I don't own anything except for my OC.

Author's Note: HIYA. I've had this sitting around in my drafts for months, as I wanted to write about the events occurring right before the Long Live the Lich living story chapter. Consider this a super duper fast forward time thing from Tending the Dead.

Anyway, rendition of how things turn out when Julianna gets involved to deal with Joko's creepy obsession of wanting to kill the Pact Commander.

xxx

Julianna Fyre grasped the railing of the undead ship as it came to a halt, swallowing back the nauseous-induced bile that was daring itself to dispose of her stomach contents. Her pale freckled face looked green, nearly matching the shade of the gangrenous-like area that had been deeply affected by an particular Awakened ruler's influence. The woman's still-lurching stomach was hardly aided by the smell of death and decay that constantly lingered around in the air.

Two high ranking Awakened officers, Beastmarshal Oluwa Eranko and Troopmarshal Olori Ogun stood waiting at the bottom of the plank that was being pulled over, as they were patiently awaiting the arrival of the human female.

Since the undead forces arrival into Gandara the Moon Fortress, their ruler had holed himself away within his so called 'fun-dungeon' for days on end. Normally, the marshals would have passed it aside as some new bizarre fixation from Palawa Joko, but it had obviously turned into a disturbing bout of obsession. The two were constantly burdened with the trivial task of capturing nearby Kournan villagers whenever ordered, and neither would dare question their unpredictable and explosive King's requests. Even if it seemed unfitting to their high-ranking position.

Because Eranko and Ogun had both been tasked with bringing the captured prisoners to their cages, it reasoned to be that the two Awakened had both seen the terrors from within the dungeon itself. They easily agreed in passing to each other, that it was something far closer to that of a living house of horrors than anything that even resembled the notion of 'fun'.

Each time they brought some poor soul to the clutches of their leader, neither saw any sign of the egotistical lich. They had only heard snippets of dialogue on the off-chance they overheard him mumbling to himself in the next room over, which allowed them to learn that he was using some sort of illusion to make the Kournan prisoners appearance resemble to that of the Pact Commander.

To say it was disturbing, would have been an understatement at this point.

Eranko had found herself becoming both frustrated and concerned with her leader's actions. She had tried numerous times to bring him away from his manic work, but he always snapped and ordered her away. And although her higher rank within the Awakened forces had allowed her a closer relationship to that of many other lesser undead, it still wasn't enough. She had hoped she could try and draw some sense into the lich that had obviously dwindled into his tunnel vision which relayed of inflicting torture and other terrible punishments onto the illusioned Kournan prisoners.

But the beast-like marshal knew there was still one last ace in the hole that could potentially break the great Palawa Joko from his disturbing spell.

"Ah, if it isn't Julianna Fyre", the Beastmarhsal said loudly, watching as the small woman took incredibly cautious and wobbly steps down the ramp. "We've been expecting you."

Since the tumultuous time with the Pact Commander and their loyal forces, the Awakened army's healer had been sent far away back into the confines of the Bone Palace. It was there that she had been residing for the past few months while Joko worked on his plan to release the Scarab Plague upon the denizens of the living world. He had claimed it was because she was nothing more than a bother to him and he wanted to prevent her from meddling within his plans. And while some part of that had been partially true, it was also to keep her away from the crossfire of getting killed given her less than valuable track record.

After dealing with her leader's current downward spiral though, Eranko had sent a courier asking for the wayward healer to make haste to The Domain of Kourna. She had kept the matter brief, mentioning only that she was needed to help Joko with a current problem he had been having. Julianna had accepted the proposal, as her bleeding heart had immediate concern for the undead ruler. She had promptly set off to travel the distance by taking a boat to reach the southernmost part of Elona.

Said healer now wobbled down the plank, struggling to keep herself upright from falling right off the side. Once at the bottom, the woman gave a small wave to acknowledge the presence of the two Awakened marshals right before her. After her greeting she knelt over, her hands resting upon her knees as she struggled to get a second wind after her ordeal on the ship.

"Little one?" Ogun asked, the incredibly tall undead turning to the side in confusion.

"You know it's kind of funny", Julianna began as she tucked a strand of blonde curly hair behind her ear. The waters on the boat ride here had been incredibly rough and choppy, and the ride was less than pleasant. "I still don't do very well with ships. Which is pretty ironic given I worked on injured pirates back in Lion's Arch."

The two marshals looked to each other with mirrored looks of apprehension.

