"The taint is something so very different from us that you might be tempted to think it all the same, but it actually comes in wildly different shapes and forms. Certainly, there are a couple of traits in common between the variants." Leuca let go of the reins with her right hand, and held out her thumb to count dramatically. "The first is the very reason why we call it 'taint' in first place: that creeping temptation eroding at your purity, trying to turn you into one of them."

  She'd felt it countless times over her decades - horrible and invigorating, like walking the edge of razor - and always managed to reach the other side at the end, asserting her dominance. Today would be no different.

  She raised her index finger. "The second, and most important for us, is the compact. The constants that our oh so gracious superiors safeguard and the subsequent rules of conduct that they bestow unto us. These are what allow us to do our job, so you'd best keep them in mind, understood?"

  There was no answer. The wagon kept trundling forward roughly through pitch blackness. The tremulous light of the lanterns illuminated only a little of the dusty path, and when they swung just so, the dark grasses and tree roots to the sides too, teeming with creepy flowers. Occasional flashes further away illuminated chunks of forest when plants - or stranger, moving stuff - would flash in blueish-white. In the background there was a humming whistle, the kind that could be heard sometimes when one focused hard on listening over absolute silence, only much more persistent and all-encompassing.

  Leuca was only repeating stuff they all knew well to cover that damn sound, knowing her henchmen were not brave enough to put in even this little effort. It figures.

  "Everything else - and I do mean everything - is different, and we're on our own, relying only on our experience and ingenuity to make do." She grabbed the reins with both hands again, and shifted in her seat, trying futilely to find a less uncomfortable position. She'd been sitting for far too long to feel anything less than miserable.

  "Remember the Aihge tide pools? Who do you think discovered that they only ever drown people with hair longer than their shoulders?"

  There was grumbling from inside box and one exasperated sigh that would have to be addressed later. Leuca had some achievements. It was only right that she flaunted them a bit.

  "I'll say, that's the real essence of our job, and what distinguishes a good warden from one that dies early, bringing half a village to the afterlife with them. Remember, you're remiss in your duty if you're not always putting in personal effort to learn about the enemy: a little something you learn now could save lives down the line, because the taint is always unpredictable, always changing, always testing us. Because beyond those similarities and constants, each declination is utterly bizarre, defying common sense at every turn. Believe it or not, the Pillar of Welcoming is one of the tamer ones."

  They'd passed by the thing on way here. A manor-sized heap of rocks, it was the smallest declinations of taint on the entire Gau, so small that it beggared belief. It housed one terrifying occupant that assaulted anybody and anything that came too close. They'd obviously steered very clear of it, because there was being academically curious, and there was being suicidal.

  Leuca had to admit that one's name was particularly bizarre, sounding almost ironic. But her rational mind knew it was nothing of the sort: the name must be true in some contrived, alien sense. The taint did not crack jokes. In fact, the way most people conceived of it as antagonistic, or cruel, or mad, was simply misled, product of a gau-centric mindset. The taint ran on its own logic, and if it appeared so alien, that was only because it did not care about them at all.

  But the Edge of the Night... the Edge of the Night was different.

  "Are we there yet?" a deep voice suddenly ventured out, hesitant. It was the fifth sentence he'd spoken since they'd entered the Night and the fifth time he'd asked the same, childish question. Discipline was a hard quality to find, these days.

  "We're almost there," Leuca blatantly lied, as the both of them should realize if a sliver of sense could fit through the thick fog of their anxiety. But if that were possible, they would not be annoying her in the first place, would they? "I can already can see the light of dawn on the horizon!"

  "Really?" a burly hand with thick hairy fingers reached through the bars, pulling aside the parchments to take a look outside. But Leuca slapped it away.

  "You wanted protection? Stay protected." She pulled the charms back in place, covering the window completely. "Or risk spirits seizing your soul at the last hour!"

  That nipped any protest in the bud. For how many years Cintu had been following her with a good head on his shoulders, listening to her lessons and watching her work, he still couldn't let go of superstition. He would never admit it to her face, but he must buy a bit into the rumors that she was some kind of witch putting on a performance with her charms as a front, only performing the 'actual' rituals in secret at dead of night.

