The Depths of Death (closed to Qadira)

[Cards of Fate]

The scholar raised an eyebrow as the woman went on. His skull ached slightly, and he wasn’t sure if it was fate trying to tell him something, or if he’d just well and truly had a shit day. He listened to her little spiel, slowly forming the image of an overexcited puppy who had just been thrown a tennis ball. A smile played across his lips as her words reminded himself of…him. Way back when he had first come to this world he’d been in the same boat as her, and he too had a million questions to ask.

“I’d be remiss to let you wander off alone…” he mused as he leaned against the wall. “Much too dangerous. If you want, you can stay with me until I find what I need and you can join me on my journey back, after all if you have nowhere to go you might as well accompany me to civilization.” He fidgeted with his hands for a moment before closing his eyes, “I can teach you too, after all I that’s my job. I answer questions…” He let out a deep breath as his heart began to slow and sleep began to take him.

...

Vince opened his eyes to find Qadira staring at him, her purple eyes peering into his soul. "HOLY FUCK" he yelped jolting awake. "Why the fuck are you just staring at me like that?"

[Qadira]

Qadira watched as the scholar opened his eyes; slowly at first, and then with sudden panic and a yell. She bolted upright at his sudden outburst and wore an apologetic look.

"Oh gosh i'm sorry vince!" She stated, quickly realizing how strange the situation may seem to him. "Like I said before, I wasn't really up for sleeping so I kinda just stayed up all night, thinking about all sorts of strange things. After a certain point, I sort of just entered a trance of just thinking and next thing I knew I noticed you were waking up." She had stood up during her explanation and stood sort of awkwardly, one hand holding her other arm looking to him for forgiveness for creating such an awkward situation.

She laughed nervously "My face must be so red right now" She noted, although in fact it was not! She was still as ever pale as before, as she had not thought of every effect her new condition would have on her. "How about we just move along with what you need to get done then okay?"

[Cards of Fate]

The scholar watched the young woman trip over her words, seeming so frazzled at her social mistake. The scholar raised a hand to calm her and shot her a warm smile, “It’s alright…” he muttered calmly. “I was just a little surprised…” He rose to his feet and stretched for a moment. He snapped his fingers and suddenly he had a flask or water and two rolls of bread. Tossing one to Qadira, he sank his teeth into the thick crusty bread and let the strong wheat flavor wash over him. “Eat,” he commanded between bites. “It’s going to be a long day…” his eyes shot to the door as he spoke, pale light seemed to be streaming in from the cracks, filling the dark room with sunlight.

When he was done eating he popped the tinted visor back on and double checked his gear to make sure he was as safe as he was going to be walking through the infested city. One small tear could mean death for him, or worse, he could become an unwitting carrier to the plague and bring it back to civilization. He eyed Qadira for a moment, her lack of gear meant that she would probably need to be quaranteened wherever she went, but he could worry about that later. First he would need to find the text he was after, buried somewhere deep within the catacombs beneath the town, all the while playing an escort mission. His head still ached slightly as his eyes adjusted to the slight tint of the world through his mask.

“Long story short,” he uttered through his mask. “We need to head to the center of town and go dig through some ruins that may or may not be filled with undead…”

[Qadira]

Qadira relaxed as the young man gave her the consolation she was seeking. She took the bread once again that he had offered, and focused a bit more on the flavor as she sank her teeth into its soft fluffy core. It was plain of course, as all bread was, but she couldn't help bet get the feeling that eating this bread was wrong. She couldn't quite place whether it was the fact that she wasn't truly alive that gave her this feeling, or if it was something else entirely. Perhaps something from her past?

'No matter' she thought, 'We have more important business'. As she finished her simple meal, feeling no more full than she had been before, she looked to her new travelling companion and took in what he told her.

"May or may not huh?" she chuckled lightly at this musing "Well I'm sure we'll be fine. These undead can't be too horrible, and who knows maybe we might me more like me?" she pondered this for a moment. How would she react if she did in fact meet other undead like her. How would she react if she met any undead at all. She had a close encounter with one, but it was already over before she knew it had started. The necromancer thought more on this; How would her magic work with living dead? She had so many questions, and none of the information needed to answer any of them.

"Well, lead the way Mr. Vince" She said pointing towards the door.

[Cards of Fate]

Vince couldn’t help but admire the woman’s optimism. This town was the heaviest hit during the Corpse War, and when it fell it more than likely became a hub for Xem’Xund’s zombie army. His death probably led to a collapse of order, but it was doubtless that hundreds, if not thousands of zombies were still milling about, if they were lucky. If they weren’t…

Vince didn’t want to think about that too much.

Instead he snapped his fingers and released the seal on the door, and carefully pushed it open with his foot. He drew his blade, and very carefully crept forward listening for the sound of any stray undead nearby. Gingerly he poked his head out and glanced to either side. Satisfied it was safe he gestured for Qadira to follow suit as they exited into the sunlight. The scholar had overslept, and it was almost midday. The streets seemed to be empty for the most part, the occasional stray ghoul milled about in the distance, but the outskirts seemed mostly clear. Blade clenched in hand, the scholar headed in towards the heart of the town.

“Stay close and keep an eye on our rear.” Vince commanded. “Tell me if anything gets within thirty feet of us…”

[Qadira]

The girl nodded at the young man's orders. Vincent would step out the door, holding his sword in hand, looking capable of taking on any kind of threat that would approach him. Qadira on the the other hand, meandered behind him carefully, holding her sword tightly with both hands. She wasn't very sure how she should handle using such a weapon, or if she ever had in the past, but she knew that carrying some sort of defense was important.

