Yes it's me. Yes I really am continuing after three months absence, and no, it was not easy for me to do. I've seen so many great fics go unfinished, and though now I have a whole new understanding of their plight, I don't want to be one of those authors. I just thought I'd make up a chapter as a Christmas present for those of you who haven't given up on me. (If indeed, such people do exist...) No real word I can give on future chapters. I know that Christmas break is going to be my best shot at writing another one, but I've also got to get together with my friends and family to catch up while I'm home too. We'll see how it goes.

Chapter 37:

"You gonna live Isaac?"

He heard Steven ask.

"I… will be fine."

He found himself doubting his answer as he sat on his knees cradling his head. Switching from the battle within to the battle before him was a tremendous strain on his mind. He wondered briefly if he had been hurt in the fight, but as he flipped through his memories of the conflict, no severe hits came to mind. The pain was his own doing.

Isaac was no stranger to mental fatigue. In his early studies of psynergy after the storm so long ago he had often overexerted himself, trying to make his skills as sharp as his blade. He cursed himself for being unable to find rest since last night's encounter. His troubled mind just didn't have the focus to cast psynergy without severely draining itself.

During his studies, Kraden had once told him that the mind never really gains more capacity for psynergy. Powerful adepts have merely learned to tap into it more efficiently through focus and discipline, gaining control rather than more power. Right now Isaac felt like his mind was about as efficient as a steam-powered pancake-flipper.

"Urhg… can't even think up a good metaphor anymore…"

He mumbled as the sound of footsteps running into the square met his ears. A scream momentarily snapped him out of his mental fog. He tried to rise to his feet and ready for an attack, but a hand on his shoulder kept him on his knees.

"It's alright Issac."

The calm, confident sound of Felix's voice greeted him.

"Just someone who's a little freaked out by all the gore."

He glanced about briefly.

"I can hardly blame them."

Isaac strained to look up. He could see why. Even through the predawn gloom he could see that they had made quite a mess in the quiet little square. Scattered flakes of dried blood and rotten skin had been rolled around in the dirt by the fight and by the footsteps of people crowding into the square trying to figure out what was going on. That was exactly Jenna's question when she arrived.

"What the heck happened to you guys?" She asked as she approached.

"Vodoun." Isaac said. "Heard Steven fighting."

He looked up towards Steven a few paces away. He was on a knee, leaning on his bloodied maul. Mia was there healing his injuries. She had said nothing to any of them. Her healer's instincts were temporarily overriding her concern for Isaac, as a large amount of the blood on the ground surrounding Steven was of the fresh and living variety.

"That's everyone," Felix observed as he took stock of the growing crowd of confused villagers. "Well, almost everyone…"

"You had better have a good reason fo- Holy Crap!"

"That's everyone." Jenna said as Garet's obnoxious, lumbering strides could be heard echoing through the woods.

"What happened?" He asked when he got to them.

"Take a guess." Felix said as he gestured to the carnage in the square.

One glance and Garet immediately concluded:

"Zombies."

He raised his now ever present 'Zombiee Axe' to the ready.

"I wouldn't worry about it Garet." Felix said. "They seem pretty harmless now. What I'm interested in what these corpses were doing when they were still up and about."

"You'd have to ask Steven." Isaac said, slowly regaining his composure. "He arrived first. I came in during the fight."

Jenna and Garet looked at him in indecision.

"Go on, ask him." He said. "Standing here eyeballing me won't do any good."

Steven attempted to stand and Mia spoke for the first time as they approached.

"Not yet." She said, barely acknowledging them as she forced her patient to hold still with a strength and assertiveness that she didn't show terribly often. "He's hurt pretty badly."

"I'm not an infant Mia." Steven's stern growl sounded. "A few scrapes won't keep me from explaining this to those that most need to know."

"This is hardly a few scratches Steven!"

"I'd like a second opinion on that."

"I think I can see one of your bones…" Garet said.

Mia was the last person that one would expect to give anyone a look that could kill, but the dagger-gaze she shot Garet would've turned away a pack of wolves.

Jenna yanked on his ear and harshly whispered:

"Don't tell him that! He'll go into shock. You're supposed to try to comfort him."

"Oh, but umm… it looks fine?"

As he laughed, Steven's hand slipped down the bloody handle of his maul and he slumped forward. He tossed up a few rather violent coughs.

"Urgh… Ow, needed that though."

"Don't strain yourself." Mia chastised again.

"I wouldn't worry, it's always been my dream to die laughing."

Mia tightened her grip on his arm.

"Geyah! Ok, bad choice of words. I won't die I promise."

"I'll say." She said. She seized the opportunity of this distraction to swiftly yank the bone fragment from Steven's arm. Even the iron-stomached Jenna cringed at this.

Garet sheepishly asked:

"Erm… I don't do much healing, but doesn't he need that?"

"It's just as well that he have it removed." Mia said as she examined the sharp bone shard. "It's not his. It must've belonged to one of them."

The bloody shard landed with a clatter among its familiars on the ground nearby and Mia retuned to tending Steven's wounds. Isaac had managed to collect himself in the interim. He and Felix approached the unusual scene.

"I think you'll find no shortage of people that want an explanation Mia." Steven said.

She looked about at the growing crowd of confused and worried onlookers.

"Fine, tell them if you must, but you can do it sitting down." She pulled him up and swung his legs in front of him with some help from Felix and returned to her work.

The eerie light of Mia's ever-present Ply flickered across Steven's face as he recanted his morning. He looked up at the crowd around him, who by now realized that he would have some answers.

"Well, I suppose I shall begin at the beginning…"

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Yeah, I'm mean for doing that. Didn't really say much story-wise, but it's still a solid chapter. Much better than I expected when I resumed work a few weeks ago. By all means comment. Whether on the story or regarding my increasingly humiliating absences, say something.