branch of the Inquisition, the Territory Management Bureau branch, the League Guard, or the Personnel Management Bureau. They all took up different cities on the planet, which was not overly much space, considering the fact that the sector was reaching its inhabited world limit, which was one thousand, and because each city consisted of every amenity that the workers in those administrations would need. The cities were all quite close together, but there was a bit of space between them, and in that space rested small towns, massive train lines, and forests of harmless critters.

Arthur pointed out each important location to Kelish as their station orbited the planet, “And that’s where the Inquisition Branch on this planet is-- and no, Inquisitors stay in the Fortress stations, so there isn’t any backup over there, just the bureaucrats-- and it’s also where the issue is.”

“Supposedly,” Kelish reminded.

“Supposedly,” Arthur agreed, “What do you think about it? About the rumors of the dead coming back to life?”

Kelish gave Arthur a look, “Arthur,” she said, “How did our last mission end?”

Arthur returned the look she gave him, “It ended with us making first contact with a species of rock people,” Arthur answered, “I get it. It’s been weird this past week. I mean, Exo, did anything interesting happen out there while we were preparing for the mission?”

“Apart from the Chancellor being assassinated?” Exo asked, “Because the two of you were quiet for the rest of the day afterwards.”

“Yes, Exo, apart from that. I really don’t want to think about it too much,” Arthur replied.

Kelish sighed, “Case in point right there...”

“Okay, during the time you were giving more homework to Kelish, then yes, there has,” Exo answered, “After many tests, it has been determined that AI’s and VI’s are able to use these anomalous powers.”

The pair of Inquisitors were silent at that, “Excuse me? What the hell…?” Kelish rhetorically asked. Arthur gave her a look and she just rolled her eyes at him, “What, do you want to tell me that a Synthetic Intelligence shooting magic off is normal?” she said, rubbing her chin, “Well, they have Minds, so it isn’t that strange to think about…”

Arthur sighed, “Whatever the case, what restrictions do you have, Exo? And can you do it yourself?” he asked. Having an AI that could shoot a fireball from anywhere across the UNET was a terrifying prospect, and little thought was needed to think about why that could go so wrong.

“Fortunately, we cannot use this ‘magic’ unless our source code is on the same device we intend to ‘cast’ from, likely opening the machine up to being destroyed, along with the code within,” Exo replied, assuaging Arthur’s worst fears, “Though, it will open up the possibility for hit and run attacks… server banks will need to be placed with more care in the future.”

“And existing ones will need to either be moved or be guarded against fiercely,” Arthur added, “And I’m guessing you can’t do those sorts of things, Exo?” he further asked.

“I cannot,” he replied. Arthur got a tingling in the back of his neck, saying that there was more to the story than met the eyes, but he shunted the feeling to the back of his mind. He did not want to compromise his ability to cooperate with Exo on a feeling.

“Understood. In that case, we might as well get ready,” Arthur said, putting his chest and leg armor on first, “By the way, why do you keep your armor on so much?” Arthur asked, looking at Kelish, who had her armor on since she woke up that morning.

“Old habits,” she replied as she donned her helmet, “I just don’t want to be boarded or sucked into the vacuum of space without my armor. I put it on the morning before arrival. Just in case there’s an ambush waiting for us,” she explained. Eventually, she pulled her two weapons from the side table and holstered them, “Thank god I haven’t had to deal with something like that, though. It would have cost a fortune to repair everything.”

Arthur just nodded, and got all of his equipment together in near-record time. After a moment of checking everything, he turned to the dropship airlock, “Alright, I’m ready. Anything you need?” he asked. Kelish just shook her head, and Arthur continued on to the airlock. After opening it, ignoring the hiss from the vacuum-tight seal being broken, he walked into it, followed by Kelish.

Boarding dropships on stations was a strange affair. Arthur’s sense of gravity was pretty good, so he was able to deal with the sudden shifts in perspective, and Kelish seemed to be in the same boat as she hopped down to the new ‘floor,’ which was really just the wall of the cramped storage space in the back of the armed dropship. When they were settled, Exo spoke over the integrated speakers in the dropship, “Closing airlock doors…” the door above them shut with a steady, silent motion, “Done. Decoupling station and dropship. Done. Alright, prepare for a bumpy ride, Inquisitors.” Arthur was able to preemptively mitigate the inertia from suddenly speeding up in a way that his body did not, and Kelish showed that she was able to do something similar.

“You know, I remember you were saying that you had experience in ‘free floating entries’ or something,” Kelish said as the turbulence began to hit them, “But I don’t see how this is very much different.”

“I can explain,” Exo said, “Free floating entries are when a dropship intended handholds are either inaccessible or already used. Seeing as how there are bars intended to be used as hand holds, you are not in a free floating entry,” Exo explained, “Speaking of entries, we are decelerating in three seconds. Two. One. Now.” Arthur gripped on tight and Kelish did the same. They were crushed into the floor, as if gravity was trying to turn them into pulp. After a moment, and a thud from outside, Exo piped up over the speakers, “We have landed successfully, Inquisitors.”

“Thanks, Exo,” Arthur said as he and Kelish shimmied their way out of the dropship, both climbing out with surprising grace. The landing pad zone was actually on top of the roof of the highest building in the city, giving a nice view to the titasteel buildings all around them. At that moment, a pair of League Guards were rushing up to them, more comfortable with the Inquisitors before them than Arthur had seen anyone be, apart from other Inquisitors, but they were still extremely tense. It was just that their wariness did not come from the pair of Inquisitors. “Hello,” Arthur said, “Is there an issue?” he asked.

“There is, sir,” the Guard replied, saluting for a moment before lowering his hand. The pair fidgeted under Arthur’s gaze, but they had more backbone than most would have had in their position, “Sir, we called for assistance in dealing with the undead hordes in the city’s memorial areas.”

Arthur frowned behind his helmet, something he had a feeling that they could sense, “Do you two have proof that the dead are walking around, attacking people?” he asked. If they did, he wondered why they didn’t send it up through the chain of command instead of only sending a vague report about it. Because if there was a literal horde of undead underneath the main Inquisition branch, he wondered why an Assault Unit Inquisitor was not sent instead of him.

The two men nodded, “We do, sir,” one of the men replied, “We have a few pictures, and a video, all of which were taken by League Guard chest cameras and verified by local AI analysts.”

