Death is always the next step

Holding the well-worn and bush beaten blanket around her shoulders like a cloak, Cali stepped a few steps towards the lake, genuinely curious over the outcome. Two bodies were carefully lowered into the frigid waters; one was long and lean, a fully dead half-elf whose soul hung around Cali’s neck, unbeknownst to the party. The other was short and stocky, a half dead dwarf who’d just given violent birth to twin hellspawn.

Cali beckoned to Theo for him to join her in watching the events. When he stood at her side, she had to crane her neck to look at him. He was nearly 2 feet taller than her! The gruesome socket of his right eye was not nearly so in her mind, but then again, she was accustomed to witnessing horrors - to committing them. Even now she saw a cloud of the dead hovering at hand, waiting to note the failure or success of these attempts - each wishing for one or the other for reasons of their own.

For Theo’s part, he appeared alert, searching for trouble or indications that this conversation may be some trap. For Cali’s part, she had the urge to poke her finger in the strange mercenary’s empty eye socket. What could she say, she got her kicks in strange ways.

“You asked where my loyalties lie?” She pointed to the water and the events unfolding there. “My loyalty is to the personal tasks and responsibilities laid out before us. Guaranteeing each of us remains alive is not always part of the equation. Afterall, we will each die in our time, but death is not the end. And the dead remain with us on our journey. Tell me Theo - are you haunted by the dead?”