I don't own anything except for my OC, Julianna Fyre and any of my original ideas that are incorporated into the story.

Author's Note: Apologies for this chapter being a wee bit shorter than what I usually write. There's no good way to break it up without having this chapter be obnoxiously too long.

xxx

The Scourge's bold comment was followed by some verbal spillage of mumbled words that hardly sounded like much of a language.

"...not funny!"

xxx

The following morning began just as similar to any other day within a dreary and depressing location such as the heart of the Desolation. The sun was hasty to rise high above the cragged looking mountainsides of the desert, the occurrence causing a bout of both uncomfortable and sweltering temperatures to those caught underneath its unforgiving rays. Some days were worse than others with the unpredictable levels of heat, and this was one of those times when the sun decided to be unusually cruel.

The Awakened cared little for the bothersome conditions of the desert weather, since it could do little damage to their already less-than lively physical state. They were prone to amble around throughout the entire area of the Bone Palace, continuing on with their daily tasks and patrols without any apparent show of concern for the hot weather. If one listened closely, not a single one could be heard commenting to one another about the matter of the blistering sun. Instead, they seemed to be far more invested within shared whispers of more pressing topics or tell-tale gossip.

Although the Awakened inhabitants of the desert were defined as reanimated cadavers brought back into the world of the living through powerful necromantic magic, they could still easily move around with a surprising amount of haste whenever a skirmish or situation called for it. But for a miserable day such as this, it seemed even the undead were moving around to the speed of what one would expect for a stitched together zombie that was filled with tar and decomposing organs. Activity around the Bone Palace was incredibly lackluster and lazy on this particular morning, and the day continued forward just like any other without any real excitement happening around the fortress.

Julianna was in the midst of her own appointed daily chores, which was to ensure the Awakened were appropriately fit for battle and not falling apart by the seams. She mostly stuck to meandering around the training yard while following the shade of the imposing walls while it traveled around the perimeter throughout the setting time of the day. Because she herself was not fully awakened, it meant she was still in a state of being that made her susceptible to the sun. To counter this, she wore a heavy hooded cloak and scarf; though it could only do so much when the heat was nearly unbearable.

The healer was currently standing in front of a random Awakened soldier that had just come up to her for immediate aid only a few moments ago. Her hand was gently cupping the bottom of his chin while he remained seated on the bone-ridden ground. She briefly moved the skewered looking lower jaw back and forth to try and set it back into place once more, as the bone was looking entirely unhinged from its joints. Although the undead were proven to be incredibly resilient, her hands remained incredibly gentle to her patient as to not cause him any further pain.

Taking care of patients that were more on the side of death rather than life had definitely taken the healer a good amount of time and mental conditioning of getting used to. Even with their hardier bodies making them a bit more resilient, her bleeding heart still ebbed her to work on the side of caution each time she was presented with a problem.

"So let me get this straight...", she explained, her dark eyes set in concentration while trying to maneuver the bone to align back where it needed to go. "You dislocated your jaw because you thought you could win a fist fight against a stone elemental?"

The Awakened soldier mumbled something completely incomprehensible, his lack of a working lower jaw not allowing him proper speaking ability. His sharp yellow eyes rolled with a slight shake of his head, before looking past at the far wall with a guilty look on his face. The chastising woman had almost reminded him of a mother figure some long, forgotten years ago.

"Hopefully we'll have learned from that mistake then...", Julianna replied with a resigned-sounding sigh. It wouldn't be the first time she would be healing an injury from some random situation that could have been completely avoidable.

Either the promise of immortality had make the Awakened become a lot more bold or much more shortsighted when it came to getting into nonsensical problems.

Julianna frowned, looking at the piece of his flesh where she could see the indentations of the rock elemental's knuckles. Although this looked pretty grisly, the worst yet was still the time some poor fellow went on a dare to see if they could get a single crack on a Junundu egg without harm. She grimaced upon thinking back to the memory. Trying to mend decaying skin that had been mostly burned away from acidic wurm bile had proven to be one of the more challenging tasks she had been faced with during her career.

She moved both her hands up to grip each sides of the undead's face, holding it particularly straight as she readied herself for the next step. "I'll count to three and then I'm going to push both sides back into place again, alright?"

The Awakened just nodded, seemingly unfazed by the orders but his body had gone rigid in anticipation.

"One."

"Two."

"Ah, well. What have we here? So this must be the Outlander garbage I've heard so much about", a new and booming voice from behind the duo spoke.

It caught the healer entirely off-guard in the moment, and she prematurely shifted the bone back where it needed to go without giving the verbal warning of a third number for her patient. The untimely action caused a surprised outcry from the Awakened soldier and his heavy armor clad hands flew up to his face.