"My stomach would probably appreciate some peppermint tea right now...", she continued, braving herself to stand rightly back up again. Already her legs felt like they were returning from a jelly-like state after their triumphant return to solid land.

"Perhaps we can find some inside the fortress", the Beastmarshal offered, turning to return back to the massive bone constructed structure. She beckoned forward with a clawed hand, Ogun beginning to follow.

"Well, Doylak spit...", Julianna muttered as she shook her head and winced. "As long as there aren't any more dumb boat rides."

xxx

And it was now that Ogun had found himself sitting across from a very pleased looking Julianna Fyre in the middle of a random galley the two had found within the fortress.

The healer cradled a warm cup of peppermint tea between her hands, savoring the smell of warm wisps of mint dancing upwards towards her nose with a smile on her freckled face. It had taken quite a lot of searching to scrounge together the ingredients she had been looking for, but she was grateful they had been stocked. Though there were certainly many unmentionables stored away in a majority of the crates. More than once she had found herself questioning if she were in a gallery or a research laboratory.

But she also knew it should have come as expected, given the Awakened had no biological function anymore to sate their hunger. Eating was not something their undead bodies required anymore, though it wasn't to say they were no longer allowed to indulge in such obligations.

Ogun drummed his fingers across the table impatiently, quite frustrated that the Beastmarshal had unknowingly stuck him with this task when they passed through the gate into the fort. His cohort had sauntered off the second they stepped foot into the courtyard, muttering something along the lines of needing to train the raptors. But the Troopmarshal digressed, as he too could have been training soldiers or probably doing anything else that would have proved to have been a more efficient use of his time. Yet here he was practically babysitting the one person in all of Elona that somehow seemed to hold his ruler's interest more than anyone else.

"So tell me, why the great need for peppermint?" he asked, raising a brow towards the woman. He still struggled to understand why Julianna created such a fascination to an all-powerful lich.

"Oh, you didn't know?" she asked back, her brown eyes looking up meet a pair of yellow ones staring back at her. "The smell helps with nausea. Something to do with old age aroma therapy and all that."

"I wouldn't have known that...", Ogun replied back, sounding bitter at the fact that there was actually a large hole where his stomach should have been. Had he wanted to indulge into such a random treat, he wouldn't have been able to anyway. It had already been annoying enough already that the healer had the nerve to ask him to help her find the stupid ingredients she was looking for.

"The letter Eranko sent was lacking on the detail side of things, so tell me. What's going on with the scary bag of reanimated bones?" Julianna asked, changing the conversation as she moved the cup back onto the table. "It was very much out of the blue and kind of strange to receive, especially after seeing how Joko went through the trouble of purposefully keeping me away."

"I hardly constitute you as strange, especially considering your closeness to our king", Ogun replied, relieved at the change of topic. He could already feel himself being less annoyed at the current burdensome task of a person. "He's been away in that 'fun-dungeon' of his for days on end now, and we're honestly getting a little freaked out by it."

"Fun-Dungeon?" the woman echoed, raising a brow as a disturbed look crossed her features. She knew that word fun and dungeon coming from a terrible being like the undead ruler could not bode well for anyone.

"Eranko suggested you could be the one to snap him out of his bizarre fixation", the undead continued, ignoring her confusion. "Though to be honest, if you can't snap him out of this, we don't know what else will."

Julianna sipped at her tea again, nodding in affirmation. Even though Joko had explicitly stated that she were to stay away back in the Bone Palace so she couldn't interfere with his deranged plans, she still found herself going against his word as most often time she did anyway. Her arrival here was clearly going straight against his strict orders and that would likely mean some sort of trouble for her, but she figured her stubbornness against his prior arrangement was only because she was being asked to come here as a last resort.

As if on cue, there was a bellowing scream coming from deep within the bowels of the fortress.

Ogun watched the woman's expression turn to that of fright, as he could see her entire frame freeze up. The undead hardly reacted himself as the noise had become almost an hourly expectancy now.

"We better get a move on", Ogun suggested, moving to stand up from the table. "Not much longer, and Joko will be sending someone to retrieve another body after those screams have died out."

Julianna swallowed nervously, but nodded. She took one last generous gulp of peppermint tea from her cup, leaving the ceramic piece behind.

xxx

The Awakened marshal and the healer made their way through the fortified area, weaving in and out through numerous hallways as they descended a series of twisting staircases. Ogun walked in front, having nearly memorized the floor plan of the maze-like structure from all of his patrols and constant walking back and forth from needing to bring live prey. Eventually the two had made it to a large hallway deep within the lower levels of the foundation, as there were two large doors presenting themselves at the end of it.