  Tsk. One would think that between the burly man and the scrawny kid, it would be the latter that fell for that drivel, and hassled her. But whatever her complaints and despite her pride and rationality, she was glad to have both along for this trip.

  They'd had no trouble, exactly like it was supposed to be, because the Edge of the Night never had a history of attacks. Never. Not even fools and children getting lost - those that would die even in a mundane forest - failed to return.

  There was no compact, as far as she new. Her superiors had only allowed her to know that the Night was subservient to the Homage and so those same rules applied. The one difference was that only travelers were allowed. No dawdling. Supposedly the Night went out of its way to maintain the roads - without gau intervention - to minimize the time anyone spent inside, and proof of that was right in front of her eyes. She'd been afraid they wouldn't be able to bring the wagon through, but it was an easy fit.

  She leaned forward and caressed the mules. "The power of horses and the stubbornness of donkeys. Best of both worlds."

  Yet supposedly even those who dawdled never had anything bad happen to them. Some reported being stalked - which could just be nerves - but nothing else. And that was beyond strange. If something starts following you through the Ahige or the Homage, for example, you're not leaving. Not with all your limbs, at least.

  All in all, the Night sounded like a ravenous animal that brought children back home and kept away others beasts that would instead eat them.

  Righteous indignation aside, it was somewhat understandable how a tiny group had started to nurture the traitorous belief that the Night was their... friend. But Leuca had the experience and instruments to consider the situation properly, and she didn't buy it: since the taint couldn't care less for gau, there must be some hidden design behind the Night's actions that they had not seen the full scope of yet.

  Plus, she'd never felt at ease in here.

  It wasn't the sheer sense of primal danger that she'd felt when something stalked her in other declinations, but just a constant sense of... supreme unwelcome.

  The Night didn't want her here in an almost personal way. It was less the usual temptation trying to assimilate her, but more of a targeted scornful hate. There was a reason she hadn't protested much to her husband's insistence she bring help along, no matter how useless they'd turned out to be.

  Still, Leuca was rational and wouldn't back down just because of some feeling, not when the alternative was a long, roundabout way through the hills.

  It had been years since she'd visited her brother. Last time, he was still a foreigner in his own home, and his relationship with his sons left a lot to be desired, except maybe for Verui. Despite her insistent advice, she doubted the fool had remarried. He was a stubborn man. They were true siblings in that.

  And so guilt plagued her. No matter how nonsensical and no matter how right she'd been, she couldn't avoid feeling some guilt over the past. At the very least, she owed it to him to be more present, to keep him on the correct course. There were strange rumors about a tainted girl come out of nowhere... "I really hope he's learned from the past."

  And those were only the personal stuff, unimportant in the great scheme of things. War was looming. She did not want a repeat, especially not on the losing side as they were projected to be this time. Her mission here might be a long shot, but if there was even a chance to avoid that bloodshed, she would give it her all, go through any amount of discomfort and maybe-imagined dangers of the Night. Of course, that was the moment that everything went bad.

  Something was staring at her.

  It wasn't the simple unease of before, but an almost physical weight pressing down on her chest. She froze, not knowing what to do, though her hand slowly reached towards the crossbow.

  Then there was a terrible, haunting sound from the distance, a cross between a mooing and a deer call, with a high-pitched, hissing tail. And the feeling vanished as suddenly as it had come.

  Leuca started breathing again, and half-collapsed forward. Her heartbeat climbed into her throat as a wave of heat rushed to her extremities. She grabbed the crossbow and quickly loaded it while checking around.

  "What. The fuck. Was that?" This time it was Atessa's higher pitched voice. Whether he meant the sound or if he'd felt the pressure too didn't really matter at the moment.

  "Be silent." She finished loading her weapon and stood up to get a better view.

  No enemy stood out. But the again, she would never have managed to load her crossbow if there were. Also... she lowered her weapon, but didn't unload it. The situations where she was allowed to defend herself with force were pretty rare and specific: better to lose one or two foolish wardens than to incite conflict with the taint. She would have to be quick with her wits.

