AFTERLIFE: Artifacts

Ch. 5: 'Betrayal at its best is always second-guessed'

Credit: The chapter title comes from the song: "Dragging Dead Bodies In Blue Bags Up Really Long Hills" by Escape the Fate.  It's a lyric that's stuck with me for ages and I think it fits this chapter well.  (Though the song at top is different.  It was hard to find a song for this chapter, but since it's very much about loss and regret I chose The Ghost of You 6/8/24)

Day 3: 100 Miles Out

     The group members busied themselves picking up their bedrolls and stuffing them back into their packs. Andraste took some feed out of the cart and held it in front of the donkey. The donkey's lip curled around the hay and it ripped the food from her hand. Andraste stroked the muzzle of the animal as it ate. She handed it another handful of hay while it finished chewing and smoothed the fur along its long ears. Lienna's voice came to her ears as the group readied themselves for the day.

     "So we can do magic here, right?" Lienna asked Granik. He nodded, heaving his pack onto his back. "Who can do magic here?" She asked, "I can't... well, I guess I've never tried either, but... I'm pretty sure I can't." Granik shook his head.

     "I can only do a little." He said. Granik pointed to the tree behind them. He took both hands, palms open and pointed out, and swiped left quickly. The leaves of the tree rustled and a few of them fell. "See."

     "Cool!" Lienna said. "That's great for some real spooky ambiance."

     "That's nothing." Nunzio said. He blew on his open palms, then rubbed them together and shook them like he was drying his hands in the air. "Are you ready, Lienna? Stand back." Granik stepped away, heeding his warning. Nunzio launched a short stream of bright aqua light at the tree, then another and another and another in rapid succession. The tree erupted in aquamarine fire. Hafsa came up and slapped Nunzio on the head. She reached her hands out as if grabbing the fire, whispering something in a foreign language. She laid her hands flat, palms down and pushed down towards the ground. Hafsa glared at Nunzio again.

     "Are you finished showing off?" She asked, "Or would you like to alert the entire second ring to our presence?" Hafsa walked away, followed by Granik and quickly set off after by the rest of the group. Lienna gave him a look and bounded off as well. Andraste picked up Nunzio's pack and threw it at his face. He caught it, but just barely, nearly falling over at the sudden force. He blinked and hurried to catch up to the goddess and the rest of the group.

     "It was pretty stupid." Andraste commented as he caught up to her heels, "Cool. But stupid." Nunzio was silent. The party walked in silence for a bit before Lienna chimed in yet again.

     "Well, since we were talking about crushes yesterday, I'm curious..." She turned to Tariel who was beside her and still leading the donkey. "Tariel, have you had a crush before?"

     "Oh, of course I've had crushes." He replied.

     "Well, spill the grains!" She said with a grin. Tariel laughed.

     "Well, it was nothing really. I hardly remember most of them. I mean... I remember there was a bartender I really fancied in Sigil. I was like 18 I guess and I would go there all the time just to see her. I ended up getting really drunk one night and kissed her. Yeah... I never went back to that bar. Too bad honestly, they had a really good stew menu. It was like a design-your-own stew thing. Pretty crack." Lienna darted behind Tariel and onto the donkey, setting her head on her hand and staring deviously at Yama.

     "What about you, Yama?" She asked, "Have you ever been in love?" Yama stopped slightly, taken aback.

     "M-me?" He asked, pointing to himself.