Runelords 16.2 - Gift of Kindness

Luna traced her finger over the delicate runes she had personally engraved on the medallion of the seven-pointed star. After her meeting with the lord-mayor where he had officially inaugurated it, she had taken it back to her room and used her knowledge of arcana to enhance the process, amplifying the power it had received as though a mighty god-king had blessed it rather than a mayor. With that complete, there were only a few minor tweaks to finalize it, and now she held it in her hand: a replica of the medallion that was embedded in her own sternum, the first magical object she had ever made. An amulet for Aldern that would protect him and prevent his body from decaying any further. She stifled a small grin: the necklace had some peculiarities from her inexperience, and they underscored the mindset she had apparently been in as she had created it. 
Zara congratulated her on her craftsmanship and informed her that she would activate the medallion’s true potential once he was wearing it. Luna wondered why she couldn’t activate it herself, but Zara himmed that it was a deeper arcane function, and it was simpler to do it herself than to try and explain the complex theory surrounding it; she added that she could explain it if Luna had several solid days to learn about advanced applied necromantic enchantment, as a precursor to the relevant knowledge. She passed for the time being. 
As Luna traced her fingers along the amulet’s ridges, satisfied that it was ready to be gifted, she placed it gently into a small box that she had found for the occasion. Snapping the lid shut, she paused thoughtfully and turned towards the ruined book. “Zara?”
Hmn?
“Is there…” she paused for a moment before all of her words rushed out in a jumble, “Do you know of a way to reverse rotting? Because, I know there’s a fairly simple spell that does that, and it’s common knowledge that it doesn’t work on undead, but Gentle Repose isn’t supposed to work on undead either and we’ve already broken that rule so I thought I’d ask in case you knew something about this spell, because if we’ve broken one rule who’s to say we can’t break more?”
Ooooh, Zara practically trilled, *Now* you’re thinking like a true arcanist! It’s so *good* to hear you taking an interest in cutting-edge arcana. Let me see… She flipped through some pages, continuing, The spell you refer to is, of course, Restore Corpse. A simple spell, but to make it function on an undead…
The book continued to speak as Luna muttered, “It’s...for Aldern,” explaining more to herself than to Zara, who was obviously engaged in her recollections of knowledge. “The medallion is great, but...it would be even better if we could reverse it too, so he looks alive again. Or close to it.” She smiled slightly, “It’d make him happy…”
I believe, based on my current information, Zara stated, apparently having paid no mind to Luna’s reasoning, that we can tweak the spell significantly. You’ll be able to craft it into a scroll, I’d imagine. However, I believe some specific ingredients will be required to make it functional… She rhymed off some relatively common spell components before finishing, and, to make it function on undead, I am lead to believe we will need something I can only describe as ‘undying bones’.
“Huh?” Luna frowned. “What are those? And where would we get them?”
I am afraid I don’t know, she admitted, Further research will need to be done as to the precise nature of this ingredient, and where it might be located.
“That’s not going to be quick…” Considering this, she shrugged, “...Well, it’s good to have projects.”
Taking Zara with her, Luna went to the sunroom where Aldern was sitting. He sat there often, watching nothing in particular through the windows; lately at least he seemed less morose, though often no less bored than a few weeks ago. She knocked on the door, and he bade her enter. Scuttling quietly in, always closing the door, she took a seat nearby and he looked up at her expectantly, obviously glad for the distraction from his thoughts. Placing Zara on an end table, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the small box. Luna paused for a few seconds, looking at the object, before quickly holding it out to him. “I finished it!” she said quickly, flustering. He blinked and took the box as she said rapidly, playing with her hands, “I finally finished it and I think it will work, but there are some things about it that are weird because I messed up a bit, because I’ve never made anything magic before, but I’m pretty sure it will work like it’s supposed to.” He slowly opened up the lid and looked at the delicate metalwork as she explained, “There’s a kind of scratch on the back, where the bottom left point meets the circle, because I flinched and it kind of messed up the spell, so it’s, it’s really weird, because I made it for you and it knows it’s for you, so if anyone else tries to use it, it will just, disappear. It will stop existing. So I guess you can’t regift it or anything.”
He smiled slightly, his expression dreamy, “I’d never even consider it…” 
Luna kept talking quickly however, still embarrassed, “And there’s a rune on the front, on the top of the rightmost point, and Virgil, Zara and I couldn’t figure out how to draw it properly, so I guessed, and it made a pretty bad flaw, I guess. If you take it off, it’ll, I think you might suffer a withdrawal syndrome if you ever take it off? But if you take it off it will stop working, and it doesn’t really come off anyways so hopefully it’s not really a problem. But on the upside, because the meeting with the mayor went well and I enhanced the effect, it got a bit overpowered, and I think it means that the metal can’t ever get frozen or damaged by cold, which...maybe isn’t something that’s very useful or relevant or anything, but I guess is good?”
