Aleric kept searching, straining his magic and concentration to the limit. The graveyard was fairly large, but he had enough power to search even the farthest corners of it.
At first, he thought he couldn’t sense anything because his spell had failed. Then he noticed several tiny remnants scattered around. Elated, Aleric reached out, about to fill them with Dark energy, only to realize that these remnants belonged to animals!
A mouse, a few toads... Aleric even felt the remnants of dead insects, but he couldn’t sense the soul remnants of a human.
At this mont, Aleric’s Dark energy ran out. He couldn’t keep the spell active any longer, and it collapsed on itself, releasing a green wave of unspent Dark energy in a circle around Aleric.
Where this wave touched graveyard grass, it imdiately withered and died, just like all the insects living in it. When the wave fully dissipated, there was a ten-foot gray circle around Aleric.
The necromancer himself leaned on the Spine Staff tiredly.
"Master! Are you well? I saw that the spell was doing fine until the last mont—what happened?" it asked.
"I don’t know. Am I blind? It’s like the graveyard is empty of corpses, but the graves are undisturbed..."
Aleric walked to the nearest graves to confirm. They clearly weren’t touched in a long ti—grass was covering them. It was withered now because of Dark magic, but it didn’t grow there in a day.
"Riders, bring a few servants with shovels. I want to see the content of these graves with my own eyes."
***
Another dig of a shovel hit sothing solid instead of soil. A few more digs later, four servants carefully pulled out a long parcel covered in rotten white cloth and placed it at Aleric’s feet.
He kneeled, unwrapping the cloth. Underneath was an ordinary corpse that spent enough ti rotting: almost all flesh was gone from its bones, and its burial clothing was in tatters.
Aleric touched the corpse’s skull and closed his eyes. Normally, he could easily sense the soul remnant within. Even a single bone of a skeleton held a tiny soul remnant.
But this body was empty, as if it were carved from wood.
’Can it be hiding deeper? Is this even possible?’
Frowning, Aleric reached out with a tiny tendril of his Dark energy. His eyes widened.
He felt sothing! But it wasn’t a soul remnant... It was Light.
Aleric stood to his feet.
"Staff... I assu you are clueless about what kind of Light magic could destroy a soul remnant."
"I apologize, master, but I only know Dark magic, the school of Necromancy..."
"Right." Aleric marched toward his horse. "Return to Ditrich, servants! You won’t be digging anything else here. And I need to speak with Samuel."
If soone knew about the Light magic that could do such things, it was him.
***
"What can destroy soul remnants? Master Fenn, I will be honest—I’m not even sure what they are," Samuel replied, shaking his head. "I was a paladin, so I studied combat blessings, not things like these. But I assu you an that soone consecrated the bodies. But only clerics of at least third rank can do that, as far as I know. At least for entire graveyards."
"Is that sothing done very often?" Aleric asked.
"No, the Church only spends so much effort on graveyards that stand on cursed soil. When there’s a real danger that the bodies will reanimate on their own, clerics consecrate the graveyards to prevent it. Consecrated bodies can’t be reanimated."
"Oh, I’m sure that I can still make undead puppets out of the bodies lying out there, Samuel. But it would be a waste of my ti. Tsch." Aleric clenched his teeth. "Either way, soone did this on purpose, and probably recently. I want to know who. Send people to ask questions to the locals—soone had to have seen sothing. If they refuse to answer, bring them to . As undead, they will be more compliant."
"Yes, master."
Aleric didn’t have to kill anyone this ti. Those who stayed to live in the town were only willing to tell Aleric everything in exchange for a peaceful life. Most of them knew nothing about this, but there was one witness: a decrepit and bald old man.
"Ye, lil’ ol’ looks at the grave-place aaaall the ti from house’s window, m’lord. Like to pick a fine place for bones, ye—a year or two and they be lying there! So I be looking at the graves, counting the birds—when a few shifty lads climb the fence! All in brown cloaks, but so fine-looking ones—not just any beggars, they. Spent an entire day out there, but wasn’t watching. Gotta still earn so coins for a piece of bread, ye’now?"
"Sounds like your answer, master." When Aleric nodded, Samuel gestured to the soldiers. "Give this man a good loaf of bread for his trouble and send him back."
"Thank ye, m’lord! Light bless ye!"
Aleric snorted as he watched the old man being led away.
"This will be a waste of bread... But we don’t have a shortage of it, so let it be. More importantly, is that how clerics usually work? Hidden from everyone?"
"Not at all, master." Samuel shook his head, then frowned under his helt. "Although there’s one exception—inquisitors. Unlike other templars, inquisitors like to act stealthily. They hunt Dark mages, vampires, and various heretics like cats hunt mice. So they often use shady tactics like hiding themselves or even bribing criminals to use as their informants."
"Are they dangerous to ?"
"Definitely, master. There are only a few fully initiated inquisitors in all of Aleshat, but they are all very strong fighters and have a lot of field agents. And the most powerful cleric in Aleshat, as far as I’m aware, is an inquisitor—Garron the Evil Eye, a fourth rank cleric. But he’s an old man, as I heard, and only does paperwork nowadays."
Aleric looked at the distant graveyard of the town.
"These people sound very annoying... Very well, Samuel. Tell the army that we are moving out again. We will make another stop in the next village on our way. Surely they didn’t have the ti and mana to consecrate every graveyard in this county..."
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