Having given back all the items the goblins had stolen, Anastacia gathered her green followers to figure out what would happen now that she was going to return to Valor.

“So, I have to return to Valor. And from what I hear, the king will be there too. What are you guys going to do?” Anastacia asked.

“We follow queen!” Gobby screeched and the other seemed to agree.

“I don’t think they’ll let you into the city, and Rosie definitely won’t let you into the inn. So we’ll have to find a place for you to live in. There are a couple of forests nearby…” Anastacia thought out loud.

“No forest! No swamp! No cave! Goblins build castle! For Queen and king!” Gobby objected.

“O…okay… go nuts I guess. We’ll leave in a few minutes, just follow us and pick a spot.” Anastacia said, fully knowing that it was going to be a disaster. Maybe she could tell the king to watch over them? She’d also have to inform the guild about them and convince them to leave the goblins alone.

Emilia watched her friend command the goblins and wondered why Anastacia had such an effect on goblins. She had met the creatures twice now and on both occasions, ended up as their leader. It could be a coincidence but seemed weird. Whatever the reason was, at least these ones seemed more manageable than the ones at the machine fort.

“Any idea what happened between the girl and boss? You were listening to them, right?” Alice asked from the priestess in a slightly lowered voice.

“She messed up and Alizarin ended up paying for it.” Emilia responded briefly. “Tell your boss that I’m sorry for her loss too. From the necromancers I’ve met, Alizarin was one of the nicer ones.”

“Ah shit… We’ll try to get the boss open up a bit, but this does mean that there’s a chance we’ll be sent to kill the girl and anyone who is in the way. So… sorry in advance, I guess?” Alice admitted and shook her head. “If I were you, I’d make her take her training seriously, so that attacking her wouldn’t be worth it.”

The group left the elf village behind in a less than cheery mood. The apprentice necromancers offered to give Anastacia and Emilia a ride but they declined as Anastacia needed some time to think.

What Sylvia had said was true, there’s no benefit to her in tricking Anastacia. The goddess’s motives were to keep Emilia alive to spread the faith, and doing that in a dream would be pointless. Anastacia felt like an idiot for not realizing that before the deity had to literally scream it at her face. And not just a common idiot either, she was a special kind of idiot. Common idiots lose their savings on scams and the like, it takes more than that to get one the most capable necromancers killed by being an idiot. Coquelicot’s threats were more than justified. All Anastacia could do now is get rid of the inquisitors and hope it’d be enough to appease the widow.

Marriages between necromancers are a bit different compared to normal ones. They get made by impressing one another with your skills, and that usually leads to pairings like Alizarin and Coquelicot. On one side you have one of, if not the most skilled researchers in Mournvalley and on the other a necromancer of absurd combat capabilities and finesse. Both complementing each other perfectly. Only reason all the Inquisitors aren’t paired up is their tendency to be straight up evil and often insane. This doesn’t mean there isn’t a feeling of affection between the two, but that often comes with time. So Anastacia’s fuck up didn’t only take the love of her life from Coquelicot, it also took what was probably the only person in the world the high inquisitor looked up to. Anastacia was still surprised that she wasn’t splattered over the walls of that room.

Aside from the occasional reports from the apprentice necromancers to one another, the group was silent most of the way to Valor. The distant screeches of the goblins could be heard but even those stopped, meaning that they had found a place for their castle. The group decided to stop to rest for a bit, while Anastacia backtracked to check up on the goblins.

The critters had gathered to a clearing between two small forests, about five kilometers from Valor. It was close and didn’t look like the area was used by anyone, so Anastacia agreed on the spot.

“Alright, guys. This is where we part for now, I’ll send the king over if I can and will come check up on you every now and then.” The forest queen told her subordinates.

“We build great castle for Queen and King! Castle with fire! Castle to give smile back to queen!” Gobby declared. Even the goblins had realized that Anastacia wasn’t feeling great.

The goblins gathered around Anastacia and danced for a while before scattering around, probably to look for sticks and mud. Only now she realized that she had gotten used to the smell.

When Anastacia returned to her group, she found the three necromancers enthusiastically devouring the fried food Coquelicot had ordered but forgotten to take with her.

“Uh… We’re like an hour away from Valor, you could get some fresh ones there?” Anastacia noted. “They’re better warm anyway…”

“I’ve told them that already, they don’t care.” Emilia said. “Do you only eat like tree bark or something in Mournvalley?”

“Sometimes. Unlike Anastacia, we weren’t high ranked in the cult. It’s been a bit better since we joined up with the rebellion, but this is still only the second time I’ve had meat.” Duke explained. “To me, this alone makes the rebellion worth It!”

The other two necromancers agreed.

“Have you guys ever had salmon? That’s the first proper meal I got out here.” Anastacia asked. She knew exactly how they felt, even more so having eaten simpler food again in the forest.

