Jeremiah`s head throbbed. Only incapacitated for a moment, he awoke sticky with warm blood. But the stillness of Narooka`s body, the lack of pulse coming from his neck, was the world`s sweetest silence.

　　Narooka`s body shifted as Allison, battered and bloody, climbed on top of his chest. She panted in heaving breaths and growled with effort as she raised her sword overhead. "WHO ELSE WANTS SOME?"

　　Her challenge echoed around the courtyard, which was blessedly silent save for a few fleeing footsteps.

　　"Look alive," said Bruno. "The fortress is routed, but it`s not safe. Some will try to raid the place, establish themselves as leader, or just kill us."

　　Delilah leaned against the minotaur`s body. One of her legs was grossly deformed, the flesh reduced to a bloody mess. "Bruno, I`ve got a few precious chemicals left in my blood that are staving off shock. Your ribs are beyond broken, and I think your collar bone is too. Allison`s hurt, Jay`s hurt, and we`re out of potions. If you think we`re still not done&"

　　Bruno shook his head. "We bunker up. If Jay can get the rest of these undead patrolling and wiping out pockets of resistance, we`ll be okay."

　　Allison jumped to the ground, landing with her hands on her knees. "Into the keep. Jay, give us an escort and help Delilah. Bruno, shoot anyone that even looks at us."

　　Jeremiah clung to Delilah and Delilah clung to Jeremiah. Together they formed one person that could barely hobble. With a ring of zombies surrounding them, the party sought refuge within the walls of the keep.

　　They found an unoccupied bedroom, an underboss`s quarters judging by the single larger bed, rug, and collection of keepsakes. Jeremiah helped Delilah onto the bed, and Bruno carefully lay down beside her.

　　"Allison, can you and Jay handle watch?" asked Delilah. "Bruno and I need to take Quick Heals, and we`ll be out of commission while it works."

　　Allison turned a lock on the door. "We`ll stand guard. You two do whatever you need."

　　"I`ve set the zombies to patrol," said Jeremiah. "And I left a few on the walls in case anyone wonders what happened here."

　　Delilah produced two vials of pearlescent liquid and handed one to Bruno. They tinked the vials together.

　　"To waking up feeling better," said Bruno.

　　"To waking up at all," said Delilah.

　　They quaffed the admixture. Delilah stripped her armor, though she needed to cut away the boot on her broken leg. Allison helped Bruno remove his own armor. Bruno and Delilah were already becoming drowsy and flushed. They soon drifted between fever dreams and utter stillness, twitching and groaning as their bones mended with meaty cracks, foreheads sheened with sweat.

　　Allison handed Jeremiah one of Bruno`s short swords. "I`m hurt," she said. "If anything happens, you`ll need to cover my back. If someone tries to get through that door, bring every zombie you have to stop them. If they get through, I need you to at least pretend you`re going to use that. Do you understand?"

　　"Yeah," said Jeremiah. He felt a pang of shame. Despite everything he`d done, he had still revealed himself to be a coward.

　　Perhaps Allison sensed his hurt because her tone softened. "You did good, Jay. You did really good. I don`t think we could have done it without you."

　　She set aside her helmet and Jeremiah was shocked to see her face. The blood vessels in her eyes had burst, her nose was broken, and a deep purple mask was rising around her eyes. She grinned at his reaction, her teeth standing out white and unblemished like a lighthouse amid a dark sea. "I must look almost as good as I feel. Now help me barricade this door."

　　They dragged a heavy desk across the door, then Jeremiah helped remove Allison`s damaged armor. She applied salve and bandages to her wounds before donning her armor once again.

　　As the night passed into early morning without disturbance, Allison permitted them each a few hours` doze while the other kept watch. Desperate as he was for more sleep, Jeremiah took his vigil with pride. His friends rested, trusting him with their lives. His zombies roamed the fortress, dispatching the diminishing resistance without difficulty. Jeremiah kept watch, the quiet hours bearing witness to his new responsibility.

　　Just after noon the next day, Bruno sat upright with a start. He wiped sweat from his face, eyes darting around the room. "Food."

　　Delilah stirred beside him. "Hush. Look at me." She pulled herself into a sitting position and palpated Bruno`s ribs. "Deep breath. Good." She felt her own leg, moving her toes and rolling her ankle. "Also good. Allison, let me take a look at you."

　　She crawled over Bruno, who rubbed his palms into his eyes. "How does your head not feel like it`s about to explode?" he groaned.

　　"It does," Delilah said. She unbuckled Allison`s armor and inspected her wounds. "Not bad, actually. That`s some impressive armor."

　　"I gotta eat something," said Bruno, rolling gingerly out of bed. "I`m feeling well enough to find it myself, I think."This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

　　Allison`s mouth twisted with worry, but Delilah laid a hand on her arm. "He`s right. We all need plenty of energy to recover. Water, too." Allison`s worry persisted, but she nodded, and Bruno slipped through the barricaded door.

　　He was quick and quiet, returning with several loaves of bread, a roasted chicken that had gone cold, and a barrel of water. Jeremiah hadn`t realized how hungry he was, but the food rejuvenated him like a full night`s rest.

　　"Ahh, that`s so much better," said Bruno. "Let`s get out of here and see what we`ve salvaged!"

　　"Hold it," said Allison. "We`re going over every square inch of this place ourselves until we`re sure it`s clear. I`m not getting jumped by some clever bandit pretending to be a zombie."

　　They reapplied bandages and armor and crept from the safety of the room. Most of the fortress halls were empty of anything living at least. Groups of zombies on patrol shuffled past without sparing the party a glance. Jeremiah reanimated the corpses they came across to bolster his ranks.

