Garen stood over the remains of his second ghoul. He was panting now. His body felt as though he was on fire as his muscles ached. He felt cold as well, deep below the ground. The tunnels within the mausoleum had been a shock. They seemed to extend ever onward, but the darkness, lit only by his diminishing torch, may have only made it feel like that.
Garen had nearly jumped out of his skin when the ghoul stumbled out at him in the darkness. He had heard it coming, sure, but nothing had prepared him for the lurching figure entering his dimly-lit bubble.
There were sounds again, further down the tunnel. Garen took a deep breath and pressed on.
He swore he could see a glint of light in the distance.
The dead body in front of the mausoleum was likely a reanimant. Fang wondered if the girl's brother was responsible, or perhaps the Mayor's son, Alwynn. The missing femur proved a strange detail indeed. Thankfully, there had been no ghouls in the graveyard, but Fang's keen ears still picked up echoes of movement, from within the mausoleum.
"Do you know which family this belongs to, little one?"
Corea studied the structure intensely but unhelpfully shrugged.
It was the largest structure in the graveyard, indicating some level of wealth and influence beyond what most people would have in nearby Gordhurst. Fang wondered if the family was still alive, or if it had died long ago. The tomb looked as if it had seen better days.
Fang peeked inside, the heavy stone door was shattered into four parts within the entrance. There was no movement within. He scanned the graveyard again, and then stepped inside, gesturing with his hand behind him for Corea to follow.
The tomb had been exposed far too long to the elements. Dead leaves were rotting on the floor, and the structure had begun to crumble. Several markers for long-dead ancestors had fallen from their mounts and most of the remains were missing from their spaces.
It struck Fang as deeply sad.
He saw one tablet at his feet and picked it up. The grime and dead leaves had obscured the etching. He wiped away the detritus and saw a familiar name.
Suir.
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