From above, the change was quite obvious, the trees going from healthy evergreens, with some fall-coloured deciduous trees mixed in, to the sad image of bare tree trunks, stripped of their branches and even the bark having died and fallen off. The tall, white trunks reminded me of skeletons, the branches on the floor giving the impression of a graveyard, only that I noticed movement amongst some of those bones.

On my request, Lenore moved ahead a little further than normal, in order to get sight of our objective before we moved into the obviously blighted zone, just in case the undead wanted to register their objection to our presence. When she left the range I could share her senses, I focused all my attention back into my body, speaking up to warn the others.

“Gather around.” I called out, making sure all could hear me. We didn’t quite move in a tight formation, but all remained close enough to support the others. As expected, Sigmir was the first who reached me, other than Gilo and Mal who had been next to me, all of us trying to figure out a way to create a better smoke-bomb. The method-comparison between their smoke-creation and my own mist-creation was quite fascinating, though I doubted I would be able to use their methods, as they required fire. Something I wasn't willing to touch, not on a magical level and only out of necessity on a mundane level.

“We are about to enter the afflicted area, we need to be careful. Depending how things look further up, we might want to make camp here and only push in tomorrow. Otherwise, we’ll have to camp in the blighted area, not quite sure how restful that would be.” I explained, getting a few questioning looks in return.

“How dangerous does the area look?” Olivia asked, obviously knowing that Lenore was scouting for me. Making a vague gesture with my hands, I simply shrugged.

“Can’t really say, there are undead but the amount of deadwood on the ground makes it impossible to guess just how many or how powerful they are.” I explained, only to zone out when Lenore entered the range at which we could share our senses again, transmitting a stream of memories.

Raising my hand and closing my eyes for a moment, I focused inward, looking at the memories. If the land before us was blighted and dying, the Shadow Cleft was a rotten corpse, leaking decay into the surrounding area. In Lenore’s memories, I could see the rotting power spread, like sewage seeping into the land, defiling everything it touched. Swallowing, I forced down the bile that was rising from my stomach, the impressions from Lenore’s memories enough to make me sick.

“By the gods…” I muttered, my eyes blinking open to reveal Sigmir’s worried face.

“What did you see?” she asked, her voice gentle, caring.

“It’s like an open, infected wound, the infection slowly killing the land.” I replied, reaching out to steady myself against Sigmir.

“And if we don’t make sure the wound is cleansed, it will turn septic, the land dying from necrosis.” Kirl threw in, her voice filled with a calm sadness.

“I see.” I admitted, a shudder running down my spine.

Closing my eyes again, I focused on the images once more, pushing the magical impressions from my mind, focusing solely on the visual images. Trying to count the undead, to find out what else was out there, waiting for us to engage. Sadly, the shadows around the cleft were obscuring most of the area, the magic inherent to them enough to conceal any Undead from Lenore’s perception. There might be hundreds of skeletons hidden beneath, or countless of incorporeal Spectres concealed within the dark cloudy shadows.

“We’ll have to move in today.” I decided, knowing that we’d need the extra time to make sure the cleft was cleansed of undead, so that the clerics could set up.

“So, what is going on?” Mal asked, looking more than a little confused at this point.

Instead of explaining, I simply shook my head when an amusing idea shot through my head. Knowing that Lenore was about to land, I directed her to land on a branch behind Mal and her group, before I cocked my head to the side, my eyes wide open and flashing with the purple tint of Darkness.

“Never one…” I spoke, citing an old video-game line, mentally coordinating with Lenore.

“... without the other.” my voice spoke, only it wasn’t coming from my mouth, but from behind them, where Lenore had silently landed, using her ability to speak in my voice. Their reaction was amusing enough to make me work hard to keep my features eerily still, especially when they whirled back around ,their heads swivelling from Lenore to me and back. From the corner of my eyes, I noticed that Lenore had cocked her head to the side, too, mirroring my own position, keeping eerily still as well.

