[Bungleau]

Having fulfilled the final quest for Malakai at the temple, Missy Hissy returned to the desert by magical means, where desert raptors, among others, tried to have her for dinner. ‘Twas the last meal they ever tried to eat... and she left their eggs to rot on the desert sand. Pity... at one time, she would have treasured the piece of the future they contained, but today... there was only death. Bleak, grey, despairing death. If not someone else’s, then hers... so she passed death along to all who bothered her. And sometimes merely breathing was enough to be a bother.

Wandering around the desert more, she encountered more Dumdee Oleohs. Sturdy creatures... it took a lot of effort to bring one down, and if enough of them were to surround her... well, perhaps it would be her turn to partake of death. But not today, at least, not yet.

As Missy continued her passage through the desert, she spied something a distance away. Upon approaching, it soon became a giant pyramid, and the sounds she had heard the other day were now more evident. The mythical Stackman was at the base of the pyramid, gently caressing one of the sand-worn stones that made up the bottom ring of the stack. He looked up as she approached.

“Another of you, to test the Stack?” he asked.

“Another? You mean, there are more?” she replied.

“Yes, more,” he responded, looking off into the deepening dusk for a moment. “A group I have been shepherding, though they need little of my assistance. They have already entered the Holy Stack, and it is here that I fear I must leave them. But you... are you alone? Have you had assistance?”

Missy’s heart rose into her throat. “I... am... alone. In many ways. There is no other with me, and there is no other like me. I do not know why I journey on, but I do. I just pray there is something of an answer - no, wait. I do know why I journey. I journey to find the coward who killed my father.”

“Coward?” Stackman asked. “But --”

“A coward,” declared Missy. “One can kill with honor, or without it. If she were not a coward, she would have killed him herself, taken the chance in direct combat. But no, she paid for his death in trinkets... and mine, too.”

“But you’re not dead, at least as far as I can tell,” continued Stackman. “Or if you are, this is the most pleasant conversation I can recall having with a corpse.”

“On the outside I’m alive,” said Missy, gritting her teeth. “Inside... inside, I’m not quite sure. I used to be alive, but I don’t think I am any more. Something is missing.”

Stackman nodded. As one of the gods, he often saw things beyond mortal ken. “I suggest you move forward, into the Stack. I believe you will find the answers to many things within the Holy Stack, and perhaps many more questions as well.” He gestured towards a central opening.

Missy nodded and bade farewell. It wasn’t often you talked to a god, and you never wanted to make that conversation your last one. Gathering her equipment one last time, she trudged toward the opening.