Julianna held her nose and waved at the air in front of her face as the two walked down the hall. "It smells like something died, then came back to life and died again down here", she mentioned aloud.

"I thought you would have been used to the smell of death by now", Ogun commented, looking down to the small mortal next to him as he arched a brow towards her. The hidden meaning behind his words had been all too clear, as the bizarre relationship the woman had with their king was well-known by most under his rule at this point in time.

"Well, yeah", she stammered as a red color crept up her face. "But this is somehow worse than what I'm used to being around."

"Joko's dungeon is located fairly close to the sewer system", the towering undead answered, looking back to the doors waiting them the end of the hallway.

Another scream erupted from within the room, its sound seeming to have been prematurely cut short halfway through as it was suddenly silenced.

"I could bet a copper coin I'm not going to like whatever is in there...", Julianna muttered, though it was loud enough for her escort to hear. Her brain had been trying to conjure up what terrible things were going to be awaiting her once she saw it, but knew it was likely nothing could truly prepare her.

They stopped just before the doors leading into the room, Ogun hesitating now that he knew his incredible temperamental and very intimidating ruler lay just beyond.

There was no telling what was going to happen.

And that was the worst part.

He took a deep breath, raising a closed fist to the heavy set pair of doors as he knocked on the surface. The sound seemed to have echoed throughout the entire structure of the fortress.

"What is it?" Palawa Joko barked from within after hearing the knock, the question muffled from within the room but still causing to chills to those awaiting outside. The cries from before had slightly died down, as though the screaming prisoner felt a flash of hope that their rescue had finally arrived.

"Pardon the interruption my king, but I have a guest here for you", the marshal continued, swallowing hard. He was beginning to think his plan wasn't actually going to work. But as Eranko had already suggested, this was possibly their last ace in the hole. If this didn't work, then he wasn't sure anything else would.

Julianna looked up to the towering undead general next to her, frowning when she could hear the uncertainty in his voice.

"Did you now? I truly don't care, send them away", Joko replied hastily, the horrible sound of screaming picking up again from within the room.

Ogun wasn't about to argue with his King's demand, and he turned to hastily retreat with no further argument. But he should have expected the stubborn woman's headstrong attitude to shine through as she moved past him instead and pried the large doors wide open. He watched, slightly mystified by her actions upon seeing her bravely stand there between the opened space.

Palawa Joko felt his patience nearly snap upon hearing the the closed doors of his personal dungeon open up, and he paused within his macabre task as his neck cracked up like a whip of lightning. His anger was halted with slight surprise when he saw the familiar figure of his healer standing there looking into the room with obvious disgust written upon her face. His eyes widened for only a fraction of a second, before they returned to their former state. The lich's anger and dwindling patience had quickly returned as his favorite toy's presence would foretell nothing but immediate trouble for him.

"Troopmarshal Ogun", Joko motioned over towards his undead general that was still standing some ways behind Julianna, looking like that of a frightened child. Which given his much taller height compared to the mortal woman next to him, made it all the more pathetic. "I thought you said that you had a brought me a guest, not a pest."

The woman's rebuttal was near instant and she replied before Ogun get a word in. "Ironic that you would be the one calling me a pest, since all I currently see is a Skritt hiding down here in a dark, awful room."

Joko's eyes flicked towards his marshal, muttering a simple order. "Out."

The tall Awakened quickly followed the orders, leaving the ornery woman to battle it out with the incredibly frighting and unpredictable ruler. He watched in real time as Julianna Fyre had quite literally dug herself a grave from her quick words. The Troopmarshal turned to leave, secretly hoping that his peer's last minute weapon was going to work.

Julianna remained rooted to the spot though, only flinching when the sound of the doors closing had hit her back. She didn't dare make eye contact with the familiar lich on the other side of the room, but she could feel his piercing gaze boring holes into the very fiber of her being. It was only after realizing she was now locked in the ghastly looking room with one of the most powerful beings within Elona, that she realized just how much trouble she had gotten herself into.

Yet again.

"P-please, just... end this...", the Kournan prisoner laying out atop the table in front of Joko suddenly pleaded. He struggled against his bindings, though it did no good against the leather straps pinning his limbs down.

