Nope nope nope Meryn was not having a good time. She stood frozen for a moment halted by the reality of tree demons attacking them. Then Lily's voice cracked through the horror. Meryn turned to see her yanking on Spook's arm, pulling him (and the demon) along. Fat crimson droplets trailed after them from the hole pierced through Spook's middle. Meryn glanced back at Alex. The guardsman already had his sword out and was facing down multiple tree creatures. A caged, yowling felidrake was on the ground a bit behind him. Alex… he'd be fine, right? Of all of them, he was the one trained for this. Then again, Meryn doubted they covered 'Fighting For Your Life Against Angry Living Trees' in the militia's introductory lessons.

But still.

Trusting (hoping) in Alex's ability to not die, Meryn turned to run after Lily and Spook. They were already a fair distance away, Lily awkwardly pulling Spook and the demon after her. Another tree creature was chasing after them, wild and enraged. Meryn's eyes widened and she took off. The creature was fast, much faster than Lily could possibly be carrying Spook's dead weight. They weren't going to make it.

Meryn sprinted after Lily and the demon, the bell around her neck ringing in time with her frantic steps. Her teeth gritted against the pain lancing through her side, but she ignored it as best she could. The distance between them was beginning to close.

Meryn couldn't fight, could barely read, but if there was one thing she knew how to do, it was to move. And teleporting was awfully efficient.

She lunged forward and grabbed onto the rough bark of the demon's arm in the same moment she yanked out her felidrake from its spot in her bag and shoved the poor creature into its hissing face. The felidrake shrieked in terror. With a sharp pop, all three disappeared.

If Emma had escaped anyone's notice she wouldn't have blamed them. She hovered behind the group, the hood of her sweeping green cloak drawn over her head as she faced to the ground. She had accepted Spook's paper, but had been entirely silent since then. She was embroiled in thought and kept coming back to one topic: The Marquis Dufor. Of course the thought of the Marquis was always near the surface of her consciousness, but now in the dark woods in the middle of nowhere led by a man that she knew nothing about they bubbled to the surface.

Why did I run?

She couldn't help but feel she made a mistake, abandoning her life's work, her friends, her family, to traipse about the wilderness with a Traveler. But it was too late for regrets, so she pushed away those thoughts and another one came to her. There was one thing she always loved about botany: It was a science of exacts. A portion of this, a dash of that, a sprinkle of something would come together and they would always make the same thing. The contents of a draught or a poultice can be used to figure out everything about it, it's very character.

The same wasn't true of people. She saved this person, saved this person, saved this person, she killed Dufor. She wasn't a potion, the sum of her actions couldn't tell her what her character is. There was no arithmetic to tell her if she was a good person.

And so she left Enn, unable to face those she loved without knowing what she was.

Her mental tangent was suddenly interrupted by the sounds of struggle. Suddenly the silence of the dark trail was broken, Spook and some sort of tree creature locked in struggle. Emma's hand darted to her hip, a dagger holstered to her belt. But she didn't know how to fight, doubly so against a foe like this. I came out here to find plants, but this wasn't what I was hoping for. Lily called out, advising they run for the plains. Emma glanced helplessly at Spook and Alex and Meryn and the commotion around them, and then complied, sprinting for the light at the end of the path.

Spook's gloved hand gripped Lily's arm. The wooden creature had his sword and his right hand trapped against his chest, though he struggled and pulled valiantly against it; blood dripped behind him as he shuffled and stumbled after Lily, blind and breathless, trusting her to lead the way while swarms of the little demons teemed at the edges of the road.

The felidrake cage clattered to the ground, and Alex launched an attack at the offending monster with his sword -- but he had barely reached Spook when another wood-demon leaped down at Alex from a treetop. Alex would successfully be able to slam it out of the air with his sword, but another one was ready to leap up onto his back, where it dug its claws in and attached itself like a leech. Two more sprang toward Lily and Spook, but they were well within the reach of Alex's blade.

The path was open again, but only for a moment. Emma took the chance and sprinted through the gap between Lily -- pulling Spook along though the Traveler's strength was leaving him -- and Alex, who continued to defend them valiantly against the swarm.

The way ahead was suddenly closed as a line of wood-demons dropped into the path before Emma, their shining eyes gleaming and claws twitching. Together they hissed and launched into the air, intent on tearing her face from her skull -- but at the last moment, when it seemed clear their claws would dig out her eyes, they screeched and diverted themselves, missed her, and rolled and skittered on the ground. The little demons scampered for the bushes, terrified of Emma. The way was again clear, and no demon would come near her.

Meanwhile, Meryn launched forward with a screeching felidrake in her grip. Meryn thrust it against the wood-demon on Spook's head, the felidrake instinctively dug its claws into the monster -- and Meryn, the felidrake, and the wood-demon all disappeared with a pop.

Spook's mask clattered to the ground, and he sucked in a lungful of air. He looked to Lily with gray eyes. The left side of his face was dark and crystallized by a hideous disease.

"Thank you," he said quickly, looking Lily in the eye. "I'm all right." He detached her hand from his arm and immediately turned to slice a wood-demon out of the air before it could attack her. "Go. Run. Stay by Emma."

Spook sliced away the wood-demon attached to Alex's back and fell in beside him to help fight off the demons, hoping Lily would take his advice.

"Alex, go after them, they'll need you. Go!"

