Chapter Text
“Why doesn’t healing work on you?!” Grizzop asks in alarm, pulling his hand back as soon as he realizes she’s MORE hurt rather than less. “Are you a ZOMBIE?”
“Do I look like a zombie?” she fires back angrily. She looks absolutely messed up, but he doesn’t say anything to that. She almost reveals that she’s been resurrected, but Grizzop shifts slightly and the light glints off of his Artemis crest.
She may have some pretty big gaps in her knowledge, but she knows for a fact that the Artemis lot don’t like the undead. She doesn’t know for sure what she is, but whatever it is may not be entirely human anymore. So she just shrugs and turns away, going over to the sword.
Eventually the unhelpful professors turn up and manage to be ever so slightly useful.
Sasha feels the worst she’s felt in… Well, weeks at the very least. She’s almost died a few times, so this might not be the worst she’s EVER felt, but its up there. Healing magic hurts now for some reason, which sucks.
At the university she’s laid down on a table and a bunch of necromancers swarm around her, arguing. She just stares at the ceiling and reasons with herself that there’s no reason to panic, really. Sure Bertie is dead and Hamid is transformed and Zolf is gone and she’s in so much pain but… But…
“Don’t worry, if this guy kills you, I’m right here-” Grizzop cuts through her thoughts.
“And you’ll kill him?”
“I will!”
“Thanks, Grizzop. You’re… You’re alright.”
“You too! You’re the only- You too.”
Suddenly she starts feeling better as one of the mages does something. The other necromancers join in, and one of them helpfully explains that they’re using Inflict Wounds on her and it's working!
Sasha glances over and catches Grizzop’s eye. She starts to smile, but she sees him wince while watching the spells work.
Oh no. She thinks. He’s putting it together.
Before they can talk about it, Hamid regains consciousness, and then the gnome lawyers come, and… Well, a lot happens.
Apparently the necromancers told the Cult of Mars that she is undead, proper undead. So they’re going to kill her.
She doesn’t talk to her interrogator, of course. And they leave her with all of her tools, so she tries to escape in the night, but apparently the guard outside her room is actually pretty good.
She would never admit it, but she’s proper scared. This is definitely the most scared she’s been since that tentacle thing started grabbing her party members. More scared than when she got blown up. She takes stock of her weapons, because at this point it seems like the best she’s going to be able to do is go out fighting. Which is so fucking unfair, all she did was help save the world (twice!) and for her trouble she gets-
The door swings open, and she’s beckoned out by the guard. She preps a dagger for each hand and walks out carefully, never putting her back to him.
In the hall she finds Grizzop, Hamid, and Wilde. She relaxes a little.
Wilde takes them away, gets them into some other random classroom to debrief them. They have to go find Lilliana, whoever that is. But first they get to sleep, thank gods, and they’ll make a plan over breakfast.
They’re just about out the door when the bomb drops.
“By the way Sasha, it was not easy to get you back from the Cult of Mars. It is shocking how badly they want to kill you.” Her shoulders tense.
“What? Why?” Grizzop asks, brow furrowed.
“Because she’s undead, apparently,” Wilde says casually.
Sasha doesn’t bother sticking around. She doesn’t want to fight Grizzop, okay? He’s grown on her a lot over the past few days, and he’s effective, and she’s so tired. So she bolts.
She’s out the door and down the hall in the blink of an eye (when did she get so fast?). She doesn’t bother looking back, even though her other two party members are calling her name.
She gets herself as high as possible, where she’ll feel safe, the top floor. She hides in a closet she finds up there, crouching in the dark, curled around herself.
She figures she’ll probably just sleep there. In the morning she can get some breakfast and then try to somehow sneak out of the city. She refuses to go back to London, but she could go back to Dover for a while, or try to go somewhere completely new. Maybe Zolf would let her tag along with him wherever he is, given the circumstances.
Unfortunately this plan is foiled by two sets of footsteps walking down the hall.
“Sasha?” Hamid’s voice calls out. “Sasha, are you up here?”
She stays silent, but unfortunately a moment later the door swings open.
“There you are!” Hamid says, Grizzop at his shoulder. “What happened Sasha? Are you okay? You really scared us!”
“Stay away from me,” she says with as much steel in her voice as she can. She slips out of the closet and backs away, a dagger finding its way into her palm.
“What?” Hamid asks, confused, but Sasha is speaking to Grizzop.
“I-I know you think I’m a m-monster or something, but I’m still me, and I don’t want to die. I’m not giving anyone any trouble, so just stay away from me.”
“What are you talking about?” Grizzop asks, dumbstruck.
“I know your lot is like the Mars guys. You think I’m an abomination so now your church says you have to kill me, right?” her voice doesn’t waver, but if she was anyone else it would. “And I will not go easily. I don’t want to do it, but I will fight you if I have to, Grizzop.”
“Sasha…” he says, looking extremely hurt. “You think that I’m like those stupid Mars blokes? They think I’M a monster too, you know!”
“Don’t lie to me, I know the Cult of Artemis hates undead.”
Hamid looks between his two party members, completely unsure what to do.
“Well, sure, but like real undead! Zombies and stuff! You’re not… You’re different, okay? Hamid explained it to me, and its not your fault you got a bad resurrection job. You’re just you , Sasha, not some undead minion.” He’s so earnest during his speech, staring up at her with his big glowing eyes. “I’m not going to try and kill you, I swear on my bow. You’re my friend, Sasha.”
She meets his gaze for a second, the hall completely silent. Then she sort of slumps down on to the ground, her shoulders drooping. “They were going to kill me… Th-they were going to execute me. They told me so…”
“Oh Sasha,” Hamid says, and comes over to give her a light hug. Grizzop joins on the other side, and if they feel her shoulders shaking a little as she tries to breathe, neither of them mention it.
“Its okay Sasha,” Grizzop says quietly. “We’ve got you. You’re safe now, and we’re not letting anyone take you without a really nasty fight.”
Bonus:
“How did you know how to find me?” Sasha asks over breakfast the next day. “Is there a spell for that or something?”
“Oh, uh, I actually kind of remembered you liking rooftops from our Parisian adventures, so we went up,” Hamid says sheepishly. “A bit of a guess, really.”
“And I checked all the locks on the floor to see which were picked!” Grizzop says cheerfully. “So anyway, whose this Lilliana girl?”