Skullgarden Mortuary

Tal, Kingdom of Morgenheim

Fall, 11th Butchermoon, Year 1876

"Oh, gods, the smell," Burgomaster Halsted muttered, eyes wide in his bearded face as he looked around the mortuary.

He was a big man, could have been Echser's twin in his former life, with an ample gut and trunk-like legs. The alchemist sighed and put down his blood-spattered bone saw, wiping equally bloody hands on his no less stained apron. Here it comes...

Halsted began dry heaving, "I can't... I can't..." turned from the mountain of scooped out ghoul skulls – and vomited onto the shoes of one of his underlings. "Bleargh!"

Echser shook his head, knowing what would follow. It was a strange phenomenon but well-established that vomiting often sparked a chain reaction. Soon, there was gagging all around. Tal's city treasurer, the two scribes, the captain of the guard, even the muscular bodyguards... They all turned interesting shades of green, bringing out scented handkerchiefs in an attempt to avoid the unavoidable.

"As you can see, meine Herren," said Craven, utterly unaffected. "You had quite the infestation at your hands – and my traps are still bringing down stragglers returning to the nest every day." He grabbed the skull of a normal ghoul, which along with a fair number of his brethren the bounty killer had actually placed inside the matriarch's empty brain cavity. "Thirty-nine in total so far – not counting this enormous specimen here: a matriarch."

His gloved hand gently stroked one of the ghoul queen's blood-clotted strands of hair. A disturbing sight, to Echser's mind, though most of the others in the room seemed to find it mostly revolting. One of the puffed-up little officials that had come along stumbled towards the door, leaving a trail of sick in his wake.

Craven just drove his rhetorical stiletto in deeper. "You truly should count yourself lucky to stand witness to such a momentous discovery. Most would have considered the existence of a queen of the ghouls as nothing but a legend – and a preposterous one to boot. Truly, this is such stuff as dreams are made off." A wicked smile crept over his features. "Or should I say: nightmares? That being said, do you still insist on counting all the skulls we have taken to justify my... hmm... what did you call it? My exorbitant fee? Then, by all means, let us begin, shall we? One..."

The bounty killer tossed the skull he held at the treasurer, the head's top, still attached by a little skin, flapping in the air like the broken wing of a raven. The city official actually caught it, yelped, and vomited in an impressive display of multitasking. Then it was back to spewing all over the place.

Echser shot Craven an irritated glance. "Did you really have to? I still have to work here, and even with the ice blocks to keep the skulls cool, the smell is bad enough."

Craven once again whipped out that villain's smile – and shrugged. "Enlightenment is best discovered on one's own, my friend. Besides, some people only learn through pain."

"Pay the man!" shouted Halsted, storming through the exit. "Give him what he wants!"

The city treasurer nodded, wiping sick from his chin with a trembling hand. "The city of Tal... thanks you, master lich hunter."

He pulled out a pouch and tossed it into Craven's general direction, which in turn rushed forward and smoothly caught it, once again moving with uncanny speed. Echser swallowed hard. Like trapped lightning in a bottle...

It was still eerie seeing him move like that. All of the bounty killer's wounds were healed, had been even before they left the ghoul warren. It took no genius of his immersive mental caliber to attribute this to Hornbach's passing. Whatever Craven had done to the old man, it was definitely no mercy killing. Echser once again saw the wasted thing that Hornbach had become in his mind. Skin, and bones, and little else... Shuddering, he almost missed the panicked exodus of Tal's best and noblest.

"Take as much time as much as you need," the captain of the guard shouted over his shoulder. "Just make sure that... that all of these things are eradicated – and that none of this gets out to the people. None!"

"But of course." Craven tipped his hat to the now-empty doorframe, smiling. "Oh, ye of little faith..."

Echser stared at the pouch. Not a very big one, it had to be said. Even filled with gold, it hardly seemed worth the danger and the losses they had endured. He said as much to Craven.

The lich hunter opened the pouch, and coins spilled out. "Ahh, looks can be deceiving, my friend."

