Exhausted adventurer who would kill for a good night's sleep. Who will.
The siege "ended" eight days later. Ended in the sense that the slow-moving horde had finally moved past them, who had evidently not been their target in the first place.
Lagakh had still barely slept, and was beginning to find the taste of coffee sickening.
She took a swig of her coffee.
"I'm glad we're all in agreement that we need to get to the bottom of this, however-"
"Oh, absolutely." Said the wizard, Luna-something, bouncing on her heels. Her and the paladin had only joined up with them at the start of the siege on account of also being in the area, and Lagakh was in no state to be remembering names. She was a wizard, and they needed a wizard. "If we leave now, we can circle around them and reach Dawnsgate before they do, set up defenses."
The wizard was feistier than her dreary appearance would lead one to assume. She wanted to blow up the whole damn army herself, and Hrok was instantly on board with any plan that involved him being thrown into battle against insurmountable odds.
"I like this new wizard!" He shouted, clapping the elf on the back hard enough to make her stumble. "She's a woman of action! Like me!"
"Okay, that's great." Lagakh said, rubbing her eyes. "However-"
"You a woman of action now Hrok?" Ryse asked, opening one eye as she lazed in a corner.
"If there's something of action to be, that be what I am!"
"You go girl." She said, closing her eye again.
"HOWEVER." She said, slamming her fist on the table to regain everyone's attention. "I don't believe it's sustainable to just follow the horde and pick away at it."
"Pick away at it?! Drop us off right in their path, we'll make quick work of the bastards!"
"Well, hang on, I didn't say that-"
"If you don't shut up so we can settle this plan and I can get some sleep, I'll make quick work of the both of you!"
Not her finest moment, as a leader. The wizard's paladin wife twitched a little at the threat, but the two quieted down.
"Wizard-"
"Lunaeris." The wizard grumbled.
"Whatever your name is. You said the horde was picking things up as it moved?"
"That's what it looks like. Recursive necromancy, you raise a corpse with a spell that imbues the resulting zombie with itself, which is then automatically cast on any other corpses it encounters. Or makes!"
The wizard sounded far too excited at the prospect. She was pacing again, gesturing wildly as she explained.
"But such a spell is supposed to be purely theoretical! Just the sheer amount of mana it would require to sustain it- It's impossible, the cost would grow exponentially! But that's what it looks like! Thousands of humanoids, sure, wolves, bears, even deer- But we saw squirrels out there! Housecats! Things no necromancer would bother to raise manually!"
"I saw a turtle!" Hrok added.
"Someone's set in motion a magical cascade that's raising every single corpse it can find! The ramifications are-!"
She paused, bringing her energy down to match Lagakh's exhausted stare.
"...Bad. They're bad." She said, sitting meekly next to her wife. "Very interesting, though, in what they mean for our understanding of mana consumption-"
"I'm sure it is, my love." The paladin said gently.
"I take it back, wizards are the same."
Ryse yawned loudly.
"It sounds to me like it'd be pointless to chase the horde around then, it'll just keep building itself back up." She said, coming up to the table and tracing her claw over the map laid out across it.
"Well, not if we can outpace-"
"If we trace it's route back to where it started, we can cut off whatever is powering it and kill the whole thing at once, and you can study how it was made in the first place. Word's been sent to all the cities in it's path, they can prepare themselves."
The wizard pondered for a moment, torn between the appeal of thousands of easy fireball targets and what was surely incredibly tantalizing forbidden knowledge.
"I'm sure whoever started this left a sizable crowd in reserve to defend themselves. You might need to overpower a self-sustaining abomination of magic yet." The paladin murmured, clearly favouring their plan but not willing to just vote against her wife to break the stalemate.
"...Yyyyyyyyyyyeah. Yeah! That sounds good."
"Great." Ryse said, clapping her hands together. "In the meantime, let's all go to bed."
The paladin, wizard, and barbarian shuffled out, leaving Lagakh and Ryse by themselves.
"Thank you, Ryse."
Ryse purred, rubbing her face against where Lagakh's shoulder met her neck.
"Anything to take a nap and then run away from a fight." She said, grinning mischievously. "Now sleep, Lagakh."
"In a moment, i just want to look over-"
Ryse rolled onto the table in one smooth motion, splaying herself across Lagakh's map.
"Now, boss."
"Right. You're right. Goodnight, Ryse." The orc said, getting up. "And I mean it, thank you."
"And I mean it, I just don't want to spend the next year fighting the same zombie horde."
"Sure, Ryse."
Lagakh left the barracks, making her way through the empty streets to where the cleric was still tending to wounded.
"Sophia."
The cleric made an exhausted noise of acknowledgement.
"What's the situation here?"
"Fine." She said, clearly not fine. "Those who succumb to their wounds seem to have stopped getting back up again afterwards, that's a small blessing."
"Yeah, the wizard says it's a..." Lagakh pinched the bridge of her nose. "Recursive necromancy. A spell that casts itself."
"Sounds right."
"Okay. I need you to tell me what that means for us non-wizards, because she was thrilled."
"Oh, I'm sure she is. Fireballs that just keep exploding forever, what a gift to the world." Sophia sighed. "It means we need to not only get rid of whoever cast this, but whatever they found. Whether it be a power source, because every asshole with visions of world domination will want to get their hands on it, or a loophole in the laws of arcane spellcasting, because it would increase the chances of the average wizard blowing up the world considerably."
"You don't trust the wizard?"
She shrugged.
"She seems fine, and Lady Kallixenia is clearly god-touched. Lying about where they're from, but who isn't? I just don't want her touching some strange gem and suddenly there's a second sun where she used to be. Pyromancers, Lagakh."
"I know."
"They're touchy."
"I know." Said Lagakh. "You've done good here, don't overwork yourself."
"You're one to talk."
"Yeah, yeah." Lagakh said, waving her off.
She left Sophia to her work, heading to the room at the inn she had barely used.
"I'm not sure you know what sleeping is, but it's not that." Said Ryse, who had gotten there before her and found a way in.
"You have your own room, do you not?"
"Mm. Do you need me to put you to sleep with poison? Because I will." She asked, smug feline eyes glimmering at her in the dark.
"That won't be needed."
"Someone to warm your bed, perhaps?"
"You offering?"
"Me? You'll wake up to find all your things missing and me long gone, Lagakh."
"Ah, that's for the best I suppose. I'm too tired to entertain."
Lagakh climbed into the bed and closed her eyes, finally giving herself a moment to rest before they were all in the midst of a new disaster. She said nothing as Ryse silently slipped in beside her a few minutes later, nuzzling into her back and drifting off to sleep.
When she awoke, Ryse was gone. Back in her own room as if she had been there the whole night.
