WAKING UP

When Kaylee regained consciousness her head was throbbing with an intensity. The environment she found herself in did not help. The sounds people made below her, the call of birds in the sky and the fact that her head rested on a hard surface; all of it escalated her pain instead of alleviating it.

There was also a horrible smell in her vicinity.

Where the hell am I? She wondered.

This was not her inn room. She was out in the open. Prying her eyes open, she tried to look around.

Unfortunately, as she was lying on her back, the first thing that entered her line of sight when she opened her eyes was the flaming sphere in the sky. Its intensity caused her to wince and hurriedly seal her eyes again. It was too bright.

What time is it? She wondered with gritted teeth.

It was not only her chest that throbbed with each of her heartbeats but her head as well, little by little adding to the pain that was already there. In this state trying to recall what happened the previous night was anything but smooth. New sensations shot up her temple as she was forced to wince once more. Nevertheless she forced herself to remember.

It all started with not wanting to remain in Yshta, that she remembered well. Too many bad memories and feelings were associate with this city. To ease the burden of her creeping past she decided on a few drinks; and after that… nothing.

What have I done? She thought as panic began to settle in.

Turning her head to the side, she was able to open her eyes and winced just a little this time. The hard surface she lay on was slate. This was a roof. Quickly adjusting to the brightness, she sat up and looked around, all too aware of the aches that were in sync with her pulse.

The roof was practically empty except for dried-up substances of what looked like half-digested food and bile. This was where the awful smell she had sniffed earlier came from. Her clothes were intact, which meant nothing serious had happened while she was out. This served to calm her down and release a sigh.

The last thing she noticed was the undead and her black cat on the other side of the roof shooting her looks of disdain.

"You're finally awake," Sage said with a sneer. "About time."

Every word that came out of the undead's mouth was like a hammer to her skull. To make it easier to endure she palmed her temple and glared at her with strained eyes.

"Why am I here?" she tried to demand. However, the pain in her head was such that she was forced to reduce her volume with every spoken word. In the end her sentence came out as merely a whimper.

"Because you were fucking around," the undead responded. Maybe it was the discomfort with which she listened to her, but she sensed a bit of anger in Sage's voice. "And now the city's on my arse for saving yours."

It was no small feat for Kaylee to get to her feet; it took even more effort to remain there. Although her feet were able to keep her body standing, the strain with which her legs supported her spine made her wish to lie back down. She wished she could rest her head on the slate and just lay there until pain went away.

Even so, it was probably impossible to recover in the presence of what was likely her vomit. With slow heavy steps she distanced herself from it until the smell no longer bothered her nostrils. Once more she winced as the light of the sun was reflected into her eyes. She kept her eyes closed for a moment before opening them and shooting the undead a gaze.

"What happened?" she asked softly. Her question was accompanied by a grunt.

"Your drunken arse came searching for me for whatever reason and got entangled with a couple of morons," Sage replied casually. That nonchalant tone rapidly morphing into one of annoyance though as she continued. "Out of the goodness of my heart I tried to stop them and it ended with one of them dead. Now his father wants my head and as a result the whole city has been closed down."

"Goodness of your heart?" Kaylee murmured amidst another wince. "What goodness do-"

She suddenly stopped as Sage's words it her.

What they conveyed surprised Kaylee. Not the fact that the undead killed someone- that was typical of her kind- but the fact that she killed someone whose father had enough influence to close Yshta down. Low ranking nobles did not have the power to halt the activities of the capital, which meant the one the undead had offended was a Count or higher.

"What was his name?" she asked.

"Andrew?" Sage responded, sounding a little confused. "Or was it Andor?"

"Anders?" Kaylee exclaimed, only to wince again. After that she shot the undead a look of incredulity. "You killed the son of Tremas?"

"Believe me, I was shocked to discover his father is a duke," the undead replied. "That little shit behaved like anything but a noble, much less a high ranking one. By the time it was revealed to me he was already dead."

"Oh fuck me," Kaylee muttered with a wince and an exasperated breath. "You killed the duke's favourite son, his heir."

"I see," the undead responded as comprehension dawned to her. "That's why the reaction was so intense."

Even as Sage said this, the nonchalance never escaped her tone. Kaylee scoffed at this. She could not believe the undead's attitude.

"Is that all you have to say?"

"What else is there to say?"

She no longer looked at her, instead dragging her ragged body to the edge of the roof to check the situation on the street.

Down there everything looked normal. From her vantage she spotted the usual stalls with eccentric promoters and reluctant buyers, the common trend of children running and laughing in the street and the same old routine city guards strolling by. Different from the usual though was the tense in the air. Even from where she stood Kaylee could clearly see that apart from the children no one was smiling. They bore uneasy expressions their warry eyes as they gazed upon the more than double the usual guards roaming the streets. Some of these guards would stop random passers-by to ask questions.