The Scourge reacted near instantly, pulsing a swell of strong, dark magic through his hand. The quick incantation drained the prisoner's life force near instantly, as his now lifeless husk remained atop the table. He hadn't yet moved his weathered-looking eyes away from the person in front of the door during his spell, as he was keeping his focus pinned on the now only other living person in the dark and dreary space.

Upon hearing the cry, Julianna had taken a tepid step forward just as she realized what was about to happen after hearing the desperate plea, her own hand raising just slightly in a last second attempt to cast a protective healing shield on the poor man. But Joko had proved to have been faster, even though her bleeding heart had made the endeavor to try saving him. Her hand slowly lowered back down into her side, as her hand formed into a fist and her fingernails dug into her palm.

"It may not look like it, little one, but I am a busy lich", Joko finally spat, gravely voice sounding irritated as he finally decided to address the new problem in the room. "Just what brings you to the splendor of my fun-dungeon? Especially since you're supposed to be within the confinements of the Bone Palace back in the Desolation, and most specifically, not here."

The healer looked up to finally make eye-contact, a frown still on her face. "An undead bird told me you've been holing yourself away", she said slowly. She wanted to keep names discreet, though it was likely quite obvious who was responsible given who had walked her here. There were few within the Awakened forces that had the connections to even dare make such a request without their ruler's permission.

"Did you now?" Joko responded, raising a brow. He looked down to the dead corpse in front of him now, scowling at the body as he reached across it to grab a set of a grisly looking pliers. "Good for you then. Such pluck..."

"Look, your obsession is... fairly concerning, that much is pretty obvious now", Julianna said, taking the time to look around at all the macabre instruments of horror laying about the room. "Even when it's coming from someone such as the likes of you."

Joko hummed aloud, now seeming to ignore his healer altogether as he became entranced within his work once again. He was debating about Awakening the still warm corpse underneath. "I was hardly listening anymore, did you say something?"

The undead ruler said nothing more even though he could feel the woman shoot a glare towards his being. He had a pretty good indication that she had predictably stuck her tongue out towards him as well for his brash comment, but it would have gone unseen seeing as how he didn't currently care about being enthralled by his favorite source of entertainment. He nearly rolled his eyes when he could hear her small footsteps cross the threshold of the room, and he looked back up with little amusement as she had stopped just short across the examination table from him, though she kept herself a few cautious feet away.

"I would dare to say this is almost obsessive", she noted as she tried not to look at the corpse right in front of her. "Perhaps you could come upstairs and indulge in a cup of tea to get yourself-"

"No one, and I mean no one, is to tell the likes of the Great Palawa Joko what to do", he shot back in interruption, narrowing his eyes towards the bothersome woman. His voice was venomous as he continued. "Especially when coming from the likes of someone like you."

Julianna stood firm, though the words had been like a physical slap across her face as they stung terribly. She tried mirroring his own hateful glare, but he quickly broke the eye contact and returned back to his work of beginning to peel apart the dead corpse on the table. He muttered something else as he looked around for a specific tool laying somewhere nearby.

A puff of hot air escaped through the healer's nose, as she looked around at anything to focus her attention to. She mulled the words over in her head, knowing that it was his current obsession to eradicate the Pact Commander which had influenced the hatred in his spoken words. She knew there was little merit to what he had said, but it hadn't cushioned the blow to his comment.

However, Julianna Fyre had known the great, Palawa Joko long enough to detect something underneath those cruelly spoken words.

Frustration.

A specific kind of frustration in this case.

She decided a change of tactics was necessary.

"You know, I'm curious...", Julianna began instead, walking over to his table as she circled around the table and moved to stand just right next to him, though her height was dwarfed by his own as she barely came up to his torso. "Do you have any harems this far out in Kourna?"

"What are you getting at woman?" Joko hissed, the ornaments on his clothing creating a choir of sound as his head whipped around to glare down at the pest just next to him.

"You've holed yourself away in this fortress with these plans against the Pact Commander for quite some time now", she continued, turning her head to the side as a knowing smirk crossed her freckled face. "I would imagine you've been quite busy because of that, and you haven't had much time to divulge in certain activities."

It was now Joko's turn to remain silent.

"It wouldn't help the matter considering you made the arrangements to keep me away at the Bone Palace", she said, the smile remaining on her face as she knew she had caught him against a rock and a hard place. While she didn't like admitting it out loud to most others, she did have the occasional romantic interactions with the lich from time to time.