  "Of fucking course at the very end of the trip we-"

  "I said be quiet!" It was beyond irritating that both her helpers were teaming up to annoy her rather than maintaining a clear mind. As usual, it was all up to her. "That was nothing. Strange sounds are an everyday occurrence in the taint. No one was ever attacked in the Night, remember?"

  Looking around, everything really was the same as before, as if nothing had happened at all. But that counted for little when the lanterns only illuminated so far: there could be a throng of monsters lurking a stone throw away and she wouldn't know.

  Yet as the leader, she couldn't afford to show hesitation. "We're almost out. Nothing changed. We'll just have to keep-"

  The mules were suddenly unnerved and they stopped moving. Leuca whirled forward again, pointing with her crossbow.

  There was something blocking the road.

  Blood going cold in her veins, her hands trembling on the weapon, she leaned forward... her nerves were such that it took a while to reconcile with the plainness of the scene.

  An entire knocked down tree was barring the way.

  "Fucking bandits in the fucking Night?" she muttered.

  "Boss? Boss?! B-"

  "I said quit it! One more word, just one more word, and I'll drag you out of the box and tie you up to a branch, ok?"

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Silence. They finally understood.

  "I'm going to take a look around."

  Only weak whimpers answered her.

  She jumped down and walked ahead, constantly watching over her shoulders... but no trap was sprung, and she came to stand beside the nervous animals.

  Indeed, there was a tree blocking the path, gnarly and with a strange blueish tint, no different from any of the others that stood around. Her gaze moved to the lower part of the trunk to find the most bizarre part in this already bizarre situation: this tree had not been cut down from the sides of the road. Its roots were dangling, still dripping with humid earth and even wriggling worms.

  It looked like someone had pulled the thing out of the earth and dragged it here, very recently. But that was impossible. Who could be strong enough to manage that? Maybe with a team of oxen it could be done, but there were no visible tracks, and good luck bringing an ox inside the taint.

  Yet the impossibility of the sight was secondary. What was she to do? It was imperative that they left, because she'd never heard anything like this and novelties within any declination of taint meant death.

  Should she just try to walk around? They were not supposed to leave the path, but it was impossible not to break that rule in this situation: she could unhook the mules and push the wagon back a few steps, but even if she decided to give up entirely, she couldn't turn around the wagon in this little space. Not that she was going to go back home with her tail between her legs when she was so close.

  "There's no guarantee I won't find another tree blocking the way back or some other absurdity. But how do I get the wagon past this?"

  She would need to find a passage large enough, which was kind of hard since this was a forest and she'd brought the biggest wagon because roads were supposed to be fucking clear.

  But then what? They couldn't just wait here, because this tree was definitely not going to move by itself.

  They could try to climb over it and go on foot, but that would mean losing the wagon, the mules and all her equipment. A devastating loss, and that was only if she managed to convince those two to get out of the box in the first place.

  "If only there were a fucking clear compact!"

  It took her an embarrassingly and worryingly long time to realize that there were sounds similar to that mooing from before, playing out in the distance. This time she wasn't scared, but inspired. Probably a monumentally idiotic decision, but it was also true that when no other rule applied, then it was to a dru's or warden's own intuition to work out a way.

  She walked to the wagon and climbed up to stand next to the window. "There's a little something interesting up ahead that I want to check out, " she said, trying to sound cheerful and interested. Better they think her suicidally ambitious but confident, than completely lost. "I'm going to take a look. Whatever you hear, don't open this door. Don't even try to peek outside, alright?"

  Even more pathetic whimpering was her only answer.

  "Alright?"

  A sob. "Yes"

  She left the both of them to their crying, ensured that the mules wouldn't be acting up, and then left the path.

  She only hesitated a bit before walking into total darkness. A lantern would have been lovely, but better to stumble everywhere than to stand out like that. She got her wish moments later and almost discharged her crossbow as her chin hit the ground. Swearing, she started crawling forward on her knees.

