The tent lining furrowed in the uneasy wind. It was similar to the medical tent we had been in before but the wooden desk in the front had less supplies since we didn’t need much apart from the tonic ingredients. Most scrubber headquarters would have basic medical supplies, but in a military camp they already had their own tent nearby. Outside I could hear the raucous cries of the dying amidst the crash of steel and trampling of hooves. It was so close and yet it still felt like another world. A world I had never had to know and one I was protected from even now despite being only meters away.

  Every moment I anticipated any arrow through the thin tent fabric, an invading ruffian through its doors, or the splatter of blood against its walls, but they never came. This tent was sacred. It was the only manner of site within our country that one could be safe from being mercilessly tossed into the pit by the invaders who felt not a shred of guilt.

  “Fuckin blaggards have no right. They’d call this slaughter holy, that they’re emancipating the ether ways from their misuse by savages. Then why plunder? Why kill, steal, and rape? What does any of that have to do with the damned ways to begin with. We’ve been fighting them for hundreds of years and their own kingdom is just letting it happen. By all rights we should be allowed to storm the place and put every last one to the noose.”

  Davis gripped his halberd diligently with a cool and steady look fixed on the tents entrance. Unlike before in the carriage, he wore his full armor set. It wasn’t full body. Metal plates were wrapped to his shins with some kind of elastic only covering the front of his legs and not extending to his knees. The rest of his upper legs were only covered by what appeared as a metal skirt connected to a frontal breastplate that covered his vitals, but left enough exposed that a portion of his uniform was still visible. His arms on the other hand were fully covered with light angular plating. I’m no expert but I assumed it was designed to easily perform thrusts and carry the pole of the halberd alongside it. The helmet had plating that wrapped around the chin, but left the eyes fully exposed. Overall the armor seemed to value mobility over protection and I wondered at whether it was his normal armor or armor specifically for his current assignment since I had seen soldiers in heavier armor suiting up in camp as we hurried to our tent when the invading wardens were sited approaching.

  He spoke to us, but his vision never wavered. I could tell by his alert body language that he was ready to move at a moment's notice towards any angle he was approached from.

  It had been only a day and a quarter since the others had departed and the expected invasion had finally come. We knew they would attempt to take advantage of the camp's state of recovery as soon as they could determine the surrounding area had regained habitability. It was one of the reasons apart from the fact the majority of the ill had gathered here that we made a point of cleaning this location first. We didn’t want to leave them multiple avenues to approach from. Or at least that is what was decided by our countries’ strategists when they sent the missives to deploy us homely scrubbers to the battlefield.

  This was my first time seeing a real rage overtake the lieutenant, but it was understandable. I imagined that on top of the physically and emotionally exhausting years of keeping the wardens at bay, he was also frustrated being cooped up in the tent with us instead of outside with his men. At least that is the impression I had of him, if such an inclination can really be assumed.

  “It is hard to navigate the morals of others. When they stop seeing you as human, I’m sure it becomes easy to make justifications.”

  He wasn’t speaking as confidently as he normally did, and his point seemed out of place. It was a first for me, seeing Bennie so out of sorts. I took I deep sigh and for once played his own role towards him.

  “Bennie, I know you like to see the best in everything, that’s what we all love about you, but I don’t think now is the time.”

  He nervously twiddled his thumbs and stole a glance towards Davis.

  “Right right, I’m sorry. I’m…a lot more frightened than I thought I’d be.”

  It was a rare sight that Bennie was this nervous and I was perfectly calm, but the truth was I was most likely more terrified than he was. I was just used to masking my emotions more than him. It was petrifying that in a distance I could cover in under a minute, I would be within a mosh of humanity that would easily devour me faster than the bear or the wolf. And worse yet, the only thing that kept me safe from their clutches was that they had decided on their own that those of my profession would be spared when they just as arbitrarily condemned the rest.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  We already knew the danger, but now we could hear the beast right outside our door, even if it wasn’t the right beast for us. Beyond it another lurked. One that hunted us specifically.

  “It’s alright. He didn’t say anything that isn’t true. It just doesn’t matter in the end. Why should I concern myself with the reasons they thrust their swords at me? Should I suddenly be okay with it if they have the right one? No friend, we can have those discussions when those with drawn swords lay dead.”

  Bennie smiled sheepishly. The sense of humility seemed to ease his tension if only slightly.