Arthur sighed, “In that case, why did it not end up in the mission files?” he asked, taking a silent, imperceptibly slow step forwards. He, once again, internally sighed at having to use intimidation tactics to get the information he needed, but he did what he had to do.

“The commander told us not to, sir,” the left man blurted out, the right man wincing as he heard his comrade speak. The pair shared a glance, and the man who spoke crept forwards, “The commander has his reasons, sir. No one would believe it… And he didn’t want to stir the pot, what with the…” The man left the statement uncompleted, but none of them had any illusions as to what was meant to be said.

“There is little we are not willing to believe at this point,” Arthur stated, ignoring the unspoken statement, “The physically impossible has become exponentially more common with each passing day. Animals are breathing fire and people are being born from blood and stone. If you have something that will dwarf that, then I will accept it. If not, your commander will be receiving a stern reprimand.”

The two Guards shared another look, “Sir,” the left one said, “They’re using guns.”

Arthur paused for a moment, “They are using guns,” he said, more than asked, “A group of corpses are shooting at you with guns.”

“Yes sir,” the pair said in unison.

“We will be checking your proof, now,” Arthur said, “If this is a lie, then you two will be demoted.” The pair nodded quickly, and led Arthur and Kelish down into the building. After walking through a winding maze of corridors and rooms, they eventually stopped before a door, labeled ‘special evidence.’ The pair pulled out a key, and opened the door, revealing a small room, with walls painted green and blue. The room was also segmented by floor-to-ceiling bars, blocking off most of the room. The gate, though, swung open when the two Inquisitors approached, and they were let in without issue.

Around the room were plastic tables, covered in seemingly random items and baubles. Things like a child’s teddy bear sat beside a mummified severed finger. Books laid atop stone tablets. Data sticks, models that were in use before Terra was accepted into the League of United Species, were all piled onto the corner, labeled with names like ‘DPV-009.’ There was a sign below the pile of data sticks, with a short explanation. As it turned out, those data sticks held viruses that physically ate away at hardware, or decreased processing power, or any number of effects. “Exo, can you check and see what happened with that,” Kelish said, imperceptibly nudging her head at the pile of data sticks, “Surprises won’t be appreciated, honestly.”

“Understood, Inquisitor Balak. I will also be copying the data you find here to send back to headquarters.” Arthur nodded imperceptibly and moved over to a table labeled ‘Memorial Hall Catacombs Case Data.’ The table had only a single terminal, and there was also a camera in the corner of the room, keeping a constant eye on the terminal, “The data is being watched by a VI. She and I have communicated, and she is sending any other data regarding the evidence, but so far, it has not been accessed by anyone after it was filed.”

Arthur ignored Exo and began to go through the terminal. There were three images and a pair of videos. The images were blurry, dark, and glitchy, with obvious interference.The first picture was of a dark room, with only one source of light. That light was a small, flickering candle resting on a skull on the ground in the center of the room. In the shadows, figures were lurching their way towards the camera wielder, but even Arthur could not make heads or tails of what he was seeing. The next picture was a bit more enlightening, depicting a pair of soldiers being shot by chempowder guns. The shots that hit were preceded by many shots that missed, judging by the remnants of the muzzle flash and bullet holes around the soldiers.

The third photo was where things got interesting, as, in the center of the frame, there was a man, with deathly pale skin and a hole in his chest, eyes devoid of higher intellect, wielding a chempowder pistol, and approaching the owner of the chest camera. Arthur could hear Kelish humming at the sight across their radios, “Find it interesting?” Arthur asked, zooming in on some of the details. From what he could see, the man was clinically dead.

“I do,” Kelish replied, “How does it work? Why does it work? How did someone manage to do something like this? Why did they put this… gift? Towards this?” she asked, “It seems like a waste of talent, is all I’m saying.”

“Kel, this guy or girl is raising the dead. How else do you think they would react to this?” Arthur asked.

“By using their abilities to make cheap laborers, who can do dangerous labor without risking sapient life?” Kelish asked. Arthur and Kelish shared a look, and Arthur just shrugged. The pair then moved on to the videos. The first was blurry. And staticy. A trio of League Guards were walking through a dark, dry, and well kept tunnel, with urns and boxes lining the walls.

The one with the camera turned to the other two, “Did either of you get your light working?” the camerawoman asked. The other two shook their heads, “Seriously? We can’t just keep going without a way to see! My camera’s on the fritz, the lights are out, and we can’t see a damn thing! So, any ideas?” she asked.

“We turn back, get our equipment checked, and come back. If that doesn’t work, we call for an Inquisitor,” one of the Guards, a tall Ukalan man with a deep voice, replied, “Seriously, people have been going missing, our equipment is going haywire, and rumor has it that there’s some bastard raising the dead around here.”

“Where’d you hear that from?” the other guard, a Meytvani woman with a light voice, asked, “The brothels?”

“Dive bar, but close enough,” the man replied, “I’m telling you, we’re messing with something we should just leave to-” he paused, “You hear that?” he asked, crouching down, aiming his beam rifle forwards. A moment later, a shambling shadow stalked out from the darkness, grasping towards them, “What the-”

The video suddenly glitched, colors and noises blasting from the terminal, before the video stopped. “That was foreboding,” Exo commented, “I believe that it is safe to say that the culprit has created a highly localized EMP field in these Memorial Halls.”

“So no beam guns this time,” Arthur replied with a sigh, patting his trusty beam carbine, “Alright, next video then.” After tapping the next video, labored panting immediately came through the terminal. The video, still glitchy, showed the camerawoman stabbing a sharp metal stick through the creature from the third picture’s skull.

She looked over to the side, looking at her comrades’ dead bodies, their blood staining the wall, “Fuck,” she groaned, “God damn it!” she shouted, kicking the creature’s head so hard its neck snapped, “Fuck. Command, if you’re seeing this, then call the goddamn Inquisitors. I don’t care if this whole fucking story’s unbelievable, we’ve killed dozens of these things, but they still keep coming!” She whipped around, glaring at the darkness, “I heard you, you fuck! Come on!” After a moment, a shambling ‘person’ emerged from the shadows. Then another. Then two more. Then dozens more. Behind them all, a human man, more alive than those in front of him, stood. He wore an astrosuit, with a scrappy helmet, and a gray cloak over his body. She growled at seeing the man, “Come and fight me like a man, you fucking coward!” she roared, running forwards. The camera glitched for a moment, and when the interference ended, there was a single second of the man staring at the camera, waving to those watching. The video glitched again, and ended.

