Night had fully fallen now. I had Arduwan bury the guy in the backyard for the time being. No one in this world would be looking for him. Emily wrapped the girls' bodies in sheets, and we placed them on the bed in Higgins’ former room. We sat beside the well, thinking, while we waited for Arduwan to finish digging.

Emily kept one arm wrapped around my shoulders as I sat there crying into the palms of my hands. About fifteen minutes went by before she spoke up.

“Eric…I’m not trying to be inconsiderate, but you know if that goon doesn’t follow Alabaster soon, he’s gonna send someone back here to check on him.”

“Yeah,” I sniffled, “I know. I’m just trying to think of something.”

Then I remembered something. During my training with Tolly, he taught me about all sorts of magic. Including resurrection magic. It was rare. Extremely rare! But it could be done. He told me that certain items had been imbued with the spell but would only work if used on the person by the end of the moon cycle in which they died.

I explained this to Emily, and she checked her phone, “Eric, if those rules apply in this world, that’s twelve days from now.”

“I know. But I’m not even sure where to look. And I know Alabaster is gonna send someone back here well before that.”

“I have an idea,” she slipped in as she stood up.

“You do?” I smirked, “that’s always good when you do.”

“Yes. It’s risky, but I think it’s our best course of action. Why don’t you and Arduwan go find Wraith and ask your mentor if he knows where to find an item like that. Meanwhile, I can go into Brasshaven and track Alabaster. See what he’s up to.”

“You can’t,” I snapped, “it’s too dangerous for that!”

“Eric, we have to be proactive here.”

“At least take Arduwan. I can find Wraith myself.”

“No, Eric. I have to go alone. I want to be as inconspicuous as possible, and she’ll draw too much attention. I’ve got clothes that match the aesthetic of that world the best and you know there’s no way you’re going to get her into a dress. I’ll be careful, and while I’m there, I can secure some clothes suitable for the three of you to come in after me once we know what we’re up against.”

“But what about the goons? They’ll come back here and wait for us to come back through the well.” I suggested.

“I have an idea about that. Your father said in his journal that if someone moves the stone on one side of the well to another place that it would make its way back to the well if someone uses the stone on the other side. So, I’ll just hide Brasshaven’s stone somewhere once I get to the other side. That way they won’t be able to come back. I can put it somewhere that I can check periodically and see if it disappears. That can be my signal that you guys have come back to this world. As long as I’m careful coming back and make sure no one’s waiting for me on the other side, I should be fine”

“I don’t know. This seems really risky.”

“Please, let me do this,” she stopped me by taking both of my hands, “it’s at least partially my fault this happened. If I had covered my tracks better when we left Murk, they never would’ve come over and killed Anabel and Stephanie. Let me try and make it up to them.” “...Alright,” I agreed.

Right about then, Arduwan came back inside, filthy.

“Okay, I buried him in Higgin’s garden since the soil was loosest there. So, what’s the plan?”

We filled Arduwan in on everything we had discussed. She was in favor of trying anything we could to get Stephanie and Anabel back, no matter how futile an attempt it may be.

I asked Arduwan if she wanted to wash up before going but she said that going down the well would be enough for her. So, the two of us decided to go first to get a head start on Emily. She said she was going to change into her most frilly outfit after we left and hoped that would be enough for her to blend in until she could get something better over in Brasshaven.

Arduwan and I lowered into the well. But just before we submerged with the Callist stone, Emily came over to the wall of the well and leaned down.

“Good luck,” she said, as she sneakily gave me a quick kiss on the lips, “Arduwan, take care of him for me.”

“I will,” she replied.

Thus onward to track down Wraith we went.

* * *

The following evening, we made it to Wraith’s trading post. The guards stopped us but once they realized it was us, they let us into the camp.

“Oh, it’s you, Sir Noble. And Lady Arduwan.”

“Yes, we need to see your boss. It’s an emergency,” I exclaimed.

The two men looked at each other and one said, “Lord Wraith is busy at the moment.

Perhaps you could wait…an hour or so?”