Meryn popped back into existence on a tree branch over the path. The felidrake yowled and hissed and contorted itself in unsettling and jerking motions, its fangs bared and eyes jittering, like it was having a seizure in Meryn's grip. Black crystals crept out of its fur and spread their tendrils around the felidrake's throat.

In a split-second, the enraged wood-demon drove its claws through the felidrake's chest, narrowly missing Meryn.

The felidrake's dying body was rapidly turning to black crystal.

Spook yanked another wood-demon off his shoulder and roared up at Meryn: "Get out of there!" He backed up toward the plains, a hand pressed against the hole in his chest, and dug in his pocket for a round glass bomb. He smashed it into the ground and ran for the plains as a noxious smoke seeped into the forest, scooping up his mask as he passed.

Ahead, the forest broke and harsh blinding sunlight beat down upon a devastated wasteland. Broken dead roots and branches and tree stumps littered the barren ground.

At the center of the enormous wasteland were the dark, high walls of a new city.

Meryn landed roughly on the tree branch. Disoriented and off-balance, she tried to steady herself on the quaking limb. The seizing felidrake in her hand didn't help matters. Nor did the screeching tree demon in front of her. Her eyes widened and her lips parted in shock as crystals, black as tar, grew and crept over its body, consuming it. Then wooden talons burst through the poor creature's body in a spray of blood. Meryn immediately released the felidrake, arms coming up to protect her face. The felidrake remained suspended in the air by the demon's claws.

The felidrake stopped moving. The crystals encased its body. Someone shouted at her from below.

She looked down to see a man, with Spook's voice, wearing his clothes, but instead of the mask she'd come to accept as his face, there was an actual… face. Or some mangled distortion of one. It wouldn't have been so alarming if tar black crystals weren't encasing half of it.

The demon roared at her again, forcing Meryn's attention back up. She ducked against the tree trunk as a clawed hand swiped at her. her feet reflexively coiled up towards her chest and then struck out with a strength that could only be born of desperation. Her boots met the creature square in the chest. It screeched and toppled off the branch, along with the felidrake's crystalized corpse. Meryn didn't wait to see how it scrambled to grab onto the next available branch.

Pushing herself forward, Meryn leaped with all the grace of a fish on land. She landed on the next branch, her feet precariously balancing on it, and pushed herself up against the tree. She made her way to the next branch and the next, never allowing herself to stop until she'd reached the end of the tree line. She was still too high, too far from the ground, but in her desperation to put space between herself and the forest, she launched herself off the last branch anyway, out onto the field.

The ground was quick to meet her and she fell into a sloppy roll. Pain arced from her shoulder to her hip across her back. Out of habit her feet arranged themselves so she stood coming out of her roll, and she stumbled forward with the momentum. Meryn barely managed to keep from falling over as one hand came up to her temple and her eyes squeezed shut. Her body was not pleased with her, but that wasn't a surprise. Her eyes cracked open to see a splattering of crimson on the sleeves of her jacket. Meryn froze as she remembered the blood wasn't hers. It was the felidrake's. The infected, dead felidrake. Spook's warning of the disease echoed in her mind.

Meryn shoved her bag off her shoulder and onto the ground. With both hands, she grabbed the back of her collar and yanked the dirty jacket off, throwing it to the floor a few feet away. Shaking hands felt at her face, her arms, her hair, for any traces of crystals on her skin. Her breath was coming out in frantic, shallow puffs.

Lily's steps stuttered to a halt as Spook's wrist slid out of her grasp. One minute the tree demon was there, the next, it wasn't, the distinct scent of bluebell salve lingering in the air. Her attention, however, wasn't focused on the clamor in the trees above, but the face in front of her—half crusted over with rock that shone like an oil slick.

Oh.

Lily stumbled backwards, nearly tripping over a tree root with uncharacteristic clumsiness before she got her feet under her. She didn't look back as she turned to bolt for Emma—she had no clue why the girl was seemingly demon repellent, but she wasn't going to look a gift healer in the mouth, either. She just ran—she lost some hair along the way and gained a few new scratches, a particularly nasty one tracing its way across her cheekbone, and she didn't look back to see if it was simply stray twigs or more sinister branches reaching out for her. Another thing she was good at: ignoring the worst case scenario until it came to pass.

They broke out onto the plain, and she had never been so glad to feel sunlight on her face. She kept running for a long moment until there was quite a bit of distance between her and those infernal trees, before she had to stop, bending over at the waist and bracing her hands on her knees. She wasn't made for running, short sprints or otherwise. Halfheartedly, she counted as each companion came barreling out of the trees, but mostly she was focused on the one that crashed to earth covered in blood.

Lily's hands closed around Meryn's wrists, gently tugging her hands away from her face. She waited until the girl looked up at her, then offered a smile, even if it was somewhat marred by the blood trickling from the cut on her cheek down to her chin.

"It's alright—you're alright," she said breathlessly, still panting from the mad sprint and the adrenaline that was still shooting through her. "Just a little blood, nothing more." Lily released Meryn's hands, turning to Emma. "Spook needs your help—"

Emma emerged from the claustrophobic forest into a sun baked wasteland. It was a dead place, but the walls of a city rose in the distance. It was hard to think that a settlement could spring up in a harsh place like this, but there it was. However Emma was acutely aware that she had no time to worry about her surroundings, as her companion were still in danger. Unfortunately there wasn't much she could do to help them in combat, but she already had her pack on the ground and was tearing out the supplies she would need to heal their wounds, laying a large mat on the ground so the wounded would have a relatively clean place to lie while she treated them. As the rest of the group emerged from the forest behind her she had already begun triage them based on the wounds she could see.

