urrhak--ahem, valentine kaath, an unscrupulous half-orc, fancies himself a trader of used goods. his dirt-caked boots and the spade he carries across his back should be plenty to inform his buyers just where the goods come from, but valentine knows two very important things. one, if your goods are good enough, no one cares where you get them. and two, if your buyers are bad enough, they won't care either. so he makes his living happily and without guilt. the people he's robbing won't miss what he takes anyway

his favorites are the recently-buried. after a nice funeral, people don't generally immediately come back to the grave. and the dirt's still nice and fresh; it's easier to dig up, and it looks just the same when he buries them for the second time

he's making his rounds outside torch--one of his favorite places to go and trade, since there's so much traffic--when he notices some shifted earth near the edge of town, close to the wilderness around. jackpot. he moves closer, finding a gravestone. lazily carved, he notes--there's nothing legible but "RU"

he's not a theorizing person. he doesn't particularly give a baag why there's not more on the stone. after checking the perimeter and making sure the coast is clear, valentine sets to work. he's unearthed three fourths of the coffin when he realizes why the earth has shifted. this isn't a fresh grave--it's old. very old. and whatever's inside it is trying to get out

valentine takes a cue from it, and gets right the hell out of there before it escapes

but khonnir baine's daughter is not so lucky. an inexhaustible young girl, val baine is constantly exploring her surroundings, even when her father tells her not to stray far from town. but how can she listen to him, when there's so much wonder in the world? even he can't deny that--his soul is just as adventurous as hers

she watches as the coffin shatters into splinters, and out crawls a ragged, ravenous.. young woman. she's got a wild look in her eye, and her fists are coated with blood, but she otherwise seems fine

the woman is completely disoriented--she remembers nothing at all. she looks desperately at her surroundings for some kind of sign of what's happened to her. all she sees is a stone, with two letters. she recognizes that it must be her name. but what is a name? and how does she say it?

val considers running away, and she's just unsteady enough that she feels a twig break beneath her foot. the woman's gaze snaps in val's direction, and for a brief moment the girl thinks she's done for

but despite every bone in her body crying for violence, for vengeance, something convinces the woman not to lash out. instead, she runs into the woods. and val baine runs back into town, to find her father

khonnir, a wizened veteran of the strange occurrences in torch, immediately strikes out to investigate upon hearing his daughter's testimony. perhaps he's a little foolish. but he wants to do some good in finding the woman. and he does find her. alone in the woods, cold, starving, angry, draped in a burial gown

she's scared

khonnir knows just enough to know that she's not undead. he has no idea how to explain the coffin, but she's clearly completely and genuinely alive. he and val take ru in--they teach her how to say her name. they feed her, clothe her. she learns to speak rather quickly--as if she once knew how and forgot. her brain is a mishmash. she has no memories, but she recognizes places, letters, sounds, tastes..

she doesn't adjust well--she's terse, abrasive, doesn't relate well, keeps having to be reminded to pay for things, speaks with an accent they don't really recognize--but she does adjust

..till the memories start

ru remembers how long she was in the coffin. she remembers waking up, thrashing about, crying, screaming, running out of air..
and then suddenly she's getting kicked out of a market for breaking a stall in half

khonnir tries to help ru manage these relapses, tries to teach her to control them, to think her way through them, to ground herself and remember that she's free now, she'll never have to go back. it works for the most part. having sweet val around helps

..one day ru remembers begging her grandchildren not to bury her

desperate to understand this memory, she runs off to find khonnir, blurting the story and begging him to help her. khonnir is silent as he reasons his way through it, and something clicks in his mind! he finally understands, and all he has to do is break the news to ru as gently as possible


the light in torch goes out