“Ah!” Plageiorath exclaimed. Morgue and Sanj looked over to see Plageiorath was covered from head to toe in blood and dirt. They both busted up laughing while Plageiorath tried to fling the grime off of himself, which was an endeavor he would not succeed in.

After he could control his diaphragm again, Morgue asked, “What happened?”

“I focused on the orb like you said,” Plageiorath answered, “And then I was covered in this gunk.”

“It was the orb?” Sanj asked, “What were you trying to do, open a portal to the sewage dimension?”

“No,” Plageiorath replied, and then pointed to Morgue, “It cleaned his armor.” That’s when Sanj looked over at Morgue for the first time since he started counting the coins and noticed that his armor was, in fact, shiny and silver.

“Are you sure you used it right?” Sanj asked, “Let me try.”

“I did, but here you go,” Plageiorath replied, handing the orb over to Sanj. Sanj looked at the orb intensely for a couple of seconds before the sigils began to glow and he didn’t have any dirt on him.

“It works fine for me,” Sanj said, “Maybe it just doesn’t like you.” Then he handed the orb to Plageiorath, who gave him a dirty look. Sanj couldn’t help but laugh a little since it matched the rest of him. Then Plageiorath attempted to use the orb again. The orb glowed the same as it did before, but when the process ended, Plageiorath wound up with even more dirt on him than before.

This made both Sanj and Morgue laugh uncontrollably again. Plageiorath just sat there pouting while they let out all of their humor. Once they had control of themselves again, Morgue said to Plageiorath, “Try it again, please.”

“What!?” Plageiorath asked, “Why? What if I get the same reaction?”

“It’s not like it would really matter,” Sanj said, still struggling to regain his composure, “You’re already as filthy as you could possibly get.”

“I have to agree with him on that,” Morgue said, “Besides, it’s at least worth a try.”

“Alright,” Plageiorath said, “I’ll do it, but I’m not getting my hopes up.” So Plageiorath used the orb again, and the sigils glowed just like they had the first two times. This time though, instead of adding more dirt all of the grime that covered Plageiorath disappeared. When that happened, Plageiorath looked at the orb with a confused look on his face.

“It seems that the orb takes away filth and then releases it the next time it’s used,” Morgue said, “What a peculiar item.” At this Plageiorath’s confusion disappeared and he set the orb down. When Morgue looked down at the pile he spied a small golden gleam that went unnoticed to him until now. “Hey Sanj,” Morgue said, “Did you collect all of the coins?”

“Yeah,” Sanj answered, “Three gold, fourteen silver, and eight copper. Why?” Then Morgue reached down and grabbed whatever small object had given off the gleam. When he pulled it up, he realized that it was a small gold ring. Upon further inspection, he could tell that it had both a sapphire and a bloodstone inlaid in it and that the ring was made to fit upon a lady’s finger. It held no magic so unless its enchantments were disguised in the bloodstone, then it was unimportant except for its monetary value.

“Here,” Morgue said, handing the ring over to Sanj, “Put it with the money, as I’m sure we can sell it later.” Sanj took the ring and after inspecting it, he put it in the sack. Then Morgue scooped up the last item in the pile that had tumbled out of the sack. It was a bronze staff with its head cast in the shape of a dragon. It had a very strong magical aura, but it was disguised so that Morgue only noticed once he held it in his hand. 

The aura was tainted though, its owner must have left an impression on the staff. There was something slightly familiar about the presence though, Morgue was sure he had felt it somewhere else before. He began to breathe in the mana, feasting upon its exuberant energy while still trying to recall why it felt familiar. When he finished, he knew exactly who the owner of the staff was and what other magic items he carried. Without realizing it, Morgue had absorbed all of the magic that the staff held while wandering within his own mind.

Since it could no longer help them, Morgue threw it off to the side. “Do you remember where the owner of the staff went?” Morgue asked Sanj.

“All I remember is that he left by carriage on the road leading West,” Sanj answered, “I never heard him say exactly where he was going. Is there something wrong?”

“No,” Morgue said, “He just has something of mine and I’m looking to get it back.”

“I’ll help you get it back,” Sanj said, “I hate it when people steal from my allies.”

“Aren’t you a thief?” Plageiorath asked.

“Yes,” Sanj answered.

“So isn’t it just the same thing you do?” Plageiorath asked.

“While the act is the same, it’s entirely different,” Sanj said, “It’s okay to steal from other people, but you don’t steal from a friend of mine. If people do that, we get back at them by doing something greater than they did.”

“That sounds fair,” Plageiorath said, “Just as long as you don’t do it for no reason, that is.”

“Good thieves always have a reason for taking stuff,” Sanj said.

“Then why’d you grab all of this?” Morgue asked.

Sanj raised one eyebrow at him and said, “When you guys found me I was wasting away in a jail. What makes you think I’m a good thief?”

“We don’t!” Morgue and Plageiorath said at the same time. Then everyone had a good laugh at Sanj’s expense. Even Sanj was laughing, as the statement didn’t offend him in the slightest.

After they all calmed down Morgue said, “Alright. We should get some rest now. We’ll start the hunt for the demon at dusk.” The others both agreed to this and curled up on beds of tall grass. While Sanj was still nervous about facing a demon, it couldn’t hurt to be well rested before the fight.