“I’m sure it’s very good, if it’s metal against skin,” he commented, expression still pleased but distant. He took it out of the box and slipped the chain over his head. He looked at the amulet before turning to Luna, “Is this right?”
“Umm, well, it’s going to be kind of, attached,” she said, “so, move your shirt out of the way.”
He undid the top of his shirt, moving away the fabric so that the metal hung over his mottled skin. “Like that?”
Luna nodded, “Yeah. Here, now Zara can activate it…” She directed a thought towards the book, and the runes on the metal flashed momentarily as the medallion embedded itself into his body. 
Aldern lurched forwards slightly, the shock of pain on his face. “Ahh...is it...supposed to hurt like that?” he asked, wincing.
She winced in kind, “I’m sorry. It kind of burns. But it passes quickly.” Even as she said this, he straightened, his fingers lightly stroking the metal brand that entranced his distant gaze. “Better?” she asked, and he nodded vaguely. She smiled slightly, “You should feel...well, like a lot of magic enchantments, you should just be able to feel it on you. It’s a protective charm, and you can activate it to get a second wind if you’re getting hurt, and it will stop you from rotting, and if you get seriously hurt, you’ll just fall unconscious instead of dying entirely, until someone fixes your body up. If it works. It should work. Zara says that it works.”
He looked at the medallion for a moment more before turning up to Luna, who watched him eagerly for his reaction. Before she could react, he shot forwards, wrapping her in a tight hug. “Oh, Luna…!” he exclaimed. “Thank you!” Luna blinked, rigid with surprise. “I don’t know how I could ever thank you enough!” Slowly, she moved her arms to return the hug as he continued, “I don’t know what I would have done without you. I don’t know where I’d be. Thank you.”
Luna leaned into his shoulder, grinning shyly. She muttered, “You’re welcome. I just...wanted to help.”
“Thank you,” he reiterated once more. He held her for a moment more before saying quietly, “You shouldn’t go back to that house. Who knows what could happen, and I don’t know what I’d do if…”
“I’ll be fine,” she said firmly. “It’s my own stupid fault for getting us into the agreement, and besides, the house doesn’t want anything from me.” She smirked, “It can’t kill me; I’m already dead.”
“Don’t say that…” he said before pulling back to sit in his own chair once more. His hand lingered on Luna’s, folded on her lap. “You give so much, and ask for so little. What can I ever possibly do to return your kindness?”
She couldn’t look up, embarrassment tilting her eyes to the floor and a grin playing nervously on her mouth. “No, no no. Don’t be silly. I’m glad to help. I just wanted to make it better.” She stifled a smile, quiet for a few seconds, before she mumbled, “I...don’t really remember the last time I was hugged. It was...a long time ago. ” Aldern gave her a brief look of confusion as she added even more quietly, playing with her sleeve, “It’s been a long time since anyone willingly came within five feet of me…” A look of sadness furrowed Aldern’s brow, and he leaned forwards once more, embracing her again. Luna lingered in his arms for a long moment before her embarrassment overcame her, and she pulled away, blushing madly but for her lack of blood. “I learned something else!” she said quickly, obviously trying to change the subject. “There’s a spell I can probably do! It’s an easy spell usually, but it doesn’t work on undead. But, if I can find something called ‘undying bones’, then I can make a spell that will reverse your decay. But I have no idea what undying bones are yet, so it will probably take a while. I’ve got to go to libraries and research it more first. But it’s exciting that I can maybe do it eventually!”
Her words hung on him and he stared at her starry-eyed, his expression all barely-restrained hope, “R-really?”
She nodded, smiling, “M-hm! If I can get it to work, you’ll look, well, at least more-or-less look like you did before. Hopefully. But it might be a while before I get it figured out.”
Aldern grabbed her hands, holding them tightly as he smiled, looking about to cry from joy. “You’ll let me help this time?”
Blinking at first, she returned the smile guardedly, “You helped with the medallion! You got us the meeting with the mayor, and I never would have afforded it on my own. Heh. But you can help me try and find out what undying bones are, if you’d like.”
“Anything,” he said, still holding her hands. “Everything. Whatever you need. And we’ll make it for both of us.”
She snorted, “I somehow don’t think that whatever these bones are, they’re going to be plentiful. But it’s fine, I don’t really need it.” She looked at her arm, “I’m just really thin, and it’s not like I wasn’t kinda like that before anyways. Wouldn’t make a lot of difference.”
He smiled, “I know plenty of women who would die to look like you.”
