"They're starting to burn my body!" She suddenly gasped, "You need to hurry!"
"They're burning her?" I spoke those words unintentionally as I was reminded of this fact.
Figuro nodded. "It's a custom among the animalkin. They believe that unless a body is burned, it can come back as a spirit and haunt the living. For a foxkin like her so closely tied to the spirit world, they say that this is almost a certainty."
I shot a look at the ghost floating next to me. She smiled innocently.
"Yeah… I can see that."
"Enough chitchat!" She was starting to tear up. "It'll be more expensive to resurrect me without my body than with my body!"
"But… my warlock… ah… darn it!" I scratched my head. "Would a 9-tailed fox, with 8 connections into the spiritual realm, would they be strong against ghosts?"
Figuro blinked. "Strong? I suppose that's a bit of a relative term. In theory, they'd be quite deadly, but in practice, their bodies are simply too weak to be effective."
"Please…" She said tearfully. "I definitely can help with your ghost problem! I see ghosts all the time!"
"That's not reassuring me." I said to the fox girl, but Figuro thought I was talking to him.
"What do you mean by that?"
"How much would it cost to buy the dead slave? Can I presume she's… um… free?"
Figuro coughed. "You wish to resurrect her?"
"Can your priest do this for me?"
"I admit, this isn't what I expected, but I suppose we can come to an arrangement. I'm the kind of man who likes to find a way to sell everything.
"Then, perhaps we should keep the body from being destroyed." I suggested, the girl herself was dancing around like she herself was already on fire, and it was growing annoying.
"Ah, of course!" Figuro immediately left the tent and shouted out orders.
I followed behind, and my new ghost traveled behind me. The fire was actually pretty high around her, and she was definitely singed. They dumped large buckets of water to put out the fire.
"M-my hair!"
"I know, I can smell it…" I said, covering my nose.
She had long hair originally, but flames had caught it, and now she had much shorter hair. The juxtaposition between the healthy-looking and lively spirit with nine tails and the sickly-looking dead fox girl corpse was enough to give anyone a headache. Lydia noticed me walking out of the tent and approached.
"Master, what have you decided on?" Lydia asked, clearly still anxious over whether I was going to pick up the buxom babe.
I pointed at the corpse, still smoking as they put out the last vestiges of flame.
"Master…" Her face twisted awkwardly. "I don't know how to say this, but you can do better."
"Why you!" The fox spirit took a swat at her head, but her hand went through harmlessly.
Lydia shivered and spoke to herself. "Two cold spells in a day, a bad omen?"
I could only smile wryly. Lydia's spiritual sensitivity truly was amazing, but in all the wrong ways.
Figuro came running up. "I've asked my priest. He's willing to resurrect the child for a five-gold coin donation."
"Five? Seriously?"
"I've already talked him down. He usually charges ten."
A simple-looking bald man came out and held out a can like I was giving money to the needy.
"Very well, Haggle." I sighed, and then handed over the coins.
"You're short some." The bald man said, jiggling the can angrily.
"Ah… my mistake." I put all five coins in, and then he nodded.
I guess you can't haggle with God's donations. Good to know.