They walked through a deep forest, their path barely wide enough for the three of them to walk next to each other. The sun painted the ground with dancing shadows, as if you were watching a storming sea, instead of a solid ground. Yet our travelers were deaf to this beauty, to them the forest seemed dark and whispering. Luring them from the path into the darkness. One such luring voice was currently wailing and screeching in a prolonged and rather off-tune voice. “Cooome” and “we need youuuu”, with an occasional: “We have been waiting for youuu.”

  The effect on travelers was rather disappointing. After the voice repeated its prepared phrases for the third time, Ola put her hands on her hips and coughed loudly, “Ben.”

  Ben wasn’t paying any attention, walking forward, but completely lost in his own thoughts. Both of his companions were already familiar with this trance. Sometimes it led to breakthroughs in necromantic constructs, other times to a new, and much worse, way of boiling eggs.

  “Ben!” Ola repeated and shook his shoulder lightly.

  “Eh?” Ben stumbled as he woke up from his egg filled day-dreaming. It took a bit of blinking to realize Ola was talking to him.

  “...do something about them?” She just finished.

  “What about what?” Ben scratched his head, looking around.

  “The voices!” Ola said and gestured at the dark trees around them.

  “It is rather irritating…” Seth added softly.

  Ben kept on looking around until he finally noticed. He was so used to disembodied voices, complaining from the depths of his mum’s dungeons, that he didn’t even realize there were any around here.

  The voice was just finishing a particularly loud screech, promising eternal peace if they just come for a quick tea. Ben just shrugged, put two fingers on his throat and spoke: “Whaaaat dooo youuu demand?!” Ola and Seth startled, Ben’s voice was deep and growling, no less terrifying than the voices from the forest.

  There was silence for a while, as the voices tried to process someone was actually paying attention to them. Then, one of them answered, “Teaaa? Do you wish teaaa?”

  Ben looked around at his companions, “anyone wants tea, guys?”

  “Is it safe?” Seth asked, frowning at the closest tree.

  “I don’t know,” Ben shrugged. “But it’s difficult to make tea that bad, it probably won’t be great though and I doubt their selection is very wide… I will ask what they have.” As Ben was about to speak again, Ola grabbed his hand. “That’s not what he meant,” she hissed. “I don’t care what tea they have. Can they hurt us? The ghosts, or voices or whatever this is.”

  Ben frowned before slapping his forehead. “Ah, you don’t know wraiths.” He threw an apologetic look at Seth. “No, it shouldn’t be dangerous. Wraiths can lure people into the forest, so they get lost and then they possess their bodies. They can’t hurt living beings, they don’t have the… the… the physical manifestation.” Ben smiled at his friends.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “That doesn’t sound very good…” Seth hedged, taking a step further from the closest tree. Ola nodded in agreement.

  “But-” Ben tried, “they promised tea.” His puppy eyes had no effect on either of them, they lost it after all the bodily experiments they saw him do. Ben just sighed and told voices they are grateful, but won’t be having any tea at the moment. The voices wailed a bit longer, but seeing no effect on the travelers, they took their screeching and tea elsewhere.

  Finally, after another hour of walking, they reached the village. If not, for the occasional dog barking, they would believe it was abandoned. Houses, old—wooden structures with a desperate need for repair. Some even had holes in the roofs that would take barely a few planks to fix, maybe half an hour of work, but no one seemed to be up for it. There was no one walking around, no kids playing or neighbours gossiping. It felt empty, empty and abandoned. As if life wasn’t welcomed here anymore.

  Ola shivered and looked at Seth, “Is this it? It looks like it was abandoned for a while.”

  “We are in the right place,” Seth shrugged. “Besides,” he pointed towards the building in the center of the town. “That looks alive. A smoke is coming from the chimney.”

  “Hm,” mumbled Ola.

  “Probably a tavern,” Seth continued, not letting her mood affect him. “Let’s have a look there. Someone made the poster, right? We gotta find them.”

  Ben nodded absently and followed the two. He didn’t pay attention to anything said. He didn’t see the same lifelessness as the other two. To him, the village looked very much alive. Well, not alive exactly. It was very much un-alive. No wonder no one wanted to be outside. Ben saw the ghosts flying around, mouths open in the silent scream. Skeletons underground just waiting to be called for. Wraights in the surrounding trees, hoping anyone would come just a bit closer, so they can lure the victim into the forest.

  This wasn’t particularly scary to Ben. He once had a ghost infestation in his bedroom when he was four. He told his dad about it, but the barbarian just shrugged and called onto Ben’s mum. Later he explained that ghosts are natural enemies of barbarians, mainly, due to the fact they don’t have physical bodies, so they cannot be punched. Barbarians don’t like nor appreciate beings that can’t be punched. It’s understandable, considering a good half of barbarian native language includes some form of a punch or kick.

  Ben was jolted from his daydreaming when they reached the tavern’s door. Seth reached up and opened it for them both. To their surprise, the room was full of people. Everyone turned and stared at them as they entered. Few gasps and pointing as they slowly walked towards the bar, they couldn’t help but notice that murmuring was getting louder and somehow… more excited. Still people looked as bad as the village, as if they weren’t fully alive anymore. They were quiet, sitting motionless, clothes dirty, circles under their eyes deep enough you could get lost there. Everyone had the same empty hopeless expression. Seth frowned as he noticed one black haired woman was openly hostile. She was clenching the skull shaped talisman on her neck and glaring daggers at the newcomers.

  Ben was, as usual, completely oblivious to the horrors around him, he hopped up on the bar chair and asked the frowning barkeep for some milk. Barkeep silently nodded and disappeared into the storage room.

  “Ben...” Seth pulled his sleeve. “Someone is coming.”

  Ben turned and saw an old man with a crouch hobbling towards them. His white hair falling by the sides of his head, partly covering his tired eyes. He reached out with a shaking hand and touched the necklace around Ben’s neck. “You…” He stuttered, “you came. We lost hope… but…” The old man turned around and faced the crowd. “He came,” the man whispered, then louder: “Necromancer has arrived!”

  The short lived silence followed; then like a wave, people started repeating. “He is here, here, here. Necromancer arrived.” They came and touched Ben's shoulder or necklace. Finally, help arrived.