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The Witch had forgotten how long it had been since the castle fell.
Weeks? Months? She’d stopped keeping track of time the way the humans did a long time ago.
Even with some walls reduced to rubble, not a lot of sunlight reached the Demon King Castle throne room. The fox never seemed to sleep, and the ogre didn’t have a better idea than her.
The only thing that she could really track was Skul. The little skeleton’s loop of adventuring outside the ruined castle, only to regenerate back in the throne room again worked as well as anything else.
It had started taking longer for Skul to return recently. The Witch hoped this meant that he was getting closer to saving their missing King, and that her research into Dark Quartz had truly been worth a life’s work. But it wasn’t complete yet, Skul had only ever returned by regenerating from the skull that appeared in the Throne Room, which the Witch knew meant that the humans had sent him back the hard way each time.
This time it seemed, would be no different. From her seat next to her cauldron, she saw little bones start to skitter across the throne room floor like mice, collecting towards a small skull near the base of the steps to the throne. The bones stacked together under the skull, forming a small skeleton with just one arm, a heavy club made from a single, larger bone in its hand. A purple cape, just small enough to drape around the complete skeleton, appeared from the darkness of the castle, tying itself around them.
“Hello, Skul,” the Witch said, and Skul nodded, returning the greeting.
It was usually then that Skul would stop by her cauldron, giving her the Dark Quartz he’d managed to collect from the humans before being sent back, then to the fox hunter, for one of his skulls, and to the ogre, for one of his trinkets, then off the balcony, and all over again.
But Skul did none of those things. This time, Skul looked back, towards the empty throne of the Demon King. He’d inspected the seat of the ruler before, but Skul did not approach it this time, instead, he walked towards the more ruined parts of the castle, climbing over some fallen stones. The Witch watched Skul clamber over various parts of the destroyed masonry, towards one of the shattered windows overlooking the kingdom.
With a slight frown and a wave of her hand, the Witch took her cat form, following the skeleton towards the window, using her feline agility to catch up to Skul. Eventually, Skul stopped, and sat down on the edge of the empty window, looking over the forest.
The Witch stopped next to him, and noticed what Skul was focused on. The regal, shimmering Carleon Castle, separated from their own by the massive forest, seemed to be drawing Skul’s attention, and despite his lack of facial features, the Witch could tell Skul was upset.
“What’s wrong, Little Bone?” The Witch asked, tilting her furry head at Skul slightly.
Skul told her about the forest, how the humans have started invading the forest, corrupting the once-peaceful ents with their poor understanding of Dark Quartz, and trying to encroach on the Demon King Castle. He’d learned to navigate the forest, and even became familiar enough with Yggdrasil to be able to free the Elder Ent from their Quartz madness each time they fought, even if the humans would corrupt them once more each time Skul died.
The castle, too, had become familiar territory to Skul. He described the decadence, the shining golden armor of the guards and the dutiful order of the maids and mages that filled the castle halls. But he’s stopped at the end, right before he can venture into the deeper halls of the castle.
“Who stops you, Little Bone?” The Witch asked, and Skul started to sound more upset as he described his roadblock. Two knights, elites, who attacked on the command of the leader of the Gold Mane Knights. They fought with deadly swordsmanship and dangerous magic, nothing compared to the Witch’s, Skul added, but still overwhelming.
But with practice, and with his ability to take on the powers of the skulls he finds, and the treasures he reclaims from the humans, or is given by his fellow monsters, he had finally brought one of the two knights to their knees.
But the other…
Skul talked about the other knight empowering herself with Dark Quartz, but not in the way the Witch had for Skul. The knight became corrupted, like the Elder Ent, but also mighty. All of the wounds Skul had levied in the battle vanished, and the knight began to fight with ruthless anger, each attack more blisteringly fast and impossibly precise than the last.
It was overwhelming. Impossible, Skul said. He said he stood no chance, and even with all the mighty things he’d collected on his journey, and the powerful abilities he’d gained from the skulls he’d found, nothing could save him.
There was nothing he could do, nothing he could find, Skul said. Then Skul fell quiet, and the Witch could hear the shame and sorrow in Skul as he looked out at the castle.
The Witch looked out at the castle, then back to Skul, then to the cape draped around his neck.
She returned to her humanoid form, and held a hand out to Skul.
“Come here, Little Bone.”.
Slowly, Skul took the Witch’s hand, and she pulled him close, embracing the small skeleton.
“Listen to me, Skul. This is not the end. Those knights won’t stop you. And neither will anything else those humans try to stop you with”.
Skul asked what she meant.
“Maybe there is nothing you can find that will save you. Maybe no power in that castle or this forest can really overcome the things the humans will do to stop you.”.
Skul shifted slightly in her arms, and she ran a hand across the top of his head.
“But you have something that none of those humans will ever have.”.
Again, Skul asked what the Witch was talking about. He had seen the riches of the humans, the extent of their empire.
“Nothing like that. The humans… they bicker. They fight each other just as much as they fight themselves, for glory, wealth, and status.”.
“But you’re one of us, Skul. All the hearts of all of our kind rest within you. When you free one of us from the human’s cages in the forest, why do you think they help you?”.
Skul wondered if it’s because the Demon King asked them to, or if they want to have his favor when he’s saved.
“No. It’s because they see what you are. They see you fight the humans and no matter what head you have on, they all see the same thing.”
Skul asked what they see, and the Witch let Skul go just enough to look him in the eye-sockets.
“You are un-living proof that we can save ourselves. That the greed and evil of the humans can be stopped. No matter how many of us they lock up or kill, we’ll keep fighting, and we’ll keep getting stronger. We will save our king, because the humans have forgotten what we have. The light that keeps us together, Skul. You represent exactly what our kind needs, and the exact thing you need to keep going back to those knights until they both fall.”.
Skul asked what he was, and the Witch smiled.
“Hope.”.