Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"It is unfortunate, but she suddenly and inexplicably passed away twelve years ago, a nun as faithful and diligent as her, can you imagine? I thought that we would end up as old sacks of wrinkled flesh and bones together, but such is life and such is Dame-Sommer's will, it surely must be a challenge I must overcome" the pope spoke and spoke, going on and on about his late wife, from the big strokes of their relationship to the most minute details, it was like he remembered every single second of their time together without exception.

And he maintained that odd, optimistic view and expression all the way through, his ice-coloured eyes gazing forward.

Alkayne was not sure how to react or respond, good thing his frostbitten face destroyed all means of facial expression, as he honestly could hardly pretend to relate or feel bad for him, all that was on his mind was :

'Undeath can bring your wife back'

But of course, it might be a bit too soon to start promoting the concept of undeath to these people, especially to Janus, the pope seemed to be the leader of these people as a whole.

If he suddenly came out and started preaching about the benefits of undeath, they might just think that it was the primary reason for their presence, conversion of the living population- Which was not quite the truth but certainly not false, Alkayne was here as a conqueror, the entirety of this realm from top to bottom was to be made into undead territory.

"Say, Sir Alkayne… Where did you come from exactly? We, the kalt, have never seen, or heard of any other intelligent populations besides ourselves" Janus suddenly switched subject, coming to halt and turning to the undead.

"From beyond the mountains, I reside within a great empire" he responded.

"Empire? If so, why are you here?" pressed the pope, still bearing a most pleasant smile and poised with a friendly posture.

"I am on reconnaissance mission, you could say, my king wishes to know the land that surrounds his domain" King Nitok wasn't very involved in the empire expansion himself, focusing more on domestic affairs and on building good relationship with the other continents more recently, in truth, the conquests were mostly under General Loimos's watch.

But it did not change the fact that it was all done for the sake of the empire, whose ruling head was King Nitok, and also Queen Liameilos now, technically.

"I see, and in your venture, you've encountered Jiji? I must admit that I too, believed that she had fallen prey to the onslaught of accursed populating the mountains, all of our churches and satellite villages have either been exterminated or completely cut from our reach already" spoke the pope, sighing dejectedly, warm air visibly escaping his mouth.

"Onslaught? If I may ask, Sir Janus, how does an accursed come into being? I figured that they used to be people but don't quite understand how it happened" asked Alkayne, probing for some information.

"The curse… It must be retaliation from Dame-Sommer for the sins of our people… Until the curse spread out, as I said, there were many more villages situated away from the frozen lake, of course, life without access to the lake might sound difficult and thus, you probably think that it is idiotic, but for a time, the lake harboured little fish, barely enough to feed even a few people…" as they stood on said lake as they were speaking, the pope looked down, currently, one could movement underwater just by looking for a few seconds.

"So they moved away from the lake to find other sources of food?"

"...Precisely, some remained nomadic, but some made the mistake of settling down after discovering what they believed was a good enough spot, they probably thrived at first, but after some time, food once again ran low, it occurred during a season of especially strong blizzards, so all were stuck where they had settled, many starved and those that survived did so thanks to cannibalism" speaking bluntly, Janus shook his head.

"By then, us folks who had remained at the lake had held out with what little we had, and Dame-Sommer smiled upon us, the lake becoming vibrant with life, the surroundings blooming with countless ghost trees and plants- The nomads came back, and since then, the frozen lake has been the only place we've lived"

The pope stopped for a moment.

"The sins were already committed however, and the cannibals turned to accursed, becoming beings who only wished to consume and devour, it is a shame, but nothing can turn them back"

"A shame indeed" said Alkayne, although feeling that something didn't quite add up with the way that story was told, Janus seemed to be implying, be it voluntary or not, that there had been one big surge of accursed due to a lack of food and an intense blizzard, meaning that all wandering accursed would be these people who had moved away from the lake.

And if he was right and only the lake was inhabited now, then had Jiji been mistaken when mentioning people coming to throw accursed into the mountains and even some innocents? If the frozen lake people had 'held on' as the pope said, then they shouldn't have had any problems with cannibalism or very little.

"So the accursed have been there for about ten years, then? Have you never considered getting rid of them, properly bury them?" spoke the zombie, feeling like he was missing some important details.

"They have indeed been wandering for ten years, each and every one of them… As for freeing them from their torment, I would certainly like to do so, but the mountains are treacherous and our competent forces few, I can not justify risking anyone, especially when the accursed stay in the mountains"

"I see" the minor lord felt that something was fishy, even if Jiji was clearly not a great source of information on account of having no recollection of spending ten years alone in a church, he knew well that she did not lie to him, so at least, she genuinely believed it.

"By the way…" added the zombie "...This means that the only 'church' left is the Grand Monastery itself, right? May I visit? I am certain that Jiji would be thrilled to walk their halls again"

The pope smiled.

"All is welcome to the monastery, especially a nun and her consort, besides, she should have plenty of friends there, few could make the trip to this party after all"

The two men discussed a bit more, Alkayne making sure to demonstrate some affection for Jiji, his honour compelled him to make her his wife for eternity after all, so he had to learn about the nun and pulled off what he believed was a convincing performance in front of the pope, although it was hard to tell if the man actually bought, his expression seemed stuck as nice and jovial at all times.

His heart rate and breathing was also always regular, even when he had said things that Alkayne was certain weren't true, or at least, not completely true, one did not show signs of deceit only when lying after all, as long as the other party was aware of their own attempt at deception, they would typically show some signs, but the pope remained exactly the same the whole time, even when he drank some ghost cider and engaged with other people, his behaviour was the exact same.

To Alkayne, either the pope was just weird like that, or was a master at acting.

'He must at least be concealing some details… I'll ask some of the villagers when he and his paladins are gone…'

There were also his two guards of course, they stayed silent most of the time, this duo would have probably not said a word if not for some of the villagers inviting them to drink, unlike their pope, the mask they wore cracked as some of the young women flirted with them.

Janus and his paladins excused themselves early and returned to the monastery, meanwhile, Alkayne found Jiji still sleeping soundly, but had somehow crawled over to rest on Cecili's lap.

"Folks! We have some-" the elder from earlier had snapped out of his alcohol-induced slumber and staggered over, producing a firm 'hic' sound mid-sentence "-Some unoccupied igloos, better stay for the night!"

Alkayne didn't bother explaining that night was actually preferable to day for them and just accepted the hospitality.

'I'll talk to them when they are sober…'