First they called him Anaten The Scholar, Later it was Anaten the corrupt, then it was Anaten the Tyrant, next they called him The Cursed King, and finally simply Anaten who had borne so many titles was known as ‘The Dead Man.’

  -forward[Translated] to an ancient tome found at a dig outside of Rabek. Rest of Book unrecoverable.

  Chapter 79: The Dead Man’s Hand

  Alabaster

  Alley didn’t remember passing out or throwing up all over himself, but he awoke to find both things had happened. His whole body ached and felt hot like he was in the throes of a particularly strong fever. Above him, Lady Astley hung limply from the trunk of the tree which appeared to be decaying at an extreme rate. Alley had expected the satisfaction he had been promised by the savage feeling he had been overcome by whilst battling the woman. It had been a lie, and now all he felt about killing the woman was regret.

  Letting out a long breath Alley considered just continuing to lay there in a daze for a while. He could no longer hear the sounds of combat coming from outside which meant Darius was either dead or had won. Alley wanted to tell himself that meant he could just lay there as there was nothing he could do to affect the outcome now. He had to admit there was a slight issue with that line of reasoning, it just wasn’t true.

  Assuming Darius had defeated the swarming Undead, he could very well be injured. The dark-haired boy was hauling himself to his feet when the first of the Undeath Crystals growing from Lady Astley’s branches began to fall. They were durable things and the ground was soft so the valuable crystals were in no danger. The same could not be said for Alley.

  As though in one final act of spite the crystals closest to Alley were the first to start falling. It was only the second ‘fruit’ to fall that clipped him on the eyebrow and sent the boy stumbling as blood ran down his face from it being split open. Clutching his head, Alley loudly swore and forced his aching body to keep moving before he was further injured by a hail of fist-sized crystals.

  Out past the reach of the tree’s branches, he could see the Ghost girl that had been previously pinned to the wall by the beams of resonance. There were holes left behind where the beams had pierced her, Alley could quite easily make out the glass wall behind her through the bloodless gaps. They were slowly closing, including her dress which seemed to ‘heal’ at the same rate as the rest of her. Alley supposed if you were a ghost your clothes probably were kind of a part of you.

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  She was warily looking at him as she collected herself and stood up. While the girl had ostensibly been on his side during and before the Challenge, he got the sense that had been more of an enemy of my enemy type situation. Still, he had already killed one font of potential knowledge today, he didn’t want to antagonize her any more than he had to.

  “I think you and I need to have a conversation.” He said trying to sound and seem friendly as he did. The girl looked at him, caution still writ large on her face. Caution that turned to outright fear when her eyes met his. Alley didn’t know what she was seeing, but whatever it was she didn’t like it.

  “ I don’t think so.” she said, raising an eyebrow and raising a hand, to which the ‘The Dead Man’s Hand.’ Swept towards her much as it had when the boys had spotted her over the ocean. Ever since seeing her appear in the glass structure, Alley had a theory that there must have been an unusual amount of Undeath Resonance in that section of The Silver Sea if it rendered her visible like the crystals here did.

  “The Dead Man’s Hand!” Alley shouted, causing the huge limb to freeze its motion and hang in the air.

  “I believe that is mine.” He went on firmly. ‘So much for not antagonizing her.’

  The white haired girl stared between Alley and the arm for a long silent moment before finally letting out a long sigh.

  “Technically it's linked to your Deck, but it's supposed to be mine!”

  Well that confirmed one suspicion at least. The Dead Man’s Hand was an item linked to The Crown Of The Cursed King, but somehow this apparition could control it. It had to be that she was linked to the Deck to, of course he had no idea how that worked or could be achieved.

  That went for a lot of things Alley had seen since leaving Cursed Isle, not least of all a woman who was also an Undead tree. So in general he was trying to avoid using words like ‘impossible’, or ‘inconceivable.’

  He would need to figure out exactly what the linked item was capable of, and that probably meant talking to this girl at length. If he was going to do that, Alley really needed to make sure Darius hadn’t died first.

  “Dead Man’s Hand, hold her till I come back?” With surprising gentleness, the arm snatched the girl’s hair and part of her dress between two of its massive fingers, at which point it simply hovered, holding the girl as commanded, and ignoring her counter demands.

  After a few seconds to pointless struggling she let out a sort of “huumph” sound, and stopped resisting.

  “Well, be quick alright?!” she hissed at him as Alley strode towards the exit of the strange glass building. Alley couldn’t help but grin a little at her words, something he hid before glancing back over his shoulder at her.

  “Oh hey, what's your name?” He called cheerfully to the ghost he had evidently captured. Making a blatant effort to keep herself calm the girl replied. “Denderra”

  I hope this feels as much like a 'Fuck yeah' moment as I want it to.

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