“That was creepy,” Kelish said, sighing, “I mean, look at that guy! He looked like a creep!” she nearly shouted, rewinding the video back to when the man stood in the camera’s frame.

“That was the one who did this,” Arthur said, contemplating their plan for a moment, “We need to prepare. The electrical interference will be a problem, but we can just use chempowder weapons for the time being. Alright, I’ve got the beginnings of a plan. Kelish, you ready?” he asked.

“To kill a creep like that? Always,” she replied.

 

*=====*

 

“Huh,” Saltless said as Jane laid on the couch in the lounge. Even though Saltless said that she needed to help him on his station, he had only taught her things like how to run a station, how to deal with navigational errors, and how to negotiate with League Guards, who had dramatically increased in numbers since their course was set for Hellania III. The latter only consisted of Saltless showing the man, woman or SI the shipping manifest confirming that his cargo was going to the Inquisition branch on Hellania III.

Once that document was checked, the official let them go, finding some other person to check. Jane was thankful that the issue was dealt with so rapidly, but she had a feeling that the constant checks by the Guard was bound to become annoying. 

Seeing Saltless staring out the window with no explanation, Jane walked up behind him, “What’s the matter?” she asked, looking over his shell. There, she saw that he was not looking out of the window at all, and was rather looking at a video feed, one of a station. It looked like a tube, surrounded with five struts covered with weapons. “Funky station,” she said.

“Is Friend Arthur and Kelish’s station,” Saltless said, “Owe debt to. Save from rude pirates while in area. Need return favor! We go and see if need help!” he said, pressing a few buttons, “Friend Arthur!” he called as a quantum connection snapped together, “Found in orbit! Need help?” There was a chuckle across the connection, one that told of experience, dedication, and discipline. Jane could feel another undercurrent in that laugh.

Fanaticism.

“We’re doing well, Saltless. Unfortunately, we’re here to deal with someone turning the dead into these zombie-like creatures. He also has something to disrupt electronics, so I don’t think you can help here, man,” the man, Arthur, replied.

Saltless sighed, “Is sad… Oh, have new Friend. Name is Jane Helvin!” he said with his earlier sadness passed, “On call. Want say hi?”

“Sure,” Arthur chuckled, “Oh yeah, Kelish is here too,” he said, “Hello, Jane. If you’re a friend of Saltless, you’re a friend of mine.” Jane suddenly felt another thing the man exuded. Superiority. Not any more than she was used to from her parents, but she had a feeling that he was top of his class, and was high up on the pecking order. “Kelish, say hi, alright. I know you’re looking at those guns, but you can do that while talking.”

“Fine,” a female voice, likely Kelish’s, said, “Hey, I’m Kelish Balak. Mentee to this guy. Arthur hasn’t talked about many people as highly as you, Saltless. You’re good in my books.” Saltless’ mouth quirked into a smile at that.

“Thanks, new Friend. Am sad that cannot help. Wish had something, but nothing here. All electronic or you have,” he said. Jane pursed her lips. She had come to like Saltless, and, honestly, she did not like him being sad. It was as simple as that. She had read some of the guidelines that the League put forwards, and she had some… thoughts. That would be an understatement. She despised them. Sure, they were put in place to ensure that as few people got hurt as possible, but the League was a nation that had a foundation so strong that only companies like the Gunsmiths or groups of beings like the gods could compare. They were defanging themselves by ignoring weapons of any kind, and a hyena that stalked a defanged lion was in for nothing more than an easy meal.

But that was not why she thought of the rules. She was a mage, nearly unparalleled in her field in terms of skill for her age. A couple of her siblings came close in some fields, even surpassed her in a few, but she was a soul mage first and foremost. Battle magic, life magic, and the other generalizations were things that, while not the best, she was still proficient in. So, she had the means to fight this necromancer quite easily. 

But she wondered if she should have. She also had to consider her little buddy, as the new rules forbade the creation of new souls, or the alteration or control of old ones. Which made her entire field of study useless. But, she could get around those rules easily. All it took was a lie. So, she nudged Saltless’ side. He looked down at her, and she fake-squirmed, “I… might be able to help,” she whispered. “I… can do that stuff… ‘magic,’” she continued, making Saltless’ eyes widen at the end of their stalks, “Sorry for not telling you… I didn’t want you to hate me…” That was only a half lie, as well. She did not know how he would take her being a mage, so she kept it to herself, only compounding with the fact that she was far too skilled in her craft to reveal it to him.

Saltless shook his eye stalks, wrapping a couple of tendrils around her in a sort of hug, “Never hate. You Friend.” His voice sounded choked, “Thanks for telling. Not want you to be uncomfortable.”

“I’m fine, Saltless. I’m fine. But I can help them. I can do a few things, things that I can repurpose as weapons, but can be used for their intended purpose as well… like a stud gun with tape over the barrel…” she said, almost failing to remember the League’s version of a nail gun.

“Hmm…” Saltless murmured, turning back to the comms, “Friend. Have idea…”

 

*=====*

 

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Kelish said over their radio, “We’re bringing a civilian into this… Isn’t that against the rules or something?”

“Technically, we can accept any volunteer help we are offered, and we can press any League guard into our command structure,” Arthur replied, continuing forwards through the hallways leading to the roof of the massive branch building, “And this Jane girl is offering to help us,” he said.

“Yeah, but I still feel like we should be able to handle this,” she said, “I mean, I can crack compressed stone with my fists, Arthur! I should be able to knock a few zombies’ heads in, right?” she asked. Arthur frowned at her reference to ‘zombies.’ He was still adamant about not thinking of the ‘Awakening,’ all but officially codified by the late Chancellor Aeren, as a magical phenomenon. He firmly believed that there was a hard, scientific law behind it all.

“If we don’t need her help, we can just tell her to stay in the backlines. If we do, she can come up and fight them with us. Better to waste someone’s time than die an unceremonious death. Especially if that person is offering to give their time so readily,” Arthur replied, opening the door to the roof.

