A Different Kind of Deadly (18 page)

"If someone I loved asked me to let them go,
even if I had a guaranteed way to preserve them until they could be
saved, I wouldn't let them die either." I looked her in the eyes.
"For someone who meant that much to me... moving heaven and hell is
the least I would do."

I waited for her to laugh, considering it was
me this was coming from. Moving heaven and hell? I could barely
move my own ass in the mornings, dreading what the day has in
store.

Diana wrapped her arms around me, giving a
gentle squeeze that made me forget all about her monstrous
strength. For one minute she was just a woman, and I felt my heart
skip for the simple fact that she chose to hold me in that
moment.

"Thank you, Marvin. I really needed to hear
that."

Tentatively, I set my arm at the back of her
head, pulling it close. "I know I'm about as incompetent as they
come, but rely on me a little. I might surprise you."

She laughed, "You and Inval-"

AGAIN?

I pushed her away, pinning her by the
shoulders so fast I saw her eyes spin a little.

"I am NOT Inval. I will never BE Inval." She
gazed at me as though seeing me for the very first time. I watched
as red paint bloomed across her face in a rare blush of shame and
embarrassment. "I'm just Marvin," I said softly. "Supposedly, I'm
the Pride of the Six Houses, yet a complete failure to my own
mother. I'm not afraid of dead things, only things that look dead.
My best friend is a Sand Whale maniac, and no matter how similar I
am to Inval, I'm not him. You might not realize it, Diana, but
there's one area where he and I are complete opposites."

"How?"

"He loved you as a student. But I'll love you
no matter what you are."

"I-" Her lips flapped open and closed, but no
real sound came out of them. Finally, Diana slid away and continued
down the pass. "W-we don't have much time left. Let's keep
moving!"

I squinted, wondering if the heat made me go
nuts or if I actually had a chance because I wasn't rejected
outright.

Or was this just a different kind of
rejection?

But seriously, Inval, even if you did have a
thing for Diana, at least I was brave enough to let her
know.

It was  a small consolation, but it
improved my mood. I was competing with a dead man, and for the
first time since this journey started I finally got
ahead.

23: Rogue Doll

Leo clambered
up the pass. Unlike Marvin's route, which was a
slip of a road above a sea of flames, Leo's path was relatively
simple.

Relatively simple for someone else.

The walkway was wide, but also steep in its
ascent and littered with holes. Leo swore at Diana under his
breath; the least she could have mentioned was that the geysers
were active. In his great suit of armor, however light Purilo made
it with his enchantments, Leo's movement was severely hampered. He
had split seconds to dodge streams of acid in order to make it
across.

Uhh, by comparison, had no such problem. While
the high pressures did damage him, the gaps closed quickly by grace
of his unique composition.

"Uhh, how far do we have to go until we make
it out of here?"

"
Quarrrter of a miiiiile
."

Leo wasn't sure how far they came, but he was
certain that it would only get worse from here on. If not acid,
then something else. There was always something worse.

Will landed on the ground in
front of him
.

"I don't have time for this shit!" Leo fumed,
stomping past him. He needed to get clear ground to light Diana's
signal flare. Will didn't say anything, but he did grab Leo's arm
as he brushed on by.

Leo felt the pang of claws latching onto his
soul.

"What did you just do to me?" Leo
demanded.

"I made you my Contractor." Will sent him a
mock-salute, sidestepping a geyser without a second thought. "Nice
to meet you, Master."

"HAH?" Leo looked around. "So... you do know
if I kick the bucket then you do too, right?"

"Good point." Will walked up to him and
grabbed Leo by the waist. "Excuse me."

"Wha-?"

Will jumped high into the air, landing roughly
on the mound bordering the pass. Leo backed away from him, pulling
out the dagger he normally reserved for ritual use.

"Alright. What's your game?"

"Is it alright to be unconcerned while that
golem is still down there?"

Leo paused, looked down, and whistled with his
fingers in his mouth.

"Uhh, get up here!"

The golem raised his head, released what could
have been a sigh, and started walking at his usual pace. Tully
clacked his beak in disapproval, mirroring his master's
expression.

"HAUL YER ASS!" Leo yelled.

Uhh sped to a run, and jumped into the first
acid geyser as it erupted, promptly flying high into the air. He
propelled himself into the cliffs right before the pressure
dropped, dragging his damaged body onto a flat surface.

Both Will and Leo then had the educational
experience of watching an advanced golem reconstruct his melted
buttocks.

"Uhh, the left is bigger than the right," said
Leo. "Use that smaller rock to assimilate."

Will watched Leo bite his lip, stifling a
laugh.

"Get it?" he asked his new
Doll, gradually losing his composure. "
Ass
imilate?"

"...I tied myself to
this
for the rest of my
life?" Will mused to no one in particular. Inwardly, he could hear
Koronos' laughter ringing off the inside of his
skull.

"Hey, least I'm more competent than
Marvin."

"I thought you were friends with him," Will
said, registering the comment as an insult. Leo crossed his arms as
best he could while restricted by his suit.

"It
because
I'm his friend that I'm
allowed to say something like that. And I thought you wanted Marvin
to drop dead, so why did you become my Doll? I'd sooner slit my own
throat before you can touch him."