A flurry of frantic apologies left Juliannna's mouth the second she was made aware of the discomfort she accidentally just caused from the surprise. She poured a light, blue swell of healing magic into her palms and returned them back to her patient's face in an attempt to alleviate any remaining pain that was still left-over from the debacle. The freckled woman watched with bothered concern on her features as her patient dismissively swatted her hands away. There was clear irritation behind his own movements before he went to stand back to his full height again.

The Awakened soldier opened and closed his mouth a few times to check over the medical work just administered to him. His once-irritated disposition cleared with satisfaction when he could feel the bone moving in working condition once again. He nodded an armored head of approval, bidding a quick verbal thanks to the woman before heading off to the direction of his patrol once more. He glanced back with concerning interest to see the person approaching where he once was, knowing well-enough he did not want to be anywhere near the two now.

The woman's head of hair bounced around when she whipped her head around to address the unfamiliar stranger. There was clear annoyance marked on her face when he stopped to stand just a few feet away. "Did you need something?" she asked, looking around at the few crunching bone fragments around his feet that finally settled beneath his heavily armored boots.

Although she didn't quite recognize this person immediately, she had a good inkling of who the man was given the random context clues she had against him. If the rumors from her patients didn't immediately give him away, then at least his brightly dyed outfit with enough reason to deduct this was a person of importance within the ranks of the Awakened. Seeing how much jewelry and expensive material one was wearing was usually a good indication of someone's status, and it seemed this particular person was hardly lacking in the gaudy department of outfits.

"Certainly you can't be as deaf as you are foolish?" the man scoffed, waving a dismissive hand with a disgusted sounding tone behind his voice. He already knew enough about this particular person of interest, but he hadn't been expecting such a nonthreatening looking individual after his initial expectation. Admittedly, he was all the more taken aback after also learning the woman was believed to supposedly have close ties with their glorious, undead King.

When he had first heard about the wayward healer living at the Bone Palace, he had honestly thought it was a poor delivered joke until told otherwise.

But now he was strongly reconsidering that again.

"Very funny...", Julianna replied simply in a dry tone, looking the man up and down while she addressed his attire once more. She dusted her hands off her pants in a nonchalant manner, her mouth running before she could properly think over the consequences of her words. "I didn't know one of the jesters from the Garden of Seborhin was missing."

A few of the Awakened that were standing nearby in the training yard snickered under their breath at the overheard comment, but their laughter was prematurely cut down by a swift gaze from the angry Archon that nearly exterminated them right there on the spot. They whistled innocently, looking around and feigning interest in some random bone that was strewn about on the ground near their feet.

"Incredibly bold words coming from someone like you...", the Archon merely sneered back, the whites of his teeth showing as his lips curled backwards in a threatening manner. The color stood out brightly against the dark contrast of face makeup that ran down each of his eyes like exaggerated lines of tears.

He continued, clearing his throat when he didn't get an expected response from his newly appointed adversary. "I have to say, Iʼm quite disappointed in your lack of manners towards someone such as myself who is obviously in a much higher position than you. I certainly hope that you don't speak to our beloved King in the same manner."

Julianna was just about to retaliate with another round of poorly chosen words herself, but she was interrupted before her mouth was allowed to run any further.

Suddenly, another familiar yet shrill voice resounded from the direction of the throne room entrance. They had overheard the two's verbal arguing from afar and decided to intervene before any possible blood could be shed since that was the direction it was headed.

Grand Vizier Utumishi frowned at the new guest, an open book in his hand. "Archon, as much as I would enjoy seeing the two of you battle it out, I would highly suggest against it", he intervened, not even daring to look up from the lines of text he was reading. He barely stood out from the archway leading into the inner palace, since he had already been previously eavesdropping to their bickering the second he had heard the Archon's recognizable voice.

His eyes darted up for the briefest of seconds towards the healer. "Even as bothersome as the lout is..."

"This Outlander garbage should be punished for her audacity and blatant disrespect!", Iberu merely whined in response, turning to see the dutiful adviser sticking his nose in his current affairs as per usual whenever drama arose. He was more than familiar with the King's right hand stooge, since the Civil Adviser was usually the person left in charge if Joko was ever absent for whatever bizarre and mundane reason.

"Trust me, if it were my decision, I would have rid away with the pest long ago", Utumishi continued with a dramatic sigh, peering up from the pages of his book to deliver a short but sharp glare towards one of his least favorite people. He was not surprised to see her stick her tongue out toward him given her own usual charades. "But unfortunately, you would have to take it up to King Joko himself if he decided any sort of punishment were to be put into effect."

Julianna was left to smile brilliantly at the unexpected victory upon hearing the words. With newfound haste and a triumph hanging over her shoulders, she quickly returned back to her duty of bringing the much needed healing to the wounded Awakened who were still waiting for the necessary aid. She collected her things and turned away from the scene, deciding she had more than enough of that first impression from the less than pleasant Archon.

