This was just Severa's luck: barely an hour into her quest and she had already been attacked by Risen and saved by a ghost.

A... remarkably nervous looking ghost, actually. The girl was practically shaking. What did a dead girl even have to worry about? She'd been powerful enough to take down the Risen, and it's not like she could die any more than she already had.

Severa watched the ghost's face for a moment longer before realizing that neither of them had said anything for at least a minute, and the silence was rapidly growing awkward. "Grind me into dust," she muttered. "So, what, you wanted to kill me yourself? Because let me tell you, I'm not going to make it easy for you."

The ghost started. "Oh, no, I just wanted to talk to you. ...Sorry?"

Severa sighed loudly. The ghost seemed to assume it was directed at her, which, good, it definitely was. "You could have waited, you know. I would have killed that thing in no time." The ghost looked almost disappointed, and Severa found herself rushing to add, "Whatever, it's fine. So, who are you, anyway? Did you, like, die in the forest or something?"

"No, nothing like that! I'm not actually dead, it's just a curse my mother put on me..." the not-ghost said. Severa made a face, and the other girl shook her head. "Okay, that makes it sound bad. It's just that my mother's a powerful sorceress, and I'm... not. So when one of her enemies decided that attacking her would be too hard, they went after me instead. They cursed me with some kind of wasting sickness...

"My mother couldn't do anything to lift the curse, so she put a new one on me to keep it from getting worse. It draws on the forest's energy to stabilize me, so my body can't actually move, but I can sort of project myself? And that's how I'm talking to you now... yeah."

Severa shoved down her empathy. So the girl had a hard life, or claimed to. That didn't mean anything. She certainly didn't relate to any of it. All she wanted to know was whether she would have to kill a ghost. It didn't seem likely, given how pathetic the girl was, but just to be sure...

"That's great and all," she said, "but you still haven't answered my first question. Who are you?"

"Oh... I'm Noire," Noire said, fidgeting a little. Gawds, it was making Severa nervous just looking at her.

"Great. I'm Severa, and I'm the one who's going to make this forest safe for travelers. Or safer, at least. Anyway, I've got a quest to complete, so as fun as this has been I'm gonna keep moving. Good luck with that curse or whatever."

"Wait!" Noire yelled. Severa had only made it two steps, and huffed in annoyance at being stopped so soon. Noire floated over until they were face to face. "So, I was thinking that, since hovering around a forest alone was kind of boring... Maybe I could come with you? I promise I won't be a bother, and you saw the way I killed that Risen!"

Severa resolutely did not flush. She was never going to live that down, was she? "Fine, if you have to follow me I can't stop you," she said. "Just stay out of my way!"

She set off again, determined not to let Noire slow her down. After a moment, Noire followed silently.

Gradually, Severa began to relax again. As far as she knew, her mother had never broken a curse, so maybe running into this Noire girl was a good thing after all. At this rate she would surpass her mother in no time.

As if she knew what Severa was thinking, it was then that Noire chose to speak up and ruin Severa's moment of goodwill. "Um, do you know where we're going?"

"Excuse me for not being familiar with the evil deadly forest," Severa snapped. "I would have brought a map, but for some reason when no one comes out alive maps are hard to find."

Noire winced, but when she spoke her voice was remarkably firm. "I have been trapped here for a while, you know. If you tell me what we're looking for, I can probably take you there. If you want."

Severa resisted the urge to massage her temples. Noire had all the answers, didn't she? The worst part was how often she was right - Severa was ready to take an actual bath again, which meant figuring out what was wrong with the forest and fixing it as soon as possible so she could leave. "Great," she said, making no attempt at sincerity. "I don't suppose you lknow where and how I can make this place less evil?"

"I don't know about how," Noire said slowly, "but I might know where. The forest's energies are concentrated in one or two main places. We can go there and see if something looks out of place, I guess. Would that work for you?"

Severa waved a hand in the air. "Yeah, sure, let's do that," she said flatly. Then she frowned, unwilling to admit defeat so easily. "But if you're leading me into a trap I'm going to kick your butt, curse or no."

"I would never!" Noire said. She seemed shocked by the very notion. "This is the most fun I've had in ages!"

This was her idea of fun? Really? Severa was going to have to take her shopping some time.

Or not, because she didn't care. Besides, at this rate they were going to grow old and die surrounded by these freaking trees. "Just take me to these places you were talking about," she said.