“Umm, no. I don’t buy for one second that he’s busy,” I said, as Arduwan and I made our way towards his tent.

Suddenly, from out of the blue, a beautiful naked woman frolicked by laughing giddily. Me and Arduwan looked at each other, confused, as the woman ran into another tent. This was different.

As we went inside, we could hear more giddy laughter coming from across the room. It was two more girls, hiding behind a stack of pillows. They were both presumably nude as well. From the left hand side we heard rustling around.

“I’m coming to find you,” said Wraith, staggering in his birthday suit with blindfolds on.

I diverted my eyes quickly and said, “oh, come on man. What are you doing?”

But there was no response. I forced myself to look over again and realized that he had ear plugs in as well. A moment later he ran right into Arduwan and started pawing at her chest.

“Gotcha! Hey, I thought we said no clothes this time,” he said as a felt around Arduwan’s leather bikini top.

“Wait a second,” he continued, “I know these breasts!”

He quickly removed his blindfold and ear plugs, realizing it was Arduwan.

“Princess Arduwan!” he said gleefully, “have you finally come to join my harem. You are the crown jewel that is missing from the tiara of perfection.”

At this point he hadn’t noticed me yet, so I piped up, “just stop. Don’t you have enough girls?”

I can’t believe I actually said that about him. When he noticed I was there he shrieked and scrambled to cover himself. The two girls in the corner kept giggling.

Me and Arduwan stepped outside the tent while awaiting Wraith to put his robe back on and join us. It didn’t take long and I didn’t want to drag on anymore about what we had just witnessed.

“So, what brings you guys back here so quickly?” he said, as he emerged from the tent and tied the sash to his robe.

“We have big problems, man. It’s Anabel and Steph. They’re…”

I had to stop myself from choking up again. Wraith’s face went grim, and his jaw dropped as if he knew what I was about to say.

“They’re dead, man. They’re dead…and there was nothing I could do to save them,” I said, as I sat down on a nearby crate and tears rolled down my face.

Arduwan patted me on the back for comfort while I continued.

“That creep, Alabaster Creole. You know, the Devil from Emily’s world that she managed to get locked up? Well, he got out of jail far faster than anticipated and it turns out he had a foot soldier tail us when we left Murk. So, he knew exactly where to go.”

Wraith sat down on a crate adjacent to me. The star filled sky hung over the vast desert around us and only the light of the merchant fires illuminated the area. Wraith could be serious when he wanted to be and now was a time he was doing just that.

I continued, “it gets worse. He used the stone to a world my father previously had absolved and now he’s essentially the Devil of that world. The stone from Murk turned green and the one from Brasshaven is red again!”

“Oh man,” he said, “worst Christmas ever.”

“Yeah. And now Emily is off in Brasshaven running reconnaissance for us while Arduwan and I came to find you.”

“She went by herself?” he questioned.

“I tried to stop her, but she felt obligated to go. Arduwan and I have a plan though. Do you think you can help us?”

“Of course…anything,” he offered.

“I want to go talk to that Mage I spent time with. See if he can help us discover a solution to try and resurrect Anabel and Stephanie.”

“You can only do that with divine magic,” he noted.

“Of course. So?”

“So…it would take a really powerful Cleric to do that. And I don’t know if you noticed, but they’re not exactly lining up to come way out here.”

“I don’t think we’ll need one. Tolly mentioned to me about magic items imbued with resurrection magic. He said something about knowing where one is. We have eleven days to go find it and get it back to the mansion before the end of the lunar cycle. He said that's the cutoff for resurrection.”

“How far is Tolly’s house?” he asked.

“Unfortunately, it’s a little over two days' ride from here. But I needed to get you first because we need all the help we can get.”

“Gotcha. Yeah, it’s no problem. You know I go way back with Steph too. Her and poor Anabel just got swept up into this when they should’ve been at the safest possible place. I’ll go with you…and I’ll help you take down this Alabastard guy too.”

“Thanks buddy. I knew we could count on you.”