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As the pile of bones burnt down to embers my stomach growled noisily at me, and I realized I hadn't eaten in around two days. I looked up at the darkening sky and remembered that Alice had said most activity went on at night, I pondered the best course of action to take, I had been sent here most likely to be killed and I wasn't sure what my being alive might provoke.

"First appearances are important." I could feel Kazath's smirk as if it were my own.

"You have a plan." By the time Kazath had finished explaining I was grinning too.

***

Alice couldn't help but feel slightly guilty as she moved from stall to stall browsing over the secondhand goods that the junk merchants sold in Lowtown. The stranger who had wandered into their territory hadn't seemed like a bad person but the way he moved, the way he talked, a little shiver ran down her back as she remembered the moment Kellen had thrown the knife. Without even shifting his body the hand had come up and flicked the knife right back, he could have easily killed any of them she knew but he hadn't and in return she had led him to a certain death. Her companions sensed her discomfort and moved closer to her, giving their unspoken support. She shook her head to clear away the guilty thoughts and gave her friends a genuine smile.

They had grown up together on the streets, sharing what little they managed to find or steal and protecting each other, that was the only way they had survived so long, through the purges and the predators that every city attracts, the so-called civilized ones. As she walked past the street leading to the haunted church a glint from the bell tower drew her attention upwards just in time to see the ancient bell swing on it's way back down. A shockwave of sound rolled through the crowded streets and drew the attention of everyone there, with more people rushing from their homes to find out what was happening. The mighty bell continued it's slow toll eleven more times, each time the bell rang it hit like a gust of air through the crowd and forced people to cover their ears. Then as the final toll rang out causing everyone to cringe once again a dark figure coalesced just inside the shattered doorway of the church.

***

"This mask itches." I silently complained to Kazath, and I felt him grin broadly.

"Don't be such a baby, the owner is long gone and I'm sure he doesn't mind."

"Yes well you're not the one having to wear half a skull over your face." I sighed and gave the mask a slight adjustment as the last toll of the bell rang out over the gathered crowd.

"Showtime."

I felt the fear and awe roll over me as I walked through the shattered gates, the moon's light reflecting off my death's head mask.

"As my disciple the power is yours to control. The power to turn belief to reality."

I raised my arms to the sky for dramatic effect and then swept them back down to my sides. For a moment nothing happened, then a gust of warm wind burst from the yawning portal of the church door like the breath of a titanic being, sweeping away the dust and cobwebs of centuries, the shattered doors and rotten pews were swept aside by the blast into a pile. The church wasn't the only thing to be affected by the breath though; the people in the crowd closest to the blast were swept backwards into the onlookers behind them in a cascade of tumbling arms and legs. Before the crowd could even begin to recover I strode forward and stood with my arms crossed before me, regarding the crowd through my skeletal mask. One equine broke from the mass of bodies and threw herself at my feet repeating something over and over again which I couldn't quite hear. I bent down and lifted her face to meet my eyes, there was so much power running through me that it took me a moment before I recognized the equine who had sent me to the church in the first place.

For a moment incomprehensible rage washed over me, she had tried to kill me! I felt power surge through my veins, reaching towards her tear streaked face. Then the words she kept repeating finally registered in my brain.

"...I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm the one you want, please don't hurt them..."

Instantly the power I had been summoning washed away with the rage and I dimly heard Kazath's voice shouting, as if from a long ways away. I slowly pulled my gaze from Alice's eyes to the still dazed crowd; several more had gotten to their feet, including the rest of the welcoming party I had met. They looked at me with horror and fear as they observed this thing looming over the figure they regarded as a sister, and being powerless to stop it. Disgust twisted through my gut as I looked over what I had done, I wanted to come to them as a savior and instead I had come as a monster. I reached up with the hand I wasn't holding Alice's face in and hooked two fingers into the eye sockets of the mask and began pulling it from my face. Much to my surprise the mask itself resisted my initial tug and I began increasing the strength of my pull, my arm strained with effort as the mask began pulling from my face. There was a scream of rage inside my head as the mask ripped free of my face pulling off strips of skin, and my mind fully cleared. That was really sort of a mixed blessing because as soon as the mask pulled free from my face Kazath's voice screamed into my already battered mind.

"I WAS WRONG, THE FORMER OWNER MINDS VERY MUCH!"

"Thanks for the tip." I winced.

I looked into the terrified and confused face still gripped in one hand and suddenly I felt deeply tired to the bone.

"I forgive you." I whispered, releasing her from my grip, then I turned my back on the crowd and walked back into the enveloping darkness that was now my home. Just as I reached the empty doorway I turned my head and looked back over my shoulder. As soon as I had released Alice her friends had rushed over to her and helped her up, she numbly accepted their help and just stared at my back. I couldn't help but say one last thing before I turned and walked back inside.

"Come by some time, I just about have everything set up."

***

I winced a little as I touched my raw face with one hand a little trickle of blood seeping down my cheek.

"So you're saying I can't heal this."

"That's the nasty thing about powerful undead, you get wounds that can't be healed magically and heal more slowly naturally than normal wounds. Also...it's probably going to do a bit of scarring too in places."

I sighed and gave a feeble grin as I sat down in one of the few chairs that hadn't succumbed to rot.

"Ah, well, I imagine they'll get me some respect around here."

"This is my fault," Kazath said miserably, "I should never have gotten you to take a skull mask from this place, especially off of..." I cut him off.

"I agreed that it would be nicely ironic too but what's done is done, I'll be fine."

I glanced down at my hands and stared in shock as I realized I still had the gruesome mask in one hand, knuckles clenched white around the eye sockets. I carefully pried my fingers from it and dropped to the floor then ground it under my boot like a discarded cigarette.

"Burn in hell, motherfucker." I spat into the bone dust. Then I reached into my pocket and felt the handle of a crossbow, the other thing I had taken off that particular corpse. I examined the crossbows magics with my mind attempting to detect anything like the masks effects, to my relief I found nothing.

"I am however keeping this." That done I lay on the stone floor and drifted off into a sleep of troubled dreams.

***

As I was drifting to sleep, Alice was wide awake staring at the ceiling of her and her "family's" home. With the help of her family they had had half carried half dragged her from the square and looked after her until she had assured them that she was fine if a little shaken up. She couldn't stop thinking about what had happened between her and the stranger, Alath, she remembered. When he had first looked into her eyes from behind the mask she had been certain she was about to die, then suddenly it was as if he was a different person and he had pulled off that horrible mask and forgiven her. She glanced from her sleeping space out across the rooftops to the visible bell tower.

A few minutes later she was walking along the street towards the place where she had sent a man to die and who had held her life in his hands twice. Her mind was awhirl with all the reasons why she shouldn't do this but she knew with a certainty that surprised even her, that this was something she had to do. She stood for a few moments at the gaping portal into a place that had been barred to them all for so very long, looking longingly out towards the street, and the safety of her home and family, then she turned and walked inside.