From Corpse to Crown: Reborn as a Mortician in Another World-Chapter 55: Ashes and Avenues

He finally noticed Cadrel standing near the ruined bowel that once held the final flavor, eyes unfocused. The older man staggered, clutching at his coat. On the back of his wrist a tiny glyph shone purple—one he’d drawn in secret for warmth and clarity—fizzled.

In its place was the fear again, and it returned in full force.

Slowly, he...changed.

Cadrel’s posture sagged and he looked over his shoulder every now and then.

"Yes, o-of course," he said, so soft Lucian strained to hear him speak. The once gruff and dry-witted Brother Cadrel that moved to protect the door from the King had disappeared.

He looked like someone who stepped out of a memory that wasn’t his.

Alice slowly stretched her hand out to him and he shrank back, like he could make himself disappear if he tried.

Merry said softly, "He’s shellshocked."

Lucian watched Cadrel sit down and turn slightly away. "It’s like he’s dissolving."

+

Cadrel spoke little as they set up a small fire in the outer courtyard. He couldn’t keep eye contact for very long. When he could, he looked past them, like Cadrel saw something none of them could.

Lucian practiced drawing a fire glyph and was pleased when he managed to light some of the kindling Merry and Alice found.

She had been setting up the tents again, while Brother Cadrel was wrapped up warm in front of the fire.

"I should’ve heard Elian," he murmured to no one in particular. His eyes were glued to the fire, sparks dancing in the void that was his eyes. "If I caught the footsteps sooner, it might have changed the outcome."

Merry tugged the tent one last time to make sure it was secure and said kindly, "No one could’ve stopped him. My warning glyphs barely caught his presence until he was almost at the Hollow."

"B-but—" Cadrel started. "I might’ve changed what he had to do!"

He snapped then, and silence fell around their little camp.

Even Alice looked shaken, and she moved a little further away from Cadrel, chewing her lip. She glanced at Merry’s Grimoire, like it might open itself to help.

Her hands twitched, and she didn’t speak. But after a while, she squatted beside Cadrel, hands bare to the snow-slick stone.

With a shaky fingertip, she traced something in the air.

A soft gold light bloomed from her finger—not bright, but it held steady.

Encouraged, Alice did it again.

A small glyph, crude and misshapen, carefully hummed above the snow-covered soil. It wasn’t quite a healing glyph, but it was gentle. Like the way a freshly lit candle softens grief at the end of a long night.

Cadrel blinked.

And then slowly...he relaxed. Like the little glyph gave him something else to focus on. He didn’t smile, but he stopped staring into nothing.

Lucian had been watching Alice from his spot near the fire. His mind was reeling.

She noticed him looking at her and smiled sheepishly. Alice sat back on her heels, pale and unsure. "I...I saw Merry do something like that a few times, in the Hollow."

Lucian crouched beside her, stunned. "And you did that instinctively, Alice?" He tried to suppress his amazement and failed.

She said softly, "I didn’t think it would work. But...I didn’t know what to do. I just...I don’t like it when he looks so broken."

His heart stirred with quiet joy and pride, like a father would when his child did well in school.

Times like this reminded him of when Alice was still a spirit struggling to awaken and Rosa, the vessel, was still among them.

She was always waiting patiently beside the carriage. If not there, she would follow Lucian and do her best to support him.

Her presence wasn’t magical, and it wasn’t perfect.

But it was present. She could make him feel better just by being there, and it made the journey more bearable.

I never saw Rosa cast glyphs though. Alice just drew one. Does this...does it really mean she’s growing a personality of her own?

He looked at Merry, who was busy sifting through their packed rations, and vowed to ask her about Alice later.

Maybe Alice is a possible healer. Emotionally responsive, has magical ability, and no formal rite training. With the last one, unlike his own powers, they didn’t leak. Her strength didn’t beg to be known.

It just was.

