Other than the sound of large insects chirping and bees buzzing around overhead, the forest was silent as four sets of eyes stared at the uncertain ghost. Vin could only blink, wondering if he’d heard what he thought he did. It was actually Shia who snapped out of her stupor first, coughing delicately into her fist.

  “Alka… I’m not sure what you’ve heard, and I’m so sorry to tell you this… But true resurrection magic? Such a thing doesn’t actually exist. I’ve spoken about it with my master before. There are powerful spells and rituals that can revive a body that’s only been dead a short time, but nothing that would work in your case.”

  Vin’s heart sank, and he held his breath as he waited for the ghost to explode as whatever lies she’d been fed were finally exposed. But to his surprise, Alka merely shook her head.

  “I’m well aware that kind of spell isn’t real,” she said, earning a relieved sigh from Shia. “After all, if true resurrection magic did exist, none of the nobles on my world would have ever died. No, it wouldn’t be anything as miraculous as getting my old body back. It would be… Well, it would be a new body.”

  “Care to explain for those of us peons who have no idea how magic works?” Scule asked, earning a light slap from Reginald’s tail. But even as he did so, the rat nodded along with Scule’s request, offering an encouraging squeak.

  “It all started back in the infernals’ village actually,” Alka admitted, seeing that she had everyone’s attention. “Funny enough, it wasn’t like I was searching for some method of getting a new body for myself. As you can probably imagine, my sole concern at the time was ensuring you all recovered. But then we ran into Madam Trebella. And she threatened me when I tried to protect Vin.”

  “Yeah, she’s a real piece of work,” Vin nodded, remembering how uncaring and rough the Witch truly was.

  “You’re not wrong, but that’s not what I meant,” Alka said, biting her lip. Seeing this strange, uncertain side of the ghostly Slayer felt almost wrong to Vin, but he couldn’t bring himself to look away as Alka continued. “At first, I was terrified. She threatened to bind my spirit to a doll and lock it in a closet for a few decades. For the first time since I died, I… I was afraid. The only thing worse than being stuck like this, would be being alone in a dark room for who knows how long. Hell, I almost went crazy being trapped in my home town for a few months before those stone villagers and Vin showed up.”

  “But later on, while Vin was forced to go into that dungeon alone and I could do nothing but wait outside and think, I realized something. Assuming Madam Trebella wasn’t just full of hot air… If she actually could adjust my connection and bind me to a doll like she threatened…”

  “Could she bind me to something else instead?”

  Vin blinked at Alka’s question, realizing he hadn’t actually thought that himself. He’d just assumed the Witch was making empty threats. But if she truly could do what she said...

  “How do you know she wasn’t just threatening you because she’s a jerk?” Scule asked, voicing Vin’s question for him.

  “I didn’t… Not at first,” Alka admitted. “After that, I decided to continue needling the infernal to see if I could get her to accidently offer up any more information. It wasn’t exactly hard, seeing as I honestly don’t like her. After annoying her enough, she finally made a similar threat, telling me she’d bind me to a stone and chuck me in a latrine. By that point, despite the fact she wouldn’t let me in the room while they were occurring, I’d also witnessed the after effects of her casting two powerful rituals. If she could command magic as miraculous as that… I figured maybe she actually could alter my connection like she was threatening.”

  Vin watched the ghost bare her truth to them, his heart aching for her. He’d been so focused on saving his friends’ lives, he hadn’t noticed the turmoil boiling just below the surface in the first friend he’d ever made in this world. Hell, he hadn’t even realized the truth behind her constant needling of the infernal. At the time, he’d just been worried that she’d push the Witch too far and the infernal would actually carry out one of her many threats.

  “Alka, I know this sounds amazing. And of course, we’d support you getting a new body for yourself…” Shia paused, gripping her staff as she sought out the right words. “…but so far all you have is a lot of conjecture. There’s no guarantee Madam Trebella can in fact do what she’d threatened. I just don’t want you to get your hopes up when something like that might not actually be possible after all.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t just pin my hopes on a cloud and hope it drifts into my arms,” Alka chuckled, giving the elf a wide grin. “That’s why I asked Madam Trebella myself.”

