Hush in the Graveyard

[Marianne Greire]

Was it bad if Mari came back to Crocus unwilling to participate in the crowd's current love for Shadow Heart? Was it bad that she just snuck inside the guild to snipe a mission off the request board? And was it really all that bad that Mari found she really didn't want to stick around in Shadow Heart any longer? She didn't know whether they were all bad, all not or just plain mixed and matched. She should have stayed in Shirotsume Town, she really should have. But the longer she stayed, the more dangerous it became. At least if she came back to Crocus she could say she was busy. Most people understood she'd had little desire to participate in the carnage of the guilds and she knew not everyone had participated. She was just one of those people. But she couldn't help but feel guilty. Why? It was wrong, Shadow Heart was wrong yet she felt for them?

The girl shook her head free of her thoughts and ripped off the first piece of paper she saw on the board. Grave Robber. Curious. She skimmed her eyes over it. At least it involved no killing. Just a simple request to rob a grave. Nothing special. Although she may not have approved of this person's tactics, a law suit would be more legal, it wasn't wrong. Alright, she’d do this job.

232/1000

[Marianne Greire]

Mari crept through of the building, attempting to go unnoticed. It was only once she exited did she allow herself to breathe again. The people milling in the streets barely noticed her as she slipped past them, keeping to the walls. Shadow Heart, Shadow Heart. Their voices floated throughout the street. She assumed that must be some of the civilians who looked up to the dark guild. She couldn’t stomach that. It was a dark guild with plenty of psychopaths within it. Sure, it was now the main force opposing the divided Magic Council and not particularly dark anymore, but there were things this guild did and had done that made them undeserving of all these, these followers. Generally Mari would have thought she’d be right up there, fighting against the Magic Council…but not like this. And not all of them were bad. It was funny how her hate was slowly dying. It was almost freeing to not have to hold grudges.

But her fear certainly was.

She didn’t want to think about that crushing fear that seemed to define her. She needed to take her mind off and back to the mission. The first thing she had to do was fine the family crypt of the Florances.

440/1000

[Marianne Greire]

The raven haired girl reached the graveyard by late afternoon. It was still, it was quiet…it was everything she’d expect a graveyard to be like. The dead feeling crept all over the girl and she felt goosebumps cover her arms. She shivered. Even with the glowing embers of the sun, it was cold. She knew she didn’t want to stay here much longer and so started the search for the crypt. Realistically she knew it shouldn’t take long. The Florances had a bloody family crypt. It had to be big.

Her shoes dug into the dirt with each step she took, she could feel that she was distracted, too distracted to be doing the job properly. She was conscious of everything. It was like she half expected a ghost to come jumping out at her. Her pace began to increase as she continued searching, unable to find anything. Ridiculous. She had to find this crypt to finish the mission, they were famous so…she found it. Unremarkable but still there. She shook off the cold aura she was getting off the place and steeled herself to break in. Lock pick, lock pick. That was how she intended to get it – by picking the lock. But where was the lock and she’d all but forgotten to bring her kit.

657/1000

[Marianne Greire]

Somehow she managed to break in. It was easy enough once she achieved breaking down the door to it with a hard kick on her behalf. Inside the crypt was also unremarkable. The sinister feeling grew. Unremarkable drew a blank. Blanks drew fear. Luckily she managed to find the father’s tomb. With shaking hands, she opened it and tried to ignore the dead body within. It was making her nauseous. Her head swimming, she patted around his jacket and feeling the smooth paper crackle under her touch, quickly pulled it out, careful to not destroy the thin fibres holding it together. That wasn’t too bad was it? She drew back and closed the coffin, walking swiftly back to the entrance.

She knew she had definitely made a mistake by thinking grave robbery would be alright. There was just something wrong about the whole breaking into grave idea. If she had opened the wrong coffin, the wrong crypt, the wrong anything, the results would have been disastrous. She didn’t want to visit graveyards again. She already felt like she disrespected the dead enough by being the one who generally killed them at times. Despite her saying she was a pacifist, she knew this was false. She had no right to the title.

868/1000

[Marianne Greire]

Before she exited the tomb, she hesitated. She wanted to be safe. She closed her eyes and took a breath. Psychic Sense. The spell activated upon her mental command and suddenly, she saw shades of gold. The psychic energy around was just waiting for her to use it. It was tempting to
No. She wouldn’t, she was going use it to see if she gain any more knowledge about her situation. She felt herself calm down. She smiled. She lifted her head to exit when she saw the man outside. She saw him, he saw her. She knew he was about to attack her. And so, before he could even move, she activated her speed boost and charged her chaos attack.

She ran towards him with silent grace and with the combination of her spells, knocked him out cold, dodging the numerous graves being uprooted by her spell and delivering a powerful uppercut to the jaw. In his defence, he tried to summon some kind of skeletons but by then, it was too late. She took a deep breath in to recover from the massive burst of magical energy she released and continued walking. Someone would find him but the mission would be complete and she would be safe. She found the blonde haired woman quickly and delivered her the will. It was a quick exchange and for that she was grateful. Now what was she going to do?

155/200 MP (Psychic Sense, Chaos, Speed Boost)

1107/1000

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