Luna folded under embarrassment again, grinning and mumbling, “Oyy, that’s a horrible pun…”
“Honestly, though,” he said earnestly. “Anything.”
She shook her head, “I don’t need anything.” A minute passed of her looking shyly at the floor before she subtly leaned over, resting her head on Aldern’s collar. He held her hands and let her linger for a while.
Eventually, he asked, “It’s finally a clear night. Do you want to go watch the stars?” She leaned up and nodded her head brightly, smiling. 
They made their way to the small balcony outside Aldern’s bedroom. Resting their elbows on the banister, they looked up. A few minutes passed before Luna muttered, “It’s still too bad there’s no access to the roof…” her eyes still glued upwards.
Aldern looked between the woman and the building. He pursed his lips thoughtfully before grinning slightly. Turning and crouching over slightly, he looked over his shoulder at her, “Come on.” She raised an eyebrow, confused, so he explained with a touch of embarrassment, “Well, I mean, yesterday I climbed a 200-foot tall crumbling tower. I think I can manage the few feet to the roof, right?” Luna smiled and leaned forwards, wrapping her arms around his neck. Standing, pulling Luna up like her slender weight meant nothing, he glanced up and down the side of the house, and a few times out into the night to ensure no one was looking. With a short sigh of determination, he deftly pulled them both up over the edge of the roof, using the banister and door frame as footholds. Luna rolled off of his back, and the two smiled at each other as they moved away from the edge, laying down and looking at the stars above them, dimmed slightly by the streetlamps below.
They watched the stars, enjoying the night. Aldern pointed out the constellations that Luna recognized but had never gotten around to learning, smiling as he spoke, glad to have knowledge to share. Eventually, Luna whispered, “It’s too bad we have to eat…” He rolled over to look at her as she spoke distantly, looking skyward, “Otherwise, we could just...stay. I spent a week, once. Just watching the sky. Watching the clouds and sun move. Wouldn’t it be something, to watch the stars shift, and the seasons change?”
He looked at her gently, “...I’d watch the seasons with you.”
She gave a tiny laugh. “...You’re coming to Turtleback with us?” she asked, still looking up.
“Of course. I’ll go wherever you’re heading.” He watched her for another few minutes before he asked, “...Would you stay here? With me? When it’s all done.”
A look of sadness flitted across her eyes, and she thought carefully for a moment before replying, “...I...don’t know. I have a job. I have a house. I can’t just leave them forever.” She dropped her gaze and added quietly, “If the town hasn’t sold all my belongings off by the time I get back…” Aldern watched her as she looked back up at the stars, eventually continuing, “...I don’t know...It’s...not a very good job. I’m basically a janitor. But...it was why I’m here. It...was everything. For a long time.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, earnestly interested.
“It was a project. An alchemy project,” she explained, “A small part of something large, where the team wanted to see if undead traits could be used to further the broader goals. So I volunteered. To be the undead they needed. And it was fine at first. I was the subject, and part of the research group. But it quickly turned out to be pointless. Nothing came of it. No discoveries, no more funding, no more research. It disbanded. Most of them retired; all of them have by now. But I’m still around. So, I just...do whatever’s needed, by other people. Mostly clean-up and hazard containment. Dangerous things. Because I can’t get sick, or feel pain, or die.”
“That’s...that’s awful…” he said sadly.
“Oh, no,” she said quickly, turning to look at him. “It’s fine! I do research too! I’m still helping academically! It’s just,” she turned back up to the night sky, her voice becoming distant again, “It’s just hard to be effective, because no team wants me, and I can’t really get funding or anything if I’m not on a budgeted project. It’s...it’s fine…” She paused before adding in a whisper, “...But I don’t think anyone would mind if I did leave…” She fell silent and they sat quietly for some time, Luna staring up while Aldern continued to look at her. Eventually, she turned to regard him, stifling an embarrassed smile, “I thought we were looking at stars.”
Aldern smiled, “I’m looking at the ones in your eyes.”
She coiled in on herself self-consciously, muttering, “You flatter too much.”
“Well,” he grinned, “it’s one of my few talents. And you’re so beautiful and gifted, you make it easy.”
“Auugh,” Luna mock groaned, rolling away and covering her face with embarrassment. He smiled and turned away, looking back up to the sky. After a moment, Luna did as well.
Eventually, Aldern said, “Anything you need, ever. Please, just ask.”
“I don’t ever really need much,” she replied quietly. After a pause, she moved her hand, palm up, outstretched towards him. “But I’m glad you’re my friend.” He noticed the motion, and moved to entwine his fingers around hers. 
Clasping her hand tightly, he said, “I’m so glad we found each other.”
Luna nodded slightly, “Me too.” Holding hands, they watched the stars together.
Category:Rise of the Runelords