Roxie’s ears perk up at the knocks from the door as she relaxes on the couch. Answering it, she’s greeted by the smiling face of Mary “How the fuck did you find me, I’ve only just sent the letter to my mom and dad yet”

Mary points to the top of her head and Tarrow spreads his wings in greeting “He did”

“Oohhhhh” Roxie nods in understanding, then gestures inside “So? Want to come in or?”

She puts her hands together and gives an apologetic smile “I would love too but I’m afraid I am on business. I want your help with interrogating that apprentice we caught and mopping any more of the undead seeing as S’tance and Wolf are recovering”

“Oh, fuck, yeah. Want to stop at the adventurer guild to some more people up or?” Roxie thumbs behind her in the direction of the grey.

Maria sighs “I would love too, but we only have permission for you three to enter our realm. And with the heads being so tetchy and blaming the situation on outsiders, we are not getting permission for anymore strangers to come”

Roxie nods and turns to go back inside “Well, come in anyways. I got to get my gear and it’s gonna take a minuet” As she walks in and Mary enters, she calls back “We have some leftovers in the cold cellar if you’re hungry, the oven uses mana so don’t use it too much”

She then hops up the steps and set about pulling her gear out of her packs. Including her new blade catchers but leaves the weights. Hopping back down, she greeted to the sight of a satisfied Mary and Tarrow with an empty dish between them.

The trip to the witches’ realm is quick but convoluted, Mary taking notes as they crisscross the along the bridges to land at the nest. After a small argument with both the raven and the guards within the tunnels, they take a carriage through the jungle and Roxie is introduced to madame Sarthe.

“Where is she?” Roxie demands after introductions are done.

She’s lead through to the theatre were the golems are currently standing guard over her.

Fred is sat to the side looking pale and haggard.

She walks up to the table and asks, “Have you gotten anything out of her?”

“Despite my best attempts, no” Fred rubs his face and accepts a kiss from Mary.

Roxie walks off and rips one of the decorations off the wall; an archer pushing out of the large mural. Then stabs the arrowhead through Ilia’s throat, twisting a bit before ripping it back out, tearing out a massive chunk with it. Ilia screams, the cry only coming out as a gurgle before she eventually calms down, scowling at Roxie, then panicking again as the wound down heal for a moment before slowly sealing, the skin folding back into place and the blood flowing back in.

Roxie turns to the doctor golem who’s looking at the wound with interest “Find me every piece of silver in this place that can be used as a torture implement. Tear it out of the walls if you have too, we don’t have long to get the information”

As the golem relays the command to the others and they all spread out, Fred asks “Is there something you’re not telling us”

She responds whilst pulling the meat chunk off “She’s definitely been turned into a necromancer. Proper one, not just umped full of necrotic energy, and UBA don’t like leaving their friends behind”

The golems quickly return, carrying an entire silver cutlery set and several decorative weapons.

Roxie doesn’t spend much time appraising the silver “Now, I’m going to use this as a chance to explain to you the ins and outs of torturing a necromancer, especially because you may have to do it again and our subject probably doesn’t even know half of this herself” She gives Ilia a little smile “First rule, they will heal any damage, at least at the beginning” She then punctuates this by stabbing a knife through her thigh.

Ilia screams out in both surprise and pain “Bitch!”

“Second rule. Silver hurts them. A lot. It messes up the necrotic energy they use to animate and seal the wounds, making it so that they actually feel the pain. As Ilia here will attest” She flicks the knife.

She spits at Roxie “Fuck you, you sadistic fuck!”

She dodges the spittle and slams her hands onto the table “I can assure you that the souls you’ve consumed and tore apart to fuel your undeath, feel much, much more pain than anything I can do to you”

Ilia takes a few moments to process what Roxie said before weakly asking “What?”

Roxie pauses and just looks down at her with a blank expression “It’s how necrotic energy is made. They take souls and grind them together”

She starts shaking her head and looking between everyone with wide eyes “What? No. It’s like hex, it comes from my soul”

“I bet it does, whilst you still have a whole one. Can anyone here pull out a soul” Roxie looks around and the golem dressed in a robe steps forwards, pulling incense and a gemstone out of her pockets.

After a moment to light the incense and for a fog to form around Ilia, the golem presses the gemstone to her collar bone and pulls it back, bringing a black mass out with it.

Ilia starts crying and hyperventilating “Those. Those aren’t my memories. What did he do to me? Stop it. Stop it!”

As she cries out, the mass crawls back into her skin.