Meryn and Lily were certainly injured, but it was clear who would really need her help. Lily evidently agreed with her assessment, telling her to go to Spook. Emma tossed the girl a bundle of bandages, "Take care of Meryn and yourself, I'll make sure he lives." She scooped up the rest of her supplies and ran to the now re-masked man. She was slightly disappointed she had missed a glimpse at his face, but now was not the time for such thoughts.

As she approached their retreating guide she was slightly taken aback- for a man with a hole in his chest he was certainly doing a good job of keeping upright. She ran to meet Spook, offering him a shoulder for support. "You're injured, let me take care of you." It was more of a command then a request. She gestured towards the mat, signalling for them to head towards it so she could help him. Are those things going to follow us out here?

Meryn froze as she remembered the blood wasn't hers. It was the felidrake's. The infected, dead felidrake. Spook's warning of the disease echoed in her mind.

Meryn shoved her bag off her shoulder and onto the ground. With both hands, she grabbed the back of her collar and yanked the dirty jacket off, throwing it to the floor a few feet away. Shaking hands felt at her face, her arms, her hair, for any traces of crystals on her skin. Her breath was coming out in frantic, shallow puffs.

Lily's hands closed around Meryn's wrists, gently tugging her hands away from her face. She waited until the girl looked up at her, then offered a smile, even if it was somewhat marred by the blood trickling from the cut on her cheek down to her chin.

"It's alright—you're alright," she said breathlessly, still panting from the mad sprint and the adrenaline that was still shooting through her. "Just a little blood, nothing more." Lily released Meryn's hands, turning to Emma. "Spook needs your help—"

Emma tossed the girl a bundle of bandages, "Take care of Meryn and yourself, I'll make sure he lives." She scooped up the rest of her supplies and ran to the now re-masked man. She was slightly disappointed she had missed a glimpse at his face, but now was not the time for such thoughts.

As she approached their retreating guide she was slightly taken aback- for a man with a hole in his chest he was certainly doing a good job of keeping upright. She ran to meet Spook, offering him a shoulder for support. "You're injured, let me take care of you." It was more of a command then a request. She gestured towards the mat, signalling for them to head towards it so she could help him. "Are those things going to follow us out here?"

Spook raised his head in a moment of hesitation, a bloodsoaked glove pressed against his stomach, his mask slightly dented and askew. He draped an arm behind Emma's shoulders and released a long breath. "Thank you." The old smile had returned to his voice. "It's not as bad as it looks," he added with a quiet laugh.

The traveler obediently sat down on the mat, leaning on Emma for balance as he did so. "They won't cross the edge of the forest. They know they'll be shot on sight. We're safe." His voice was convincingly reassuring despite the admission that they were at that moment being watched through the scope of a sniper rifle.

Spook removed his gloves, and his pale thin hands were tattooed with old runes. He gingerly pulled off his jacket, and the runes continued up his arms; dozens of them, in varying colors and sizes and age. His shoulders were flecked and patched with what appeared to be a rash of dark gemstone. He laid back and pulled up his shirt -- his stomach was completely covered in rough dark crystal, which was actively expanding into the wound, as if feeding on his blood. Spook extended an upturned palm to Emma, to take whatever she had intended to use on the injury. He would be happy to clean up the wound himself -- there was no reason to expect Emma to come any closer.

"I'm very sure I'm not contagious," he assured her -- but he understood this wasn't satisfactory proof.

He turned his masked face toward Meryn -- whose name he had no way of knowing -- and his voice took on a note of gravity. "Are you injured?" Her answer was the difference between life and death.

Behind them, the forest screeched.

One of the little wood demons leaped onto a branch at the edge of the woods and hissed at them. Black crystal blossomed on its face and limbs, making it look all the more hellish. It did not attempt to move outside the reach of the trees.

Ahead, the wasteland stretched wide and bleak -- and something was moving toward them out of the high dark city wall.

It was stocky, round and ambling, like a strange silhouette of a long-legged, rotund man, followed by a cloud of steam. As it waddled closer at a steady pace, it glimmered like tarnished brass in the sunlight. The steam-powered robot whirred and hissed and clicked, stomping closer with high knees and swinging arms, an almost comical sight among the dead roots and barren ash of the wasteland.

The robot was headed straight for Alex. Of course, of everyone in that group, Alex appeared to be the one in charge: he was the most properly dressed and the most properly armed, and he wasn't injured nor female.

The robot stopped a few feet away from the group, and a cloud of steam hissed from holes in its barrel-shaped back.

< Who are you and what is your intention? >

A man's voice crackled through a speaker on the robot's stomach, like a radio transmission.

Spook, meanwhile, had laid his head back and had gone stiff and quiet in pain.

Meryn was startled out of her panic by the feeling of warm hands circling around her wrists. It wasn't often that she was touched. She blinked up to see Lily's face, scratched up and bloody but no less gentle for it. Meryn's breath hiccuped in her throat as she tried to get a handle on her frantic breathing. Lily cooed soothing words at her, 'just a little blood.' Meryn's eyebrows pulled together and she began shaking her head, but Lily had already released her and turned to Emma.

Meryn shrank back, away from Lily almost immediately. Her arms curled in around her middle as she tried to make herself small, scared eyes still on Lily's back. It wasn't just blood. It was infected. Deadly. And what if Meryn was infected now too? She –

Spook's mask turned to face her, immediately capturing Meryn's attention. Glassy eyes stared at her and for a moment the image of a half-formed face, sick with tar black crystals flitted through her mind. She could end up like that.

