Chapter 2

Haunted

Soon after Opiter entered the forest he started giving the dwarf chest compressions, but no matter for how long he tried, the dwarf just laid there motionless.

„This can‘t be happening!“ said Opiter to himself accepting defeat.

Now he‘s all alone again with nowhere to go and nobody to turn to.

He popped out his crystal again and looked at it as if it would give him the answers to all the questions he had in this moment.
Maybe it was really time to sell it and settle down in the city. He could even buy a farm and have farmhands on his own like he had been. But even if he found a buyer for it, would it even fetch that high of a price, now that there a far better crystals out there?
Crystals who could control their users magic on their own. Who would even need his pathetic magicless crystal?
He sighed, absorbed the crystal and looked around for firewood.

As the campfire was blazing with calming crackles he looked at the dwarfs body and wondered if someone would pay for a dwarven corpse.
His once dark skin now had a grey tint to it.
His lips were blue and without touching, Opiter knew that he was ice cold.

His brown eyes faded, lifeless and his long dark beard with stray streaks of grey braided in different patterns.

He‘d never seen one before and he‘d only heard the mages talk about them as if they truly existed and not just in a fairytale.

„It wouldn’t been far fetched to assume that they were extremely rare in their world.“ he said out loud.

Opiter suddenly heard a voice

„So that’s your plan huh? Selling my body for a measly coin?“

Opiter grabed a stick and shot up asking „Who‘s there? Show yourself!“

Opiter scouted his surroundings, but couldn’t make out any figure in the shadows of the light the fire was casting.

Then a ghostly figure appeared infront of him. He stepped back, but tripped on a branch and fell on hos bottom.

Opiter raised his stick towards the figure and asked with a shaky voice „Wh- Who, Who are you?“

„Allow me to introduce myself.“ said the spectre while standing or more floating lightly above the ground with his arms crossed. „My name is Burrik Goldenpike and I would like to know how I died.“

Opiter stood back up and asked „Wait. So you want to tell me that you are the dwarf who‘s body is lying there on the ground?“

„Exactly!“ answered the ghostly figure. „Now back to my question. How did I end like
this?“

Opiter was confused and scared but se similarities between the ghost and the dwarf were uncanny. He swallowed and started to explain „Well, you see. You fell from the sky with a boat in tow and I tried to save your life, but nothing I tried worked.
You had a deep wound on your chest so I tried to absorb your body and eject it again.
It fixed your wound but I couldn’t get your heart to beat again.“

„Absorb?“ asked Burrik confused.

Opiter absorbed the stick in his hand and made it reappear again and explained „Like this. You see?“

Burrik stroked his beard and asked „So you‘re a mage then? Awfully young for you to be one but I‘ve seen stranger things in my travels. How does your power even work?“

„Well I can absorb anything that doesn’t have magic or a magical signature in
them.“ Opiter explained. „And since I‘ve heard that dwarfes posses no magical presence whatsoever I thought I‘d try it out if it can save your life.“

Burrik responded „Hmm. Yes that’s true, Dwarfes are the only race who are born with no magic, but you forgot something very important in your calculations.“

„What would that be?“ asked Opiter.

„The soul! You forgot the soul!“ yelled Burrik. „What do I do now? I didn’t die a true death. Is my soul still tethered to this world?“

Opiter stared at the campfire and said
„I don’t know, but if I created an inconvenience for you, I‘m truly sorry.“

Burrik frowned and yelled „Inconvenience?! I‘m dead but also not! And you are right. You will be sorry!“

Burrik lunged at him and tried to get a hold of Opiter but his hands slipped through him as if he wasn’t there at all.
He tried numerous times but it was all the same, he couldn’t touch him.

He couldn’t touch anything in fact.
Opiter breathed a sigh of relief.

„God d****t!“ cursed the dwarf. „What do I do now? I can’t interact with anything and my body will rot away in the wilderness or be eaten by wolves like prey!“

Opiter cleared his throat and said „Well since I‘m the one who brought you in this situation, I want to do right by you and help out.“

Opiter thought to himself that if he can get on Burriks good side he‘ll teach him everything he learned about the world in his adventures.

„Pah! You? Help me?“ said Burrik mockingly. „A fine mage you are, didn’t even consider the soul could cause problems by your endeavor. Necromancers who freshly enrolled in their training know to consider these things!“

„Isn’t Necromancy classified as dark arts and forbidden?“ asked Opiter confused.

