“Are you sure you don’t want to fight?” Liv asked as we returned to the table. The arrow shower intensified behind us, but a banshee scream repelled several in flight and the kobolds didn’t fire anymore. “I’m not the only banshee in the fort. There are a few more poltergeists, a shade, and quite a few slumbering ghouls. We’d need to keep the latter away from you, but they’ll devastate the skinks as long as they don’t venture too far from the walls.”

“Before we continue, Liv, I need to ask. What is a skink?”

“I forgot you’re a fresh-off-the-truck outworlder.” Liv chuckled, placing a frigid hand atop mine. “Skinks are amphibian cousins to kobolds. They’re found around swamps and in coastal areas, are more fragile but agile.”

“Don’t forget the poison,” Hruk said.

“Ah, yes. We forget things like poison. The more colourful a skink’s hide, more noxious their breath and venomous their bite.”

“That makes me want to fight them even less than before,” I said. “None of us have the means to stave off poison. I’m not sure whether my Life Mana can purge toxins. If it does, I’m not sure how to do it.”

The arrow barrage started again. Several projectiles adopted varying glows suggested enchantment. Since we lacked her immunity to them, Liv led us away from the balcony into the dust-and-block-covered lounge within. A titanic table sat at its centre with an odd geometric design etched into it. Several little dots moved on the outside around the table’s far edge. Then I realised it was the fort’s blueprint and a map of the surrounding space.

“There’s too many of them out there,” I said, studying the map. Craggy cliffs and stones surrounded the fort. No apparent back or side route appeared to me. “Is there no way around them? I’d rather avoid going through them unless we can’t help it.”

“One way in and one way out.” Liv sighed. “These lands were never safe. Yet its old lords kept it safe for centuries thanks to how impenetrable it is—was. These walls kept me safe all my life until it didn’t. You’ll need to go through the skinks but not all the way.” She pointed at the table’s very edge at a brief break in the crags. “There’s a hidden pass over here. It won’t take you to the plains, but Eldar’s Hills should be just as good. It’s where my Da used to live. Whenever heading home, it’s the path I took.”

“The challenge will be getting there, then.” I scratched at my non-existent stubble. I couldn’t tell why, but the habit had returned even though my new body lacked the ability to grow a beard. Perhaps it came from being on the road without bathing for an entire week. “Is there any way for us to sneak around them?”

Liv shook her spectral head. “That brorc is too big,” she said. “He’ll never get the paths without someone spotting him.”

“What do you suggest then?” Hruk asked. His voice still quivered, but he no longer struggled to look Liv in the eye. “I’m not leaving Booger behind.”

“We’ll need a distraction,” an unfamiliar voice said, making Hruk jump. It sounded like jagged nails on a chalkboard. “We can arrange that, of course. When it comes to cowards like skinks, we’re enough. They’re quick to panic and easy to maim.”

It took me a moment to locate the voice’s source. The shadows in the room’s far corner swirled and shifted, reminding me of the Lord of Shadows. However, the presence didn’t feel like him at all. It felt colder and more sinister. Then a humanoid figure stepped out of darkness. When the moonlight touched it, I saw the outlines of a nose, cheekbones, and jaw, but besides that, it had no features. Analyse gave me the information I desired.

Shade

Despite their status as a spectre, shades enter existence through intentional creation. When a magically rich entity sheds their mortal body and attaches their soul to the shadows. A shade is born.

Physical attacks don’t harm shades. After all, they’re living embodiments of shadows. They may use the darkness to travel and shape bodies for them out of it. How much shadow a shade can command dictates their power. Animated shadows and their magic before death dictate their arsenal.

Sunlight and fire are necessary for destroying a shade. Ordinary or magical lights may keep them at bay and will force them into tangible forms.

“Meet Edgar, gentlemen!” Liv said, clapping her hands. “He used to be our resident wizard’s apprentice. When the invaders came, he turned himself into a shade before succumbing to his injuries.”

“And then I cursed our attackers, turning them into the ghouls that now reside in the crypts and further below.” Edgar chuckled and it sound like boots on gravel. “Who knew making a covenant with a lich would give me such incredible power at the time of death? The ghouls listen to me now, though. We can get them to swarm the skink camp and then push through the front lines to the crags.”

“That sounds a good as plan as any,” Hruk said. “We can charge right through them while they’re distracted.

“If only it were that easy,” Edgar said. “Ghouls have power and strike fear, but they might as well be made of paper. Even a skink can cut down with easy. Only thing they’ve got is numbers and the power to rapidly reproduce. Not to forget they’re pretty feral. I just point them in the necessary direction, and they do as they please.”

“Leave that to me,” I said, stepping up to the shade and offered my hand. Edgar appeared hesitant, but shook it in the end. Touching him felt so much worse than when my skin made contact with Liv. It wasn’t just a shiver than ran up and down my spine. My skin crawled too, and the teacakes wanted to climb back up my throat and out of my mouth. Fortunately, I managed to keep the revulsion and disgust from appearing on my face. “You release the ghouls and I’ll tell them what to do. Will it be enough, though?” I pointed at the table’s surface just beyond the walls. “We need to go through here and the skinks are the most concentrated there.”

“Well, a fight will be necessary,” Liv said.

“We’ve only been running, Perry, but between Booger, Doctor Whoo, and I, we have enough offensive power to be a formidable force,” Hruk said. “With the skinks distracted, we should have no trouble ripping through him. Your Wand of Shaping will clear obstacles and the bracer will provide cover. We can do this, Perry.”

“I know we can, Hruk.” I sighed. “It’s just an immense risk. There’s so many of them. I don’t want any of you to get hurt… or worse.”

“Death isn’t as bad as most of you think,” Liv said. “If you die, you get to spend eternity with me.” She drifted closer and continued in a whisper. “The last outworlder I bedded knew things people of the disk don’t. If you’re dead, you can show me, Perry. I could teach you something new as well.”

“That’s a mighty tempting offer, Liv. It really is. However, there are too many things I yet have to accomplish, and my companions are young—”

“I was younger than you when I died.” Liv took her frigid hand in mine. “Death is only the beginning, though. There’s plenty to do on either side of the veil.”

“The shadows tell me Arena Disk is good in that way,” Edgar added.

“Fine.” I sighed, checking my bracers. Doctor Whoo chirped from a corner of the room. I had shrunk her down to her miniature form after arriving at the fort. Following a long rest and snack, she appeared in better spirits. “Let’s see whether these lizards can survive without their tails, shall we?”