"Why me? Why anyone? Necromancy—the art of the dead—is something everyone agrees is a terrible art," Sonder said.
"Disagreeing with your master? Why, that's an offense to our bond, Sonder," Vell said.
It took her a few moments, but then Sonder said, "I am sorry, master."
"Ahh, just joking. I don't care much about authority or the things people seemed to have stamped and labeled as 'wrong'. All in all, I don't even care for the living that much. They pass me by so quickly, and none seem to appreciate life until it's too late. How about you, Sonder? Do you find no enjoyment in being alive again?"
"I don't know if I could call this life."
"Do you want to be truly resurrected?" Vell offered.
"Can you do that?"
"Why yes, not much magic is out of my grasp. But it depends on you. Magic as true resurrection requires life of the same value."
"And conjuring that is out of your grasp then?" Sonder asked.
Vell was silent for a moment, then put a hand to his chin and answered plainly, "No."
He reached into the air with a pale hand, though it grasped nothing; the air was uncatchable.
Then he tried again, this time saying, "Soh," before gripping something in the air as if it were solid. "Tal," he said, and tore it free.
There was a small discolored piece in his hand and he gave that piece to Sonder before it slowly disappeared and the air fixed itself, repairing the tear.
"Can you then?" Sonder asked.
Vell laughed, "Maybe if you proved yourself worthy of life." And then finally stood up from the stump and walked on, using his staff as a walking stick.
And Sonder followed him as any thrall would do.
She noticed she didn't look human as she once did, before the sword remained in her stomach.
"Are you human?" She asked plainly.
"No."
"What are you then?"
"Maybe I'll tell you later."
"Where are we going?"
"You're pretty nosy for both an undead and a servant."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It's good, strangely refreshing, even. There is an innocence to your being which I enjoy. And we're not going anywhere. We're just walking over to a little village right here. It's where I found you. Do you remember it?"
Vell pointed to a few houses not too far from where they were.
They were small shacks with straw roofs.
Sonder didn't remember the village, but she remembered the cold, and how straw sometimes wasn't enough to keep warm.
"No," she said.
"You know, seeing you walk around... Your limbs are still a bit stiff and maybe the sword is hindering your movement, don't you want to take it out?" Vell asked.
She hadn't thought of that.
She gripped the handle and pulled, but it was stuck; still, she kept trying.
Vell stopped and then crouched down to look at her stomach, "Oh my," he said, "Maybe the resurrection accidentally bonded your body with the metal of the sword. I'll have to fix that later."