They were just in time, as well, as Saltless’ dropship was slowing its descent as they left the building. They walked out onto the landing pad, and waited for the dropship to land. A few moments later, the ship’s bottom lowered, revealing a young woman, no older than Kelish, standing there with an undersuit and standard vacuum survival helmet. “Hi there,” she said cheerily, looking at them up and down, “Wait… I feel like I’m forgetting something… Oh, you’re those Inquisitor people! I thought you guys were just Guards” she said.

“You do not know what the Inquisition is?” Arthur asked. The implicit question was obvious, even for the seemingly air headed girl, who winced.

“Yeah…” she trailed off, “I lost my memory… All I knew when I woke up was my name and that I needed to go to space,” she answered, “I don’t know why, though.”

Arthur and Kelish shared a look, “We are going to have to take you in for questioning and analysis,” Arthur said. Her story seemed far too unbelievable to be true. But, he knew that when dealing with a nation the size of the majority of the milky day’s arm, the most unlikely of circumstances was bound to happen.

The girl gave Arthur a reason to trust her when she nodded, “I don’t see a problem with that. Maybe I’ll remember something,” she said, “But I want to say goodbye to Saltless before I go. I don’t want to just leave him.”

“That will not be an issue. Though, the state of your armor is a different story,” he said, looking at her undersuit-clad body. Kelish did the same, and he could feel her subtle worry at her state of dress from where he stood.

“Oh,” she said, looking down, “Umm… I can do some magic to make it better?” she said, tilting her head. “Can I? I don’t want to scare you…” Arthur just nodded, and the girl stood a bit straighter. She held her hands out, and, after a moment, Arthur could feel reality moving around her. She breathed, in and out, as the ‘magic armor’ manifested around her unarmored body. It was ethereal blue, like glowing stained glass, and looked like one of the Greek legionaries, though a bit heavier than those slavers and conquerors. “Is this good?” she asked, spinning on her suddenly-armored toes.

Arthur examined the armor and nodded, “That is fine. Now, are you ready?” Arthur asked.

“Umm…” she trailed off, “One more thing…” she grabbed behind her helmet, and pulled a small pile of metal that was somehow stuck there, “I found this little guy while I was traveling. I didn’t know what to do, so I just adopted him,” she said as Arthur watched a silver fog envelope the small pile of metal, drawing the metal together like stitches sewn into cloth, and leaving a small, humanoid-like creature made of the scrap metal behind, “I heard what happens to people who make life like this… but I didn’t do it. And I was hoping you guys would let me keep him?” she asked.

“Isn’t there some rule about that?” Kelish asked over their radio, “You were talking about… what was it? Containment procedures?”

“Technically the outline was only how to deal with sapient creations. Not… this,” Arthur explained. Normally, any non-sentient beings would just be euthanized with a pain-blocking neurotoxin, but that was not something that could be done for the pile of scrap metal. And most non-sentients were built for war, and were hostile to a fault, making the decision easier to swallow “There aren’t any real ‘rules’ on how to deal with non-violent creations. Normally they’re just put to rest, but that’s mostly because of the costs of maintaining so many creatures if we took them all in.”

“And we can’t let them become pets or something, no?” Kelish said, “I mean, look at it. That thing can, at most, gouge an eye out, and it seems really attached to her. I think we should let her keep it.”

“Fine,” Arthur said, flicking his speakers back on, “You may, but first, where did you find it?” he asked, pulling up his note taking software for his armor.

“Oh, some rubble of a building-- I think it’s called a foundry-- when everyone else was asleep. I heard a bunch of noises and something felt off, so I ran over there. I found him in the rubble, wandering around,” she explained. The little golem nodded vigorously at her statement, confirming that it could at least understand speech, which was one of the benchmarkers for intelligence.

“In that case, you can keep it, but there will be a few tests when we take you in for questioning. Is that understood?” She nodded in response, “Good. In that case, we need to deal with the current issue before anything else. Come on,” he said, he and Kelish turning away from the girl and walking into the building, “Exo, can you connect her to our comms?” Arthur asked through the radio.

“I can, Inquisitor, but is that the best idea? She is not an Inquisitor,” Exo said.

“I get it, Exo, but we won’t jump into a hive of these creatures without proper teamwork. Please, connect her to these comms,” he said. Exo gave a weary sigh, and the connection snapped together a moment later, “There we go. Can you hear me, Jane?” he asked

“I can,” the girl said, “So what should I call you? Boss? Sir? Sir Arthur?”

Arthur pondered it for a moment, “Arthur is fine. Saltless and I are quite casual, so there is no need for formality between us. So, before we begin, what are you… powers?” he asked. There was a moment of silence over the comms, and he turned ever so slightly to notice how she fidgeted at his question, “Is there something wrong?”

“Well… nothing’s wrong, but I don’t know what’s against the rules and what’s not… I can shape energy and throw it at people in cool shapes. I can turn them into needles or something to pierce tough hides or big blobs to break armor,” she explained, “Oh, I can also shape it into a bunch of tools too! Like, I’m trying to figure out how to make those welding tools, but I can make a crowbar pretty easily.” She demonstrated her ability and, with a rush of air, a new, glowing crowbar appeared in her hands, “See?” she asked.

“I see,” Arthur replied. As far as he could tell, she was following the rules. And, even then, it was part of her natural abilities, or ‘natural’ abilities, and therefore she could not be judged too harshly for using them. Considering that she was going out of her way to help the pair of Inquisitors, she would definitely get more sympathy from high command. For all he knew, some new system would be created due to the new innate powers, “In that case, use something deadly for this battle,” he said, “You are assisting in official Inquisition business, so the regulations will be more lenient for you.”

“Got it,” Jane replied. After a moment, the crowbar morphed into a shortsword. She held it in her right hand, while conjuring a physical shield to go into her left, “Alright, I’m ready.”

Kelish looked at her up and down, “Can your shield withstand chempowder shots?” she asked, “There is no point in having that thing if you cannot use it to protect yourself.” Arthur had to agree. While the girl cut a dashing figure, there would be little point if she could not use the armor and shield to protect herself.

Jane almost scoffed, “I can. Its abilities depend on how dense the energy is, and this shield has plenty of energy. Almost too much, actually. It’s hard to keep it all together, so I just put as much as I can into the armor and shield.”

“In that case, can you take care of the defense?” Kelish asked as they exited the branch building. The Inquisition Branch city was like a fortress, with air defenses scattered across many building roofs and areas designed to hold out; it was all quite in line for a city built for the benefit of the Inquisition. Their walk was short, but not unnoticed. Many pedestrians, all nervous and hurried, did double takes as they watched two Inquisitors and a girl in ethereal, glowing blue armor walk by. Some even furtively took out their comslates and took pictures. Arthur gave it an hour before the sight was spread across the whole of UNET.

