The hinges of the wooden box creaked open with a groan that told me it had been a while since they moved. "Winston," Skip said, "meet Darion."

Inside the box, on a bed of soft black velvet, there was a single bone. Most of it was that kind of dull yellowish/creamish color that old bones seem to get, though one end of it was charred black.  From the size and shape of it, and based on my experience in putting my minions back together, I'd say it was a leg bone. "Um... hello," I told the bone as I slipped my arm off of Skip's shoulder like a teenager caught misbehaving. My cheeks were burning like hot coals, and were probably just as red. 

"I know I should have told you about this earlier," Skip said. She tenderly closed the box again and snapped the locks back into place. "It's just... I just don't talk about it a lot." She put the box back on the blanket like she was tucking a baby into its crib. "I didn't think you needed to know about him."

"So that's what this is all about," I surmised. I'd never really cared too much why Skip wanted to find Amcerlizar; that was really her business. I was just trying not to get turned over to the Paladins, and  got caught up in it all. I'd even stopped thinking of it as just her mission; it had kind of become mine too. "Revenge? Amcerlizar killed your husband or something?" It wasn't a very uncommon story around these parts. Necromancer warlords aren't exactly known for their mercy when every additional corpse means a new recruit for their armies. Somewhere out there, her husband was hopping around on one leg and trying to wield a battleax against some poor villager. But it was disappointing that she was after something so common.

Skip actually laughed in response. "Oh, no! No, that's not what I meant." She placed a hand on the box and gave a sort of sad smile. "No, actually... Darion... well, he worked for Amcerlizar."

That was certainly not what I expected. "And now you want to kill him?"

"I'm fairly ambivalent about that part," Skip answered. "Mog is the one who is out for vengeance. It's kind of how we met up: he needed a human who could gather information for those times where brute strength just wouldn't cut it, and I needed some backup for situations where that brute strength really comes in handy. And we've just kind of become friends since then."

Bells continued to chime in the bay, and I thought I could hear the sounds of guests starting to leave the feast and return to their rooms. "Can we just go back to the part where your husband worked for Amcerlizar?" I asked.

She pulled the knife from her belt and handed it to me. "Darion is a smith. One of the best in the world." She shook her head and gave a sheepish grin. "Sorry: was one of the best."

I looked down at the knife that Skip always carried. I'd never quite noticed it before, but it was very finely crafted. Not that I knew anything about knives, or metalworking. Or much of anything, really, other than Necromancy. But I did my best to pretend like I was closely examining the craftsmanship of it by candlelight.

"But Darion didn't just make normal swords and axes and whatnot. He was more an inventor. Really, really incredible things. Amcerlizar found out about this. And he needed better weapons for his skeletons to go fight the Paladins. At first, Darion refused to work with him. Didn't want to take sides and all that, for fear of our safety." She gave a mirthful laugh, with a far-off look in her eyes as she dove into the past. "He showed up on our doorstep one night with wagons of gold. Said that he couldn't kill Darion, because his skills wouldn't necessarily transfer over in death." I nodded in agreement. The example that had been used in school was a famous swordsman who had been resurrected to serve as a Necromancer's personal champion in a duel, and in death had forgotten how to block (leading to a very poor showing in the fight). Some things in your mind just won't follow you out of the grave. "Anyway: Amcerlizar said Darion could either come work for him, or he'd just kill us both right then and there to prevent the Paladins from getting to him. So he and Amcerlizar worked out an agreement, and then he left us alone."

Skip fidgeted for a moment. "It only took a few months for the Paladins to show up. They didn't come with wagons of gold: they came with swords. Didn't even get Darion a chance to explain what had happened or say why he was making weapons for Amcerlizar. I was in the room when it happened: he just opened the door, and there was a Cleric waiting on the steps for him. And then it was like he was lit on fire from the inside. He just... exploded." Her voice had remained steady until now, but it began to crack. "And if that wasn't enough, they decided to burn down the house. I'm not sure if they knew that I was in it or not." She nodded toward the box. "That was the only part I could find."

"The Paladins did it?" I asked, maybe a bit louder than I'd intended. "The very ones that you were going to sell me to? Twelve hells, if I were you, I'd be out to kill every single one of those assholes." Burning down someone's house for selling weapons to Amcerlizar didn't seem remotely out of character for them; I was just surprised that they didn't incinerate the whole village. And she was willing to help them?