Will was taken aback by this level of
devotion, and suffered a sting of regret. In exchange for taking
this course of action, Will had lost the opportunity to go after
the one who killed him.

"I hate Marvin," said Will, straightening his
back. "But there's someone I hate a thousand times
more."

Leo placed his pointer fingers on either side
of his head in a poor imitation of horns. The image was decidedly
ridiculous for a man of his size, but Will was quickly grasping the
fact that Leo was ridiculous in his entirety.

"Yes... that guy," said Will, maintaining a
deadpan the whole time. "Besides, I need a Contractor in order to
retain my ability to speak, and Marvin is doomed anyway thanks to
the deal he made."

Leo cocked his head to the side.

"That is a pretty efficient way to go about
it," he admitted.

"You seem pretty calm for a man who's about to
lose a friend to the forces of Hell."

"What Marvin does is his business," said Leo.
"As his friend my only job is to support him no matter what road he
takes. And I don't think that horny bastard can keep his soul
trapped forever. Even though he's a complete sissy, Marvin's one of
the brightest necromancers in Nethermount."

The more he spoke to Leo the less Will was
sure they were actually friends. Either this man was a pragmatist
to the point of absurdity, or this was just a string of passive
aggressive jabs at a man who was too troublesome to bother
killing.

"So..." Leo stretched. "I'm guessing we can
also walk this way to get to the Eyes?"

"We should be able to, yes." Will glanced up
the rocky path. "I've never been to the Salamander Nest before, so
don't take my word for it."

Leo shrugged at the disclaimer. "Only one way
to find out." He eyed the flares at the side of his belt, but
decided against using them. It was in Will's best interest to keep
him safe now that they were linked. Leo extracted a sandwich from
his travel sack and began to eat, laughably nonchalant in their
hazardous surroundings.

"You said Marvin was a sissy?" Will mentioned,
awkwardly trying to start up a conversation.

Leo swallowed the food in his
mouth.

"Yep. He hasn't actually raised a dead body
since you. He lost years of memories after what
happened."

"Years?"

His new master nodded. "Years. Basically all
memories of you and anything older than that were completely
erased. Poof! Just like that."

Will rolled his eyes. "Oh
that
poor
boy."

"I'm glad you think so too," said Leo,
completely missing the sarcasm. "See, I think the problem is he was
too young to actually get it. The whole death thing. Part of being
a necromancer is accepting that life, and life after death, aren't
permanent. When you're a kid, you don't really think like that.
Time just feels faster as we get older."

"If you're trying to defend him then it isn't
working. Ignorance doesn't excuse what he put me
through."

Leo closed his eyes.

"Look, I'm not saying what Marvin did was
right. Hell, before this trip I didn't think undead really had
feelings," he admitted, ashamed of how little he knew. "I mean,
have you ever loved anyone? A friend or family?"

Will thought back to his mother, a faceless
memory he could barely recall. She killed him first, but he
couldn't bring himself to hate her. Yet somehow, Marvin was his
mortal enemy for the very same reason.

"Of course I have," the Doll scoffed. "But I
don't see what that has to do with anything."

Leo sighed, unusually resolute in a rare
moment of maturity.

"Death is easy," said the necromancer. "Dying
is just the process we go through to get there. Living? It's rough.
It's painful. No one asks to be born, and no one comes prepared for
all the shit that comes with it. But at the end of our lives,
whether we're sick or just plain old, everyone has the right to
their last thoughts or wishes. Most necromancers choose not become
undead once they die because of that right."

"So what do you do with them?"

"We cremate them," said Leo. "And then we let
the desert winds sweep them away. Do you know why most of us choose
not to come back to life?"

"Because you understand the nightmare you put
other undead through?"

"No," Leo frowned. "It's because even
necromancers have people they love. Death is inevitable for all of
us, so it's easy to brace yourself for your last moments. But you
can never prepare the people you love for the moment they lose you.
The hardest part about life has nothing to do with our own
struggles -it's about the things beyond our control. It's hard
enough watching someone you care about waste away, knowing you're
powerless to stop it. Most necromancers don't become undead because
we don't want to put our friends and family through the grief of
losing us more than once."

Will looked away, but Leo's words had already
hit home. It didn't change his resentment towards Marvin, but it
did much to blunt its edge.

"Like I said before," Leo went on. "Marvin was
a really bright kid, but still a kid. He never lost anyone close to
him before. He never had any siblings. Being the heir to House
Thanos also made a lot of parents keep their children away from him
out of some stupid idea of social standing and respect. You were
his first real friend. He loved you more than anything in the
world."

Will clenched his fists, recalling the boy he
chased through the dark halls of Nethermount. He saw Marvin as he
saw an older brother.

"Can you imagine what it's
like to watch a person
that
important to you, rotting?" Leo demanded, a
forceful edge in his voice. "Do you have any idea how desperate a
guy can get, looking for a way to keep you alive? What Marvin did
was horrible on a lot of standpoints, but I was watching while he
did it. He was crying, Will. He kept on trying to attach your soul
to a broken body and that cocky bastard was crying harder than I'd
ever seen a person cry in my life. It left him so traumatized that
he never raised a body since."