  “You’re right…it’s much easier for consideration in the world of theory I live in, I shouldn’t…”

  I give him a slightly disarming smile and signal to stop his rambling before he got worked up again.

  “That’s enough apologizing, I think we’ve gotten to know lieutenant Togl well enough by now that we know he isn’t going to hold anything like that against us. I only meant philosophizing on the wardens is pointless during an active invasion. We might as well discuss the situation as a whole though. It might help make it all seem… less big?”

  I was surprised by how easily the words were rolling off my tongue. I was scared but…the darkness of humanity was the darkness of humanity whether in front of me or in the ether ways. Bennie was wrong. It wasn’t that we only saw the world of theory. It was just that we were normally safe from the grimmer world that lay beneath the light of day on the front lines. We saw it the same in the dream, but we were still safe and that was enough of a difference.

  But there was no point in saying all of that. Togl already saw us as equals and Bennie already knew that. The truth was that addressing the filth would be the best way to divert our minds from the situation right before us, Bennie had just gone about it wrong.

  “Aye”

  “Then could I ask you…if you don’t find it offensive, what do you think of Hypnoise actually invading Unduroc? I know what Rachel said was out of line, but wouldn’t it be the only way to really put this situation to rest?”

  I knew that in the back of his mind the idea that they might use some scummy method to make that happen was there, because it was also in the back of my mind. For minds such as ours it always would be.

  Togl let out a deep and heavy sigh while he thumbed the insignia on his uniform.

  “I’ve been in the military since the day I turned twenty, for 13 years. Our battles have always been defensive. I’m quite proud of what I do. So, the idea that our country might do something so underhanded…like harming its own people to justify an invasion. I’d never want to believe it. And that…it’s the only way we would ever be allowed to make that invasion from a political standpoint…as long as the queen lives.”

  His grip tightened on his halberd and a slight wash of red could be seen in his face.

  “But if you’re asking me if I would be okay with it if we were able to put all of that aside then yes, I would be. Unduroc is responsible for letting the dream wardens run wild for so long. I would spare them no pity for how long they’ve stayed a bystander to our turmoil.”

  531 years. That is how long it had been since the invasions from the wardens had first begun in our country. The history texts were iffy on why they first began. The dream wardens had already existed as an independent entity from the rest of Unduroc after some unknown number of years since they adopted the scrubber system 1088 years ago, but they had never turned their swords against us until a specific day on the fifth month of that year.

  Some scholars say there had actually been a small localized outbreak of the dream disease that year that drove their whole society into a moral panic. Others say that was when the treaties between themselves and the rest of Unduroc were formed giving them a need for a new outlet for their crusade against the use of the ether ways, but this contradicts Unduroc’s own accounts and it is commonly accepted their conflict with their own country hadn’t been as brutal as their conflict with us.

  Regardless of the reason we have long petitioned the Unduroc government to allow our retaliation, but they haven’t budged an inch in all these years. Oh, they’ve given us plenty in recompense including the system that takes our queens from their country, which some farther into our territory, towards the capital where the invasions hardly seem an annoyance, think is enough. But what of the soldiers by the border who spend their life fighting a scourge that should have been easily dealt with centuries ago?

  “But what could we…”

  Before I was even certain of what I was about to say, a rapidly moving shadow brushed by the wall of the tent. Before it could reach the end of the tent, lieutenant Togl had leapt forward like a bolt of lightning, thrusting his halberd into the shadows carcass and dragging it through with both hands. Blood splashed over him and the floor of the now open tent. It fell forward and slid through the mud before our vision could gain enough focus to determine its identity.

  It was a horse, an unmanned one. The colors on the torn blanket that had hung like a cape over its side from under the saddle made it clear it had been one of ours. From the tear in the tent the vision that had been hidden from us was on full display. It was horrible. None of the martial prowess we might imagine, only bodies impaling themselves on bodies as the patchy grass was littered in dried blood. But all Togl had to say in response as he wiped away the sweat that had quickly formed on his brow was…

  “Looks like it’s almost over.”

  And so, it was. Only twenty minutes afterwards. Twenty long minutes. The next morning when we went to work, we faced the echoes of the desperate anxiety of those sending missives to command and the confusion of those who entered the ways to break the news to someone’s family. As always, we felt it as if it came from us, but this time it wasn’t as far off as usual.