His muffled voice reached her, oddly heavy. Meryn raised an incredulous eyebrow at his question because… seriously? All she'd done on this trip was get injured. Her entire body ached, some places more severely than others. Blood was still drying on her shirt. But the wood demon hadn't gotten at her, if that was what Spook meant. Meryn shook her head at him.

Then a robot came rolling up. Because of course it did.

As Emma turned away to Spook, Lily suddenly became aware of the line of pain across her cheek and the blood dripping from her chin. Perhaps she should have shared Meryn's fears—that any minute, any day now, black crystals would fester in her skin like maggots on meat, turn her into a walking corpse like Spook.

She'd heard people tell her the same thing when her father caught a wasting disease (and wasn't it awful that now she worried that the crystals got to him too? Just as well his body had been buried far away from the city, then). She'd still tended to him day and night, and apparently a blasé disregard for any threat to her health was the same thing as an immune system of steel.

Blasé disregard was probably her most useful skill, come to think of it.

Reaching down, Lily pulled a sorry-looking kitchen knife from her boot, its 'sheath' looking more like part of an old shoe than anything else. She cut half the length from her much-mended skirt, and after eyeing the swath of purple fabric critically for a moment, tore off a small piece that she pressed to the cut on her cheek. The rest she wadded up and held out to Meryn with a smile she didn't let shake.

"Your hurts are a little more out of my league than a bloodied nose, but stoppering them up can't hurt, right?" she said, before her smile turned a bit less genuine and she leaned in slightly. "And while I think you'd look striking in onyx, you're about as crystallized as I am."

Of course, that had to be the moment a metal...steaming...thing trundled up on them from across the plain. Lily stared for a moment, her expression reading as nothing more than blank, hand still hovering between her and Meryn. There was nothing like that in Enn. There was nothing close to that in Enn.

What was more, the thing that was beyond Enn's engineers wildest dreams spoke.

"Who are you and what is your intention?"

Alex seemed flabbergasted. Lily had reached her limit for flabbergastment.

"If I may, sir," she said in as gentle and honest a tone as she could manage, pitching her voice to be heard but not to shout. "We are but travelers—" capital T or not, "—looking for safe harbor for our wounded and somewhere to rest for a while. We mean no harm to you or any of those that you protect with such diligence."

"If I may, sir," she said in as gentle and honest a tone as she could manage, pitching her voice to be heard but not to shout. "We are but travelers—" capital T or not, "—looking for safe harbor for our wounded and somewhere to rest for a while. We mean no harm to you or any of those that you protect with such diligence."

The robot was still and silent for awhile -- but through the radio speaker on its chest, Lily might hear the mutter of distant people discussing the predicament. The robot made a whirring and crackling noise -- like a geiger counter.

The forest behind them scrabbled and hissed; the wood demons gathered on the branches at the edge of the forest -- hundreds of them piled on each other, their eyes glowing bright white, their wooden bodies clustered and festering with dark crystal.

Above them, atop a high branch, an orange felidrake perched. It stared down at the travelers with a cold gaze, its wings flared.

The voice over the robot's speaker returned, addressing Lily, who appeared to be the leader of the group: "All right." It was a different man's voice that came over the radio -- frustrated with the decision that had been reached. "Bring yourself and the other two women. You'll be screened and cleared for entry before you'll be allowed through the --" someone in the distance shouted, and the speaker muttered an obscenity under his breath. "Just follow the damn robot. Leave your friend where he is. It's not worth the risk. Move now or you'll be dead in a minute."

The radio clicked off. The robot whirred to life, turned around and began to wobble quickly back the way it had come, toward a small open door in the foreboding wall.

Spook had revived, and he reached up and yanked his mask off his marred face. With the other hand he reached out suddenly and grasped Meryn's wrist. Without a word, he shoved the mask into her hand, and he stared up at her with determined trust. After a moment he let go and dug in a pocket of his jacket.

"Lily," he called in a stern voice, and he unlatched his light curved sword from his belt and held it out to her, the decorative sheath gripped in a gloved hand. "Your sister's in there." He gestured toward the high dark walls of the city. "Hurry."

His solemn eyes found the herbalist next. "Emma." He dug in a pocket of his jacket, and he tossed a compass to her. It was very old and heavy, etched all over with strange symbols. "Through insomnia's labyrinth, the fog and stones shine with the black second sight." It was cryptic, and spoken as a recitation meant to be remembered. As he spoke, the arm of the compass swung; it pointed away from the city, toward a dusty road in the distance ahead and to their left, partially hidden in the trees. His seriousness broke, and he smiled. "Thanks, Emma. Move quickly now." He forced himself to sit up, and he turned to face the forest -- as if he could hold off the swarm of demons while Meryn, Lily and Emma made their escape.

---

Inside the city, alarms howled.

The city of Cogswall was all dank copper and tarnished brass, iron vents vomiting steam, potholes filled with rancid rainwater, churning machinery, crushing gears, dark-streaked stone, labyrinths of pipes and boilers and clockwork monstrosities.

The Eminence presided over it all, assured the impoverished and desperate that hard work would bring them prosperity. Mechanical giants patrolled the streets with searchlight eyes. Dark wagons carried off the young and the accused, never to be heard from again. The only source of hope was in the markers of graves. The only source of happiness was in needles and vials.