Iberu glared holes into the back of the woman's head until she was completely around the corner and fully out of sight. His fists surrounded themselves with a dark swell of magic before being prematurely dispersed. "You mean to tell me that Joko actually puts up with that immature behavior?" he then asked, turning back around himself and walking up the short ramp towards the awaiting adviser.

"Oh yes, that and so much more", Utumishi answered cryptically without venturing any further as to what that really meant. He was no longer looking up from his book anymore. "It's truly still a wonder why King Joko ever took an interest in the pest. But I've learned from past mistakes that I am no such position to pose such questions to our ruler. Unless of course, as I've been told, that I want to become decorative furniture for the throne room."

The gold wearing Archon sneered, rolling his dark eyes at the foolishness he was hearing. "Well then, is our illustrious ruler present here at his Palace today then?" he asked instead, looking past the much shorter man to see the inside of the grand encompassing room just behind his newfound company.

"He's still in the throne room discussing something of importance with Wurmmarshal Osa Ekolo at the moment. She also returned back earlier this morning from her recent trip to Istan", the adviser answered. He nodded with an indication of his head behind his shoulder, bringing a hand up to tug on his long-wiry goatee. "Interruptions or not, I am sure he would be pleased to see you Archon. We've been expecting your return."

"I'll be honored to go greet him then", the high-ranking Mordant Crescent officer said, his superficial smile nearly sickening. "It'll be a good change of scenery to actually be within the incredibly respectful company who sees me as nothing but a valuable asset to his cause."

xxx

"My King, I mean no disrespect but certainly you can't be serious about judging my ability?" Iberu asked with an incredulous tone. He was now standing in front of the appointed chairs within the middle of the colossal throne room. "After all, I'm one of your most valuable Archons and-"

"It's a simple enough reason my dear little omnipotent minion; you've barely just earned that title", a peeved looking Palawa Joko answered with a shake of his heavily ornament clad headdress. Although the lich was pleased to see the return of one his more viable officers, Joko was even more bothered by boundaries that were clearly trying to be stepped over. He had an unusual amount of respect towards the man given how quickly he had grown in the ranks, however that was quickly dwindling whenever his superiority was wrongfully questioned.

The lich continued, his gravely voice completely serious and devoid of any emotion. "Promising or not, I still don't trust the entire weight of my Kingdom upon your shoulders during my leave."

Wurmmarshal Ekolo spoke up. "You should be grateful our King is even considering you get any semblance of supervision alongside myself during his leave of absence to the Crystal Desert", she explained, trying to be a voice of reason before things got too explosive with the unpredictable ruler. The tall female Awakened was standing on the other side of her leader, looking similarly annoyed at the obvious boot licking the Mordant Crescent was trying to accomplish.

Before Iberu walked in and interrupted their conversation, she had previously been sharing the concerning news she recently learned about Istan's dwindling state of condition. But that was prematurely cut short by the sudden presence that was the boastful Archon himself strolling far-too confidentially into the room.

Utumishi had also slithered his way back in behind the commotion, his face already stuck back in the pages of the book while he wordlessly returned back to his chair and pretended to innocently ignore the drama of what he was actually intently listening in on.

Upon the Archon joining their conversation, the group had quickly shifted into the discussion of how a surreptitious yet diplomatic trip to Amnoon was going to be necessary in the very near future. Especially since it was becoming a growing concern with each passing day that went by without the necessary intervention. The harbor city's lack of faith towards Palawa Joko's reigning hand was deemed to be entirely unacceptable by the current party, and it was decided easily enough that change was going to be needed before things became too problematic to rightly deal with.

Although it would be easy enough to send a sizable Awakened force into the city to decimate it into unrecognizable pieces, it would be far more beneficial in the long-run if it was dealt in a more amicable manner. It was already decided from the previous night that the undead ruler would be making a surprise visit to Amnoon in order to better understand the workings of the city and what politics they had going on behind closed doors. If there were any cracks behind that closed door that Joko could slither into, then that fault would be found and greatly used to his advantage. Years of becoming a master manipulator to these types of situations hadn't been earned without experience, and it had obviously been proven to be an incredibly resourceful skill of sorts.

"Of course, I mean no offense King Joko", Iberu replied, attempting to hide a dejected sounding tone but slightly failing. He was quick to notice that the tonal shift in the room had become nearly uncomfortable. He awkwardly shuffled a bit place while holding his chin high. "I would be honored to watch over the Bone Palace alongside Wurmmarshal Ekolo during your absence."

"Such praise", Joko chimed with a lecherous smile stretched across his leathery face. "It's far better suiting for you, don't you agree?"

Iberu's mouth formed a nearly invisible line, but he hesitantly nodded and swallowed back his words. He truly wanted nothing but the highest admiration for his glorious leader - and that had to be earned with unquestionable loyalty.

Even if that meant taking on a meagerly appointed task.