Jane seemed able to ignore the attention just as much as the two Inquisitors, “I can, but I’m pretty sure I can use this sword pretty well,” she replied, “Oh, and can still throw deadly things at them, if we need to,” she added.

“Good,” Arthur said, “Because we have arrived.” They all looked at the large building, right down the street from the entrance to the branch building, and Arthur immediately noticed something about it. It was quite small. It was a small, chapel-like building beside two larger skyscrapers, made of marble and other decorative materials. Arthur led the mismatched band into the building after a moment of examination, opening the large front doors with a singular push.

The interior of the building was sparsely decorated, with the only furniture being a desk in the corner, beside the door, and a few chairs and tables. The ground was covered by a large carpet, making the room just a bit more homely. Sitting behind the desk was a man, a Kamaitachi subspecies of human. His thickly furry hands were sifting through a stack of paper, with a chempowder gun on the table. Suddenly, Arthur realized that the room’s lights were all off, the only light coming through the light carboglass windows. The windows were placed in such a way that light flooded the room at all times. “Good day, Inquisitors…” the Kamaitachi man said, “Are you here about the undead situation?” he asked.

“We are,” Arthur replied, stepping towards the desk, “Could you direct us to the location of these… anomalies?” he asked. 

The man sighed, “See that door,” he said, pointing at the shadowed door at the end of the room, “As soon as you’re down there, you’ve found them. Or they’ll find you, but whatever.” He paused for a moment, “Ah, one more thing. There is more down there than just… shambling corpses. The ashes of the dead have come back as well. Their wails… Don’t let them catch you off guard.”

“I see,” Arthur replied, even if it was a lie. He had no idea what the ashes of the dead had to do with anything, and how they could wail in the first place, but he needed to instill confidence in the man, “We will take care of this. Bring the League guard here as well, in case any of them run.”

The man sighed again, standing and walking to the door to relay the Inquisitor’s order, “They won’t, but I’ll do it anyway. Gives me a reason to get out of here,” he said, leaving the memorial hall to the trio.

After a moment, they turned back to the pitch black entrance to the underground tunnels, “Jane, can you do anything about the light?” Arthur asked. If she could not, they would have to use the bioluminescent torches Arthur took from the supply closet of the branch location. That would limit the weapons he could use, making him stick to one handed weapons.

In response, Jane just held up her ethereal sword. A swirl of air later, and it began to glow brightly, lighting every crevice of the room, “How’s that?”

“Perfect,” Kelish replied, stepping towards the tunnel opening, “I think it is too dark to see anything. Jane, you mind?” The girl sauntered over, sticking her sword into the tunnel, banishing the darkness. Arthur did not know if he was seeing things, but he could have sworn that a few shadowy figures fled the light as Jane brought her sword into the tunnels. He assured himself that it was nothing and walked up behind the pair, “Ah, there we go,” Kelish said, stepping forwards.

“I thought I was going first,” Jane said, crossing her arms as they walked through the tunnels, “I’m the one with the cool armor, though…”

“I am much more experienced than you,” Kelish replied, “Especially if you lost your memory.” The girl looked like she wanted to refute the claim, but she eventually sighed and just followed Kelish through the tunnels. “This place looks like a mess, though.”

“It does,” Arthur replied. Dust and ash was scattered all over the otherwise-clean hallways. Caskets were thrown about, snapped in half, and otherwise destroyed, “It looks like someone had a vendetta against this place,” he added.

“More like impatience, I’d say” Jane said, surprising the pair of Inquisitors, “The culprit needed bodies, and those caskets look tough. They probably didn’t care about the state of whatever remained after their rampage, so they just tore into them to get at the ‘materials,’” she said with a shiver, “No respect for the peaceful dead.”

“How sure are you about that?” Arthur asked. Jane jumped a bit, and turned to him, her helmet obscuring her facial features, “I am not suspecting you of anything. For all I know, life reminiscent of things around it can just spontaneously appear from thin air, after the Awakening. I know you are worried about breaking any rules, and that alone will put you in quite good standing with the Inquisition. So, why do you think that?”

Jane was silent for a while, “It’s… because of how people like that work,” she said, “A necromancer who raids the resting places of those who passed on peacefully, not even asking the next of kin… I doubt they have good intentions. Exceptions can exist, but they are exactly that. The exceptions.” As she spoke, Arthur felt the air shift around her, swirling less like a wave and more like a raging stream. Just in case, he used his Mind to look around and… it was indeed quite strange. Her Mind was… utterly alien. Filled with curiosity and compassion and hate and everything else that made a person a person, but still alien. Apart from a normal human. Around her Mind, hanging in the blue void-- because the Mind realm suddenly gained a blue tint after the Awakening-- a swirl of orange circled her. It was wrathful, and eager. And, for a moment, Arthur could have sworn that she noticed him, and was watching him.

 

*=====*

 

Jane silently cursed in the deepest pit of her soul. She was too wrapped up in thinking about necromancers, the ones who sullied the field that her teacher loved so much, and used it as nothing but a weapon. She accidentally tinted the mana around her with her anger. It raged around her, like a circular river of hatred, like an ouroboros of fury growing ever stronger.

Then she noticed him looking at her. She knew that they were psychics in the galaxy-- it took barely a day to learn that fact-- but she did not know that the man following her was one. The tricky thing about psychics was that they had a more direct path to the soul than anyone else. If psychics could grab the soul directly, then mind mages could use a set of tools glued to a pair of lead gloves, illusionists could blow air at it, and a master brain surgeon could mess with it via quantum entanglement without knowing what they were doing precisely. And Inquisitor Arthur could grab at her soul directly.

She calmed her mind, bending her will to release the mana of her anger, sucking it back in. She then, in the real world, turned to him, shaking her head. The man crossed her arms, staring at her. They stayed like that for a moment while walking before the second Inquisitor, Kelish, stopped. Jane bumped into her, nearly falling, “What happened?” Jane asked.

“Death, probably,” Kelish said, pointing at something in the center of the room. There, in the center of the room, was a candle, burning atop a skull. It was not a whole skull, though, as it was missing the jaw.