  At first it was one of the most frightening experiences of her life... but soon enough the danger was so all-encompassing that a strange calm descended. Why worry if she couldn't do anything anyway?

  When she started seeing a more stable, diffused light ahead and shadows moving within it, she slowed down and brought her weapon up to her chest.

  She knew she should stop here. There was no rational reason for going there in the first place, and that looked like a gathering. She was not supposed to interact with those unless authorized, and especially not in the Night. Plus, she was absolutely going to get found if she got closer.

  She kept repeating to herself how stupid this was as she gradually approached, until she was hiding behind a tree at very edge of the gathering, her back to the trunk, afraid to take even a little peek.

  Braying, mooing, hoots and all kind of deformed animal sounds echoed around, while disqueiting shadows danced on the fronds above.

  What did she even hope to find here that could help in any way? Did she think they were going to clear the road for her? These things were likely the ones that barred it in the first place and she'd walked right to the edge of their trap.

  But why? The night might be the declination of taint that creeped her out the most, by far, but it was never known to behave like this. What had changed?

  As she was trying to scrounge up what little she knew about the inhabitants of this place, she realized that a sound was different from the others, definitely not having fun.

  They're torturing someone.

  Then, for the second time in less than an hour, she understood that something dangerous was happening much later than it had started and that she should have.

  The loud breathing of something big was approaching from the gathering, heavy thuds propagating through the ground.

  Helpless, Leuca clutched her crossbow tight against her chest, knowing she was absolutely not allowed to use it here. This was no group of mindless beasts, but the exact kind of creatures she was forbidden from provoking, and she really doubted she could outrun the one about to walk around her tree.

  She'd lived by the rules her whole life, and believed she would die by them.

  But her mission was on the line. Her life... was she really not going to see her children again? Would she really just lay down and not even try to fight back, when she knew the kind of people that had decided her worth was only so little?

  The creature was coming ever closer, sniffing the air, so big that its breathing could ruffle her hair even from here. She was sweating so much that her glasses slipped free and almost fell to the ground.

  The thing was just about to turn the corner, just about to-

  Before her integrity and resolve could be called into question, that same deer calling of before sounded out, almost deafening from this close. A fresh new wave of dread hit Leuca, and she hunched even more, pressing herself into the trunk.

  It took a while for her ears to stop ringing.

  Then it took her more to realize that there was no sound at all.

  There was a weight in her chest, and she found it hard to move even a finger. But everything truly was silent now, no more shadows playing in the fronds. Even the soft lighting had dimmed considerably.

  The gathering had left.

  She found herself standing, leaning against the trunk with a hand. She felt dazed, too much having happened in too short a time with still no end in sight. But she'd come all this way, and she wouldn't leave empty-handed.

  She pushed her glasses up her nose and hooked them again under her horn. Then, once again, instead of doing the reasonable thing and going back, accepting her losses... she moved past the tree.

  It was a tiny clearing, not unlike any other she could find here but for the little illumination emanated from bulging, orange lichens - though the light itself was a blueish white - that were gradually receding and deflating like badly risen cakes. Dark grass, violet flowers... the rest was just mundane forest stuff.

  Leuca advanced further towards the center, casting wary glances around.

  There were no footprints, no moved terrain, no disturbed leaves.

  She kept moving, rotating and looking around for any clues. Yet for all intents and purposes, it was as if nothing had been here, and it had all been an illusion.

  And then she saw it, hanging from a tree.

  Warty, pale red skin, thick limbs, and an absolutely enormous mouth, looking like a cross between an obese monkey and a toad, an acceptor of the Homage declination was pinned to the trunk.

  Leuca stumbled back and fell on her bottom.

  It had been killed, very recently and very thoroughly judging by the fluids still running down its body from countless lacerations and missing chunks. Holding it up - growing into and out of its wounds - was a strange pattern of lichens and flowers that part of her wanted to dismiss as random and nonsensical. The other part could clearly read it as a rune.

