5

Tallulah knew she was lonely. She also knew that there was nothing she could do about it. Her existence had become a legend and her location could change at any moment. Not great for creating lasting connections. As a girl, who had never left her hometown, she had no connections outside the place she wasn’t going back to until all of them were long dead.

Maybe Huldrych was…

No. She wasn’t that desperate.

Time to stock up on sweets. The cafe was located at a busy intersection, with a large dining room and an even larger kitchen. Their size had the advantage of always having a large variety of items to pick up and try.

“Miss Wilde!” the girl behind the door exclaimed.

Here, she was neither The Elusive Witch, nor the Messenger of Death. She was simply Miss Wilde, who dropped in like a cryptid every few years, bought out the whole shop, and left without a trace.

“I don't believe it. Is it really her?”

“She was here two years ago, I heard. I didn’t work here back then.”

“It must be her. Suzy recognised her immediately.”

“So that means we get the day off?”

“Don’t be stupid. Who do you think has to help bake to refill the stock until tomorrow?”

Tallulah stood inside the entrance and let the discussion play out. She never talked to them beyond what was necessary. And yet, to have a place in which she was known and welcomed always stirred her heart in places she thought she had long buried.

“Miss Wilde?”

“Same as always,” Tallulah simply said.

The owner of the cafe walked into the room and clapped her hands twice.

“We’re sold out for today,” she announced.

All patrons broke out into applause. It was an historical moment. To see Miss Wilde buy out the shop was something that would bring you luck for the whole year, so the saying went. Maybe it was just the fact that Tallulah was in the city to purify unseen threats, which made the peace last longer.

“Would you care to try this month’s specialties while we arrange everything?” the owner asked.

Tallulah nodded. She sat down at a table and as the first order of business put down a bundle full of gold coins. No one paid her for her purifying work, but she often stumbled across deserted locations with leftover treasure, like the castle from the day before. She was aware that she vastly overpaid every time, but neither of them acknowledged it. The previous owner must have talked sense into the current one to not question her blessings.

The theme of this month was fruit. Fruit tarts, cream filled fruit pies, candied bits… Tallulah sat in silence and consumed one lavishly decorated piece after the other. At first, the taste just overlaid the ashen aroma still in her mouth, but by the fifth, there was only sweetness. Tallulah sighed in bliss and leaned back in her chair.

No more death. Just peaches and strawberries.

And free brain capacity to think about what underground meant. Tallulah ignored the murmurs of the collected patronage, watching the cafe’s staff bring out everything they had in store, setting it all out on their counters. The voices only got louder when she proceeded to dump one pastry after the next into her bag.

Having a magical storage bag was nothing unusual in their world, but one that preserved food like hers was really expensive. Then again, she was buying out the whole shop. Supplies for the months ahead. When she was finally finished, a crowd had assembled, even outside the doors. To see Miss Wilde in person was such a rare event, after all.

The markings let her go through with it all. They had a tacit understanding of the fact that for all her power, Tallulah was still a human and needed to eat and sleep. There was no action without her cooperation, even if she could be teleported directly into the undead horde.

She thanked the owner and staff politely, then walked to the back of the shop, around a corner and clad herself in a veil of invisibility. The crowd rushed after her, but she was gone. Appeared from nowhere, disappeared into thin air. Another story for the books.

Over the next few hours, she walked around the kitchens, where dozens of people were working overtime to replenish their stock. The sweet smell of sugar, meringue, jam and honey made her forget everything for a while, wrapping her in a sense of calmness.

But she couldn’t stay forever.

Underground, huh?

In the northern part of the city, there was a large cathedral built on a hillside. Adjacent to it was a monastery, whose monks and nuns prayed to the local gods as long as Tallulah could remember. A large city such as Kindu, existing for centuries, would logically need a lot of cemeteries. The biggest one covered several hills behind the cathedral, with graves dating back from the city’s inception.

Still invisible, she ran through the streets at a fast pace, dodging every person and carriage in her way, until she sped past the cathedral itself, coming to rest at the entrance of the cemetery.

The public knew of the many mausoleums built here to honor prominent families, the royals and holy people. But they didn’t know of the catacombs stretching out below, for miles and miles, even underneath the city. If the undead came back to life and weren’t raiding the city, they were likely trapped down there.

Underneath the large trees, the air was cooler than in the city and Tallulah breathed easier. The further she walked into the forest, which covered most of the cemetery, the fewer people she encountered. Finally, in a part which had existed for well over three hundred years, she found herself alone. And with an idea.

She reached into her bag and ordered it to produce the skull. Huldrych gasped for air dramatically when he was produced.

“The indignity! The absolute disgrace! The—”

“Shut up or you’ll end up back in there.”

“Please, don’t. I didn’t even know where I was and everything was full of cake I couldn’t eat. It was horrible!"

“Tell me what you remember about coming back into this world.”

Huldrych paused for a moment.

“Alright. But only on one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“You’ll be my friend.”