  “You what? When?” Vin asked, trying to figure out when the ghost would have even had the time.

  “While you were locked in your room trying to reverse engineer Sense Curse from the charm like Madam Trebella distinctly told you not to,” Alka snorted, shaking her head. “…You do realize you kind of stop paying attention to the world around you when you’re learning magic, right?”

  Vin could feel his face heating up at the accusation, and he nodded sheepishly.

  “Anyway, while Vin was working on that, I finally mustered up the courage to talk to her. I’d wanted to go earlier, but like I said, I hadn’t felt actual fear in some time. I’m not ashamed it took me a bit to finally force myself to see her.”

  “And she said she could do it?” Shia asked excitedly, leaning forward.

  “I won’t bore you guys with the details or pointless posturing that went on between us,” Alka said, waving a hand dismissively. “Long story short, yes, she could actually adjust my connection. If she so chose.”

  “Oh Alka, that’s amazing!” Shia cried, clapping her hands together and all but jumping up and down. “We’ll have to do something big to celebrate when you actually have your own body again!”

  Vin noticed that despite Alka’s smile, the ghost wasn’t sharing in the same jubilance as Shia. He must not have been the only one that noticed, either.

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  “Why do I feel like there’s a catch?” Scule asked, frowning at the good news. “I didn’t really interact with the Witch myself, but Malzar had plenty of stories about her. From what I heard, she didn’t exactly strike me as the pinnacle of charity.”

  “That’s one of the two problems,” Alka nodded. “First is the cost. Madam Trebella made it quite clear that she wouldn’t be conducting the ritual for me for free. I tried to get her to give me a figure or something as to what she’d want for payment, but she refused to answer. She said there was no sense worrying about details like that until we’d solved the bigger problem.”

  “You actually need something to be bound to in the first place,” Vin guessed, earning a nod from the ghost.

  “Exactly. Being bound to something is far from the same as being able to control it. If Madam Trebella did go through with her original threat for example and bound me to a random doll she found lying around, I wouldn’t actually be able to control the doll’s limbs like I was a person. It’s the same reason why despite the fact that I’m bound to my sword, I can’t just possess it and make it fly around. The object needs to be designed to move.”

  “Like Vin’s body,” Shia pointed out, understanding dawning on her. “You’re able to move around with Vin’s body because it was designed to be moved around and capable of doing so. It’s kinda gross, but does that mean we could just bind you to any old corpse we found?”

  “Funny enough, my mind went there first as well,” Alka chuckled. “Strange that the first thing I’d think about when offered the chance for a new body is to transform myself from a ghost to a zombie. I blame all the undead we were always hearing about growing up.”

  “The way you’re talking, sounds like that wouldn’t work then?” Vin asked. “Assuming you’d even want to go that route in the first place.”

  “Yeah, Madam Trebella said that plan's a no go,” Alka admitted. “Apparently, there are lots of problems with binding a soul to a body that doesn’t actually belong to them. Things like ‘raving insanity,’ and ‘deterioration of the soul,’ to name a few.”

  “Okay, dead body is off the table. What other options are there then?” Scule asked, scratching his chin. “Some sort of puppet or something?”

  Vin briefly had the mental image of Alka fighting off monsters with her sword while possessing one of the Muppets, but quickly shoved the thought away. He had a feeling now was not a good time to start laughing.

  “Actually, a puppet is pretty close,” Alka said. “Though it would have to be sturdy enough to survive me putting it through the wringer, because you can be damn sure if I get a new body for myself I’m not giving up on killing monsters.”

  “Okay, so a tougher version of a puppet,” Shia muttered. The elf scrunched up her face in thought for a moment before snapping her fingers, looking like she had the answer. “Oh duh, I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me sooner other than the fact I’ve never actually seen one. You need a golem!”