There was a long, uncomfortable pause between the two before the undead ruler finally spoke up.

"Do you remember the beginnings of our fateful encounters with one another?" Joko began, seeming to go completely left field with his new train of conversation as he stared ahead at some crude instrument hanging on the farthest wall. "The fear you showed towards me back then was like an insatiable hunger that I found myself yearning after. Even within my incredibly long and prolonged life."

Julianna's brows crossed together with immediate confusion, her face turning to apprehension. This wasn't what she had been expecting from her harmless jab. She said nothing more, allowing for the companion next to her to continue.

"Of course as time went on and we were within each other's company more, that fear slowly began to ebb away", he continued, his eyes still set straight ahead. "The fear you showed and your incredibly, stupid stubbornness against me was a dangerous combination I could not derive myself away from."

"What are getting at?" she quietly asked, sensing a dangerous aura coming from the powerful being next to her. His demeanor had changed, and although not unfriendly before, it had turned into something that was causing her brain to sound alarms in her head. That all-too familiar sense of fear came creeping up from the lowest depths of her person.

Joko turned and swiftly reached out and tightly grabbed hold of the woman's tiny wrist, his tar-stained claws standing out against the canvas of her pale skin. A crude smile formed on his face when she immediately tried to pull away, and the sly expression she had been wearing was quickly crumbling away and being replaced by something far more delectable instead.

The woman looked down to the tightening claws on her wrist, her eyes widening in fright when she could see a dark mist begin crawling up her arm. She could feel the magic's energy all the way down to her bone, as it felt as though they were being chilled to a frozen state of being. The cold temperate crept upward along with the swirling dark cloud as it went.

"Imp gall... this isn't funny anymore", she pleaded, still trying to wring her hand out his grip as she was loosing function within her fingers now.

The cruel lich had kept an impassive look upon his sunken in and weathered features, watching with great amusement as his companion's entire demeanor had shifted back into one that was far more suitable for his likeness.

"Joko, stop", Julianna tried again, her voice wavering as she was watching the black mist continuing with its venture as it was now past her joint and was steadily climbing up towards her shoulder. "Are you really doing this right now?"

"I'm only looking for a very special word from you", he nearly sang in sickeningly sweet tone, eyes crinkling with sheer amusement now.

The healer could feel her entire limb almost lose its feeling as this point, as the muscle and bone was literally dead weight. Not much farther and it would be seeping directly into her heart, which would likely end her life force right then and there. Her entire body was practically shaking right now, as she uselessly tried using her other usable hand to claw into his leathery flesh in an attempt to pry him off.

Her frazzled brain was trying to wrack together what stupid word he could have possibly been looking for. Fear-ridden eyes watched as the magic was now at her shoulder blade, sudden clarity coming through as she realized what his sick and twisted intentions were and what verbal cue he had been looking for.

"Please!" she begged, looking up to meet his grinning face. She nearly choked back a sob when he didn't answer to her request right away, but he finally relinquished the deadly spell and released her arm.

Joko watched in great satisfaction as she pulled her arm towards her chest, cradling the limb in her hold as she squeezed parts of it to ensure she still had feeling within it. He moved forward as he wrapped his arms around the still-shaking woman and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"Oh dear, the poor little tart has succumbed to such... unpleasantries during her stay within my 'fun-dungeon'", he cooed, a hand moving to pet the top of her head as his other arm stayed wrapped around her back. He couldn't hold back a selfish grin when he could feel her body still trembling within his grasp.

The undead ruler simply believed that the foolish woman had tried to start some game with him though, and had quickly been shot back down and put back in her rightful place again. Although admittedly it had been quite the enjoyable game to play as he realized how much he had truly missed the company of the stubborn mortal.

"Shall we indulge in some tea, like you suggested?" he asked, breaking the silence and pausing with his grooming as he awaited an answer. "I suppose it would be quite amiable to escape the dreadful business of this room."

Julianna swallowed a lump that had been building in the back of her throat, as she was trying to get herself calmed back down after realizing how close and easily she had come to death yet again. She slowly nodded, moving her own arms to wrap around his lower torso as she yearned for any sort of comfort, even if it was coming from the very-same person to have put her in this current conundrum.

"Excellent, let's be off then", Joko said with up-beat finality, turning to leave for the large double doors as his favorite little healer was nearly attached to his hip as they walked together.