Burrik raised a brow and said „Of course it’s forbidden! But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t get practiced.“ Burrik threw his arms in the air as if he were to accept defeat. „You know what? Forget you, I‘ll do my own thing and try to free myself. I would lie if I told you it was a pleasure to meet you. Have a good life Kid.“

With that he turned around and started to float away.

Opiter stood back up and mumbled to himself „Great, now I‘m back at square one again. Just me, this corpse and a plan to sell it. But to whom?“

His thaughts were interrupted by a scream in the direction Burrik had headed. Opiter looked up and tried to make something out in the darkness of the woods.

He heard Burrik yell obscenities in the distance and started to walk towards the direction of his voice.

„Burrik? Are you alright?“ asked Opiter with a concern in his voice.

Burrik was on his knees, holding his chest and gasping for breath, if a ghost can even breathe.

He composed himself and stood up, then said „It felt like my very being was getting ripped apart. That was truly terrifying.“

„How come?“ asked Opiter confused.

Burrik stroked his beard and said „I have a theory, let’s put some distance between each other. If I scream come back to me.“

Opiter raised his brow and asked him
confused „And the purpose of this is?“

„Just do it,d****t!“ yelled Burrik.

Opiter raised his hands and said „Alright, alright. Have it your way.“

Opiter turned around and started to walk away. He wondered what kind of theory Burrik was testing.

As he almost reached the fire when he heard Burrik scream „Son of a-!“

Opiter turned around and ran towards him.
„Are you hurt?“ he asked.

Burrik groaned and answered „No! I‘m having the time of my life right now! It is getting better and better by the minute, I don’t know what I did in my life to deserve being cursed this way!“

Opiter popped out the water bottle Livia gave him and took a sip from it. Burrik stood up and tried slap it out of his hand but like last time, his hand went through as if there were nothing.

He looked angrily at Opiter and said „How very considerate of you, boy!“

„Why should I give you some?“ answered Opiter „You were frankly rude the whole time and it’s not like you need it. Or do you?“

Burriks frown changed to annoyance in his face. „That‘s not the point you idiot!“ he started ranting. „The point is that I‘m dead but also not dead at the same time. My soul got ripped out of my decaying body and what i thought tethered to this world, but it is way worse!“

Opiter tilted his head as if he didn’t understand the words he was hearing and said „Could you get to the point already?“

Burrik looked at him with a deathglare answering „I swear if I could, I would strangle you right here and now. I‘m not tethered to this world. I‘m tethered to you, idiot.“

Opiter closed the water bottle and it vanished as quickly in his hand as it had appeared.

With a smirk he said „So what’s the problem? We just put some distance between each other, the bond between us breaks and you‘re free.“

Burrik massaged his temples in disbelief and let out a frustrating sigh.
„Listen you airhead.“ he said. „wich part of -my soul being ripped apart- didn’t you understand? As far as I know, you need a soul to go to the afterlife. If my soul gets destroyed in the process there’s nothing left to be sent there.“

Opiter put his fingers on his chin as he would think about what Burrik just told him and said „So how does this afterlife look like?“

„The hell should I know?
I‘m still here!“ answered Burrik.

He looked to the ground and then back to Opiter. „I have an idea boy.“

Opiter crossed his arms. „And that would be?“

Burrik smirked and said „Kill yourself.“

Opiters face transformed to disgust „What?! No! How could you ask something like that from me?“

Burrik sighed and tried to lean against a tree, phased through it and swirled in the air. He now sat cross legged and upside down in the air twirling the tip of his beard.

„If you die your soul gets pulled to the afterlife and mine with you. Pretty logical don’t you think?“

„Yeah.“ answered Opiter. „Either that or both our souls are tethered to each other, we ascend to a different afterlife and in the process both of our souls get ripped apart. Or even better, my soul would be stuck with yours right here. So to get back to your proposal, no, I‘d prefer to live.“

„That is the first smart thing that came out of your mouth!“ said Burrik stunned. „I don’t like the idea of my soul being destroyed, but I wouldn’t complain if you‘d be stuck with me here. Maybe I could finally introduce you to my fists then.“

Opiter threw his hands up. „Wow. Selfish much? YOUR soul only? I don’t know about you but I‘m tired, we can continue arguing in the morning or you can buzz off and get ripped apart. You can guess wich option I‘d prefer.“

With that, Opiter made his way back to the campfire and a disgruntled Burrik floated after him.
As they reached the campfire Opiter streched out his arm and popped a sleeping bag into existence.