　　Allison seemed to relax slightly after they had completed their first perimeter of the fortress without meeting any challenge. Jeremiah ventured a question that had been on his mind. "Allison, how did you know about that challenge ritual, the one that made Narooka charge?"

　　"The Montello campaign, about 6 years back. Wasn`t anything special, but we stayed with a minotaur tribe for almost a month, and I got to know them," Allison said. "But I can tell you, Narooka wasn`t a normal minotaur. He had combat experience, very expensive armor, even some kind of education. Plus, they don`t usually stray too far from their tribes."

　　"He had that healing magic, too," said Delilah. "I`ve never met a minotaur, but I know that`s abnormal."

　　"That was all stored inside him," said Jeremiah. "I felt it when I used my magic on him. At some point, someone filled his body with an enormous amount of latent healing energy. It was like having a million healing potions ready and waiting."

　　"That sounds incredibly useful," said Bruno. "How do we get some?"

　　"I have no idea," said Jeremiah. "I didn`t even know it was possible before last night. But the implications&" He drifted off, lost in thought about the possible applications of latent necromancy.

　　Allison shuddered. "Imagine if every bandit here had been charged with the same magic as Narooka. They`d be able to fight a group a hundred times their size."

　　Jeremiah pondered the idea. "I`m willing to bet a large creature is able contain more latent magic. So regular-size bandits would be able to heal a few times, but probably wouldn`t be as invincible as Narooka."

　　"I`d still like to know who put that magic in Narooka in the first place," said Delilah. "To invent a brand-new method of healing, and at such a scale, they must be immensely powerful."

　　"Hell, who built all this?" Bruno asked. "This fortress is way too advanced to be built by common thieves, especially all the way out here."

　　"It would take a lot of people and expertise," Allison agreed. She had pulled up short, and she and Bruno were exchanging a hard look, pushing each other to the same conclusion.

　　"People, expertise, and leadership," said Bruno. "Narooka kept this place in line pretty good, better than any bandit gang I ever saw. And he wanted you to train them."

　　"Me, not you," said Allison. "Narooka wanted soldiers, not thieves."

　　"He wanted a necromancer, no questions asked," said Bruno. "But he didn`t have a specific reason, said it was up to his boss."

　　"Hidden fortress, disruptive fighting force, leadership, recruitment, and advanced magic," said Delilah, ticking the items off on her fingers.

　　"Drawn from the underbelly of the city," said Bruno. "These bandits were locals, with active knowledge of routes and passages. With training, those are the best spies and saboteurs you can ask for."

　　"A hidden fighting force disrupting trade lines, under the guise of a bandit camp." Allison gestured to the fortress around them. "This was military, an advance placement. Whoever orchestrated this is preparing an invasion."

　　They continued their sweep in silence, contemplating their revelation. Jeremiah was awed by the thought of an army backed by latent healing magic. Then he realized that, until the conclusion of his sentence at least, he would be right in their path, and shivered. The walls of Dramir that had once been so formidable now seemed merely a token defense.

　　He paused as Allison declared another room clear. There was a closet in the room, the upper half of its door reduced to splinters. Something about the closet tugged at him, a dark curiosity that drew him closer. He peered over the jagged wood.

　　Curled on the floor of the closet was another body staring up at him, eyes wide and frozen in fear. Jeremiah saw the thick red gash where a sword had been plunged into the man`s shoulder, saw deep furrows across his hands and forearms. His throat was a red ruin, his face smeared red with blood but for twin streaks that tears had cleansed as he died.

　　Jeremiah staggered back from the closet, his mind`s eye awash with the man`s last moments. Terrified, trapped, crying, helpless. Jeremiah hadn`t been aware of this moment when it happened, would have only been aware of another violent encounter, and not one that threatened his undead. Irrelevant.

　　The wave of emotion left Jeremiah breathless. He had waded through blood only a day ago, but this scene was so personal, the details so telling that it tightened his chest and set his teeth on edge.

　　Bruno appeared by Jeremiah`s side. "Gods, that`s awful," he said.

　　Jeremiah felt a hand on his shoulder, pulling him away from the scene. It was Allison. "Jay, listen. Everyone in our line of work goes through this. I live through it over and over and I remember my first, clear as the day it happened."

　　The words tumbled out before Jeremiah could stop them. "He didn`t want to fight. How many didn`t want to fight? How many died this way?" He remembered the bodies he had reanimated the night before. They had been piled in bloody corners, no chance of escape.

　　"Don`t give him a story," said Bruno. "It doesn`t help anything if you give them a story."

　　"But this is his story!" said Jeremiah, alarmed at his own words. "I didn`t make it up, it happened to him!"

　　Delilah laid a hand on his arm. Jeremiah realized he was shaking. "I have a lot of nightmares about people I`ve&about people I`ve killed," she said. "I know seeing this makes it real, too real, but it`s a fact of life. We don`t need you to be okay with it, just keep it together till we`re home. Then you can sort it out and we can talk about it. It helps to talk."

　　Allison squeezed his shoulder. The physical contact softened him, let him catch his breath. "Okay,he said. "Okay, I can keep it together for now." He looked up at Allison, pleading. "This happens to everyone? To all adventurers?"

　　Allison shook her head. "No. Just the good ones. Walk with me soldier. Sleep in earth, live in my dreams. Be my silent scar.` Paladin Eagon."

　　She squeezed his shoulder one more time, then turned to Bruno. "You, on the other hand, are so selectively squeamish! There are dead people everywhere, and you still haven`t puked like when I got my fingernails torn off!"

　　"Oh gods!" Bruno gagged at the memory.

　　Jeremiah followed the others out of the room, letting their banter wash over him like a cleansing rain. Still, as they continued their sweep, a tiny piece of his mind dwelled on tear tracks running down a dead man`s face.