She looked back down at the box. "Like I said: this isn't about vengeance. I made my peace with what they did a long time ago. I just want my husband back."

Ah. It all clicked into place for me. I had a sudden flashback to walking through the woods with her, and she was asking about the power of the Ruby. And whether it could bring someone back to life 'good as new' (in her words). And how she already seemed to know about the Dragonheart in the Undead Champion's scepter, which Amcerlizar carried with him at all times. It wasn't an actual dragon's heart; those aren't that rare. This was a one-of-a-kind diamond with incredible power, kind of like my Ruby. "You're not trying to kill him; you want Amcerlizar to resurrect your husband with the Dragonheart. Not just his body: you want to bring him back."

It took her a moment to answer. "It was part of his contract," she said with her eyes still on the box. "Darion knew that he was in danger, so he made Amcerlizar swear to resurrect him with the Dragonheart if anything should happen. I remember that part very clearly; I even helped them write it. So after he... you know..." she still had difficulty talking about it, even after all this time, "after he died, I brought the bone and the agreement to one of his lieutenants in our area and told him I wanted them to fulfill the deal."

I could already guess how that would work out. For one, Amcerlizar had always been a little weasel. If you didn't have anything to offer him anymore, then you were as good as forgotten. And two, the Dragonheart's spells takes forever to prepare. The Ruby's power seems to be instantly accessible, whereas the Dragonheart's more powerful spells can take as long as a month to prepare and channel. No way would Amcerlizar set aside that much time just to be a nice guy. And finally, there was also the fact that she still just had a leg bone, instead of her whole husband. Dead giveaway (no pun intended).

"Well," she continued, "They pretty much laughed in my face." Called it. "Amcerlizar wouldn't even speak with me. His lieutenant told me that now that they had the designs he'd mocked up over the past few months, they didn't really need him that much anymore. They'd get some other smith to actually build them. And that the spell would just take too long to bother." She looked absolutely furious just describing how it had happened. "Anyway, a lot of things were said, a lot of threats exchanged, a few knives thrown... you know how it is. So long story short, a bunch of skeletons tossed me out and I decided I'd just have to make him honor the agreement, and here we are."

I didn't really have much to say. It all made sense. She just wanted her husband back. After we killed Amcerlizar, she'd ask me to use the Dragonheart to resurrect him. That's why she'd kept me around. Once that was done, we'd just go off our separate ways again. I'd get to keep Amcerlizar's equipment and gold and all that, right? Wasn't that all I'd wanted out of this?

"Sorry I tried to kiss you," I told her.

"No, Winston." She put a hand on my arm and squeezed softly. "I'm the one who's sorry. Really. I think you're great. If I had any girlfriends, instead of just Mog, I'd totally set you up with them. And if things were different with me... if I didn't think Darion would ever come back..." her voice just trailed off as she once again gazed at the box.

"Yeah. I get it." It just wasn't meant to be. "It's ok, Skip." I stood up from the blanket and turned back toward the window. "It's getting late. I think I'm going to head in."

She caught me by the hand. "Winston, I'm really sorry. I do like you." She stood up and looked me in the eyes. She did seem very sincere, though maybe she was just doing that thing with her Voice again. "You have no idea how great it has been to have you traveling with me over the past few weeks. I don't want to ruin the friendship between us." She sighed and looked back down at her box. "I just hope I can still count on you. I need you." She gave me a hopeful smile.

I took a deep breath of cool, salty air. If I was being honest, I'd had a great time over the past few weeks with Skip too (notwithstanding the part when I was a prisoner). And really, who could blame her for wanting her husband back? "Of course, Skip. You can count on me." After all, I'd get the Undead Champion's Scepter out of it. I'd be the new heir! I could have my armies and my dungeon and maybe my Dad would stop telling his friends that I'd run off to the Shadow Seas to become a pirate mage.

She wrapped me up in a warm hug, then sat back down on the blanket with Darion's box.

"You going to stay out here for a while?" I asked.

She nodded, gazing out at the city lights. "Yeah," she answered. "I've got one last thing to do here."

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