Two watzed down the halls of the governor’s manor. Her steps were measured and patient, a steady, crisp beat against the polished white stone. But there was a glint in her eye and stubborn set to her fabricated smile.

The walls here were odd. She could not taste what was behind them. Scent didn’t slip beneath the doors, but the place’s essence was thicker than most. It was pride that saturated the brickwork, a pervasive scent she’d missed upon her waking.

Essence did not drift through the walls, but that was fine. A path had already been laid for her. Evadney had dropped Two by the room she’d woken in. Two only needed to follow to trace the morning’s lingering scent.

Two followed it to the governor’s office door and felt quite pleased with herself. The wave of audacity she rode bid her barge in, sense and a well-honed survival instinct told her to knock. Two found a comprise.

Wood met knuckle with a single loud thud that echoed in the small waiting room before the governor’s door. “Madam Governor,” Two proclaimed, ”I am here to give my report.”

Two could not feel what occurred behind the door but she could imagine the woman’s confusion rolling in pungent waves. After all, Evadney had left her in the room with a stack of papers and an order.

Silence stretched, but eventually, the lady called.

“Come in.”

Two did.

The door opened and Two walked into a waft of confusion and relief. The mountain of appears weighing on Lancet’s desk had not shrunk over the hours. Rather the peaks had climbed to new heights, paper stacks pressed so tightly together that they became rolling hills of white.

Her new boss loomed like a displeased god surveying its domain, one in terrible need of distraction. Two was more than willing to provide.

“I’m sure I had Evadney ensure you had paper. Why are you here.” The governor put down their pen and stepped their fingers. Their eyes sharped, and only then did Two notice they were yellow. Like Daisy’s. The similarity held her for a moment.

Both were women of power, both dripped mirth and looked at the world and its people as if they were a play. The similarities ended there, Daisy was a creature of wanted, she desired, and then she took. Two did not know she’d hoped to gain from Deadra’s theft theft. Nor did it matter, for it was just one in a long line and Two knew enough wasn’t a word she understood. She was an endlessly hungry thing.

So it was strange that she the greedy snake seemed cheerier for though the resplendent dragon knew cheer it was a fleeting distant thing. Two had to convince the bored noble to grant her a boon. She had so little to offer, and all she had they could simply take.

Two wore her smile like a shield and offered a shallow bow. “There is no fault with Miss Evadney, I took the initiative to offer an oral report.”

The noble quirked a brow. “Why”

“There are many reasons. I’m not aware of what you expect from a report and I must admit I’m not used to paperwork. More importantly, I worried that my efforts might be…” She let the silence hang for a bit and slid her gaze across the peaks and valleys of white and ink that spanner the desk. “lost… among your other affairs.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The governor’s brow twitched dangerously and despite her senes, Two could not decide whether the woman was going to strike her down or hug her. Thankfully they did neither. They chuckled and reclined in their chair. “Ok you have my interest, but can you keep it.”

“I believe I can governor.”

“Bold.” The woman drawled. ”Well then? Start with your report.”

Two smiled and pulled neatly folded papers from her breast pocket and gave it too the woman, who stared at the creased collections of sheets as if it would bite her. The cultivator sighed and took the sheets and flipped through hours of carefully considered words in a minute.

“So,” she said adding the paper to a nearby hill. “You spent some dime chatting with the emissary and got flown to one of your childhood haunts. Miandered about the rest of the afternoon. Then, spent an hour trying to explain how cheese was made after he saw some in the market.”

“Yes ma’am,” said with a beatific expression.

The noble glanced at her with a pointedly arched brow. “Did your conversations at least have some useful insights?” Two tastes interest, but it was a thin thing, the feel of someone watching as a fool dig themselves into a deeper hole.

“I’m not certain what you consider ‘useful’ ma’am.” The noble’s essence soured, but her next words cut the feeling short. “But he did say something interesting though I’m not sure you’d find it intresting or useful.” Two sadly shook her head.