When Sanj woke up it was the middle of night, but he immediately noticed something was wrong. Instead of the ground being soft and comfortable like it had before he fell asleep, it was now hard and rough with evenly spaced grooves on its flat surface. Sanj placed his hands underneath himself and used considerable effort to push himself to his feet. He was standing on the porch of some strange house that was crumbling under its own weight. After his eyes adjusted to the lighting, Sanj found the worst thing about his new location.

The house was in the middle of a large lake and while the moonlight reflecting off of the water made it more difficult to see, he could still tell that the lake was infected just like the river from before. As he looked out at the water, Sanj heard the slow creaking of a door opening behind him. He whipped around to see a door that wasn’t there before stood ajar but there was nothing to point out who had opened it. Sanj walked cautiously towards the door and peered inside. There was a long hallway with a staircase going up at the end, and one closed door on either side.

The wooden walls were covered in green mold and beginning to rot, but the floor was still sturdy and didn’t show any signs of decay although it was as ancient as the rest of the house. Sanj slowly walked into the hallway towards the staircase, with the floorboards creaking all the way. With every step he gained a deeper level of dread for whatever was awaiting him in the house. Many possibilities came to mind from ghouls and ghosts to demons and devils, but Sanj’s fear could not overcome this strange compulsion to move forward. When he reached the part of the hallway with a door on each side, Sanj was finally able to stop his movement.

The power that pulled him towards the staircase was not nearly as powerful as his curiosity of what was behind the doors. Sanj turned to the door on his right. It seemed to be made of steel and showed no signs of age like the rest of the house did. He grabbed the cold metal doorknob and slowly eased the door open to peer inside. It was a single large room that had the same flooring as the hallway, but the walls were made of stacked stone blocks.

There was a fireplace in the middle of the wall to the right of the door. A roaring fire illuminated the entire room. A woman was laying in a fetal position sobbing in the middle of the room by the fireplace. She was naked, badly bruised, and lying in a puddle of her own blood that also dyed her blonde hair red. Standing over her was a man.

He was absolutely massive, about eight feet tall by Sanj’s best guess, and his build was crowded with muscles. The peasant’s clothes that the man wore were tattered and nearly rags, but there was one article of clothing that wasn’t nearly destroyed. It was a black leather belt that the man had clutched in his right hand. He looked up towards the door and now Sanj could see his features. The man’s light brown hair and beard were unkempt and his face was red with alcohol.

Sanj’s eyes grew wide with terror as he met the man’s menacing gray-eyed gaze. “You!” he shouted as Sanj shuddered in fear, “You goddamn delinquent! You thought you could hide it from me! Just because you got some money, you think you’re fucking better than me! I let you stay here and you want to point a weapon at me! This is the thanks I get!?”

“...please…leave him…alone,” the woman muttered before struggling to move.

“Stop fucking defending him!” the man yelled before swinging the belt at her as hard as he could. It hit her on the neck and she stopped all movement and noises. The man stood there looking down at the woman for a couple of seconds before turning back towards the door. “Look what you made me do!” the man shouted and pointed directly at Sanj, “I’m going to wipe that smug look off your face!” He rushed at the open door and Sanj fell back against the other one.

As the man reached the door, Sanj suddenly heard a loud thwap and his attacker had a crossbow bolt sticking out of his eye socket. While the body fell, Sanj closed his eyes and wished for everything to go away. When he opened his eyes again, the door was closed and the hallway was as it had been before he opened the door. Sanj sat up and immediately started crying. He soon became aware of a soft female voice calling his name from the top of the stairs.

Something about the voice seemed familiar and it felt calming to him. He wiped away his tears with the back of his hand and got up to go find the source of the voice. Sanj took his time walking up the moth-eaten carpet that lined the stairs. The stairs went right into one large room with a large window on the other side and marble floors instead of the wood that was in the rest of the place. In the center of the room a young woman sat on a simple wooden chair.

She had pale skin with freckles scattered all over her face, blue-green eyes, and hair as orange as flames. The dark blue dress that she wore was well-fitted and complemented her features perfectly. “Sanj!” she exclaimed as she jumped out of her seat and ran over to hug him, “I never thought I’d see you again.” Sanj felt the damp warmth of her tears soaking his shirt. She backed off and looked at him while he just stood there with a confused look on his face.

“What?” she asked, “You don’t recognize the first friend you ever had?”

“No, I do!” Sanj replied, “I just hadn’t thought we’d ever meet again, Vesh.” Then Sanj muttered under his breath, “I also thought you had died.” 

“Well we have!” Vesh said, clearly excited, “We have so much to catch up on! What happened in the past three years?”

“A lot actually-” Sanj began, but got interrupted by the creaking of the boards around them. Before he could continue the roof began cracking above them and falling down. He ran over and pushed Vesh out of the way right before a large piece fell where they were standing.

“Sanj, what’s happening?” Vesh asked nervously.

“I don’t know,” Sanj answered as he rushed over to the window. The building continued to crumble around them as he peered out. When he did, a thick black tentacle smacked the window in front of him. Sanj backed up quickly as the tentacle smacked the window again, hard enough to shatter the glass this time. He then heard a sudden shriek from Vesh.

Sanj whipped around to see another tentacle had her entangled in its grasp and was pulling her to the smiling face of a ten foot tall wolf. “Vesh!” Sanj cried out, and raced towards her. The last thing he saw was her screaming face disappearing between the wolf’s fangs.