After finishing the examination of Anastacia’s limits, Periwinkle had told her that he needed some time to figure out how to bring out her potential. Leaving Anastacia as an anxious mess the entire time he was gone because there was absolutely no telling what he’d do to push her over the edge. She was half-expecting for bone dust to start falling from the sky in Valor, but surely Periwinkle wasn’t stupid enough to actually attack the city – or at least that’s what she hoped.

When the night fell over the city of adventurers, the weird inquisitor was still nowhere to be seen, Anastacia had to make the choice between at least trying to get some sleep or staying awake and look for any signs of Periwinkle, just in case he did anything stupid. At around midnight, she was still staring at the city gates through a window with a coffee in her hand.

Rosie approached her and grabbed the half-empty cup from the necromancer’s shaky hand. “I’ve never had to stop serving anyone coffee before, but I’m doing it for you now. Kitten, you need sleep.” She said and sat down next to her.

“I can’t help it, he seems almost reasonable on the outside, but would no doubt attack the city if he thought that it was the only way to push me. I should have gone with him, this was a bad idea.” Anastacia tried to explain. “We don’t even know if he actually works for Coquelicot, maybe he was actually sent by the royals as a revenge? It’s not like some blue robes are too hard to get. This might all be a ruse to get me to lower my guard, so he can attack.”

“And that’s why Xammy is following him.” Gilbert pitched in. “She has been getting really bored and annoying, so I figured she could at least go out and do some tailing since Periwinkle can’t detect her. If he does anything weird, she will come back to tell us, and you can go stop him before anything bad happens. So just calm down for now.”

“But…” Anastacia tried insisting.

“No buts! Last thing we want is for you to be in shambles even before leaving to Mournvalley, so you’re going to take King and go to your room.” The innkeeper commanded and lifted Anastacia up from her chair. “Good night, kitten.”

Anastacia took King’s hand and slowly dragged herself up the stairs without further protests. She kicked open the door to her room, scaring Yulia half to death. The lamb screamed in terror, probably waking up the rest of the guests and threw her pillow at the necromancer in panic.

King grabbed the pillow from the air before it hit Anastacia and handed it back over to Yulia before setting down into the corner of the room, where he and Anastacia usually rested.

“Sorry, didn’t know you were already here.” Anastacia apologized, locked the door and started throwing her clothes on the floor. “You weren’t sleeping yet, were you?”

“N… no, I was just going through some recipes Miss Rosie gave me. I can’t quite make out some of the letters… or numbers.” Yulia explained and started hastily collecting some of the crumbled and stained papers that had fallen off the bed.

Anastacia picked up one and started reading through it. Nearly every word in the sheet had something wrong with it, they were either written incorrectly, a mix of capital and noncapital letters, had letters from some other languages in them or were just completely and utterly illegible. “What are ‘papktoes’ and why does this one need ‘H’ of them per serving?” She asked and squinted, trying to understand some of the ingredients.

“Potatoes… I hope, and it’s probably a four and not an H. I was hoping to rewrite these at some point, but I don’t have anything to write with.” The lamb said and stacked the papers neatly against her prosthetic hand.

“Oh yeah, I used up all my paper here while making the plans for your… never mind, you can just ask Rosie for more paper and ink, they come with the room. If you want higher quality ones, I can just give you money for them, if Rosie hasn’t paid you yet.” Anastacia suggested and took out her stash of money from behind the wardrobe.

“NO!” Yulia suddenly yelled. “I mean… I can’t take anything more from you, why do you keep giving me things?! I’m not worth any of this.”

Anastacia frowned and threw a handful of coins at Yulia before hiding the bag again. “Because we like you, and sort of messed up your life.” She shrugged and sat down on the bed next to Yulia. “How are you liking the city life anyway? I imagine the inn is at least a bit busier than your old tavern.”

“E… everyone here is so amazing. I don’t know if I belong here… You made me this hand, Miss Rosie is the best cook I’ve ever seen, Miss Emilia is a high-priestess and Gilbert is so nice to everyone. I’m just normal and everyone just feels sorry for me.” Yulia listed and shook her head.

“We’re not all that great, I dragged a whole bunch of murderous necromancers here when I first arrived, Rosie can barely read and write, Emilia is only the head of her religion because we killed everyone else and she’s is totally winging it, and Gilbert is a whoremonger. That’s just the first thing that came to my mind though, we’re all far from perfect.” Anastacia laughed and started inspecting one of Yulia’s hooves. She had never seen one up close and was curious about how the lamb kept her balance with feet so small. “So you and your shit self-esteem fit in just fine. Besides, you’re already pretty popular with the guests here. Even if you’re still unsure about all this, you’ll find a reason to smile again sooner or later – I did, or maybe it’s a work in progress still. For almost sixteen years, nothing in my life mattered – actually, saying that I had a life is far too kind for my folks. But anyway, when nothing matters, everything becomes a joke; I’m still learning what comes after the jokes end, or if they end at all. Now I know it’s not anything like your situation and that I’m completely and utterly shit at this kind of thing, but what I’m trying to say is that it gets better.”

An awkward silence fell between the roommates, and Yulia started to gather the coins Anastacia had thrown at her, hoping to stop the situation from getting even more awkward than it already was.