Throughout the city, alarm bells rang and horns howled -- something rare, something that hadn't happened since the forest outside the city burned in a high inferno a decade ago.

A voice spoke over the loudspeakers throughout the city, crackling and monotonous:


There was a mass exodus to the walls: police, machines, robots, armed citizens. Monstrous mechanical tanks were released from underground bunkers. The top of the wall crowded quickly with firepower of all hellish imagination.

No matter how much of a brute people claimed Ronken to be, let it never be said he didn't know when to run away from a fight.

He was zipping through crowded streets and dark rusting alleys. A stream of curses leaving his mouth in-between labored breaths. After hopping over a man sleeping in the street and ducking under a random jutting piece of metal coming out of a building, he went to the right of a forked path. He went a few more feet before ducking into an unlocked door, odds were on his side the structure was empty, housing was an odd subject in Cogswell.

As he ran in his eyes could faintly make out the silhouettes of tables, beds, and chairs. A house seemed as safe a guess as any.

Crouching in the dark he peeked out the door to watch for his pursuers, at the same time taking deep breaths to calm himself. He stayed near the doorway for a few tense minutes. He couldn't wait to get out of wherever he was, smelled like something died. Good chance that was the case.

Granted the streets didn't smell much better.

After another minute Ronken decided that the 'Slum Demons' had probably taken a different alley. He gave a little laugh to himself then, those guys always liked to act like they were smarter than him. And yet he was able to lead them into a bloody forked path and lose em'. If things kept up like this they wouldn't be collecting their debt any time soon. He could always find new providers.

Maybe.

Ronken then stepped out of the death scented housing, and with a smile on his lips took a deep breath of the 'fresh' air. "Yup, still bloody awfu-" The alarms started blaring and the voice started yelling, and though he would deny it, Ronken screamed. But just a bit!

The addition of the alarms managed to sour Ronken's mood pretty fast. Something about being scared witless does that to ya' he guesses. He had his hand clutched over his heart and his face looked the same as when he was cut off at a bar. In anger he yelled a hearty piss off to the announcer.

And then, for the second time today, Ronken had a great idea.

Ronken's memory wasn't what it used to be, probably had something to do with the repeated concussions and flagrant drug abuse. So you can surely imagine his surprise when he remembered something from ten years ago. He remembered it scared him then too. And more importantly he knew what it meant, and it wasn't good.

He knew the crowds would be gathering at the walls. Whether it was to sate their curiosity, protest what was to come, or to prepare themselves to defend. And a large, unruly crowd sounded about like the perfect hiding spot right now. Least til he could scrape together more of a plan.

Before he started walking, Ronken could still feel his heart slamming in his chest from the scare. And more importantly his high he'd been enjoying was wearing off too. Unstrapping his trusty 'happy bag' from his belt, he pulled out the first thing his fingers felt, the bundle of herbs and other substances looked like happyroot, if not a bit aged.

He popped it in his mouth and began his way to the nearest side of the wall. By the time he could hear the yelling and see the crowd his high was back, and with it a smile on his face.

He gradually pushed his way as far up as he could. Settling a couple yards from the front. He spotted some people brandishing signs and weapons yelling at the guards. Occasionally he went in for that sort of thing, and he may yet still, but today he felt like first finding out what was happening.

So he stood, listened for any information, and watched the chaos with a bit of glee.

Emma caught the compass, turning it over in her hands. It was old and strange and very mysterious. "Through insomnia's labyrinth, the fog and stones shine with the black second sight." The words echoed in her head as she stared at Spook in disbelief. Spook's last words? The robot demanded that they, and only they, move towards the wall. It pointedly demanded that they leave Spook. She was angry, angry at the metal machine for demanding they leave Spook. She wanted to rip the somehow smug radio from it's chassis. She was angry at the talking heads behind the radio. She was angry at Spook for even considering sitting here and dying. But, of course, she was really angry at herself. Angry at how helpless she was, angry that all she could do was leave him here, angry at herself and the others because she knew that they all had questioned him after what had happened in the forest but now he was going to die for them. It felt so unfair. The Traveler would perish for a bunch of pampered city folk that had no business being outside the walls of Enn?

But there was nothing she could do. She was weak. The robot was leaving, there would be no argument, he couldn't come with them. All she could do was say, "You better not die here," A sharp intake of breath came as she tried to choke words out, "It'd make me really mad... I don't know if I could forgive you." She didn't know if she could forgive herself. The words came out shaky. Tears were welling in her eyes. She didn't want any of this. She shoved the compass in her pocket, turning away towards the walled city.

She walked after the robot, towards those looming walls. She couldn't look back, because if she did she would really break down. She knew she was abandoning Spook. She knew he would die out here. She was so weak.

Lily's numb fingers took the sheath automatically, staring at the man who had been their guide for not even days—yet the idea of continuing on without him felt impossible. She hadn't thought about it until now, but even when the forest came alive against them, even when a demon beast was clawing its way out of their nightmares, there had been one last, illogical thought that Spook would know what to do.

Maybe he did know what he was doing now, but Lily sure as hell didn't.

He'd handed her a sword and pointed her towards her sister, who may or may not be in danger. People didn't do things like that; not for people like her. And she was going to repay him by leaving him to die alone on a barren field with disease eating him from the inside out. For a long moment, she considered drawing the weapon in her hands and staying with him, because fuck if she ever did what people told her to—but, as it did so often, reality set in.