  "Coming"

  Standing over a boulder, Leuca stared at the hills in the early dawn, breathing in the crispy morning air. There was a light breeze that felt pretty chilly against her clothes, wet from perspiration. She couldn't believe it was over. And that wasn't a turn of phrase.

  Only the beginnings of Coren could be seen from here. Nobody in sight. Of course they had no reason to be: it was pretty early, a market day, and this was the 'back' part of the town, facing the taint. But those justifications did little to quell her anxiety.

  She grabbed a stone, juggled with it a little, and then threw it against the box. "Come on out, already."

  After a moment, the box's door opened and a big shoulder blocked the opening, a thick black beard and a hint of brown eye poking out. But no more. The eye rotated around, checking the surroundings in a circumspect way.

  Leuca grabbed another stone and threw it jokingly at the lump of cowardly flesh. "If I say it's safe, it's safe."

  Grumbling again, a burly, hairy man, thick as a barrel, jumped out of his little hidey-hole. As usual, his shirt was open, giving a really unsolicited view over a veritable carpet of fuzz. Coupled with his wild mane and beard, Cintu looked like he'd been stranded on a desert island for a couple of years. He looked just as intimidating as he actually was timid.

  He'd started walking towards the other side of the box as if to hide from Leuca's gaze, his head down and playing nervously with his hands when a higher pitched voice called out to him, and he hurried back to help her other helper climb down.

  Atessa was the almost complete opposite of Cintu, and Leuca couldn't convince her husband that she hadn't picked the boy just to make her team less unapproachable. He had light brown hair - far glossier than hers - a geometric tattoo whose author he refused to rat out, and an overall frail and childish frame, bordering on effeminate. He really tickled her maternal and teaching instincts, since her own children absolutely refused to learn anything about the craft.

  As soon as he'd climbed down, Atessa's eyes found Leuca, bearing a silent question. One that Cintu voiced out, with deep but faltering voice.

  "Boss, what... what was that back there? What happened?"

  Unfortunately this wasn't a matter that could be discussed with them at this stage. Not before she spoke with her brother, and certainly not before she ensured that everything in town was alright.

  That I still have a brother to talk with. She shivered at the thought knowing that, while it was highly unlikely, such things had happened in the past.

  "Let's go. We've wasted enough time already." She jumped down from the boulder and, in the same motion, up again onto her seat. She prodded the mules and the wagon started again.

  Though her helpers were visibly uneasy at the dodged question, they could do nothing but hurry after her. Cintu reached out to close the door gently before it slammed closed on its own, and then they both walked along each to one side of the mules, like the most underwhelming parade escort ever.

  A flat area extended before them, with little vegetation or artificial stuff, except for a few stakes driven into the ground. This had obviously been cleared for defensive purposes.

  An ancient, crumbling low wall of stones was at the end, with a palisade on top and further to the sides, to extend the barrier. It was a relic from the war, hastily built, and since the fighting had never reached here, it was left in quite a sorry state - with entire sections bulging out over the fragile terrain. Still, this area was evidently valued as a buffer between the town and the Night: trinkets were hanging from the stakes, most of which had been placed by Leuca herself. Other charms... some were still her own handiwork, but intended for elsewhere, and others were straight up nonsense, like the 'protective' runes scratched onto those circles of rocks.

  Either Senovir has dimmed with age, or someone's getting nervous and he threw them a bone. Either way, this kind of harebrained work did nothing to assuage her nervousness.

  Nobody came out to greet them at the gate, and Cintu moved forward and easily unlatched it. He pushed the wooden barrier open, struggling a bit with the mud that caught at the bottom, but with no other difficulties besides. This was no serious defense.

  The mules carried the wagon uphill, and blessedly normal trees appeared again. A hill rose up on their left, and a ruined building stood on their right. "The swineherd," Cintu muttered, and Leuca nodded. The man had been too scared to live so far from the town and so close to the taint.

  Despite knowing the reason, finding an abandoned building first thing through didn't bode well. Though the fence was well maintained...

  There was a sudden scraping on the left and Leuca grabbed for her weapon again, pointing it to-

  pigs were wandering the hilltop. She remembered this was a orchard, and realized that the animals had been left to pick at the fallen fruits.