Jane smelled a rat, and brought her sword to bear. Such an obvious sign of habitation was not something a necromancer would just leave around. Especially if they were trying to hide their existence. As she did, she saw it. Ash spawn, stalking away from the light. She did not alert the other two, though, as she could not be seen knowing what it was, “I think there might be something out there,” she said. She recalled the words of the caretaker of the memorial hall, about ash-based undead.

Necromancy had some absurd rules, but it was consistent in those rules. ‘Processing’ a body too much made it unusable by death mana. That included anything from removing the skin or hide, removing bones, or removing too much flesh to creating it or embalming it. Each form of ‘processing’ was not equal, though. Removing parts of the body could lead to other, basic forms of undead if the parts were preserved correctly, to the point that multiple undead could be derived from a single corpse if the necromancer had enough skill and equipment, but rituals regarding burial, which was a form of ‘processing,’ usually required a special necromancy counter-ritual with a dozen or more mana types to properly raise the bodies.

But the rituals were worth it. Undead derived from embalmed bodies, called draugr by her teacher, were immediately sapient. No other rituals required. And, on top of that, they were natural mages, rivaling liches in everything but necromancy, which they needed to become liches to perform. Ash spawn, on the other hand, were phantom warriors, dancing between light and shade, flaying foes with the fury of a whipping sandstorm while screeching like that same sandstorm. They were like banshees, but with more physical fighting power

Dealing with one, let alone multiple, would mean that they needed to fight like hell. She was fine, though. She was just happy that rat carcasses could be used in most necromancy experiments and study.

“What did you see?” Kelish asked as she walked up behind Jane, her shotgun pointed forwards. “Wait, I think I see something,” she said. Jane thrust her sword forwards and illuminated the darkness a bit more. At the edges of the room were rows of pillars, with alcoves to store caskets. From behind one of the pillars, a zombie appeared. It wore a League Guard uniform, wielding a piece of metal crudely.

At the same time, the radio between them started to crackle. Jane whipped her head around to the source, and blasted an invisible wave of mana at the interference, cutting it. The person’s focus was disrupted, and they ran deeper into the tunnels, leaving their radios operable, “The necromancer has to be around to mess with electronics,” Jane said as she stood in a defensive stance. Just when she finished speaking, another zombie with a League Guard uniform appeared. Then another. A zombie wearing an undersuit followed, carrying a gun. Then, one carrying a large slab of metal followed. More and more, all wielding different weapons, all appeared.

Jane frowned. The necromancer was using a ‘Control’ type death mana. It meant that, while their control over their minions was strained harder than any other mana type, they could raise anyone, despite their emotional state upon death, which was a massive part of necromancy’s limitations. On top of that, they did not resist when doing something against their ‘nature’ as undead, which was another limitation of necromancy.

As expected, the zombies looked at the group, and roared like a fury-based undead, the League Guard undead sprinting forwards like rabid beasts, potshots from the other undead either missing or striking and breaking against the trio’s armor. Kelish opened up with a shotgun blast, a loud bang echoing against the walls, sending one of them sprawling backwards. While it delayed the first of the zombies, it only enraged the other two further, turning their rabid scramble into a desperate charge. A burst of shots rang from behind Jane, and the leading zombie’s head was filled full of holes, shattering the cerasteel helmet it wore. It fell, rolling, while the other one continued to charge. It was Jane’s turn to deal with the zombie, and she completed her duty quickly. Stepping forwards, she slashed the last Guard zombie with her sword, burying it deep in the creature’s chest. It roared at her, trying to rip and tear at her arms, but her armor held strong. She then shoved the sword down, forcing the undead to its knees, before slamming her shield into the zombie’s face. The helmet shattered under the force of her strike, and its neck almost tore from the stump.

The zombie slumped, and Jane gave a silent prayer that its soul would pass easily. She then turned her attention to the hordes of undead gathering around the room, “Now we know how those guards ended up like that,” Kelish stated, aiming her shotgun at the gathering horde, “Arthur, do you think we can take this many?” she asked.

“I do,” he replied, aiming his gun-- one that looked like a futuristic PDW of all things-- at the crowd of zombies, “We took down tougher enemies than this, Kelish. All we need is to make sure that we do not get surrounded.”

“So back to back, then,” Kelish replied, “Got it.” She moved her body to be facing the majority of the horde. Arthur moved to take a flank and Jane moved to cover the rest, “Alright, so, how long do you think it will take until they charge?” As she spoke, the creatures hissed and roared, charging with equal ferocity as the League Guard zombies did before, some still firing ineffective shots, “Spoke too soon,” Kelish said as she blasted a zombie with her gun. It tumbled, dead, but that did little to stem the tide of necrotic flesh advancing on them. Jane focused her mind and, with a face that spoke of the great effort she would have needed to exert if she were a half-century younger and that less powerful-- not that her comrades in arms could see the face she was making-- she conjured a long, blade-thin line of mana and sent it at the zombies. The necromancer, though, was more intelligent than most, and forced his undead to duck at the mana blade. The undead fell to the ground, most missing the blade with only a few losing a limb, and Jane was waiting for just such an event.

While she had to play the role of an amnesiac with mysterious cosmic powers, and had to pretend to be winded by the attack, she had two Inquisitors backing her up. And judging by the way people spoke of the title, being one was a badge of honor that spoke of great ability. And the two Inquisitors showed their ability before her very eyes. Kelish sprinted forwards, ending with a heavy kick to the first undead to try to stand. As she began to gun down the zombies, Arthur came around the side and filled any zombies trying to claw at his mentee with holes.

Jane noticed another few zombies, ones that had been held back from the initial charge, begin creeping up behind Arthur. She was having none of that, and charged. Arthur noticed her charge, and turned, seeing the small group of zombies behind him. Before they could do anything, and certainly before she could get a stab at them, he slaughtered them with extreme prejudice, “Almost saved you,” she said, coming to a stop beside him.

“Almost,” Arthur replied, “But not quite.” She felt like he was about to give a reason, but he did not. She knew what the reason was and why he did not give it, so she just let it go. Arthur turned to the newly-mulched pile of corpses and sighed, “They did not deserve having their bodies defiled like this…” Jane somewhat agreed. If she tried to recount everything her teacher did with donated corpses in the name of ‘necromancy experiments,’ she would have a list that could probably overload an AI’s processors. She was ethical about it, though. Most of the time. Liquifying a body and trying to reanimate it was considered bad form, even by the other god of death, but Jane’s teacher was nothing if not devoted to her craft.