People died. Trying to stop it would just make you one of them; she'd learned that lesson time and time again.

"You'd best come back for this soon," Lily said, unable to keep all the strain from her voice. She squeezed Spook's hand for a moment before securing her grip on the sword, holding it tightly to her chest—it would take more than a jumped-up twig sprite to take it from her now. "I could get a pretty penny for this at a smith's shop, and then where will you be? Out a good sword, that's where."

She hesitated for another long moment, her hands white at the knuckles, before she lifted her chin and turned on her heel without another word. Lily didn't look back as she broke into a jog towards the city in the wake of the trundling mech.

Gods, he deserves better.

Meryn's smile was small and unsteady as Lily spoke soothing nonsense to her. Reaching up, she grabbed the offered cloth and pressed it to the side that'd started bleeding again. She eventually bent to pick up her bag, though she left her jacket untouched on the ground. Her nametag was still pinned to her undershirt.

A hand was suddenly curled around her skinny wrist in an iron grip, and Meryn jumped to attention. Spook's face was bare, crystals on display to the world as grey eyes found green. The weight of his stare stopped the breath in her throat. A mask was pushed into her hand. His mask. Meryn's eyes widened as realization dawned on her, and her gaze darted from the mask back to Spook. But then he broke contact, releasing her, and the moment was gone. But not the new weight in her hand, or in her throat.

She watched as Spook moved on to the other two, giving each their own parting gifts. It became difficult to swallow. Her eyes began to sting. Her head started to shake in denial, lips parting. More voices were coming from the robot, doling out clipped instructions, but Meryn wasn't listening. She was watching their guide push himself to his feet and turn to face the forest, as though he alone could keep the nightmares at bay. As though he could survive them.

Maybe he could.

Clinging to that small, frightened hope, Meryn watched Lily and Emma both tear themselves away, following after the robot towards the town. Meryn looked down at the mask she'd taken as his identity, eyebrows furrowed together. He was trusting her with his mask. Maybe she could trust him with this. Meryn bit her lip, and turned to look at him one last time, his figure small but solid against the shuddering tree line.

Meryn forced herself to look away and dashed to catch up with her two remaining companions.

Spook saw them off -- nodded to each one as they said their goodbyes and rushed after the robot that would lead them to safety -- and he turned to face the teeming forest.

The disease -- the Crystalline -- was spreading fast among the wood demons. It drove them crazy, filled them with rage and bloodlust. They swarmed like piranhas at the edge of the forest, screeching and clawing and mangled by dark crystals. Their eyes glowed bright and red. The death of the infected felidrake had spawned the very terror that Spook had been trying to prevent.

All around the expansive perimeter of the wasteland, the demons gathered and screamed: hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. The air was filled with their shrieks.

Spook grinned up at them. The dark crystals crept over his face and tendriled down his arms. He dropped to his knees and, with a knife, began to carve an enormous sigil into the dry ashen ground.

---

A blaring alarm sounded from within the metallic walls, and a voice echoed threatening:

ANNIHILATION. DESTROY INCOMING LIFE FORMS ON SIGHT. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. ANNIHILATION.

With a hurried hiss and a creak, the trundling robot led Lily, Meryn and Emma around the ominous mechanical gates and into a small open side-door. The inside was bare and dark and smelled like oil and smoke; a boiler glowed hot at the far side of the stone room, and pipes hissed along the ceiling.

The robot raced directly toward the back of the room -- but as soon as Emma entered, a guard pointed a bayonet at her chest and led her to an empty side of the hot stone room. "State your name and your business," he demanded harshly, with an undertone of fear. They could hear the howling alarms and the rumbling voice on the speakers within the city. "Are you carrying any weapons?"

Lily was next, and a second guard separated her from Emma at the point of a bayonet, leading her to the opposite side of the room under threat of impalement. "Put the sword down and state your name," the guard growled. "Drop all your weapons. Don't think we believe for a second that you're here for 'safe harbor' -- not when you've brought hell down on us. Why shouldn't we just shoot you?"

Meryn was the last to enter, and the door slammed shut as soon as she'd crossed the threshold. A third guard had been waiting by the door, and shoved her forward into the room toward the boiler. "Please state your name and your business," the guard commanded with a tremble of fear. His musket was pointed steadily at her chest. He gave her a moment, and then raised his voice. "TALK. State your name and your business! This isn't a joke!"

Lily's guard glanced across at his comrade. "Just shoot her if she won't cooperate."

Outside, on the other side of the door they had just come through, the screeching of the infected demons rose to a piercing pitch. Across the opposite door by the boiler, which led into the city, alarms blared and crowds roared and guns popped.

---

From Ronken's vantage point, he had a front-row view of the swelling angry crowds of dirty workmen and half-crazed addicts and violent gangsters looking for something to kill. The uniformed guards crossed their bayonets and held the citizens back from the door in the wall, where the travelers were being interrogated before they might be let into the city. The people of Cogswall demanded to know what was happening, where the threat was, who these people were -- they called for the travelers to be shot, while some groups screamed that they should be let through for safety, while still others were shoving everyone else in hopes of causing a riot against the government. Some of the guards fired their muskets into the air, but it did little but antagonize the throngs of people.

A huge brassy automaton whirred and creaked as it stepped through the parting crowd; it towered over them, and its driver at its head paid them no attention. The clockwork mecha grasped the edge of the wall and -- with a yank of a few levers and wheels by its goggled driver -- hauled itself up and over the wall.