Roxie sighs and pulls out the knife and puts it to the side “I am not gonna lie, I was looking forwards to torturing a necromancer but oh well, so long as we get the information we need” She readjusts herself “First, were is the necromancer staying”

Ilia’s panicking stops as she’s she forced by Roxie to focus on her with a claw in her forehead “I, I don’t know. They didn’t tell me”

Sarthe then asks, “What do they want from here” Giving Roxie a pointed look.

Ilia tries to look to her “He wanted us to make spirits. Strong ones, enough to change the puppets”

Sarthe quirks a brow, but let’s Roxie continue “How did he get here, and does he have a way to get back?”

“Uhhh—” She pauses for a moment to think “They said he used a gate that was in another ruin”

Roxie quirks a brow to Tarrow who just scratches his head with a wing before shaking his head.

“What are you going to do to me?” Ilia asks with worry.

“That depends entirely on you. we’ve captured plenty of necromancers but none of them regretted what they did—” Roxie steps away and raises her hands “Even lauding that their black souls were a step towards perfections” She drops her hands and sighs “Can we fix her Tarrow”

The angel hops close and presses his closed eye up to her collar, then heart and forehead before nodding.

She shrugs “I guess I take you with me then”

The student who wheeled in Sarthe steps forward “Oh no you don’t, that thing is ours and will stay with us”

“No. We have Scanthama that are trained to deal with necromancers, she’s a golden opportunity to find a way to fix the corruption”

“And as I said, she’s ours and so she will stay with us” He steps up to Roxie, trying to seem intimidating despite the two-foot height difference.

She looks down on his and points a finger in his face “Look, you don’t get a farmer with a rusty needle to sow a wound shut. Our people have the training and equipment to fix this”

Before the student has a chance to respond, Sarthe speaks up “Whilst I would normally agree. As you just showed us, your kind is not adverse to torture to extract information, and Ilia was a prize student. Needless to say, she’s staying to assure that our secrets stay secret”

Roxie’s face contorts, before she lets out a snort and laugh “Your secrets. Ha, haha. We know everything about your ‘witchcraft’ already. We have the angel who made it”

“Whilst I am aware that you have various angels in your race’s employ—” She eyes Tarrow who’s still on Ilia “We have developed the art greatly since its first inception. I assure you we have many secrets to keep”

Fred steps between the two “Instead of arguing over this, I will contact Kiera and he will have the final word on this”

“Can I, like, get off this fricking table” Ilia calls as she rattles her restraints.

“Nope. Not until we know who you’re going with, you can still run off and be lying to us” Roxie answers, getting a scowl from the student who returns to his position behind Sarthe.

She pats his hand and announces “Well. Until then, enjoy your stay at my academy, there are plenty of guest rooms” She student starts to wheel her off “There is a cafeteria, but I am afraid that our store cellar is locked”

They leave the room, not acknowledging Roxie shaking her head behind them. After hunting her dinner, Roxie sets herself up on the stairs by the front door. Waiting for the inevitable.

And wait, and wait, and wait some more. She knows they’re coming; their umbilical spiders are skittering at the edge of her sense.

“Thank you for your input on the situation. I will inform Roxie immediately” Fred nods to the apparition of Kiera, a man covered head to toe in a cloak and hides his face with a mask, which bursts slightly and filters into different colours and their respective pots. He turns to Sarthe and her student who’s clearly scowling at him “There, you have your answer. She is to go with Roxie, who is to also bring some other students with her to lean from these ‘Scanthama’”

“I still disagree with this decision” Sarthe adopts a scowl that mirrors her students’

Mary is packing away the gemstone laden box as she comments “Don’t forget she’s still a century your senior”

“You have to wonder” The student muses “How come she’s lived so long. The goddess of rebirth only works four times”

Fred and Mary look between each other before a crash resounds through the building. The four of them rush to the theatre where the top half of an obese giant is pushing its way in, the golems strewn about and broken as Ilia is thrashing in her bindings.

Mary is first to act, pulling out her crossbow, the base of the silver bolt glowing before it launches off in a streak of light and impacts the giants head, knocking it back and out. Taking the opportunity, Fred thrusts out with his rapier which sends the crimson blade into the giants’ collar. He is then pulled up to it where he then focuses, causing its veins to bulge and burst, spraying blood everywhere as Fred continues to focus, speeding up the giant’s exsanguination. Sarthe meanwhile has returned to her pale state as several statues from the outside garden start climb and attack the giant, bringing it crashing into the ground as they focus its knees.