„Just how many things did you absorb?“ he heard from his side.

„All my belongings and now let me sleep.“ he answered shortly.

Opiter got in his sleeping bag next to fire and closed eyes. He thought to himself that he finally had a chance to learn about the world, but he couldn’t answer a single question he had.
He yawned a last time and fell asleep.

The rays of the sun shined through the forest canopy and the morning dew glistened in the sunlight. Opiter opened his eyes, groaned and stretched.

He sat up and saw Burrik sitting next to his body. The skin was now even paler than before and had all around a blue-ish tint, the eyes were sunken in and the lips were now a deep blue.

„Good morning, boy.“ said Burrik with a soft voice.

„Morning.“ answered Opiter short as his stomach growled.

He got up, absorbed his sleeping bag and went to look for firewood.

Burrik was still sitting there, motionless, without uttering a single word. He just kept staring at his body.

Opiter started the fire again and whipped a pan, Livias bag and a small knife out. He sliced off a piece of bread, cheese, and meat, set it all on top of each other in the pan and took a swig of the water bottle.

He glanced over to Burrik who was still silent and said „You‘re awfully quiet today.“

Burrik turned his head and answered
„I haven’t asked for your name yet, have I?“

„Oh! Now you want to be all buddy buddy all of a sudden?“ said Opiter with a grin on his face.

Burrik turned his head back to his body and said nothing.

„Opiter. That’s my name, Opiter Doctus.“ He mumbled as he turned his back to the fire wiping the grin off his face.

„Opiter.“ Started Burrik „You know, when a man is at his lowest and has nothing left except for time, he starts to think.“

Opiter looked up to the canopy and said
„I know that feeling, until you came along i thought about what to do next in my life.
I always wanted to become a honored and powerful mage, but ever since my parents died money was tight and I couldn’t afford to go to school anymore. Since then I‘ve been thinking about what to do next.“

„I‘m sorry to hear tha-.“ tried to say Burrik
but got interrupted by Opiter.

„Don‘t be.“ he said. „I‘ve managed on my own so far and I‘m not planing on giving up my life yet.“

Burrik smiled and said „Me too, I‘ve made up my mind Opiter. I want to live again and die a true death. Not now, sometime far in the future. Will you help me get back into my own body?“

Opiter looked at him „Only if you tell me all about the places you‘ve visited and the people you’ve met on your travels.“

Burrik laughed out loud „I‘ll do you one better, I‘ll show you once I have my body back. Words alone can’t describe the wonders of this world!“

Opiters eyes wiedened, he jumped up, ate his toasted bread and absorbed everything else. He walked up to Burriks body and absorbed it too.

„We have to preserve you somehow you know. It’s also much easier to carry you around like this.“

Burrik looked up to Opiter with a surprised look and asked „Are you sure that lump of meat won’t just decay inside of you?“

„Pshh.“ answered Opiter with a hand motion. „I‘ve had fruits, vegetables and even meat in there for months and they didn’t even get stale, let alone spoil or rot.“

Burrik stood up and said „It is concerning how you found that out, but relieving to know. Well then first we have to know where we exactly are.“

„That’s easy!“ said Opiter poised, crossing his hands behind his head. „We‘re in Artlugina, also known as the golden valley. A province past the outskirts of the golden capital Vildor.“

Burrik smirked „Vildor heh? Last time I was there, was when King Aurus got crowned. Good old times, for one night the city became the worlds biggest tavern. There was booze and women for everyone.
Anyway, do you know wich direction it is?“

Opiter pointed with his finger to the right and said. „I think this way, but we have to get out of the forest to be sure. Also did you just say -when Aurus got crowned-? that was like a thousand years ago, how old are you?“

„Nunya.“ proclaimed Burrik and started to follow him.

Opiter looked confused and asked „Nunya? Is that a number in the dwarven language?“

„Yes.“

„And how much is that?“

„Nunya business, now keep walking!“

„Okay okay, jeez. Old fart.“

„What did you just say to me you little s**t?!
I should beat you up to teach you some manners!“

„First of all, you were probably already here when ancient dragons arrived in these lands thousands of years ago. And second, you can’t do s**t to me without a body, or are you planning to run those ghostly fingers across my face? Oooh I‘m so scared.“

„I already know the first thing I‘ll do when I get back into my body.“

„Keep talking like that and I‘ll drop it in the next river to see how well it floats downstream.“

Burrik continues to grunt angrily as they made their way through the forest.