While the city roiled and boomed, Ronken would feel a tap on his shoulder. Someone slightly shorter than himself -- robed and hidden in a deep hood -- spoke in a grinning, feminine voice: "You look like somebody who doesn't give a shit 'bout what the hell's goin' on. I like you."

She produced a small bag of newly minted gold coins, which she held out to him with a delicate brown hand. With the other hand, she extended to him a sealed envelope.

"Tellya what. There's one of those Travelers in there with a brass mask. I'll pay you double to deliver a message."

What's going on?

The day was going by fairly normally for Scarlet as he went about his business through the marketplace. Those who owned their own buildings knew not to let him inside and anyone who owned a stall all watched him with cautious stares a tight grip on a club or weapon just in case. Scarlet has been known to attack those who got in his way after all. Just as he was chatting up a beady eyed man running a potentially illegitimate business in "borrowed" goods the skies suddenly began to shriek and wail as the sirens were brought to life. Everyone, Scarlet included, jumped at the sudden blaring with each person having similar reactions. Confusion, fear, panic, and curiosity. Something was going on at the front entrance and the streets were rapidly emptying as people either fled to their homes or ran to the front entrance where all the commotion seemed to stem from. Scarlet was no fool he knew that this was the absolute perfect chance to score big time. Immediately he began to rush down the streets eyes filled with curiosity and greed.

_______________________________

Everything was loud. The sirens were loud. The people were loud, and the occasional gunshots didn't help either. All in all coming to the source of the noise was probably going to leave him with a massive headache. How could Scarlet have resisted, though? Already he has lined his pockets with a fistful of change courtesy of all those who decided it was far more important to pay attention to the Travelers that were currently hidden away than to their own pockets. The bag that hung around his neck jingled happily as Scarlet wove through the crowd. The nice thing about being a vagrant was that either people ignored you or plainly don't notice your existence at all. Only those who were looking for him in the first place would see him. Someone like a guard standing nearly six feet tall armed with a bayoneted musket rifle. Which was exactly what Scarlet ran face first into as he breached the front of the crowd. Knocked right onto his behind Scarlet stared up at the metal blade that was now pointed directly at his face.

"You lil' shitbag you give me that stolen coin this instant before I put a shot right in yer head. Don't think I didn't see ya either. Filth the whole lot of you. I ought to shoot you right here regardless. It'd be my civic duty it would. I could say you tried to rush that there door."

Scarlet stared cross-eyed at the tip of the sharp bayonet as it hung before him almost as though it were a guillotine hanging above his head. Sweat beaded down his face as he contemplated everything he has done in life as it seemed to be reaching its end. This act by the guard wasn't going unnoticed as the people closest around him had begun vehemently cursing and insulting the man for raising a weapon against a child. A child, mind you, that may or may not have previously swiped the coin from their pocket not minutes earlier. What they didn't know wouldn't kill them Scarlet thought to himself as he used the distraction of the shouting crowd to slap the musket to the side. Instantly he got onto all fours and charged into the knees of the guard as hard as he could toppling him to the ground. Scarlet rolled past the collapsed guard and immediately froze as several muskets were now aimed at him.

"Get away from the door this instant!"

A guard kept shouting this order at him but it seemed as though all sound had stopped working in Scarlet's ears. Behind him stood the doors and behind those stood the Travelers and in front of him stood death with naught but a wall of noise and flesh behind it.

Oh God please somebody help.

Meryn stumbled towards the boiler, a cacophony of sound filling the room. Screeching, blaring, piercing noise that was doing nothing for her nerves. Tripping to a stop before the glowing boiler, feeling the heat radiating off it in waves, Meryn spun around to face the gun pointed at her chest. Her eyes darted around, already trying to map routes out of this situation.

Then her guard, more frightened than she was, demanded she speak.

Her eyes widened. Meryn's gaze snapped across the room to Lily and Emma. When Lily's guard, the one in charge by the looks of it, suggested she just be shot, her breath stopped in her throat. Meryn looked back at her trembling guard. She raised her hands slowly, one palm open and splattered crimson, the other holding Spook's mask. Bringing her free hand to her throat, she tapped it a few times and shook her head. As she did this, she carefully leaned forward just a bit. Her weight shifted to the balls of her feet, her knees slightly bent. Just in case.

Meryn brought her hand down and pointed to her nametag, still pinned to her shirt. She parted her lips and tried to mimic the shapes mouths made when they said her name.

A tap on the shoulder and Ronken was all business. Fists clenched and body tense he turned around ready to beat off any angry Slum Demons.

He wasn't expecting the sight of a small robed figure. He was about to ask, in no uncertain terms, what the heck they wanted. And why they felt the need to bother him while he was having his fun. But before he could find his voice the figure, which he now knew as a lass, piped up.

"You look like somebody who doesn't give a shit 'bout what the hell's goin' on. I like you." She said, her voice managing to carry over the roars of the crowd.

Ronken gave a small laugh and relaxed his fists. He replied back, "I do my best ta' give off that feelin'." He eyed the lady up and down. She was grabbing for something. "You ain't so bad ya-" he trailed off us she held out a small sack, and with it he heard the sweet melody of clanking coin. With raised eyebrows and a small grin he focused on the bag.

It took him a second to realize that there was also some crummy piece of paper.

"Tellya what. There's one of those Travelers in there with a brass mask. I'll pay you double to deliver a message."

His grin broke into a smile. Maybe lady luck was about to give him a break. He wasn't sure what was being doubled, but he was willing to gamble it was enough for his debt. Or more drugs. Whichever he felt like.

