(Scars do not appear to be cause of death –shock ... - Bad Request

~~~~~
Hargrimm, high priest of the Silent King and leader of the skeletons of the
Dead Nations, rested his bony hands on the altar. If he had lungs he would
have sighed. Many years lay in the span between his old life and this new
existence, and the ways of the living were alien to him now. Yet certain
habits decayed more slowly than the flesh.
“Hungry ones grow bolder.” Stale Mary murmured. “The deception hangs by
a thread. Cannot maintain much longer.”
"I know the truth of thy words all too well," Hargrimm sighed, and a whirl of
dust left his teeth, "Acaste grows more diffult to reason with. She no longer
sees the need for balance."
The ghoul matriarch had been bold enough to attack him recently,
threatening to tear off his head and suck the dry marrow from his bones. If it
had not been for the skeletons tending the cathedral the threefold alliance
may have collapsed in that instant.
Hargrimm pounded the altar, and he felt a wrist bone crack. He would have
to restore that later, but for the moment he had no care for his own
well-being. He loathed the fact that he and Stale Mary had to walk with a
retinue of guards now. He hated that zombies and skeletons had been
assaulted, and he could do little to retaliate except issuing stern
condemnations in the name of the Silent King. Hargrimm was disgusted by
the fact that only the ferocity of the ghouls could hold the cranium rat
invaders at bay.
Once he had been able to reason with Acaste, show her the need for caution.
Drive the cranium rats too far and the population would dwindle, and the
ghouls would go hungry and turn on one another. Many would fall in the
chaos, and their population was small enough already. This she knew. Little
by little she began to believe that their alliance meant nothing, that she
could govern the ghouls herself without the need for the skeletons or
zombies. Each unpunished assault fueled that conviction further. But if she
could not even control her own ravenous hunger...
Hargrimm had seen the void that lay on the other side of the veil once, and
had been only just strong enough to pull himself back. He did not want to die
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