Kim kept Rudolph at a slow trot, allowing for Riley and the others to keep pace with them. She too was heading westward, at least for a spell, having spent a considerable amount of time up north. And she seemed happy enough to lend a hand to Riley.

  And she did owe him after very nearly cutting him in half.

  “So what class did you get, after you uh... died?” Saying it out loud, Riley had a better grasp of how utterly insane their situation was.

  “I went with hedge knight. Some of the other options I got were damn weird. Mountain militiaman, merchant guard, bearkiller... Just went with the one that seemed the most practical.”

  “At least the ones you got sounded cool,” Riley murmured.

  “Course it didn’t help that I was freaking out at the time. You know, the whole... recently dead thing,” she replied, offering him a casual shrug. “Never thought this was the afterlife, that’s for damn sure.”

  Riley let out a nervous laugh, trying to swallow down the swell of bitterness he felt. “You and me both.”

  “Still... you’re doing pretty well. Been here only a couple of days and you’ve already grabbed an Aspect? I didn’t kill someone that strong until my second month or so.”

  “Didn’t have much of a choice. Guy was blocking the only way out of the fort. I was basically throwing myself headfirst at a brick wall until it gave way.”

  “Way I hear it, a Warden starts off somewhere random. But usually somewhere on the ass end of civilization. You got pretty unlucky in that regard. But you didn’t lose your resolve, and that’s the important part.”

  The two Oracles exchanged an uneasy glance, which lasted for only a fraction of a second.

  Riley shrugged. “Guess I can brag about it if I end up meeting other Wardens out here. Have you, er, met any other Wardens, Kim?”

  “A handful. From my experience, a lot of our people tend to be er... isolationist. See, not everyone is entirely in agreement with the idea of working together. Some Wardens are of a mind that er... well if another Warden has something worth taking, they’ll try to take it,” Kim said.

  “You mean... they’ll kill other Wardens?”

  Silence lingered in the air. A Warden killing another Warden would not mean much mechanically, but morally... it was concerning.

  Kim sighed. “From time to time. And not accidentally, like I nearly did to you.”

  “Sounds like you’ve had some bad experiences,” Riley said.

  “Oh yeah. Really if you weren’t a noob, I’d be warier around you. But I give the newcomers the benefit of the doubt.”

  “But... I should be wary around any other Wardens I meet?” Riley fought the urge to sigh. Just when he’d thought he’d found some allies, it seemed that there was no guarantee of camaraderie when it came to Wardens.

  Kim rolled her neck slowly, seeming to put a good amount of thought into how she should phrase things. “I wouldn’t say it’s the majority of Wardens who kill other Wardens. Hell, it’s probably not even a large minority. But the people who do that stuff have made other people paranoid. So a lot of other Wardens are isolationist as a result, not wanting to run the risk of meeting a nutcase. So, I dunno, I guess you should just be cautious.”

  The best chance he had to survive was just to guess whether or not a person would be a dangerous maniac? Riley frowned at the thought. He didn’t think things could get much worse, but the world was still finding ways to surprise him.

  “But there are a few groups of Wardens who have banded together, supporting cooperation. Pooling their resources, helping others as they need to. You might still be too green to join up with them, but you’ll be glad to know they’re out there.” She turned her head to face him. “The biggest one is called the Band of Brotherhood.”

  Riley frowned behind his mask. Something of a lame name, but he had to hope they were more skilled than the name implied.

  “So, you two are heading to Orespeak?” Kimberly asked, adjusting herself in her saddle.

  Riley nodded. “Kind of a pit stop, I guess. We need to keep heading westward, closer toward civilization. And with how long the journey is gonna take, we gotta regularly get supplies.”

  “Good call. Especially when you don’t have a mount.” Kim said. “Another thing you might wanna do ASAP. Only, well, it’s hard to say where you’ll find one worth getting, things being as they are. Best horses usually get snatched up by the imperial army, and everyone else is stuck with nags. Me personally, I only got Rudolph here by luck. Still, Orespeak... man, I haven’t been by there in months. Guess it’ll be nice to check in there.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Oh? What was it like?”

  Kim pondered the question, sparing a brief glance to Iosef. “Uh.. nice, wouldn’t you agree?”

  “Not really,” the Oracle said in a flat voice.

  “Aw it wasn’t that bad. They had supplies to trade, the people were um... they were nice, you know. For a bunch of isolated miners.” She turned back to Riley. “The Empire is in a pretty rough state these days, so mining colonies are seen as pretty important. Constantly bringing in raw materials to support the army, and maintain the infrastructure of the larger cities.”

  “Not that it has done much good,” said Iosef. “Vergoll is in decline, as with many empires and kingdoms that came before it. Even without Chaos gnawing at it from all sides, all empires collapse eventually. Though the new Emperor does little to help with the situation.”

  Riley tilted his head. “How’s that?” he asked.

  “Well... pray you should not meet them. They are a dangerous individual, and many say he has been gripped with madness. In some respects he is as dangerous to his people as the forces of Malformed Chaos.”

  “Take it he’s no friend to Wardens?” Riley asked.

  “It’s... complicated,” Kim said. “Just... well, if you go to the capital, avoid the palace. Not like you’d have much reason to go there, normally.”

  “Man, with how important we Wardens are, you’d think we’d be treated like royalty already.” Were it not for Arubis’ presence, he likely would have been turned away at Myron’s Pike. Of course, his attire was partially responsible. But even learning about his nature as a Warden, people had still been wary of him.

