"Great, just great." Ghastly Bespoke murmured grumpily. He was always grumpy in the Irish Necromancer Temple. The atmosphere there was too dull for someone like him. Ghastly looked at the creepy black door in front of him then glared at the annoying necromancer guards. The necromancers glanced at each other, nodded and decided that it was the right time to go. It was, or their faces would be 2 sentimetres deeper than they have to be. Ghastly then looked at the door. It sure was creepy. It was ridiculously huge and chatoyant, changing from black to purple. Annoying creepy door. He sighed and opened the annoying door.

The room in front of him was brighter than he guessed, with grey stone walls and ceiling. An artistic black chandelier at least changed the boring atmosphere of the room. There was a huge round black table which looked like the ones important work was discussed and it definitely was. He was brought, or to put delicately, dragged away from his home like a puppy from here to discuss something that nobody told him about but he knew it was about Mevolent. They needed to take care of him fast. It was obvious that it wasn't going to be easy so the temple and the Sanctuary needed to work together to stop this chaos once and for all before anyone else was killed.

He sighed then walked to the round table. He spotted someone sitting on one of the, again black, chairs. Ghastly stepped closer and he saw a familiar face. High cheekbones. Jet black hair. A normal mouth and lips. One brown one hazel eyes, narrowed. This wasn't a good sign. Oh right, he was also in his underpants. Ghastly wondered about the reason. His bare arms were crossed tightly. He spotted Ghastly. His cold eyes went warm again and waved to Ghastly slowly. Ghastly greeted him with a nod. He walked towards his friend and sat on the chair next to him. He glanced at him. His arms were crossed again and he was gazing at the empty boring rooms. He was humming some random melodies. And those underpants... Ghastly forced the chuckle down and cleared his throat.

"You look like you're about to laugh."

Ghastly give a slow nod.

"I am."

"I wouldn't worry about the feeling." he waved a hand lazily. " Everyone gets it when you see someone like me in his underpants."

"I'm faintly wondering why, to be honest with you."

"It's a long story. But also highly amusing."

"It seems like it is."

They both nodded and then it was silence again. Skulduggery Pleasant slowly, very slowly, turned his head to Ghastly. Ghastly did so too. They stared at each other for a full second. Skulduggery's right eyebrow twiched then Ghastly burst out laughing when Skulduggery simply grinned with satisfaction. Ghastly was stubborn, but no one could hold themselves when they see the one and only Skulduggery Pleasant, protecting his dignity with great determination, with his awesome underpants. Ghastly straightened up and looked at Skulduggery.

"Alright," he said, holding himself, "That was funny."

"It really was."

"But seriously, why are you in your underpants?"

Skulduggery looked at him and blinked. A naive expression appeared on his face and he replied simply.

"I'm married."

They exchanged looks. Ghastly understood immediately.

"OK that's enough detail for me." Skulduggery raised an eyebrow and smiled faintly. A smile creeped up on Ghastly's face too.

Skulduggery tilted his head. "Well... Don't you want to know why they brought us here? I, naturally, know why."

"Now how did you achieve that? I couldn't even get a few words out of anyone."

"I did. But they were definitely not kind words."

Ghastly narrowed his eyes. "Necromancers aren't known for cursing."

"I might have been holding a knife." Skulduggery murmured. "It's not my fault that they get scared of a small knife." Ghastly raised an eyebrow.

"Alright," Skulduggery nodded eventually,"It wasn't that small."

Ghastly nodded understandingly. If a knife is pointed at you then that means you had it coming somehow. Barging in and grabbing someone from their home is one good example. And for Skulduggery, just pointing a knife was a good improvement.

Then they heard low voices outside the room. Ghastly and Skulduggery looked at each other.

"This is not going to end well." Ghastly whispered.

"As everything involving necromancers go."

"Exactly."

"And they stole my hat."

"Try to stay calm."

"They stole my hat." Skulduggery said through gritted teeth. "It was one of my favourites."

"Every single one is."

"I can't help it," Skulduggery shrugged "My sense of finery is too good for them."

Ghastly sighed.

Then a group of necromancers entered the room. Their robes creating a long black wave through the room. The tallest one of them all was the High Priest. His face was inscrutable under the hood of his long black robe. They saw a familiar face, Auron Tenabrae, looking annoying as usual. He was holding a hat. He looked at Skulduggery and a hint of smile appeared on his face. Skulduggery just growled. This was definitely not going to end well.