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The days that follow are hard, gruelling days. You spent much of the daylight hours wandering at random through the manor halls, while your nights are spent hunting the ghoulish stragglers that emerge from the tunnels beneath the manor. You wouldn't say that the ghouls have grown braver, rather they seem to act out of an aimless desperation. With their master dead and his mission in ruins, they were left with no purpose in life. With the mausoleum doors broken down, there's nothing keeping the underground either.
So you hunted them down whenever they appeared, putting them out of their misery. Often, they barely fought back.
It's strange, how quickly you grew numb to their horrors. Even as the stranger ghouls start to show themselves, creeping up from the deepest parts of the mines, you cut down the skeletal creatures without hesitation. You burn the bodies whenever possible, darkening the skies with smoke from funeral pyres. It's hard work, especially since most of the servants, Munroe included, are gone – either dead, or vanished. But slowly, night by night, their numbers taper off.
-
“Nothing last night?” Daniel asks, fighting back a yawn.
“Nothing at all,” you agree, taking a cup of hot tea and savouring the warmth. You've been living off bland meals of hard-baked bread and preserved meat for days now, only occasionally livened up with a glass of wine when you felt like you could risk it. “Any noise from her?” you ask after a moment, giving Daniel a brief glance. You don't need to tell him who you mean – you've had this conversation many times already.
“Just the usual whining and wailing,” he replies, “She asked to see Jan.”
“And what did you tell her?” you mutter, wincing as a sudden question occurs to you, “Shit, wait. Did you say anything to him?”
“I haven't said anything to Jan. I figured I'd wait and see what you thought before doing anything. It's not like she won't wait,” Daniel shakes his head, “I told the girl that we'd take her request under consideration. She laughed at me, the little monster.”
You nod slowly. Sooner or later, you're going to have to make a decision about her. She hasn't caused any trouble since you dragged her back to the manor, but that doesn't mean you trust her just yet. She could very well be biding her time, waiting for a chance to stab you in the back – perhaps literally. It would have been better, you think bitterly to yourself, if she had gone down fighting. At least then, she would've made the choice for you.
“I wanted to thank you, actually,” you tell Daniel, putting aside the unwelcome subject.
“That's not like you, Bard,” the soldier replies with a tired smile, “What for?”
“Back there, in the fight,” you explain, “You really pulled your weight.”
“That's a funny way of saying “you really saved the day”, don't you think?”
“Well, I'd like to think that I had a small part to play too.”
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