  “A golem? Like the big stone things that tried to kill us back in the death fragment?” Vin asked, shuddering at the memory. Yet another time he would have been crushed to a pulp if not for his divine boon.

  “Similar, but not necessarily the same,” Shia said, slipping into mentor mode. “Golems actually come in all shapes and sizes. They’re constructs designed by mages in order to fulfil specific tasks, most often things like ‘guard my magic lair,’ or ‘carry this message to my apprentice.’ Basically they’re glorified magical servants that can’t actually think for themselves. Or at least, that’s what my master told me.”

  “That’s about what Madam Trebella said as well,” Alka nodded. “She was also aware of the concept, though she said she’d never seen one before either. She said they can be made of just about any material, and technically can be made in just about any shape. It’s only because mages tend to prefer having servants that look like them that they usually take the shape of a person.”

  “Wow, okay, so we actually have an idea of what we’re looking for then,” Vin said, his heart pounding as he realized they might actually be able to get Alka a new body. “This is incredible! Alka, why didn’t you share all this sooner? When you told us you didn’t want to have the divine warrior put you to rest anymore, I’d thought you’d just completely given up or something!”

  “It’s hard to explain, but after you guys worked so hard and sacrificed so much to track down the divine warrior for me, I couldn’t just come right out and say ‘thanks, but I’m not interested anymore,’ you know?” Alka finally admitted, unable to meet their eyes. “You guys have already done so much for me, and I couldn’t figure out how to explain that I suddenly had hope I’d be able to live again. Or at least, have an actual body again. I’m sorry I didn’t just come out with it.”

  “Apology accepted!” Scule grinned, giving the ghost a thumbs up. “I for one am ecstatic to hear that we no longer need to risk anyone’s life heading after the divine warrior any longer, and this means you guys don’t need to go into the creepy memory eating fragment! Talk about some exciting news!”

  “I’m still planning on going after the divine warrior,” Vin said, earning a sigh from the petian as though he’d been expecting this. “Even if we were willing to go back on the agreement we made with Madam Trebella, that man is killing thousands of innocent people. Who’s to say he won't eventually make his way over to the Earthers' fragment after he’s gained enough levels to become truly unstoppable? Or the Sacred Forest? Or even the citadel?”

  “Vin’s right, Scule,” Shia nodded, her face hardening at the thought of her people being massacred like the strange beings that had been living within the swamp fragment. “If he’s a combat class, he’s gaining experience with every life he snuffs out. And with his divine boon on top of that, he’s too dangerous to be left alone.”

  “I hate it when you guys make good points,” Scule grumbled. “Life sure was easier when the only person I had to talk to was a rat that never argued with me.”

  Reginald let loose a barrage of annoyed squeaks, and Scule merely sighed again, nodding along wearily.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know you had some excellent points back then, but I rarely bothered to listen, so it was pretty much the same.”

  Chuckling, Vin turned to Alka. “So, what do you say? Now that you actually have a life to lose like the rest of us, are you still willing to risk taking on the divine warrior with us?”

  “You think you’d stand a rat’s chance in the green sea without me?” Alka grinned, shooting Reginald an apologetic look. “No offense Reginald.”

  Reginald somehow managed to convey something along the lines of ‘no offense taken’ with a slight wave of his tail.

  “Well in that case, I think the only thing to do now is follow the charm and hope we don’t accidentally run into the True Queen before we figure out exactly what we’re dealing with,” Vin chuckled, trying to make light of them potentially going up against some horrifying, memory destroying monster.

  “Ah, that’s right,” Alka said, reaching over and snatching her sword from Vin’s scabbard. “This would probably work best if we had some sort of guide, wouldn’t it?”

  “Well, obviously. What do you-”

  Before Vin could finish his question, Alka shot over to the corpse of the strange being. Carefully lining up her sword, she brought her pommel down on the being’s forehead directly between its antennae, hard enough that Vin could clearly hear the thunk of sword on bone.

  Causing the being to sit bolt upright and start screaming.

  That will have to wait until Monday however.

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