3

The head flew in a beautiful arc, right through a broken window. She was a little disappointed it didn’t shatter any glass. The rest of the skeleton collapsed into a heap. She conjured a little, glowing mouse, which jumped down onto the pile, but nothing happened. The counter on her hand didn’t change.

So the soul was inside the head.

Tallulah sighed. This was what most people got wrong about The Elusive Witch. She wasn’t saving people, she was saving the souls of the people sent back into the world of the living, trapped into their past bodies once more. Confused and scared, they returned to the places they knew in life, subconsciously seeking out help from the people they knew, which were often long gone.

Why was this happening? Tallulah didn’t know. She only knew that she had been granted the power to collect the souls through her magic.

“That wasn’t very nice,” the head said from outside.

Tallulah leaned over the windowsill and reached for the skull. A few futile grabs and useless overextending when the door was right there, she managed to put her fingers through the eyeholes and picked it up like a bowling ball.

“And who are you?”

“The castle’s… uh…”

The skull’s jaw hung open while it tried to think with no brain.

Souls came back in all sorts of states. It made sense, because everyone lived and died differently. They forgot their past selves at different rates and were more or less confused when they returned. For the vast majority, the shock of being ripped out of their eternal sleep was enough to make them lose their minds for good. Some remembered enough to trigger their emotions. Very, very few stayed conscious. They usually weren’t recognised in the horde.

In any case, not having vocal cords or a remaining brain wasn’t an issue when you could hear the soul communicate. And Tallulah could. Just an undesired side effect of the powers she was given.

“The castle’s uh… things… guy…”

“Quartermaster?”

“That’s it!”

“Nice. Now if you’ll excuse me.”

The glowing mouse jumped up on Tallulah’s shoulder, ran down her arm and jumped on the skull. Whatever had animated it was sucked out of the frame it had supported and absorbed by the light purification spell. Whatever—whoever had talked to Tallulah was gone.

“Right. Back to sleep.”

She glanced at her hand. The marking would sometimes interfere. This time, it didn’t. While she was often (always) thrown from place to place without even the smallest sense of consideration, there were times she was allowed to rest. She sat down on the edge of the windowsill, staring into the sky, which was slowly changing orange.

Where was this? Climate mild, weather agreeable. Castle ruins, abandoned for at least a hundred years. No nearby towns… Could be… hm… What else could narrow down the location?

“Should’ve asked for their name…” she mumbled.

“Huldrych,” a voice said from below.

“Holy shit,” Tallulah shouted and kicked the skull across the room once more.

It crashed into a wall, a chip off its top, but otherwise intact. She watched the skull roll across the uneven, tiled floor, coming to rest against the remnants of a table.

“You have temper issues,” it said.

“And you’re starting to piss me off. Why did you keep quiet?”

“Sorry for not wanting to get punched again.”

“Hrm.”

Tallulah directed her glowing mouse towards the skull with a thought. The creatures were her creation—a variant of the spell to collect souls given legs. The form they took depended on her whim. The mouse jumped over the rubble and on top of the sideways-laying head.

“Hey,” it said.

“Why won’t you go quiet?” Tallulah asked.

“I don’t even know what you’re doing, but it’s annoying.”

“Annoying? Me? You’re the one, who refuses to be purified!”

“Ah,” the skull said. “Can’t purify what’s already pure.”

“What was your name again?”

“Huldrych.”

“Fuck off, Huldrych.”

“Oi.”

With that, Tallulah unleashed a purification spell so strong, the whole castle lit up like a sunrise, blinding white light flooding the whole hillside around it. As if frozen in time, every undead stopped their movement and just a moment later, collapsed to the ground. When the souls flooded into Tallulah’s body, their anguish washed over her and left a revolting taste in her mouth. This was why she usually outsourced the collection to her creatures.

The light faded, not instantly, but like dissolving fog.

“You done?” Huldrych asked.

Tallulah struck the wall next to her so hard, the whole building collapsed around her. When the dust had settled, she reached into her bag, fishing for something to wash the taste out of her mouth. She only found one last piece of milk candy. It would have to do.

“Yeah, I’m done here. Get me out of here,” Tallulah said to the marking on her right hand.

Nothing happened.

“I can’t get rid of him and he’s not a danger to anyone as a skull.”

Nothing happened again.

“Fine. But I’m not dealing with that right now.”

She grabbed Huldrych under loud protest and tapped her bag, which opened up by itself like a maw. The skull screamed as it was dropped into the void, neatly cut off by the bag closing again.

In response, the markings started moving and Tallulah’s body was once again wrapped in ice. So the cleanup here was done. She closed her eyes and hoped the next location would at least have a bed.

And cake. Lots of cake.