+

"Merry," he whispered as she drank from a canteen. "Do instinctive healers get training of any kind?"

Her expression darkened as she closed the canteen. "Not anymore."

Lucian’s brow furrowed. Surely Alice’s chances weren’t scuppered just yet. "Why not?"

"There used to be pockets of them. Travelers. They’d stop in towns during the thick of the Great Mortician Disappearance." She explained.

"They didn’t carry Grimoires. But they were different from potion-slinging alchemists. They just followed grief where it flowed and helped where they could.

All they wanted in return was a little kindness."

Lucian leaned forward. "What happened to them?"

Merry seemed hesitant to go on.

"Please?" Lucian said quietly. "She might be the only one who can help Brother Cadrel."

She looked at how Alice was sitting next to Cadrel now, listening to him by the fire. His voice seemed to have found a bit more strength.

Merry continued. "They passed by a great valley—and never returned."

He stared at her.

"What valley?"

She looked at him evenly.

"It’s called the Vale of Unfinished Rites."

+

Lucian’s satchel shook and the Echoheart System stirred. It appeared in front of him, words spilling across its open pages:

[Ritefield Interference Signature has been detected: Long-range]

[Source: The Vale]

[Status: Unstable. Incomplete. Waiting.]

Lucian slowly closed the Grimoire. "What kind of place is it?"

Merry already knew where this was going. She didn’t answer right away and seemed very interested in doodling on the ground with a twig.

"Merry?" He said, a little louder. "What’s the Vale of Unfinished Rites like?"

This time, it was Alice who answered him.

"It’s where rites go to sleep," she said softly. "I’ve never been there, but my m—I’ve dreamt of it, once."

Lucian raised his head sharply. "Dreamed of it?"

"Mmhm. It looked like the sky before dawn. A soft blue, with words floating in midair. Wind blew like it was always trying to remember something. It was a very noisy town...and at one point I woke up in a sweat."

Cadrel bit the inside of his cheek before he spoke. "They say unfinished rites are like the undead of this world—they can’t rest. These rites cling to the land like songs with no melody. Adventurers swear the Vale is like a land siren. It’s looking for someone—anyone—to finish what someone started."

"It’s dangerous for one mortician," Merry added, voice tight. "Might be easier with others. With how long those glyphs have been absorbing power from the earth...if any of them destabilize, it could do irreparable damage to the plant life around it. And...glyphs that don’t know what emotion they were built from could do that."

Lucian exhaled. "...so it would be the best place to train Alice."

"Train Alice?" Cadrel asked, incredulous. "Lucian, you barely made it through this place intact..." his voice trailed off. It would be like the pot calling the kettle black.

But Lucian let it go.

"Exactly. And I keep thinking I understand grief...but I just don’t."

He looked around at them all—Cadrel’s cracking stoicism, Alice’s quiet courage, and Merry’s dirt-stained hands still carrying memories no one had ever asked her to hold.

"I...I need to know what magic was before the Queen decided how death should work." Lucian said quickly, before he lost his nerve. "Before grief became a government process."

Merry said softly, "Now that Elian isn’t tracking us anymore, I thought..."

She thought it would be safe to return to the Hollow. Is Merry homesick? Lucian thought and a flash of sadness pierced his heart.

"You can return if you want to," he offered. "it isn’t fair of us to keep you too far from home."

She looked relieved. "...I do miss Houndsberry. And I really thought now that Elian was going to be punished, we could go back and live slowly again. But..."

Merry looked up at the sky full of thick white clouds. She saw how the winter sunlight managed to pierce through them, and frowned. Then she spoke with a dark edge to her voice.

"Houndsberry isn’t safe either. Too many people know it’s there. I need to get better at hiding, or...we just need to make sure none of our enemies live to hunt you down again."

Brother Cadrel nodded. "Agreed. So, to the Vale?"

Lucian and Alice bowed their heads in acknowledgement.

"To the Vale."