Most people would probably have some questions.
Is payment on delivery or in advance, How much is the pay, Does it have to be delivered now past the guards or after once they're inside, What was in the letter, Are you single, Will this job bite me in the end at some point later in time?

Those sorts of things.

Ronken just nodded, uttered a hearty "Deal" and grabbed for the paper and bag of money.

Bureaucracy. Of all the things she hadn't missed on the road.

Lily raised one hand in the air, using the other to slowly lower the sword to the ground. However, she also planted a foot gingerly on top of the sheath—she wasn't going to use it, but she also wasn't about to just let some grease-fingered night watchman make a grab for it. The kitchen knife was carelessly tossed down next to it.

"My name is Lily," she answered as soon as it was clear she was out of stabbables. "Lily Madyne. We come from the—the road beyond the forest, as Travelers do, and we had no intention—OI."

As soon as the threat against Meryn was issued, Lily took a step to the side, pulling Spook's sword along with her foot—just enough to recapture the attention of her guard but hopefully not provoke a panicked response. Her conciliatory manner had all but vanished, leaving steel in its wake.

"She can't speak, sir, but I am so glad that your first reaction to someone who seems to be just as frightened as you are is to threaten them with death," she snapped. Her hands fisted at her sides before she thought better of it and folded them across her chest—and conveniently brought her hands closer to the paper sigil still hidden down the front of her shirt. She turned back to the guard before her. "What I said was only the truth. We did not lead this menace here, we only seek shelter from it, the same as your citizens. The citizens you protect."

When they still stared at her through narrowed eyes, Lily rolled her eyes and dropped her arms, waving one hand in an expansive gesture. Blunt logic and flattery, then. "Sirs, if you will believe nothing else, if we had intended to bring harm to your city, why would we sequester ourselves inside? If our goal is destruction, why allow ourselves to be destroyed with you? The answer is simple—that's not our goal. We Travelers were caught up in this without warning just like you—and your walls, so well-defended and secure, were and are our best hope."

Meryn brought her hand down and pointed to her nametag, still pinned to her shirt. She parted her lips and tried to mimic the shapes mouths made when they said her name.

"She can't speak, sir, but I am so glad that your first reaction to someone who seems to be just as frightened as you are is to threaten them with death," Lily snapped.

"Get away from the door this instant!"

Ronken just nodded, uttered a hearty "Deal" and grabbed for the paper and bag of money.

"Sirs, if you will believe nothing else, if we had intended to bring harm to your city, why would we sequester ourselves inside? If our goal is destruction, why allow ourselves to be destroyed with you? The answer is simple—that's not our goal. We Travelers were caught up in this without warning just like you—and your walls, so well-defended and secure, were and are our best hope."

In a single moment, the scene was this:

The first guard sneered and raised the butt of his musket against Lily, enraged by the insolence of a female stranger who dared raise her head, let alone her voice.

The second guard lowered his bayonet to stare at Lily, and for this brief moment Meryn was left unsupervised beside the scalding boiler and the riot-muffled door to the city.

The throng of dirty, angry citizens crowded close as the sharp points of bayonets drew closer to Scarlet, clutching his stolen coins, his back against the very same door.

The hooded woman dropped a bag of coins into Ronken's outstretched hand and trusted him with the wax-sealed letter.

The clockwork mech dropped to the ground outside the wall, its guns at the ready.

The cannons atop the wall were raised.

Spook rose to his feet, a wide and intricate sigil carved into the barren ground.

All along the perimeter of the wasteland, the wood demons emerged from the forest; they swarmed toward the city, a teeming black mass with thousands of glowing white eyes.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT

The mecha's guns sparked and recoiled, bullet casings flying.

BANG! BANG! BANGBANG! BOOM! BOOMBOOM! BOOM!

Cannonfire echoed throughout the city, deafening to the crowd gathered at the door. Explosive cannonballs thundered throughout the wasteland, filling the air with bright fiery billows of dirt while crystallized wood-demons darted around the wreckage.

Thousands of the little monsters darted across the wastes, barely slowed down by the barrage of thunderous explosions and the rain of gunfire. Within moments the wood-demons had reached the wall and raced up its vertical surface like it was nothing at all.

We return to the Travelers inside the interrogation room, where the wooden door through which they had come was now being overgrown, cracked and broken by slithering roots. There were seconds before the door would be completely destroyed.

The first guard stopped just before he might have slammed the butt of his gun into Lily's head, and instead he stared in horror at how quickly the wood-demons were decimating the door to the outside. He backed up toward the wall, and instead pointed his bayonet at whatever might come through that door.

The second guard was not so cool with this arrangement.

"Oh shit," he sputtered, tripping over himself as the outside door gave a tremendous CRACK and shards of sunlight and the KA-BOOM of cannonfire filled the room.

The second guard, in a panic, shoved past Meryn, flung open the door, grabbed Scarlet by the collar and tossed the boy into Meryn to get him out of his way. "RUN," he screamed at the surprised crowd on the other side of the door, and he shoved his way through the rioters while gunfire and screeching rose up behind him.

The first wood demons -- covered in black crystalline, their eyes glowing white and red -- perched atop the wall among slaughtered guards, and hissed down at the city.

Many of those in the crowd heeded the guard's advice. The streets throughout Cogswall were filled with people running from the walls.

The hooded woman dropped from the ledge and disappeared among the fleeing crowd.