Anastacia realized that she had gotten distracted from monitoring the surroundings for any signs of Periwinkle and closed her eyes to concentrate. There were no other necromancers within her relatively impressive range. The only items carrying even a hint of necromantic arts were Yulia’s hand and the pair of ruined daggers she had bought soon after arriving to Valor.

Out on the farther reaches of her vision, she could feel some small critters running around the fields outside the walls, adventurers merrily drinking away their nights and hard-earned gold in taverns spread around the area, guards making their rounds and artisans still tinkering away in their shops. Nearer by, she could feel the adventurers in their rooms, engaging in various activities in the privacy of their rooms.

“Someone on the third floor has like twenty mice in their room. Should we tell Rosie?” Anastacia asked to change the subject and breathe some life into the dead conversation.

“Third floor…” Yulia muttered and stopped to think for a second. “There’s a mousefolk druid living there, he probably carries them in his pockets. I think Miss Rosie knows about them already.” She said and offered a handful of coins back to the necromancer, who took them just to pour them down Yulia’s neckline.

“Speaking of Rosie, she came upstairs after me but is already asleep.” Anastacia pointed out while focusing on what was happening on the other side of the wall. “I know she’s a hugger, but she’s twice as bad asleep. I don’t think she’s helping with Emilia’s recovery at all by crushing her…”

Yulia panicked a bit, she had been briefed about Anastacia’s naivety and blindness to what was going on, and wasn’t sure if she should interfere before the necromancer figured anything out. “How… how do you do that?” She asked to distract Anastacia.

“How can I ‘see’ through walls and so on? It’s just one of the things necromancers can do. Just like your eyes detect light and ears detect sounds, whatever makes us necromancers allows us to detect both potential material and other necromancers. It’s hard to explain how it feels, but on the most basic level it’s almost like very slight pull on you, that you learn to interpret more accurately with time and from farther away.” The necromancer explained and turned her attention to Yulia, whose heart rate was slightly elevated, even for the skittish lamb. Anastacia was absolutely certain that she would eventually stress herself to death but didn’t say anything about it because that would probably just make Yulia stress more.

“Well, Miss Anastacia, I… I think you should avoid doing it in here, respecting other people’s privacy is important... I don’t mean to be rude though.” Yulia tried to scold her to the best her abilities.

“I know, I know. This is just a special case. Periwinkle is up to something and it has zero chance to be good.” Anastacia said and stopped her search after making sure there were no other necromancers around for one last time. “By the way, isn’t it time you drop the honorifics? No one here is that polite, so you shouldn’t bother with them either. Besides, mine is incorrect. You call me ‘Miss Anastacia’ but I’m both married and royalty, so either call me ‘Anna’ or ‘Your Highness’, I’ll let you pick. And don’t think for a second that I didn’t notice you not using one for Gil. Is there something I should know about you two?”

“No! He has just been so nice to me and told me to just call him by name…” The lamb said and drifted off into her thoughts.

“Wow, really? You too? How does that old fart do this? There has to be something about him that I’m not seeing…” Anastacia shrugged and extended her arms towards King, asking for him to pick her up.

The simulacrum stood up and carefully picked up the necromancer from the bed. She yawned as King picked up a blanket from the floor and wrapped it around her. Despite all the caffeine in her, it didn’t take long for Anastacia to start dozing off in King’s arms as they settled into the corner of the room, like they did every night after Yulia’s arrival.

Watching the two, Yulia couldn’t help but to feel like she was in the way while sharing a room with them. After shaking out the coinage from under her shirt, she returned to what she was doing before Anastacia interrupted her, trying to decipher the recipes. Every now and then she glanced over to her roommates to make sure that the shuffling of papers didn’t wake up Anastacia. Over time she started to notice that the blue glowing lines on the simulacrum slowly got brighter for some reason. Without realizing it, she stared at them for a few minutes, until King noticed her and the lights dimmed back down.

“Oh no, did I interrupt something?” She whispered to the simulacrum, who was now in turn staring at her. “Do you want me to leave? I can do this in the kitchen…”

King slowly shook his head and placed a pebble on the table.

“W… what’s that? You gave some to Rosie earlier, right?” Yulia asked quietly.

King pointed at the pebble and then at the lamb.

Yulia took the small stone and rolled it between her fingers. “For me? Why?”

King pointed at where his ears would be if he had any, then at where his mouth would be and finally at Anastacia.

“B… because I talk with her? You don’t need to give me this just for that, it’s mostly just me being miserable and her trying to help me anyway… It’s not like I can do anything for someone like her. She’s by far the most amazing person here and I’m really lucky that she even pays attention to me…” The melancholy lamb explained and offered the pebble back to the simulacrum.

King didn’t accept it back and just closed Yulia’s hand.

“No. You don’t get it, do you? If you want her to have friends to talk with, just let her do it on her own. I don’t think she’d like you trying to pay people for it anyway. It’s nice that you want to help but this isn’t the way do it.” She whispered somewhat angrily and placed the pebble on the table by the window. “Good night, Sir King. Make sure Miss Ana… Anna doesn’t get hurt whenever you figure out what that masked guy is doing.”