The necromancer pondered her powers as she followed close behind Vince. 'I know i'm capable of reanimating the dead, but to what extent?'. She had felt a sense of weariness the first and only time she had done so. This could've been from her exhausting ordeal of escaping her tomb, or as she was theorizing, may have had something to do with the exertion of her magic. Perhaps there was a limit to her power. She decided the best course of action would be to save it for near emergencies and to rely on Vince for the moment. She could probably take care of something stupid or slow enough with her sword, and she would leave more urgent threats to him.

[Cards of Fate]

The two went about their work slowly, moving street by street and observing the wreckage for anything useful. It seemed the city had been more or less left "preserved" in it's own festering carcass. Jewelry laid strewn out in the open, beautiful treasures locked away in a festering box free from the greedy hands of would be theives. Given the amount of time, the city in theory should have been picked clean, but only fools would venture this deep into the plaguelands for such petty reasons. Occasionally Vince would stoop over and pick up an odd bauble or trinket, cooing over it for a moment before either setting it back down or whisking it away into the nothingness that was the blue sparks at his disposal. Every now and again the duo would run into the stray undead, who would be quickly felled by the swift strikes of the scholar.

"This silence is fucking eerie..." Vince grunted from behind his mask after nearly three hours of their journey. They'd stopped for water, which Vince was carefully funneling through some strange hose system into his mask. "Nothing but the occasional moan and shuffling of our feet..."

[Qadira]

Qadira had followed Vince very closely the entire time. Only stepping away to make room as he took down the undead for her. She wasn't particularly keen on getting too close quarters with the creatures.

Her original optimism faded immediately after encountering their first undead. She had originally given them the thought to think of them as people with some sort of illness. She was very wrong. The creatures acted more like monsters than like people; Some even looked more like monsters. The way their flesh had either rotted or been torn away, she was reluctant to look at some of the creatures.

As the duo came to rest for a moment, Qadira watched the man drink through his strange apparatus.

"I want to know more about your suit" she asked plainly and unexpectedly. "Perhaps some conversation would make things less eerie?". She gestured a palm out towards him. "I know I don't remember much, but that suit is so foreign to me it feels almost like its from a different time period. How long have we had that kind of technology? And I know you said it protected you from this... plague; are you sure i'm going to be alright? I mean I don't feel anything at all so i'm not too worried". She borrowed his flask and drank after he had finished quenching his thirst.

[Cards of Fate]

The scholar raised an eyebrow, although it was masked behind his...mask.

"This sort of thing is cutting edge technology. A nice weave of magic and science to make something far beyond what you'd normally see." He paused for a moment and chuckled. She was inquisitive, just like he used to be when he'd first arrived on Althanas. "While I'm not one to normally blab on about simple stuff..." That's a dirty fucking lie... he thought to himself as he continued. "It works by isolating me from the outside entriely. The air I breathe is passed through a magic filter that strips all sorts of nastiness out, be it plagues, poisons, or just nastyness in the ear." He waved his hands as he spoke. "The magic strips it all out, and it collects in a filter here..." he tapped his mask right where his mouth should be. "When I'm done using it, I'll have to change the filter, but in the case I may just throw the whole thing out due to the danger the plague poses...

His mind flashed to the incident that had prompted this trip. An entire lab had been overrun by undead due to a careless mistake that had let the disease out of quarantine. Now that section of the harbor was a scorchmark on the ground where he was planning to build a memorial. "As for your predicament, if you haven't noticed any symptoms yet you SHOULD be in the clear. When we get back to civilization we will need to decontaminate you, but that shouldn't be too hard..."

[Qadira]

She nodded, taking in all of the knowledge he had given her. She looked down at her own hands, thinking of all the other undead that they had taken care of. She studied the lines and seemingly flawless paleness of her skin, curious as to her past and what kind of magic seemed to be preserving her. She looked to her companion and nodded, signaling that they should move on.

As they continued through the ruined city Vincent would slay more undead and Qadira kept close. 'This isn't going too badly' she thought to herself, perhaps too soon. They came upon an undead as they passed through an alleyway. Vincent moved forward and effortlessly plunged his sword into the creature's head, only to find his blade had lodged itself and would not loose free.

Qadira turned around, checking their backs just in time. She had noticed another undead coming straight for them, or more accurately, for her. She was behind Vince and so from that side the creature would be going straight for her. With her companion preoccupied she decided she'd have to take care of the monster herself. 'I don't have the time nor the resources to use my magic, I'll have to use the sword' she thought quickly, some sort of combat reflex kicking in. As the creature came close and started to lunge at her, Qadira instinctively plunged her sword into the undead's skull. The feel of the blade sinking into the rotting flesh and breaking through the bone was enough that it would make her vomit, but she resisted the urge and instead merely dropped the blade reeling backwards.

The undead fell limp as it's head was turned into a kabob, and Qadira fell back onto her rear end looking down towards it. Her sense of dread and disgust washed away as quickly as it appeared, and she was puzzled by her own emotion. She instead stood up and looked to Vince.

"That was close" she spoke to him and watched as he pulled his own sword out, as well as hers and handed it back to her. He was kind enough to console her and ask if she was alright, but she surprisingly didn't need it. She was unharmed and emotionally felt fine. They continued on through the streets. As they travled they came upon a large structure that seemed of some sort of importance.

"We're here" Vince spoke to her