The next day…
The morning was troubling to William, and not because he was still impressed with his situation. He woke up with a headache after dreaming (again) about that desolate land full of ashes, and that shawled figure of skeletal hands.
Was it a lich? Now that he was more aware of them, that was his only explanation. But who?
Not only did his head hurt. Perceiving a pungent odor, he raised the bedsheets and noticed his feet full of black, greenish spots that caused pain whenever he touched them. Was it gangrene? Back in his days as a soldier, he had seen soldiers lose limbs due to necrosis. He could not help but feel nervous.
Miris attended him shortly after, explaining that it was that decay they talked about before, happening to him. Bandaging his feet up after applying her typical ointments, she injected him with something Aeschylus gave her just for him.
"Mr. Charalampos says it's something capable of revolutionizing medicine. He calls it 'penicillin'. It's the first time I'm skeptical about him and his experimentative…substances. Oh, don't worry. He says he's tested it before on moths. It won't kill you. You're already dead."
Was that a joke? "I didn't know I was a hairy, winged insect…"
After that, he had breakfast with her and Artur, chatting about that wicked fight their previous day. None of them had seen a creature like that ghost woman before.
They were also unable to think about who could be powerful enough to summon her. Much less why would they want to steal whatever Zho was looking for.
"Maybe it's Bloodsucker," said Artur. "Maybe that object Zho wanted is some kind of magical device that lets you enslave everyone. He could use it to kill all of Inanna's population, or make an army of zombies to kill everyone on Reniram!"
Miris rolled her eyes. William knew he was joking, but the combination of his own ignorance and all those crazy things he had seen since he arrived made him feel as if that could not be that far from reality.
Hours after helping them clean the Hall of Progress, Zho reunited the three in the main lobby early in the evening. They were going to be assigned their first task as part of their training.
William found it odd, expecting something more theoretical like a class, but going straight away to something like a trial?
Well, thinking about it, maybe he was prepared, considering that he had already gone through two similar situations; fighting Oraesh's skeletons and then that bound guardian ghost.
"As I said, I have a mission for each of you, one that will adapt to each of your strengths," explained their mentor. "You'll leave the monastery and you'll be working alone outside. There's also one condition: you won't be able to return until you succeed."
The three young liches traded confused looks. What was it about? Maybe it was even more serious than William expected; he would be all alone against the unknown.
"You all have a similar task: the retrieval of an object. They are three special items that it has taken us lots of hard work and years to locate. They are important, so you aren't looking for any pick-up flags. Take care of them with your life."
"What are we looking for?" vacillated Artur. "Some expensive jewels?"
"No. I'll share some details with you as a reward if you come back alive and succeed," Zho, passed each a piece of folded paper. "Here is where you're to go and what you're looking for. Don't reveal their content to each other. I have magically bound them. If you do so, you will automatically fail. Now please read them."
The trio traded looks with squeezing lips and raising shoulders, reading their notes. There were only two simple sentences on William's:
'Inanna. Katosi Grail.'
"I've left you some equipment at the armory. Go pick it up, and then you're ready to go. Take the locomotive down. Once you're out, you're all on your own. Put effort and I'm sure you'll succeed."
With nothing more to be said —as Zho didn't even bother to ask if they had any doubts— they went to pick up what he left them. 'Equipment' was a stretch of a word because they were issued nothing but a brass dagger and 30 stars each.
"Is something wrong with Zho?" asked Artur, the three in the locomotive, going down to the mountain's feet. "I mean, this is not like anything he's made us do before. Does he want us dead or something?"
"Aren't we dead already?" William responded with the words they once told him. "I don't know him, but I've got a bad feeling. Your —our leader—, Oraesh, looks like the kind of man who thinks that if we die in something they consider a task we wouldn't be too useful for them in any way. Maybe he could be involucrated in this."
"I think you're overthinking it," said Miris. "We should trust Master Zho. They would not give us anything that was too much for us to handle. They would also have given us better equipment and more than some coins if it was something too hard. You'll see. We're going to return victorious, and tell our adventures to each other. I'll wait for you, boys."
Once outside the hideout containing the locomotive, the three separated and said goodbye, Artur going up through the dark forest, following the ascending path. Miris diverged from the main road down to Inanna and then went east.
The sun was already setting, dyeing the thick clouds above in orange shades. William arrived at the entrance of the town and breathed deep.
The colorful, alien architecture of hexagonal shapes and conical roofs, the giant crabs, and the stares of the loosely-dressed Oksidi people hit differently at being alone on his own in that foreign place.
"Alright, here we go…" he read again the note Zho gave him.
Katosi grail. There could be some clue on it. Although he knew almost nothing about Inanna, Oksid, or Reniram, Katosi was a word he was already a little familiarized with. He knew his next stop. It was time to pay Onissa a visit. Maybe the catgirl knew something about said grail…