“Not me! I clean them up, thank you! But I find the skeletons lying together…I suspect perhaps the mice gathered before they died? Mayhap consumed each other? Then again…the undead do this too.”

He chuckled. Cara eyed him.

“What. Zombies?”

“Mm. Sometimes. Join together to form stronger undead. But mice? I think it’s just them trying to survive, albeit through cannibalism. I’ll put this away; I find these things now and then. Mouse cairns, I call them.”

Dalius sighed, bent down, and began to scoop up the bones. He ferried them off, and Cara saw him dropping little bones, cursing, picking them up fastidiously, then flying off faster…

The world’s oddest ghost janitor. He clearly was not good at his new job, even if he’d had centuries of practice. He made a face that expressed how distasteful he found picking up the mice corpses and bones, and his approach to disposing of them was apparently dumping them in a pile and hoping they’d disintegrate in time.

“Haven’t you thought of making a broom out of roots or something? Or a shovel? Crafting some sort of tool?”

“They would fall to pieces continually. I am no [Cleaner].”

Dalius looked scandalized by the thought. He drew himself up and touched his ancient breastplate.

“Miss Cara, I am Ser Dalius of the Order of the Shadowed Blooms.”

Cara bit off a sarcastic response.

“I understand that. But you’re…dead.”

He huffed, crossing his arms.

“Death does not free me from my vows. Well…”

He hesitated.

“…In theory, it does. I swore many oaths, ah, ‘until my last breath’, or ‘unto death’. But the spirit of my vows remains intact. I am a [Knight]. I trained from a boy to be a [Knight], and it is all I ever was. I wish nothing more than to…continue being one.”

Dalius walked with Cara, looking blankly ahead. She glanced at him and the greatsword on his back.

“You mean, continue fighting evil or something?”

She couldn’t help but smile, and was surprised when Dalius turned his head and returned her smile without any guile.

“Yes. There is great evil in the world, Miss Cara. Or at least, there was when I died. I cannot imagine the world has changed that much. [Brigands] and [Bandit Kings]. Monsters. Oh, terrible monsters. I would fight them all if I could. I have been granted a second chance. My body does not age! I cannot die by mortal means, save perhaps great magic or other powers.”

His voice rose. He put his hand on his sword.

“Even foes that humbled me in life would quail before a ghost wielding honor and blade! A Human man whose valor defied death itself!”

“Also, because they can’t hit you.”

Ser Dalius looked hurt.

“Yes, that too. I believe I was brought back for a reason, Cara. I…just don’t know what it was.”

He looked around, and was suddenly lost.