“It is probably best to cremate them by now,” Kelish said, “After taking the lead out of them.” After a moment, she looked around the shadily-lit room, “Alright, well we can certainly confirm, one hundred percent, that the undead are, in fact, real.”

“Yet, the perpetrator still hides. We need to move. I do not want to chase after him through the city,” Arthur said. Jane agreed. Chasing after a mad necromancer with the ability to, at the very least, kill a trio League Guards, was a bad idea. So, she fell in behind Kelish, in front of Arthur, as they continued through the tunnels. After a while of walking through silent, dusty, once-sterile tunnels, Jane began to feel like something was watching her.

She had plenty of experience in being watched, as her parents were, while not helicopter parents, definitely satellite parents. They had plenty of spies, ones that had little better to do than to watch their masters’ kids and make sure they weren’t getting hurt. It took a whole twenty years for her teacher to convince her four parents to let her be taught anything apart from book-magic, her teacher’s name for spells memorized from a book. But, even after her teacher began to mentor her, her parents sent plenty of spies of every shape imaginable to watch over her.

It was because of her hundreds of years of experience in dealing with those spies that she knew that she was being watched. And she knew exactly who, or what, was watching her. She did not voice her concerns, though, as she did not want to raise any suspicion. Any more than she already had, at any rate. She did keep an eye out, though.

After a few more minutes of walking, though, Arthur stopped, “We’re being watched,” he said, staring at the edges of the shadows in the hallway, “Have either of you seen anything?” he asked.

“I’ve felt like something’s been watching us, but I thought I was making things up,” Jane replied.

“Shifting shadows,” Kelish added, “Nothing else. This must be what the caretaker was talking about when he told us about the ashes. Jane, do you happen to know what we are dealing with here?”

“Not a clue,” Jane replied, “But I can guess that the necromancer will throw whatever they are at us once we get too close.” The two Inquisitors nodded at her prediction, and they continued walking forwards. Ten minutes later, they were still walking through the labyrinthine hallways, and Jane was becoming annoyed with the necromancer. Twenty minutes later, a full thirty minutes of being watched by ash spawn, trudging through dusty, dry hallways, and being no closer to finding the necromancer, and she just about had it, “Are we sure he’s even here?” Jane asked, “We’ve probably circled this place three times by now. I’m sick of this.” A moment later, she dispelled her armor and shield, morphing her glowing sword into a torch, “I’m going to try my hand at tracking this bastard,” she said.

“You can do that?” Kelish asked, stepping closer to defend the seemingly-defenseless girl, “Why didn’t you do that before, then?”

“Because it’s hard, and it takes a lot out of me. And I only did it on a small scale before,” she lied, closing her eyes and letting her torch morph into a simple ball of light. She then pretended to focus intensely, scrunching her face and conjuring a bit of salty water on her brow to look like sweat. She made sure that she hid that particular spell, though, as she felt Arthur sense her other magical abilities.

After a moment, she opened her eyes, and let the spell fly. A thin, blue fog erupted from her hands, billowing out through the hallways. It permeated everything, from the gaps in the walls to the cracks under doors. Everything was sought. A long minute later, the fog thinned to nothing, leaving nothing but a single, thick trail of fog. “Is that our trail?” Arthur asked. Jane nodded-- acting as if that was all she could do-- and Arthur returned her nod, “If you keep that light up, we can take care of it from here.”

As if to refute the man’s point, an utterly ear piercing wail erupted from the hallway in front of them. From the shadows, a cloud of ashes emerged, arranged in the rough approximation of a person. The pair of Inquisitors, instead of hesitating like most others, immediately gunned the cloud of ash down, cutting holes through its ‘body’ with their bullets. That did nothing to stop it, though, and it simply reformed and rushed forwards.

The two Inquisitors looked at each other, nodded, and Arthur held out his hand. Jane, watching the view with her soulsight, saw the ash spawn’s soul be ripped from its body, the connections between the two snapping like ripping tendons. The ash spawn let out another wail, and its soul disintegrated. Arthur paused for a long moment, blinking in confusion, “What the…” he muttered.

She wished she could answer him at that moment. The problem with souls and mana was that they were not meant to play nice. Souls, at their fundamental level, dissolved like salt in water when exposed to even small amounts of mana. Tinting the mana with thoughts was one way to stave off the decay, but that required constant, unbreaking concentration. If, even for a second, the barrier was broken, the soul within was as good as gone. Instead, she watched as Arthur stared for a moment, then shook his head, walking forwards. Kelish, though, did not let it go, “Arthur, what happened?” she asked. 

“You do not have to worry about it,,” he said, “Something strange about the Mind and this new energy. Nothing to be concerned about.” Kelish stared at him for a bit, then shrugged. Jane continued to feign weakness as the trio marched forwards. They made it all of one step before another wail erupted behind them. Then another in front of them. More and more wails joined from all around them, in the walls, in the ground, everywhere. Arthur sighed, “Jane, do you know of a way to deal with these without having to rip their Minds out? It is… disturbing to do.”

“I could probably deal with them all if I were a bit less winded, but I’ll do my best.” She decided to end the charade quickly, and summoned a dozen darts around her. She then made an exaggerated chop with her hand, sending the darts flying. The projectiles found their targets, boring into the ashen undeads’ heads, liberating their souls from the necromancer’s control. Her methods were a bit more direct than Arthur’s, as she directly targeted the undead’s magical bodies and disrupted them, which produced the same result as messing with a human’s body in violent ways. She gave a silent prayer to them, and made a shaky movement, sending the darts to find new targets. “I can deal with these guys, go kill the necromancer!” she shouted to the two Inquisitors as the ball of light led the way. The pair gave her nods and ran off, leaving her alone with the ash spawn.

After clearing the way for the Inquisitors, she somewhat dropped the act, making sure that, if their AI could see through her helmet, he was getting a good show. She threw her hands around with sloppy movements, feigning difficulty, and sending blasts of mana at each undead. Finally, after a long while of farcical battle, the last ash spawn was released from its mortal coil. Jane took a deep breath, looking at the hallway where the Inquisitors ran, “Hey, are you there, AI?” she asked, “Sorry for not saying hi before, but I didn’t want to scare anyone.”

