Zoe looked out over the darkness, focusing on the wisps of mana that raced through the mass of corruption. Despite seeming to be darkness itself, to her mana sight it was anything but. Wisps of light danced across the surface, and even more below that she was sure she just couldn’t see. Was the darkness somebody’s spell? Some pattern of mana that continued to grow, consuming all that it touched?

  Walls of various elements were built up around the corruption in pulses of brilliant magic as people attempted to hold it back, but each time the darkness splashed up against it and eroded it away. The walls acted as little more than slight diversions, a few seconds bought as someone else prepared a larger spell to blast away a large section of the corruption.

  She looked around on the top of the wall for anybody who looked to be in charge, somebody commanding the troops, organizing the people. She looked back to the black sphere still floating in the air and thought to Liberto down below in the crystal room. Would he be able to help her?

  It had been about twenty minutes since the last time she brought the sphere back, would he be upset if she showed up early? Who could she talk to about the knowledge she had now? Did anybody else even know about the Okiu now? Zoe was hardly the only person to know about it at the time, but it was a relatively small event as far as she could remember, and it was a very long time ago.

  Was it even important to bring it up? Would it make a difference if people knew where the corruption came from? Did the corruption even come from the Okiu at all or was this a completely unrelated event? Maybe whoever infected the Okiu was here, attacking the kingdom?

  Did somebody save the corruption from outside Flester at the time? Bring it over here to the capital to research it, and after so many decades finally lost control of it? There were too many options, too many possibilities. Could she have done better, back when she encountered the Okiu? Could she have destroyed every trace of the corruption herself and kept this from happening?

  Zoe closed her eyes and took a deep breath, listening to the commotion around her. The shouts of commands, the hushed discussions from rooms within the walls. The sloshing of darkness at the bottom of the wall and the awful screeches of the creatures within it. She smelled the rotting flesh and burnt hair that billowed over the wall like she was standing on a beach after a nasty storm.

  “Are you alright?” A voice called out from next to her. Firm hands gripped her shoulder, shaking her from her trance.

  Zoe nodded. “Sorry. Yes. Where’s a leader? A commander or something? I don’t know how the structure works here.”

  “Down there,” the woman pointed to some thrown together buildings at the bottom of the wall not far from where Zoe was.

  “Okay, thanks.” Zoe Cosmic Leaped down to the cluster of wrought iron buildings erected in what used to be a small park. A few of the guards nearby looked up and grabbed the weapons hanging at their waist when she appeared, relaxing somewhat as Zoe summoned her silver plate.

  “State your business.” One of the guards said to her.

  “I think I know what the corruption is.” Zoe said.

  Two of the guards looked at each other before they nodded. “Follow me,” the younger looking of the two said.

  Zoe followed her across the short field of stomped, crushed flowers to the largest of the metal buildings. A red cloth hung from the entrance, which the guard pulled aside and gestured for Zoe to enter.

  Inside was a metal desk with one of the most ornately dressed individuals Zoe had ever seen sitting behind it. Her silver metal armour seemed to shine, with the dozens of different gems embedded into the surface glinting and refracting the light. Her long hair was pulled back, tied into a thick black braid with several silver bands that reached down to the floor behind her as she sat in a metal chair.

  She stood up as Zoe entered, her brown eyes full of confidence and power, staring at Zoe with a fierceness that sent shivers down her spine. Identify showed her as a bright red level five hundred twenty one worker.

  “Speak,” the woman said.

  “She says she knows what the corruption is.” The guard explained.

  “I think I know, I said.” Zoe spat out in stutters. “Specifically. Just, I think. I might’ve seen it before.”

  “You’re dismissed.” The woman sat down and waved the guard away.

  The guard walked out, closing the red curtain behind her as she did. As soon as it closed, the sounds of battle from outside washed away, replaced by the near silent breaths of the woman in front of Zoe and Zoe’s own much more nervous heartbeat. The terrible smell of death and rot vanished, with only a slight herbal, citrusy smell filling the room.

  “Sit,” the woman said. She waved her hand and flowing silver shot from her hand, forming a chair on the opposite side of her desk.

  Zoe sat in the chair and nodded, her heartbeat echoing through her ears.

  “Speak, woman.” The woman said.

  “I, um, I think I might have seen this before. A while ago. I’m not sure how long. Maybe forty years, fifty years. I’m not sure. It’s been a long time. Back in Flester, when Flester still existed. There was an Okiu, it was really high level. Seventh tier, I think? It was light green. Not the same as the dark green in third tier but much brighter. Actually it was called a Corrupted Okiu, but I think it was just an Okiu that was corrupted-” Zoe rambled.

  “Be calm,” the woman said. A pulse of magic washed out over the room, intensifying the citrusy smell.

  Zoe took a breath, feeling the smell fill her body and warming every part of her. The anxiety and fear she felt at the woman’s presence grew so distant, so forgettable. Silence took over the building as the ever present thumping of Zoe’s heart quieted down at last.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Speak, woman.” The woman repeated.

  “Right,” Zoe said. “It was maybe fifty years ago now, about. I was going hunting outside of Flester and my group felt these really awful quakes all of a sudden. I can’t remember if we investigated it or if we ran away from it, but either way we found a Corrupted Okiu was the source of the quakes. It was covered in the same darkness we have here, almost.

  “But the darkness couldn’t live off of the Okiu at the time. It tried to reach out, but as soon as it left the Okiu’s presence, it just crumbled away. This is like, I dunno, a supercharged variant of it, but it’s basically the same thing as far as I can see.” Zoe explained.