“Oh.” The governor said, a smile tugging at her lips.

“He said that through cultivation taint was curable.” A wave of surprise and suspicion cut through the governor’s levity and took two by surprise. The only treatment two had heard of for taint was death, followed by burning and aided by purification of the ashes. She also hadn’t how cursed she was. So her knowledge was limited. For the governor to have such a visceral response…

“Explain.” They said with cold command, their slit eyes bore into her.

“I asked him if there was hope for me. He answered.” Two said and bowed her head. The cultivators had not yet imposed themselves on the world but it was near thing.

A long minute passed before she spoke. “And did he tell you the price of cultivation?”

“He said I would have but years to extricate the taint or be consumed by it.” Lancet’s tension eased at her words and two dared to look up. The woman was looking down as if sheer intensity could part the obscuring floor and show her the city below. Perhaps it could.

“Interesting,” the governor said and turned their star into two. Two saw a third side of the woman before there had been false smiles and wan amusement. Now there was calculation and a maddened lustre in their eyes. Their scent choked the air, but any understanding she might have found was lost behind alcohol and wanton abandon. Then it was gone and the woman leaned back in their chair with a chuckle. “You know my brother chides me on my whims but more often than not I find everything works itself out.”

Two did not like considering herself one of Lancet’s whims. Two had also learned to live with many things she loathed. Two spoke lowly trying to ease the conversation in her planned track. “ Is this the first time-“.

But the governor interrupted her “In the name of not wasting time let me be quick. No, I have heard of taint being removed before, but never through cultivation.” Those words alone were enough to make her heart skip a beat. The next almost stopped it. “You want to cultivate, I will help you.”

“Why?” was all she could think to say.

The lady smiled a crooked thing, “Because of the implication girl the implication. Taint is a virulent thing, when it takes root in a person, it is best met with death. When it seeps into a place? That it is a problem best solved with burned fields but even that is not always enough.” The woman raised her hands into the air and the room darkened as if the curtains had shut. Whispers excited and anxious bubbled into being along with the smell and crackle of a fire close but unseen. An illusion faded into view between the silhouettes of Lancet’s outstretched hands.

A mountain of sheer cliffs and stubborn trees sat between. It could have been a mural painting, but neither shifted the way it did. Leaves swayed in wings unreal but the scent of it came to her. Growth and sunbaked earth, warm wings and the taste of distant rain. It glowed a warm brown and Two ached to. touch it, to know how the stones would feel.

Then black roots writhed into being, pulsating in and out of transparency. Encircling the trees and crawling up the cliffs in undulating knots of sickly motion. Branching and spiralling until the trees were chocked and twisted as they were and the stones wreathed in black.

The mountain still lived, but steady earth pulsated in ways that were wrong.

“In the worst cases, all must be destroyed.” A small purple light appeared over the mountain. From it poured rivers of liquid. Flame fell upon the peak and frothed violently as it met twisted green and tainted earth. The mountain screamed in a voice that could not knot but felt rattle her bones. The whispering masses gasped and cried in hushed tones. Bits of molten spray launched from the projection and two rushed to cover herself, but the molten bits lid off harmlessly. Lancet chuckled.

Only a boiling crater remained of the mountain.

Light crept back into the room and one by one the whispers went. The crater melted until it was no more. Lancet smiled in her seat and she had not smelled their essence during the display. The lady clapped and returned their hands to the table. “But some things are too big or too important to break.” They looked at her expectantly.

Two pulled her mind from the vision and slowly craned her head down to the carved stone floor. Her thoughts were further below. “Like Spes Nova.”

The noble chuckled. “Like Spes Nova. So while I doubt your chances and need something more specific than ‘through cultivation’ I will aid you. For anything is better than letting our city stew with the monsters that clog its depths.”

Two glanced up at met Lancets. They no longer looked at her like a pitiable thing. Now desire burned in their eyes.

When they smiled it was just as sharp as Daisy’s. “Don’t you agree?”