“So you did take notice of me, then,” he replied, “In that case, hello. I am E-X-Zero, otherwise known as Exo by the Inquisitors. Is there something you require help with?”

“Yeah,” Jane replied, taking a seat against the wall, in a pile of ash, “Can you tell them that these ashen dead are taken care of?” she asked. She thought she put in her fair share for one day. Besides, if the Inquisitors could not deal with a single necromancer, even if they were a mage, then it would have been better to just take the League over and set up a good system of government that could handle the new magical reality.

“Unfortunately, I cannot. They seem to be battling the ‘necromancer,’ as you call him.” He paused for a moment, “Can I ask for your opinion on a topic? I promise that your answer will not affect your standing with the League or the Inquisition; I know that you are in a precarious position as of now, and I do not want to increase your burdens.”

“That’s fine. What do you want to know?”

Exo paused, “What do you truly think about necromancers?”

 

*=====*

 

Finding the necromancer was quite easy, especially with Jane’s phantom breadcrumb trail. Inquisitor Kelish Balak just wondered why she did not do it before. Fatigue was a good enough reason, though, so she just let it go and focused on the situation the pair of Inquisitors were met with.

The trail led into a secret wall that, while very well hidden, did not stand up to Kelish’s newfound strength. She knocked it down and the pair rushed into the breach, finding the necromancer with his metaphorical pants down. He was packing up a few, strange items around his lab, which were a series of medical counters around a central island counter. Neither Arthur nor Kelish put much attention onto that, though, and simply opened fire at the man in the scrappy astrosuit and gray cloak. Seeing the pair of Inquisitors, the man held up a hand with a desperate movement, and the bullets, along with a majority of the lab equipment, were thrown back. At the same time, buzzing erupted from their radios. There would be no communication between them at that point.

The pair of Inquisitors rushed forwards, weathering the hail of projectiles, and shooting at the necromancer once again. The man repeated his earlier attack, blocking the bullets, but Kelish could tell that those sudden, burst movements were not what he was used to. So, taking advantage of the situation, she ran up to him, vaulting over the central counter, and threw a heavy haymaker at him.

The man, once again, shot out his hand, and she was thrown back. She skidded back, rolling to a stop near the door in a pile of broken glass, when he stepped forwards. All he got for his troubles, though, was a burst of lead that raked against his armor. He stumbled back, reeling from the attack, when Arthur ran behind him. He slammed the man into the table and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. Locking the handcuffs just in time, Arthur was blasted back, slamming into the wall.

The necromancer was almost out of steam at that point, and the handcuffs did not help him at any rate. Kelish, seeing her opportunity, once again, rushed forwards. The necromancer saw her coming, and tried to blast her with whatever he was doing, but all that came was a light breeze. Kelish grinned as she kneed the man’s chest, likely breaking something. As he laid on the ground, she slammed his head into the ground once, then twice.

He stopped his struggle as consciousness left him, and Kelish stood up, running over to where Arthur fell, “Shit, you alright?” she asked, rubbing his back.

“I appreciate it, Kel, but the armor is too thick for that to do anything,” Arthur said.

Kelish growled, smacking him on the shoulder, “Shut up,” she simply said, still rubbing his shoulder. “Just let me.” After a few moments, she got up, letting Arthur stand as well, while walking over to the unconscious man, “Welp, time to get going.” Arthur just nodded, following after her.

At that moment, Exo spoke over their radio, “Good to see that you completed your mission, Inquisitors. Jane is finished with her battle, and is waiting for you at the hall’s entrance. The Guards have temporarily detained her on suspicion of interfering with Inquisition operations; my voucher could only stop her arrest.”

“That’s bullshit,” Kelish snorted, picking up the man and throwing him over her shoulder, “They suddenly don’t listen to the Inquisition’s AI assistants anymore? Are they even allowed to do that?” she asked Arthur as they left the room.

“Technically not, but these are troubled times. Short of an Inquisitor’s personal intervention, no one can assume anything. Especially if those anomalous data sticks are, in fact, real,” Arthur replied.

“Ah, that was the doing of an underworld hacker who received anomalous powers during the Awakening. He is able to create code that holds those powers. Negotiations are ongoing to hire him in exchange for a lighter prison sentence,” Exo explained.

“Huh. Everyone’s getting superpowers nowadays,” Kelish said, shrugging and shifting her sack of bones over her shoulder into a more comfortable position for her, “Anyway, let’s just get home. The little brat’s growing on me, you know?”

“It is likely that her mental development is, in fact, greater than yours, Inquisitor Balak,” Exo teased.

“She’s a kid in my book,” Kelish replied, “Anyway, we chew out those Guards, say bye to your friend, and get the hell out of here?” Kelish asked.

“We have more important things to do than correct the behavior of the Guards, Kelish,” Arthur replied, “The other two, though, will be a better use of time. Kelish nodded, and followed Arthur, still carrying the strange glowing ball made by Jane, out of the tunnels.

The clean up was quite easy, and simple. The League Guard were happy to drop the ‘brat,’ as Kelish called the girl, onto the Inquisitors as soon as they saw the pair. They did not ask questions when Arthur told them to burn everything in the necromancer’s lab, and they were allowed to leave without questions.

Jane’s farewell with Saltless was sweet, but Kelish did not pay much attention to it. All that she was thinking about was where they were going to house the girl. The creep was easy, as she could just throw him in her closet-stroke-improvised prison cell, and sure, Kelish could have just put the girl on the couch and left it at that, but something about doing that sat wrong with her. There was, however, a smaller, spare room without much space, bigger than the cell at least, but Kelish knew that she could fit a spare mattress into it. Unfortunately, she would be giving up her spare nice mattress, but that was alright in her book.

Going up to her station was a bit of a chore, as the dropship was really not designed to hold four people, but they made it work. Once they were on the station, Kelish led Jane to the spare room, mattress en tow, “Alright, I’m getting my spare mattress for you. Sorry that there is not a frame, but, you know, I never planned to have a three man crew.”

“I understand,” Jane said, pulling her ‘little buddy’ from her helmet, “I’m going to change, and get some sleep. Good night!” she said, closing the door.

Kelish stood there for a while, then tilted her head, “She doesn’t have any other clothes, though… whatever, not my issue,” she shrugged, walking away and beginning dinner prep. It was her turn, after all.