9 Dead Man Walking.

A few more meters of stagnant water and spiderwebs, and William and Artur reached the ending of that secret passage connected with the Zeimey Monastery. Closing the trapdoor, they were below a mess of hollow trees where glowing worms crawled and crimson moss grew.

William noticed something; the bark and wood of those trees weren't brown, but dark grey like the ships that brought them from Sunia to Reniram.

"Yeah, another thing about this land, Will," Artur commented about it. "Brown wood is rare here. As rare as seeing a pink cat. Don't you like a little change of things?"

Both crouched, passing through the twisted branches and trunks as they followed a mild orange light coming from outside; the setting sun. But just like Artur said, it was only a luminous spot among a thick fume layer down the eastern horizon. The further the sky moved to the west, the greyer and darker it became.

They stretched up outside, sniffing the fresh and cold aroma of nature around as crows cawed. They stood in a sunken cove surrounded by bulky trees of brown leaves and dark wood, where yellow grass rosed to their knees. The agglutination of dead trees behind hiding their shortcut looked like the hut of an evil hag.

"Well, here we are. Inanna is right down the hill. I'm sure you'll like it before you dislike it, and then you like it again."

"What does that even mean?" William rose one eyebrow.

"It means you'll hardly get soft opinions about this place. Things are different here, for good or bad. It's hard to acclimate, but you'll see the good things if you try. C'mon, it's a good time to be here."

Both climbed from the cove and reached the edge of the trees, using their thick roots to support themselves. Leaving their shadow, the landscape of a living settlement appeared a few hundred meters down in the distance, making them feel like fish before an ocean.

Just as William suspected, there was no place in the sky free of clouds, which made the panorama look unnaturally dark, as if the time could not decide whether to be a day or to be a night.

But what drew his attention was the town itself; Inanna was located in terrain that slowly sunk as it moved to its center, where dozens and dozens of sand-colored buildings of conical, multicolor roofs swirled around a giant tree of magenta leaves in the middle of everything.

A group of windmills conglomerated further from the town at the west, where a shiny river disembarked into a circular lake covered by orange crop fields. At the east, a forest made of the same trees as those near William and Artur emerged, blending with the mountains that covered the horizon after them.

"Such a lovely view, isn't it?" said Artur. "Just look at it. If you one day just woke up here and looked around, what would you think about this beauty?"

"Is not that already happening to me?"

"You're a sarcastic one, Will," chuckled Artur. "Just be meaner and an arrogant prick and the Oksidi will take you as one of them."

William didn't respond. There was something alluring yet strange about the panorama; familiar yet alien. The town looked like the sketch of an eccentric artist, and just like Artur said, there was no green vegetation to be spotted. Where there were no crop fields or dark forests, the soil was covered by black mud and dying yellow grass.

A paved way at their right snailed downhill, reaching the entrance of the town. Human figures could be discerned near it like termites guarding their nest, wandering around grey cars pulled by bulky bulges that looked like anything but horses.

"C'mon, are you gonna stare all day?" Artur sauntered down the road. "I'm so hungry I could trade Miris for a cookie. There are things in the town that are even more eye-candy than these views."

"How so?" William reached up, plucking apart dried leaves and stick from his coat. "Where are we going, exactly?"

"We're going to pay a visit to my friend, Onissa. She runs a pub and a pawnshop near the lower district, I'm sure you'll like the local food, assuming you don't have anything against spice. And let me tell you life graced her body and face. She has a sister and both are single. You're lucky, farm boy," he softly punched William's bicep. "First you're taken away from that miserable war, then converted into a powerful, ageless necromantic mage, and now you're gonna be such a casanova 'round here, being an exotic foreigner and all. Tell me you don't like it. What a time to be alive, huh? Or dead, to be precise."

William let out a long sigh. "I guess it doesn't sound bad if you put it like that..."

They continued walking, but truth was that William still didn't know what to think. He didn't feel any magical, powerful, or different compared to when he was alive; another thing he still had trouble assimilating. It was hard to believe he was literally a dead man walking.

And being ageless; was it really like that? he would never age or die of old age? He wondered about those who turned him into a lich: Artur was already one and so were Zho Ming and Miris Ates.

Could they be in their 100 years old, 200, or maybe even into their 500? It was something intimidating to think about. He had to ask, but considering how secretive they were, the best was just to wait for a better moment.

He couldn't process the idea of himself reaching such Matusalemian ages, but that was assuming he wasn't killed first: what place in the world was welcoming to undead beings strongly tied with dark magic and death, after all? Maybe he was safer as a simple soldier back in Sunia…

And as they descended the black road surrounded by yellow undergrowth, a group of men exited a tiny, rocky hut of missing parts and creepers all over its roof next to the way, some 200 meters before the town below.

They wore red leather vests and skirts, long magenta scarves, and carried black spears, which made William feel ghostly gut pain. Their jet-black hair was long and straight, moving at the rhythm of the wind.

They spread across the road, making it impossible to avoid them. Three began to approach. Muggers? Artur put his hand on William's chest before he could plan anything.

Another two men in the same apparel came out from the hut, dragging out a human-sized bulge enveloped by white bedsheets, splashed all over by red bloodstains.

"Damn. At ease, little swallow, this is Inanna's local guard," whispered Artur. "Seems like something nasty happened in that hovel. Stay calm. These guys aren't playing around. They hit first and ask questions later. Lemme handle it."

The men approached, their olive-skinned complexion staring menacingly. William couldn't put his eyes off their weapons. He and Artur were outnumbered and overpowered, but it wasn't the first time they had faced similar odds.