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Bralston clenched his teeth behind his lips, looking thoughtful After a hed

‘The Venariu stipends for research purposes,’ he said ‘If we are forced to repurpose a settleovern – ‘such as studying the cause for a change in fish rations … we are bound to offer a stipend’

‘Such as one that ry bellies and blankets over cold shoulders,’ Mesri replied, a s beneath his moustache ‘The offer is appreciated, Librarian’

‘We do, of course, insist on a policy of extre teh, I don’t foresee this as being too objectionable an--’

‘It is,’ Mesri answered, swift and stern ‘The offer was appreciated, Librarian, but I must decline I cannot ask the people to part with their matron’

‘It’s a si into his voice ‘Worship in your own hoht of the Venariuenerous offer’

‘It is, sir,’ Mesri said ‘But I must decline, all the same We are men of Yonder Men of Yonder are followers of Zamanthras She is a part of the city and us’

‘Faith cannot feed the hungry’

‘Money cannot define a man’

‘So you say,’ Bralston sneered ‘I will never understand your profession, Mesri – you or the priest who guided me here’

‘No one mentioned a priest’ Mesri’s brows furrowed ‘Who was he?’

‘Evenhands Miron Evenhands Lord Emissary, so-called, of the Church of Talanas’

‘Evenhands?’ Mesri’s face nearly burrowed back into his skull, so fiercely did it screw up ‘How is that--’

‘Mesri! Mesri!’

The priest’s attentions were seized by the young, dark-skinnedout of the poor district He did not even look at Bralston as he rushed up to the priest

‘Another fell ill,’ the young man panted ‘Swears it was shicts’

‘Of course,’ Mesri sighed ‘It’s always shicts … or ghosts … or whatever fell spirit has been thought up’ He turned to Bralston ‘Sir Librarian, please--’

‘Ti past young man and priest alike ‘Those endeavours that cannot be pursued must settle behind those that can’

Mesri was calling so after him, he realised, as he walked toward the warehouse But he shut his ears to the sound, all the same It was foolish to have offered; a stipend would require paperwork, endorsements, evaluations He had a job to do

One that led him into a dark, dank place

Twenty

THE SOUND OF SICKNESS

Shicts were created from Riffid, the Huntress Shicts had been birthed fro more Shicts were created Shicts were born Shicts were meant to be here on this world

This was fact

Naxia this

Huuided fanaticism they tried to justify their infectious presence with Huan as monkeys that learned how to pick up swords Hu here on this world

This was fact

Naxiaas convinced of it now

Froins when the first monkey stabbed his brother and called himself human, the round-ears had shed their body hair, built houses over stone and birthed the corruptions of politics and gold and found more productive uses for their feces They had evolved

Logical, Naxiaw told himself Sickness is a predator It mutates, learns to resist medicine and bypass immunities to spread its infection That the hu and destroying should be no surprise

And truthfully, he adfaces and witnessed their brutal devastation, their efficient destruction, their utterly gleeful murder, he had not been surprised

Shocked, of course

Horrified, naturally

And, he thought as he peered through the bars of his cage, everstone ruins upon the sandy ridge that overlooked the valley in which they crawled, he watched them For the past six days, he had studied them as they crushed the earth beneath their iron-shod feet, as they blackened the sky with their forges, as they broke their scaly, green servants hip and blade

Horror and repulsion for the purple-skinned brutes had long ago faded He scolded hi What he atching was no longer so vicious and cruel to be loathed What he atching was so wholly terrifying

He had thought them to be one more aberration on an already-tainted world, one more threat for the shicts to destroy, one more disease to cure But as he continued to watch them, to study their cruelty and monitor their rapaciousness, he realised they were no new illness They wereto purge since he could first carry his Spokesht have been purple instead of pink, thicker of bone and harder of flesh, long of face and white of eye, but he recognised them all too swiftly And the more he watched them as they spread across the island, purple patches of disease conta a pure and pristine land, the less ridiculous it seemed