Apollodora IV

15th Night of the Month of Ice, 23:32, before Walpurgis

Artemy is up to something—but then again, when isn't he?—and Apollodora knows it.

He had been acting weird since their uncle's death and sneaking out after moonfall. That last one wasn't such a strange one, her brother was terrible at sneaking around, her steps always too loud and never taking care of not slamming doors around, but since uncle's Mikhe's death he had been more erratic in his escapades and Dora was getting worried—Their uncle had been killed, whoever had killed him may try to kill another member of the royal family again— so she had decided that enough was enough; she was going to find out what he was doing. It was her job to know what the prince did—or it would be in the far future—as his Infans and advisor, she had to know what he did, how could she advise him if she didn't? How could she solve problems if she didn't know what the problem was?

So, she had grabbed Dhesi after he had set off again in his own nerval— vandaru, he had named him, after one of the god Wodan's many fauxes— and followed him as inconspicuously as possible.

The city is empty, well, almost. Some people still meander around, some patrolling Nocturnals, twilight workers and some people just walking home after a fun , but it's calmer than usual. Maybe they fear that whoever dared to kill uncle Mikhe will kill someone else.

Artemy himself is taking back roads so Dora is forced to use main ones instead of her original plan, but still, by the time she arrived at the south gate, Artemy and his nerval were nowhere to be seen.

And it's very different to go out when the moon is out and people walk about, but after moonfall, the cemetery and the Haruspex's house-all illuminated like a beacon, a floating light in the darkness, it feels like bait-look terrifying. Dora breathes and swallows the panic that is threatening to overcome her. She can do this.

She decides the cemetery is her best chance. She dismounts and ties Dhesi to the metallic gate of the west cemetery, she had not visited uncle Mikhe since they had buried his remains in the family's mausoleum, she suspected that was what Artemy must be doing.

He may act like he didn't care, but Mikhe was also his uncle, and while Dora didn't know what had happened between them, it couldn't still affect him after Mikhe had already joined Ayth.

The House Drest mausoleum stands up among the others, sitting next to the House Aud's and colored in black marble, with turquoise stones as decorations and gold wire around the iron bars of the short fence that separated the small building from the cemetery's ground. It was a beautiful sight, and the gate to the building itself was open, light coming from inside it.

Well, that's not good.

She steadies her body and stares at her hand. Her lousy training Masters had always told her that a Bisha tattoo wasn't needed for battle, but Dora wishes she had one, a small one, on the palm of her hand. After a moment of deep concentration, Dora wills a small flame in her hand, just in case whoever or whatever got in wants a fight.

The mausoleum's stairs are steep and small, making Dora take careful steps downwards, she wonders how the undertakers can make this difficult path with a body and not die trying.

The stairs seem to take forever, spiraling and spiraling downwards, until finally, after what feels like an eternity, Dora reaches the bottom.

It's been a while since she last visited a dead relative, probably her grandmother Bacchia's grave, but it still amazes her to see the network of interconnected caves that form their mausoleum.

She advances, the oldest graves are by the stairway's side and the newest ones, well, for those ones Dora will have to walk a bit, through tunnels and other graves. And not far, she can see a light floating in the darkness, moving like someone is holding it.

There, not an animal then, a person, trespassing on the mausoleum of the royal family!

A crime punishable with a lifetime in Qarthal prison, that's for sure.

Dora extinguishes her flame, she doesn't want to be seen by these trespassers, she wants to catch them in the act so that they are punished accordingly. So, she follows the light as quietly as she is able.

The tunnels feel infinite and damp, the smell of dirt invading her nose and making her sneeze a couple of times from the dust that permeates the wall graves she passes by. She feels glad the graves are located on the walls of the tunnels and not on the ground of tunnel, Dora doesn't wish to step on the final resting place of her ancestors. Each wall grave has an inscription to the side of it, and the space occupied by the corpse was closed up with crystals grown by earth Asha users. A newly buried body would be covered in dirt tampered by the earth Asha undertakers, that would make sure in the decades to come, the grave would become part of the tunnel wall, giving it support by growing crystals along the wall and inside the grave itself, that way no thieves could steal from the dead.

But, until the crystals grow, some time must past.

And uncle Mikhe's grave was very recent.

Dora speeds up, stumbling a couple times with loose rocks from the ground, but making sure no sound echoes in the tunnel and gives away her position to whoever is walking ahead of her. The tunnel eventually starts to narrow and Dora knows she has reached the end when she sees the light no longer moves. She hides behind a small dip in the wall and listens closely, as she cannot see that well.

She can only see two blurry shapes, but their voices echo perfectly right to where she hides.

"Are you still angry about the omen?" Asks a voice Dora immediately recognizes. It's Artemy, sounding both remorseful and teasing, only he can balance both tones, mostly when he mocks Dora enough to get her angry.

Seeing no sense in hiding from her brother, Dora approaches, no longer caring about the noise, at her brother and the other person that carries the lantern. It's Vyshe Ardashir.

"Artemy!" She yells, the echoes of her own voice reverberating all around.

Artemy and Vyshe Ardashir both turn in surprise, the Haruspex raising his lantern and narrowing his eyes at her—not a surprise, how can he even see a meter in front of him? Nomads eyes are terrible—and Artemy yelps.

"Dora! What are you doing here?" He yells, backing away when she reaches him and grabs at his coat.

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here! So late and inside the mausoleum!" Says Dora, and then she sees the shovel her brother is carrying "And with a shovel!"

Her brother sputters and stumbles around his words for a minute before Vyshe Ardashir decides to take the conversation off his hands.

"We are unburying your uncle" he says simply and Dora opens her mouth in shock. "I needed a recently buried body for an experiment and your brother offered your uncle"

Dora's eyes return to Artemy that dodges her stare and instead looks at his boots.

"Why?" Asks Dora, but it's more like a sob that climbs up her throat instead of just words.

"Because it's necessary" answers Vyshe Ardashir, and Dora doesn't get it, her face must show this, because Vyshe Ardashir keeps talking "You can stay and then you can understand"

Why? Why would Artemy allow this? But Vyshe Ardashir turns back to the fresh grave and Artemy gives him the shovel without prompting. Dora closes her eyes, she doesn't want to see this, but she still hears the dirt hitting the ground as uncle Mikhe's grave is excavated.

The shovel is dropped with a clanging sound, but Dora won't open her eyes. She doesn't want to see her uncle's slowly decomposing body, but Artemy's gasps makes her do so.

There's nothing, nothing but bones remain inside the grave. Clean white bones, not even a bit of flesh still attached to them, like a faux had gnawed off every bit of meat on them.

"What?" whispers Dora as she get closer. Vyshe Ardashir has brought out a book and is scribbling rapidly in it.

"What does that mean?" Asks Artemy to Vyshe Ardashir, that stops writing to stare at the body.

"That means that Neth doesn't only eat our memories" he answers "But also our remains"

And while Dora doesn't truly understand what they are talking about, her stomach processes it first, as it brings out forcefully what she had for supper.

When she's done, her body trembles in aftershocks, a warm hand softly patting her back in awkward comfort, she gains enough energy to glare at her brother.