"Shit," she muttered when she saw the scene. Turning back to the undead she could not help but ask. "Did anyone see my face?"

It would be bad if Tremas had her description. The situation would reach her family and the situation would escalate.

Shit! Shit! Shit! She thought as she pondered the consequences the undead's actions.

"Did you have to go so far as to killing someone?" she asked angrily. "Couldn't you just have scared him off or something?"

"That's what I tried to do," Sage replied indignantly. "Who knew the piece of shit would croak from an Illusion spell?"

"What Order of Illusion spell was that?" Kaylee yelled, only to wince again. She palmed her temple and continued. "Illusion mage below 5th Order cannot physically affect the body. Why would you use such a high Order spell on a normal person?"

Instead of responding to her question, Sage merely stared at her with those dark empty orbs of hers. "You're awfully demanding for someone whose arse I saved." The irritation in her voice was clear. "You know, when I first saw you lying in the street like a seasoned alcoholic my first instinct was to let you be. It was against my better judgement that I decided to stop those moron from dragging you away and having their way with you and this is the thanks I get?"

"If I were you I would be thanking Master on my knees," the black cat chimed in, its emerald eyes peering at her disapprovingly.

Kaylee opened her mouth to respond but ended up closing it when she was unable to come up with a good retort. Her eyes left the undead's face and travelled to the rest of her body, noticing for the first time that she was dressed differently. Her current attire was black like the last one, it seemed to be her favourite colour, something Kaylee had to begrudgingly admit they had in common. However, now instead of a dress she wore a pair of leather pants with a black long-sleeved shirt and a dark leather armour vest. She had also changed her shoes from sandals to boots with a matching colour. In her gloved hands she held a hooded cloak of the same colour.

"Is that how you're going to dress from now on?" she asked the undead.

"Yes," Sage replied. "Since no one knows how I look like this is all I need to do to evade Tremas' dogs."

Kaylee harrumphed at this and pointed to her face. "You will catch more attention with your face uncovered than with your face covered."

"Oh that," the undead did not sound bothered. She rubbed the fur of her cat, who seemed to get her message and regurgitated a white mask with black intricate patterns. Then she put it on her face and looked at Kaylee. When she spoke the mask distorted her voice. "When I'm dressed like this you will refer to me as Shade."

"Are you serious?" Kaylee could not help but retort, letting sarcasm drip into her tone. "You're changing your name from Sage to Shade? I'm sure no one will be able to tell the difference."

"Yes Kaylith," the undead fired back. "I'm sure no one can make a connection between that name and the one you currently use."

The utterance of that name by the undead was like thunder to her ears. At the sound of it her eyes widened as her heart sped up. The throbbing of her temple became a distant thing as she opened her quivering lips to ask a question.

"How-"

"You talk in your sleep," the Sage said before she could finish. "Or at maybe it's just your drunken sleep. Who's Greggo? And Thelma? And Elmer?"

Each time one of those names was spoken it was like an invisible hand was squeezing her heart to stop it from beating. Her expression probably conveyed so because the undead stared at her meaning fully. It caused her to snap out of it and glare back.

"They're nobodies!" she answered. A second later she felt like kicking herself because she answered too fast. Of course the undead would know she was lying.

Contrary to her expectations though, Sage did not seem to suspect her; that or she just did not care.

"Whatever," the she said. "It's time to move on to the next city. Are you coming with or are you gonna stay here?"

"I'm coming with," Kaylee responded after a thinking for a while.

Because of Sage killing the son of a duke there was no doubt that she would be implicated. Even if Tremas did not know what she looked like, the fact that she was half-elf was definitely known to him by now. There were not many of her kind in the city or even in existence. If she had to guess, the number of half-elves in Yshta could be counted on a single hand.

"After we leave the city I'm parting with you," she continued.

This was another thing she decided. If she extended her stay with this undead there was no doubt that it would land her in serious trouble one day. Better for her to separate herself now than do it later after Sage drags her into an even worse mess.

"Good luck with that," Sage said. Then she conjured a dagger, a bow and quill; which she tossed to Kaylee. "I had Nyx retrieve your belongings from the inn last night in case the dead moron's father traced your steps back."

Kaylee caught her weapons and gave the undead a surprised look. At this point Sage had also gotten to her feet and was approaching the roof's edge on her side.

"Thank you," she said genuinely.

However, the response she got was a sneer.

"I only did it to stop them from sniffing out your tail," the undead responded matter-of-factly. "If you get caught it won't take long for people to learn that I'm undead or that I'm linked to you. It was merely to protect my future in the Main Plane."

"Oh," Kaylee responded.

That made sense.