  "We're going to eat one of those tonight!" Atessa said with forced cheer. Cintu didn't answer, looking nervously at Leuca's raised weapon, and she still felt a little too anxious to engage either. But seeing cattle wander around peacefully should be good sign. I'm going to need to replace the string at this rate.

  They kept moving along for a few more minutes, until they finally reached a cluster of buildings... and people. Leuca breathed out her remaining nervousness all at once. What had happened back there had unsettled her more than she'd thought.

  Few were out and about, since this was the 'back' part of town in a market day, but each and everyone of them were staring at their wagon with distrust and unease. A particularly rebellious youth was not-so-stealthily reaching for a hoe... until a matron came out of the backyard and slapped him on the back of his head. "Welcome to the warden! The chief's sister!" she shouted, sparking a change of mood and a wave of cheer.

  Leuca nodded in acceptance, smiled, and even raised her closed fist with forced joy. The youth switched his attitude to the other extreme and pounded his chest as a sign of respect... before discreetly bolting.

  Her party kept moving along as the passersby stopped whatever they were doing to greet them and to get out of the way, because the street was only barely large enough for the wagon. Leuca looked around a bit as kids followed along or rushed ahead of them, taking in the reassuring everyday life. She would love to say that the sight stirred up fond memories, but truth was that she really hadn't come here often in the past, unless something forced her to.

  Along the way, they had to wait for one mortified farmer who had parked his own decrepit cart on the side, and he almost had it collapse under his hurry to get it out of the way. Leuca tried to reassure him but probably didn't fully manage, distracted as she was by her thoughts: now that she'd seen that everything seemed alright with Coren, she could focus on the absurdity of the past few hours.

  Throughout her years of work, she'd never been able to determine if there was a will behind the taint, flipping from one opinion to the opposite depending on her experiences at the time. Recently, she'd been firmly in the 'no' camp.

  But what in the world was that, then?

  The flowers had clearly spelled out a rune, there was no doubt in her mind now. But the taint did not write. That was preposterous. Yet it was hard not to think of that as a message to her, or using her as a go-between.

  Indeed, the tree had seemingly got out of the way on its own by the time she'd got back - I'll have to ask Cintu and Atessa if they heard anything, later - which seemed to imply that she'd been led to something and then let go after she'd found what she was meant to find.

  She squeezed the reins tight, biting her lip.

  She would have to talk with Senovir about this too, on top of the already bad news she was carrying. "Some sister and aunt I am. They'll really start to look forward to my visits."

  Cintu looked at her strangely, clearly having caught some of her muttering, but she just shook her head.

  The rune itself... she'd interpreted it as 'coming', but by itself, without context, there was no knowing who was coming, or where and when. It could truly mean everything and anything. Her mind instinctively went to a threat, but though she sincerely doubted it was anything positive, she needed to keep a clear mind and not jump to conclusions.

  Did the night even properly comprehend the rune, or was it just repeating something it had pilfered from the corpse of some scholar? And then there was the most creepy detail, the body from the Homage, that she honestly couldn't make heads or tails of unless she went straight to absurd and doomsayer ideas.

  ... What if the Homage was the intended recipient of the message? Was a change of management about to happen?

  A shiver went down her spine. What would a war between different declinations of taint look like?

  "Whoah, whoa!" Cintu hurriedly stopped the mules and looked at Leuca with a hint of worry. She shook her head free of her thoughts and looked around in consternation: they'd reached her brother's compound, and were about to move past.

  It was a huge multi-building property in the highest part of Coren, and still towering above the houses around, all of which were built at a respectful distance. Which was to say that for her to miss it, she'd truly been out of it.

  "Long time no see, Leuca," a voice called out from above, and she found her brother's right-hand man leaning lazily over the turret next to the rear gate. His high-contrast halves were unmistakable.

  "I've been traveling all night long, Viriodax," Leuca said in a flat tone. "Open that damn gate and pull my brother away from his bed. We need to talk."

  The man pounded his chest only half mockingly. "At your service."