After the necromancers had their fill, the group continued their journey. At the edge of the field they finally found the forest king. He was being surrounded by three of the guild’s guards and carried the prince, who Anastacia had forgotten already. She ran over to see what was up.

“Simulacrum, this is the last warning. Tell us why you are here? Even if you can’t talk, write it into the ground or something!” One of the guards threatened him. Anastacia recognized the guard as Otto.

“He’s waiting for me, Otto. Leave him be.” Anastacia said and pushed the other guards away from the king.

“Anasacia?! I thought you were missing? Where have you been?” Otto said and took his helmet off to see the girl properly. “Should’ve known that this had something to do with you, like everything weird these days.”

“I was… missing. But now I’m back, so don’t worry about it.” Anastacia explained while checking the king’s face, and wondering what happened to it. “Anyway, the simulacrum is mine, and I need to take him inside the city for a while. Is that a problem?”

The guards looked at each other, none of them had any idea whether simulacra were allowed inside or not, they doubted that it had even been considered as a possibility before. Otto told the other two to go inform the guild about it.

“There’s nothing saying it can’t enter, but can you please show that you have any control over it? Just so I’ll have something to defend my decision with.” Otto said once the other guards were outside earshot.

“I mean sure, but he’s not like my dog or anything. We’re the rulers of a tribe of goblins and he’s technically my husband, but it’s a goblin marriage so I wouldn’t take it too seriously. Oh! And that’s something else I need to talk you about. Our tribe started to build a castle nearby, I’ve told them not to cause trouble for people around here and was hoping that the guild wouldn’t go and drive them off.” Anastacia explained. “But anyway, king, could you show Otto some courtesy?”

The king bowed to Otto, who was still trying to figure out the explanation about the goblins.

“I have no idea what to write in my report… Can you just come over to the offices and explain everything tomorrow?” Otto asked. “I’ll leave you be so you can get to the inn, they’re all missing you.”

The confused guard left and Anastacia continued to inspect the king.

“You know, last time I saw you, I thought you got killed but you look fine to me. Aside from the missing faceplate. How about we go into the inn and I’ll show you my room? You can put down the prince there. Now I can get help fixing him, there are a bunch of craftsmen here.” Anastacia said and wiped some dirt from the king’s shoulder.

The rest of the group watched Anastacia talk to the simulacrum. They were kind of surprised how she treated it as a living being. Maybe being in a forest with just goblins wasn’t healthy?

“Having a moment there?” Alice interrupted them.

“What? Oh! no no no, it’s just that I thought he died the last time I saw him. You guys told me he was alive but guess I just had to see him with my own eyes.” Anastacia said and pulled her hand away.

“He? Alive? We told you it was working, not alive. You do know that it’s just a machine, right?” Alice asked, partly out of actual concern and partly just to tease the girl.

“Why do you tease her? That’s barely worse than what you have.” Duke said to shut Alice up.

They reached Valor just in time before it started to get darker. Anastacia couldn’t believe that she was finally back home. The familiar scent of food stalls, noise of people on the streets and shopfronts. She hadn’t realized how much she missed all of them while in the forest, especially Rosie’s inn.

Anastacia took a deep breath and opened the door.

She didn’t have time to say anything before Rosie dropped her tray and grabbed her from the doorway, into her powerful, rib crushing embrace. The tigress lifted Anastacia up to take a better look at her.

“Look guys! Anna is back!” Rosie roared in a happy tone, which was something that hadn’t been heard since she had returned from Crescent.

She put her down on the counter and Anastacia’s friends gathered around the girl. After almost an hour of constant questioning things finally died down and Anastacia got the chance to visit her room. She told the king to follow her upstairs.

“You can put him down in the corner there. I’ll go downstairs to eat something and chat, feel free to either follow me or stay here.” Anastacia instructed the king. “Just to be clear about a few things, these are all my friends, so no attacking any of them. They probably haven’t seen a friendly simulacrum before, so don’t worry if they’re a bit wary at first.”

The king decided to follow her back downstairs, where the necromancers had gotten the food they ordered from Rosie and were focused on eating. The others had started celebrating Anastacia’s return by drinking. This continued well past midnight. At one point Rosie made the whole inn hold a moment of silence for Alizarin, but overall the mood was far beyond what it had been at any point while Anastacia was missing.

Xamiliere noticed Anastacia keeping silent whenever she wasn’t the center of attention.

“That thing with this Alizarin guy still bothering you? I know exactly what you need.” The spriggan said and smirked.

“I’m not going in your room.” Anastacia refused bluntly.

“Oh come on! Even I have some limits! Just come with me. I promise I won’t do anything. You can even take your new stone friend along for protection.” Xamiliere explained and got up.