  The woman nodded, one of the purple gems adorning her breastplate shining bright for a moment before the colour faded away to a translucent white crystal. “And how did you deal with this corrupted beast at the time?"

  Zoe shook her head. “We didn’t, really. I comforted it, I guess. It wasn’t rabid, it was intelligent. I stayed by its side until it died, and then when it did, the darkness just kinda died on its own.”

  The woman nodded. “It requires sustenance, then. The forests weren’t enough to sustain it, but somehow it has found enough of a hold here in our great city.”

  “I think so. I’m not sure. I just encountered it very briefly, a very long time ago.” Zoe said.

  “And where did this Okiu come from?” The woman asked, another gem shining before its colour faded away.

  “I have no idea. My best guess is that it came from some other world, maybe. As far as I can tell it just appeared and then died a few minutes later.” Zoe answered.

  “And was the corruption destroyed, at the time? Was there any chance that somebody could have taken a sample of it?” The woman asked.

  Zoe nodded. “I didn’t destroy it all myself. It was already dead, I thought. But I didn’t check it out myself, no. I should’ve checked it out myself. Dammit.”

  Another pulse of magic washed out over the room, filling it with more of the citrusy scent and Zoe felt her growing frustration fade away.

  “You are not at fault.” The woman said. “Do you have any other information for me?”

  Zoe shook her head. “No, no that was it.”

  “You may return to your duties, then.” The woman said, gesturing to the curtain hanging in the doorway as the chair beneath Zoe began to shudder.

  Zoe stood a moment before the chair melted and creeped along the floor beneath the desk back to the woman, and then opened the red curtain. She staggered back as the reality outside smashed into her like a freight train filled with fear and despair. The awful smell smashed through her nostrils, the screams and screeches of battle filled her ears

  “Do well,” the woman said from behind Zoe.

  Zoe nodded and looked back up the wall to the staircase where Liberto was, Cosmic Leaping back up to the black sphere she left hanging from the edge. She brought it down to Liberto who raised an eyebrow at the minimal amount of mana she’d given before he rolled the sphere back to her.

  “Sorry,” Zoe said. “Just had some stuff come up. I’ll be back with more soon.”

  Liberto nodded and closed his eyes again, the unending flow of mana continuing to fill the floors and walls. Zoe lifted the sphere with her magic and brought it back up to the group she’d been standing behind to get back to her duty.

  The hours passed with nothing seeming to change at first. Every so often, somebody would get hit by the splashes of corruption that got past the mages standing on guard and Zoe would Cosmic Leap over to help them. They’d gotten the process down quite well after the first few incidents, with only one mage being brought away from the detachment to assist with destroying the darkness keeping the breaches to an absolute minimum.

  But as time drew on, Zoe saw the effects she had on the battle. Or at least, what she liked to think of as her impact on the battle. Somehow, it felt good to believe that she was making a real difference. That her presence here mattered, that she mattered. Maybe they would have discovered what she told them on their own, or maybe what she told them wasn’t having much of an impact on the decisions they made.

  Whichever the case was, several hours after she’d spoken with the rather terrifying woman down in the base camp, she noticed what could only be said to be a reaction to her information, in her opinion. The endless barrage of magic from the defenders slowed down, the bright explosions of magic that had been a familiar companion for the last day coming to a near complete stop.

  Instead, the city seemed to focus on the edges of the darkness, holding it back with light magic as workers built up walls to contain the darkness. Stonemasons and smiths, glassmakers and enchanters, forming massive sprawling walls from natural materials that were being hauled in on massive carriages.

  Things quickly took a turn for the better, by Zoe’s eye. The walls were erected and the darkness could do nothing against them. The creatures within the darkness clambered at the walls, but each wall was made with far too large a lip for them to get over so each time they did little more than fall back into the sea of corruption.

  Zoe wondered for a moment why there were no birds fluttering away but imagined that most of the birds likely would have flown away before the corruption reached them. Any that did get corrupted would be shot down as soon as they flew up. Letting birds fly across the country, dripping this corrupting darkness across the lands would be a terrible outcome. There were probably archers or mages, or combinations of both that were stationed around the perimeter shooting down anything that flew as soon as they noticed it.

  The sea of darkness was enormous, and the walls that were erected felt like ants trying to hold back an ocean. But bit by bit, they seemed to be working. And as the days dragged on, more workers were brought out to build up the walls even faster. More carriages flew down the streets, carrying even more raw materials for the workers.

  Zoe smiled as she looked out over the sea of dwindling darkness. It was terrifying on one hand and awe inspiring on the other. A disgusting show of the power the world had, and an incredible display of the power people could wield against it. And somehow, Zoe even felt like she had some part in that awe inspiring power. That she helped, that her knowledge and experience and life meant something here. She’d recognized something that so few were even privy to, and managed to affect real change. Meaningful change.

  Maybe it was a moment of arrogance, she supposed. To think that she’d had such a monumental effect on the tide of battle. Even if she hadn’t brought it to their attention, they would have learned of its nature at some point, and likely even before it had expanded too far. They were almost certainly already experimenting with it — the healer who spoke with Zoe in the tent had a sample of it that she kept.

  Zoe paused for a moment. Why was that darkness not withering away within the jar? Was it feeding from being stored in the woman’s storage item? Biding its time while it was stored away and sustaining itself on the people shoving their hands into it to test their mettle? She shrugged. That was a problem for other people to deal with.

  For now, Zoe was fine with a little arrogance. With letting herself take some pride in the impact she thought she had. The comfort it brought, after days of stress was more than welcome, she felt.

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