I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 59 - Dead Don't Die

The Phoenix regarded them silently.

All Evangeline could hear was the dripping hollowness of the cave and her own heartbeat pounding in her ears.

"Evangeline," someone said, she couldn't tell who. All her focus was on the enigmatic bird. At last she felt the gaze of the mythical creature drop to Valerian, then to the jewel in her hand.

They squawked once, the first time any of them had heard the Phoenix sound birdlike. They fluttered their wings and came across the space before Evangeline.

"Set him down!" Evangeline ordered.

Artmond helped her guide Valerian's rag doll body to the floor of the cave.

"It's going to be alright," she said her thoughts out loud. She had no delusions that it was her herself she was trying to convince.

"Evangeline, he's really dead," Sigismund said.

"The Phoenix will revive him," Evangeline argued, turning to hold out the jewel once more at the approaching bird.

"No, what I mean is ... if he is a vampire, then he's already dead. He can't be revived," the cleric tried to argue.

"The Phoenix revived Hagor," Artmnond argued.

"Hagor is already a living being! And we don't know that for certain. None of us saw it!" Sigismund continued to argue.

"So what does that make him now? If he did die and was brought back?" Artmond pointed out. "He seems really alive to me."

"I do not remember anything," Hagor said, pressing his hand to his chest. "I remember the darkness and then sharp ... 'pain' is not the word. 'Intensity.'"

Evangeline ignored them all as she watched the Phoenix pluck the jewel from her hand, the tips of their beak scrapping her skin. They lifted their head and swallowed down the jewel whole, the bulge of it sliding down their long, swan-like neck. As soon as the lump disappeared into their body, light burned amongst the feathers of their chest. It intensified quickly, silencing all arguments from the others as the whole party stared at the sight. The light burned out from it in a burst, pulsing down each feather of their body and across each wing. The multi-colored feathers of the Phoenix shone with their own internal light. Then the light extended beyond the tips of each pinion, unfurling like ribbons, each taking on the color and patterns of those wings. The tendrils shot down toward Valerian's still body, the patterns moving and shifting.

Knowledge: Arcana. Success.

Evangeline saw indecipherable runes flash in the magic tendrils, but she could not discern their meaning as they wrapped themselves completely around Valerian's body. She and Artmond fell away from the vampire's body as the light continued to intensify, helped by the air vibrating them back as great magic worked. All color sank away from the tendrils, becoming impossibly white, showing only the outline of Valerian's form as it rose from the ground. Then with an electrical snap, the light burst like a soap bubble.

Valerian returned to the ground and lay there quietly. The magic and light blinked out as the Phoenix, too, returned to the ground, where they folded their wings and started preening their feathers as if nothing happened.

The whole party stared at the still form on the ground. No one breathed.

Then Valerian stirred. He didn't breathe in exactly, but his body undulated as it ... reactivated.

"Valerian!" Evangeline cried, moving toward him to lay a hand on his chest to stop him from sitting up entirely. He gripped her hand back with one of his, his eyes scanning around himself for danger, as he rolled onto his side.

"What... where?" was all he could get out. Gasping air in, in order to say anything at all.

"It's alright, friend. The Phoenix brought you back," Artmond said, as if anyone who had just gone through the experience would understand and be reassured by that.

Reassured was not how Valerian looked at all.

"What happened?" he finally asked, meeting Evangeline's gaze, his good looks making him look almost boyish as he asked the question.

Before she could answer, another thought occurred to him, and he let go of her to grab desperately at his shirt. His shaking fingers found the Black Sun still around his neck, pulling it out to confirm for himself that it was still there. Then, he looked up at the group with a thick layer of horror and guilt, realizing too late what secret of his he had revealed.

"It's okay," Evangeline said before he could ask the question. "They know. It's alright. You're safe with us. You're safe." Tears were slipping down her face even as she smiled. Relief. He was alive. Or at least his definition of alive.

He still looked warily around at the group, unbelieving.

"I don't understand," Sigismuind said, shaking her head, just as stunned as the rest of them. "If he is an undead ... how? How can he be revived? This flies in the face of everything I have ever understood about healing and how revival magic works."

Evangeline had no answer for her, and it was only then that she realized it was a big plot hole in the game. How could Valerian, an undead creature, come back from being killed in game with the Phoenix revival method? He wasn't technically alive in the same way they all were. It seemed like a glaring plot hole that the game developers hadn't bothered plugging or explaining. She looked to the Phoenix, but the bird showed no interest in explaining it either. They only flapped their wings and returned to their perch.

"Wait, what about him?" Harrowheart called after the bird, gesturing at the werewolf still also lying dead on the ground.

The bird looked at that body, then at Harrowheart.

No, it said, in its strange wordless way that was still heard by all. He is not my concern. I will not do it.

"Please!" Harrowheart begged. "I'll do anything. I'll get you all the jewels you could want. Please bring him back."

I have spoken on the matter, the Phoenix declared, as they stared cooly down at Harrowheart.

"But you did it for him!" she shouted, pointing at Valerian, who was getting to his feet with Evangeline's assistance.

Still the bird did not answer further, nor did they seem to change their mind.

Harrowheart turned back to the rest of the group. "Please. Help me. If we don't do something, this will start a war between the clerics and the druids..."

"You've got an even bigger problem than that," Valerian said, clearing his throat. "He's not a druid." The rogue pointed down at Ryder. "He's a vampire."