Using the Darkness-Magic I was channelling, I reached out, forming a tendril of emptiness, trying to connect with Lenore through the void inherent to all things, similar to the way I had previously tried to move things. It was difficult, the light all around us dispersing some of my Astral Power, but with a wasteful expenditure, I managed. Lenore, noticing the connection and amused at my idea, played along, pushing herself through the connection into her Hallow, vanishing in a puff of feathers, made from darkness.

“What?!” Mal asked, the expression on her face pure confusion. Again, I simply shook my head, refusing to explain, and turned away, moving forward again.

“There will be undead soon. We’ll need to remain vigilant, especially you, Rai. They appear to hide within the dead branches on the ground.” I warned, ignoring the group with us.

“Okay, what was going on there, Morgana?” Mal pressed me, after catching up to me.

“You remember that impression I shared, flying above Ladrin?” I asked, using language appropriate for Mundus, as Gilo was listening in to speak of a video I had posted in the past. Mal obviously needed a few moments to think, her face scrunching into a frown before she nodded, still looking rather insecure.

“Well, there you have it. Such abilities can also be used to make sure we aren’t running into foes, what did you think I was doing the whole time?” I explained, carefully choosing my words so they were true, without giving away just what Lenore actually was. She simply nodded, looking pensive and somewhat confused, the desire to ask many questions still lingering in her eyes. But she had obviously received the message that I wasn’t about to tell her everything and accepted that.

In silence, we continued on and within a few minutes, we reached the area Lenore had seen from above and while it lacked the scale that gave such a severe impact from above, the intensity on ground-level was striking in its own way. The change from healthy, evergreen forest to stripped trunks and scattered branches on the ground was stark, a distinct line, almost as if drawn with a straight-edge.

To my senses, the scent of Death was pugnant in the air, overpowering everything else and making me somewhat nauseous. It was just as bad as it had been in the Dorrian Mountains, only that there, it had been a gradual exposure as we travelled up the hills, not such a sudden change.

“Be very cautious.” I warned the others once again and now, we moved into a tight formation, Sigmir taking up the rear, the two Daimons taking up the front, together with Adra, Gilo and Jakyl. The clerics, Mal and I, were protected in the middle, while Rai joined Sigmir in the rear, his ability to teleport allowing him to strike at every point in the formation at will.

“I really don’t like this.” Mal whispered, her head swivelling around, trying to spot the undead, hidden between the bone-white, dead branches.

“Neither do I.” I admitted, drawing on Lenore’s sight in an attempt to find our foes. Sadly, the branches were filled with necrotic energy, providing ample camouflage, at least against my senses.

“Incoming.” Rai warned behind us, before disappearing in a flash of Darkness. Moments later, his form reappeared some fifteen metres to the side, blade already clad in Darkness and stabbing down. While it was impossible to see what he had attacked, the dozen skeletons rising all around us gave me a reasonably good idea.

“Stay in formation, destroy those that attack us. Let Morgana deal with them from a distance.” Sigmir commanded, keeping an eye on the overall situation and objective.

It only took me a moment to decide on a course of action and show some of my power. I was tempted to let Lenore deal with them, the power of her focus was incredibly effective against Undead, I wasn’t about to give away all my secrets. My ability to use Darkness-Magic was wide-spread enough for me to consider it common knowledge about any who wanted to know and the ability to destroy Skeletons was not something I needed to keep concealed.

Instead, I went in a different direction, giving them shock and awe. Bullet Time activated to give me the extra time to focus and direct and I materialised a dense orb of Darkness in front of me, quickly drawing a set of Runes into it with my other hand, the activity hidden within the darkness. Once that was done, I could use my Darkness-Magic to form the Astral Power into beams of magic-devouring Dark Radiance, striking all skeletons that had risen, sending them back to the ground in scattered bones.

It was an utter waste of Astral Power, the efficiency atrocious, but a quick glance on the faces of our companions showed me, it had been worth it.

“Let us continue. We don’t have unlimited time.” I announced coolly, as if I hadn’t just blown through a good third of my Astral Power reserve to deal with a dozen skeletons below level sixty.