  Kim shrugged, and he could almost feel the woman smiling at him behind the dense plate of her helmet. “You’ll get used to it, new guy. It’s just another part of the job.” She took a firmer grip on her reins and turned her gaze to the horizon. “Come on then, we better keep moving. Wanna cover a bit more ground before we gotta make camp for the night.”

  They pressed on the next day, and it did not take much longer to reach their destination.

  Orespeak stood out from afar, distinguished by great lanterns that cast halos of warm orange light through the swirling mists. When they drew closer still, it was easy to see old wooden structures that had become partially crusted with frost.

  At this point, Riley mused, he would be glad if he never saw a single snowflake for the rest of his life.

  Kim hummed, reining her steed to halt. “Hang on,” she said, peering into the silhouettes partially outlined in the fog. “Something’s not right.”

  Riley grippe his shotel uneasily in one hand. “W-what do you mean?”

  “Last time I came here, there were patrolmen on the outer perimeter, and you could hear the workers hammering away from this range. Now it’s dead quiet.”

  “She has a point,” Arubis said. “I cannot see anyone from here. Not even a silhouette.”

  Riley frowned. “Bad sign,” he noted.

  Kim started to dismount, only to freeze in place as a shape began to emerge through the swirling stone. A hunched, humanoid figure clutching something that could only be a pickaxe.

  “A miner, looks like. Seems you were worried about nothing.” Riley let out a nervous laugh, not quite believing his own words.

  Kim remained silent. She paused for a moment and suddenly summoned something from her inventory. It looked, at first glance, like a slim glass lantern. But no light shone from within. Instead it was filled with a great molasses-like mass which had sticky tendrils adhering to the glass. The central mass pulsed softly, an oily sphere the size of a fist.

  She flicked the glass a few times, aiming toward the oncoming figure. “C’mon, wake up you dumb piece of shit.”

  The central mass opened up to reveal a slitted purple pupil, the sight of it making Riley lurch backward. “Jesus!” he hissed, nearly losing his balance. “What the fuck is that?!”

  “A chaotic auspex. I didn’t choose the name,” Kim replied. She aimed the lantern squarely at the shambling figure, which made the eyeball pulse at a higher speed. “Yep. Infected by some kind of Chaos. Damn shame.”

  She tossed it to Riley, who deftly caught it. He couldn’t help himself, peeking at the item description.

  Chaotic Auspex

  A putrid mass of rotflesh, safely cut off from its host. It is perfectly preserved, and resonates when in the presence of creatures corrupted by the aspects of Chaos.

  A tool commonly used by soldiers, adventurers, and caravan guards, it can be the dividing line between life and death.

  Riley clipped the auspex to his belt, his attention returning to the incoming figure. Kim had drawn her sword and was silently advancing toward him.

  Now he was able to get a better look at the newcomer. He was a hunched over, his skin deathly pale. His fur clothing was torn in many places, revealing oily black tumors. A swathe of the growths covered his face, some of them completely covering his eyes. A horrible growling noise rose in his throat as he suddenly rushed Kim, his pickaxe held high overhead.

  Kim sidestepped the swing, which slammed into the ground hard enough to kick up a spray of stone and snow. Kim’s claymore swept upward a heartbeat later, cleaving him from the left hip to right shoulder. He barely made a sound as his severed body parts thudded onto the snow. Dark strands of Essence flowed into her.

  “Whole town’s probably been wiped out,” she said, flicking blackened blood onto the snow.

  “You don’t know that for sure,” Riley said, slowly making his way over. The two Oracles followed after them, quiet and impassive.

  “Trust me, I know how these things go. Any survivors either fled, or are barricaded in deep and only barely surviving.”

  Riley frowned behind his mask. “So... what? This Rot stuff just spreads like a disease, and there’s no way to avoid infection?”

  “It’s not a disease like COVID, or whatever. Doesn’t spread through germs, or the air. It’s... well for things like this, some kind of carrier probably arrived and spread the Rot through direct exposure before anyone could put it down. Like ah... that one movie. You know, the one with that thing that attack those guys in the arctic.”

  The mental image sent a small shiver through Riley’s body. He gripped his blade tighter and aimed the auspex toward the broader scope of the mining town. The mass pulsed at a slightly faster rate.

  “See?” Kim said, shrugging. “Must have happened pretty recently... damn. I could’ve helped these guys if I’d been here.” She shook her head and started forward, her sword still dripping. “We better purge this place, then. It could fester into a bigger problem if we don’t.”

  He thought back to Klaus, who had been left to fester until he grew into a hulking monster of a man. “You figure there’s a Lodestone near here? We could be sent pretty far back if either of us dies.” Well, if he died. Riley doubted Kim was in much danger.

  “I only stayed here for a brief period in passing.” Kim shrugged and pressed onward, taking a moment to guide Rudolph by the reins. “Didn’t really take the time to look for one, figured I wouldn’t need it. But... they tend to form in places with a dense concentration of people. There’s bound to be one somewhere in this spot.”

  Riley nodded, letting his gaze scan the horizon. They passed a few of the outer structures. Many of the wooden walls had been smashed inward, buried under growing clods of snow. A frozen, skeletal arm protruded from one of the mounds.

  “Okay,” Riley replied. He stole a glance to the Auspex, pulsing on his hip. “Then, let’s see what we can find.”