Echser's eyes went wide. Not the yellow of gold glimmered in his gloved hand, but black metal – so dark it seemed to swallow the sunlight reaching in through the high windows. "Is that... is that Nocturnium?"

"Aye, my friend. You do not see Dark Suns often these days, but I always had a fondness for this particular coinage. It speaks to my nature, you might say, and I have always been an advocate of quality over quantity." He took three of the black coins and placed them onto the stone table beside Echser. "Here is some spending money to restock your laboratory – I know you have been laboring tirelessly ever since our return..." He thumb-tossed another Dark Sun at Echser, who caught it with a yelp, horrified at the thought that he might drop into the close-by floor drain. "And this one is for you – to do with as you please."

Echser stared at the treasure in his hand, then at the three other coins on the table. He was rich. Rich! Well, not as rich as he once had been, but still. This little beauty here even made up for the coin lost to greedy young Stefan. That opportunistic little fiend...

Craven put away the pouch. "While we are at it, how far are you with converting our harvest?"

"Not nearly done," Echser said absentmindedly, still staring at the coin. With that much money, he could even try to escape this lunatic and start all over again. Perhaps buy some small cottage in the wood, far away from the hell that was other people, and live out his life as a hermitical alchemist. He almost laughed. It was a beautiful dream, but that was all it was. Sighing, he reached inside his tunic, pulling out the silver candy box Craven had given him for a refill the other day. "However, I am done with the first batch – this one I made from the matriarch's brain, so beware, these Lich Tears might be quite strong."

Craven took the candy box, a stray beam of sunlight breaking on the savagely grinning jester face engraved on its side, his own smile almost as wide. "Excellent. I have to admit, I was running rather low, I am loath to admit." He opened the latch shook out a single Lich Tear. Like the Nocturnium coins before, it seemed to swallow the sunlight rather than reflect it – much like the bounty killer's eyes on most days. He placed the Tear into his mouth – and crushed it between his teeth.

The effect was instant and dramatic.

It was as if that simple act had cast open a door to a place with no light, no warmth, and no life. For several frantic beats of Echser's heart, the shadows in the mortuary swelled, pushing back the sunlight. His breath steamed upon the air, and frost crept over the ghoul corpses, over his gore-stained steel tools, over the stone slabs. At the center of it all, the nucleus of this violation of the natural order, stood Craven, a skull's smile on his handsome features, his eyes no longer eyes, but doors to an infinite abyss. Echser quickly averted his gaze, for he had the uncanny feeling that something stared back at him from that void – and it wasn't Craven. It all ended just as suddenly as it had begun, leaving the both of them gasping for air.

"My, my," Craven muttered. "Those really have a nice kick to them..."

Echser couldn't help himself. "Lunatic! You are supposed to swallow Lich Tears, not crush them between your teeth! That way all their potency is released instantly!"

"I am well aware of that, old friend, so please, let it pass."

Echser threw up his hands. "Fine! I'm only the master alchemist here, so go on and kill yourself! I won't care."

Craven cracked his neck, a relaxed smile on his features. "Still angry because of the book, are we?"

Echser stared him down – or at least tried to, quickly looking away, scoffing.

Craven nodded. "Yes, still angry. Prey tell, why?"

Echser just stared at that monster in human form, openmouthed, dumbfounded, fist itching to punch him. "Why?!"

"Yes, why?"

"You deranged lunatic! You hell-spawned maniac! You bastard! You... you have destroyed everything! Thanks to you, my life's work is ashes, all my suffering – all their suffering – was for nothing! Nothing, you hear me! And stop calling me friend! We are no friends! If anything, you are my NEMESIS!"

That was what Echser wanted to say, but looking into those wounds in the world that were Craven's eyes, the words simply wouldn't come, his anger and courage seeping away. Therefore, he did the next best thing, turning aside and giving Craven the coldest of shoulders. "Go forth and kill thy monsters, fiend! I have work to do."

The bounty killer's head tilted to the side, and he mustered Echser for an uncomfortably long moment, then he shrugged and left without a word.

Echser sniffed. Ha! That brushoff really showed him!