Fred doesn’t let up, continuing to focus and drain the giant which rapidly mummifies it. As he focuses, he doesn’t notice the flesh around his feet writhing until arms burst out of the flesh, clawing and grabbing at him whilst pulling him into the body of the giant. A statue tackles and pulls him out of the claws which set about pulling the wound closed once their target is gone. Fred tries to get up but is left being dragged inside as his cracked ribs leaves him crying in pain. Mary exits through one of the lower level windows as Sarthe is wheeled into a higher position within the theatre. The pair notice in shock as the blood flows back into the giants’ body; Mary kneels and readies another bolt, this one glowing far brighter whilst she cuts her thumb on a ring and drops blood onto the head, Sarthe meanwhile commands her statues to come together, each smashing against each other and forming a pile of stones that rises into a massive body, equalling the giant in size.

Mary fires her bolt, getting knocked back by the back blast, hitting the giants arm which is nearly pulled cleanly off its body before turning a sickly red, the arm then bursts into a writhing mass of limbs that scrabble and wither, all the whilst attempting to pull the arm back in place. The giant, now an unhealthy pale instead of dried out, sits up and grabs the arm before Sarthe’s giant punches it in the face, knocking it back and against the treeline that bends and twists to form a barrier.

The giant climbs upright and scans the forest, concern crossing its blubbery face as the trees and plants wither at its touch, the rot in its arm fading as it pulls itself back into place.

Pushing off the barrier the giant launches itself towards the statue, leaping and punching its head off which crashes through the buildings wall. The statue tries to steady itself but the giant continues to wail on it, smashing it arms and torso into bits before another charged bolt slams into its side to send it skidding away, but instead of rotting the torso like the last bolt did, the giant just smiles at Mary as the arms that burst out of its side drop away, sacrificed to avoid her blood.

Then it falls to its knees, the damage it healed returning; its arm sloughing off as the various veins burst open again and the gaping wound on its collar flapping open. Roxie strides out of the treeline, a crushed head spider in one hand and stretched grin across her face “Hello shit stain. What’s the matter, body can’t handle being away from your blight”

The giant ignores everyone and charges at Roxie who responds by fading into the trees. It slams into the wall, screaming and forcing its way through. As it rips past the barrier, Roxie swings down from a branch and smashes her stinger into its eye, leaving a dose of her poison before retreating up and away from its grasping hands that burst from its neck. The giant hollers, spittle and blackened blood spraying out from its maw before it surges through the trees, a bolt smashing into its spine and sending it sprawling across the ground. It picks itself up, arms bursting from its back and chaining to support its broken spine, all the while rotten flesh and blood leaks out of its eye, mottled bone being revealed underneath. Roxie drops from the canopy, stabbing her stinger into its lower back and giving it another dose of poison. As it writhes and gurgles, she takes out a pair of silvered knifes and stabs one into the recent wound before pulling its head back and shoving it into its other eye as more arms burst from it, leaving it to fall on the floor lifeless before a black mist rolls off its body which tries to reach for Roxie, instead seeping into one of her pouches as she leaps back and rushes inside, leaping in past Sarthe only to leap back out with her arms full of the silver which she unceremoniously dumps onto its body.

As the various ruined decorations begin to glow and melt, the screams of thousands of voices ring out only to be muffled by the trees wrapping around the corpse and pulling it all into the ground.

Roxie returns to the academies’ front, then crouches and retrieves the gemstone from the mouth of the spider, a spike of ruby which still has a chunk of brain matter on it. She flicks it off and adds it to the pouch of others “Well, at least I’m getting paid again”

Mary has already rushed off to Fred whilst Madam Sarthe is collapsed in her chair, her student holding her hand and waiting for her to wake up.

She leaps up to the open hole and crouches besides her “I guess she’s just exhausted?” The student nods before scowling at Roxie, but she raises a hand before he opens his mouth to speak “If I didn’t hunt down those umbilical spiders, he would just heal from anything you did” Roxie shakes her head and looks out into the forest “They have seeded their blight here, it’s not safe anymore. Not until it’s removed completely”

“I guess you’d suggest that we evacuate the entire realm?” He looks at her incredulously.

Roxie mulls it over for a while “Unless you can pull the entire forest away from the blight, cutting it off from its fuel”

“That…. We can….do” Sarthe wheezes out, taking deep breaths between each word.

She tries to start wheeling away but the student stops her, instead pushing her chair for her.

They leave Roxie by herself, looking over the ruined garden and the growing bundle of trees that are encasing the corpse, and the vines dragging the heads into it.

“What the fuck!” The students’ shouting gets her attention.

Looking down from the seats, she sees that Ilia is missing, her bindings rusted and snapped whilst the ground beside it is scorched.