The first few buildings I passed were abandoned farms. Weeds overgrowing, barns partially collapsed, it looked like they had been abandoned for some time. Potentially since the framework began, anyone outside of a town during the survival events would have been hard pressed to survive by themselves.

I counted seven of these abandoned farms before I saw the first one that looked habitable. The roof was still intact from a distance, the fields showing signs of maintenance. I would only be able to change my appearance once today so I decided to wait for now. A stryker out for patrol wouldn’t be the strangest thing these folks had seen in the last few months.

Up closer to the door I began to notice some signs of decay that had been hidden from the road. The door handle was broken, slightly off its frame as if it was kicked in and then reset to look whole. There was a stench of iron in the air, blood. My nerves frayed as the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I slowly reached over my head to grab my spear from its holster and checked on my dagger.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly pushed the door to the farmhouse open. It creaked against the silence, light spreading through the now open threshold. The stench hit me in full now, blood like the aftermath of a battle. Gripping my spear tightly, I unlatched a hallowed light lantern and used it to light the room. There were a dozen bodies splayed out in the room, this had been a massacre.

Despite the experiences of the last few months, I stumbled outside and threw up breakfast all over the side of the house. I walked over to the side of a barn structure and slid down the wall to catch my breath. The sight of all the death still bothered me, at least I was still human enough for that. I closed my eyes and let Marci and Van know I was ok. They would have felt my emotions through the bond.

I had strong reservations about going back into the house but I needed to know what happened. Were these the results of a disastrous beast attack? Or was this human? Etes and the King or the Norx Emperor and his army of the damned? Or worse, was this something else entirely?

Questions that could only be answered with investigation. I drank some water to wash the foul taste out of my mouth and walked back over to the house. The stench was flowing freely through the door now, blanketing the area. I prayed to the framework that my next item box contained a way to block odors.

The first intact body was just beyond the threshold of the door. It had been dragged and dumped unceremoniously, that must was obvious from the twisted pile its limbs were in. It was a woman of middle age judging by her skin and face. There was some rot beginning but it looked like it was less than a week old by my very inexperienced guess. A long cut across her chest split her open from her belly up to almost her throat.

In the academy, stryker teams had taken classes to identify weapon marks for determining the cause of battlefield deaths. I tried to remember the lessons from a lifetime ago as I stared at the pile of corpses. The woman had no marks on her hands, the only sign of struggle, the long singular cut. The next corpse was a man of a similar age, he had a stab hole through his chest.

I checked three more of the corpses and found similar wounds. All of these people had died from wounds caused by human weapons. Some stabbed, some cut by a dagger or sword, one corpse had two arrows sticking from it. There was nothing else in the room that would be helpful, it only held the rotting bodies.

There was nothing else of note about the farm. The rest of it was abandoned and in disrepair. I wasn’t sure what burial rights were the norm for the more rural population of Eter like these farmholds. I lit a small fire in the house with the bodies and watched as it caught and burned away the terrible scene. When the building was fully ablaze, I retreated back to the road and continued toward the village.

I used See What I See and had Marci investigate the next few farms from above. They were all similarly damaged and Marci’s keen sense of smell detected the smell of blood from each of them. This entire area had been slaughtered. Anger boiled up in my chest at the violence on display, was this the new Eter? Is this how far the world had sunk since the initialization of the framework?

The village was two or so miles from my current position and Marci could see people walking through the streets. I took note of their appearance, skin tone suggested Eter birth and outfits of tan pants and cloaks of fur to protect against the cold. There would be answers there, of one kind or another. Ending the skill, I returned to my own body. Van was still in the forest with Nadia who hadn’t moved, he was bored but would stay to guard her for me.

I used my cloaks upgraded ability to change my appearance to match that of what I had seen. My stryker uniform took on a tan color of cloth, my cloak the same cloth but lined with the fur of some beast for warmth. Probably a bear or large cat judging by the short hair.

The village came into eyesight shortly after. A small group of wooden buildings with a small wooden wall surrounding it. There was one entrance gate facing the direction of the road I was walking with a guard standing beside it. He looked relaxed, recognizing my clothing as normal for the area. Once he could see my face, he called out from his spot leaning against the wall, hand on a sword tucked into his belt.

“Ho there stranger. What brings you here to Gleice?” He asked in a friendly voice. He looked to be about the same age as Arthur, he was shorter than me but stocky. I wondered if he had always been a guard or if this was a new role for him from the framework.

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“I am traveling to Etes from the east. My town cannot stand against the beasts of the area, I am to request aid from the King.” I said, trying to keep my voice steady and earnest. Nadia and I had rehearsed this story of why I was traveling to Etes but couldn’t explain from where. It would be plausible as a cry for help from the King and most people wouldn’t be familiar with the smaller towns and villages from the far east of Eter.

“I am sorry to hear that, son. We are struggling here as well, though not all from the beasts. I wish you well on your journey but I caution you, Etes is not as it was. I would not get my hopes up if I was you.” He replied. He relaxed his arm and stepped back against the wall.

“This is the village of Gleice. We don’t want any trouble, there are a few shops that remain open but I must ask you to be on your way soon. We can barely provide for the people that we have.” The guard said with a sad tone.

“Thank you. Do you have anywhere to stay the night? I have traveled far since I last slept in a bed.” I asked him.

“You can ask at the Short Step Inn, it is run by Risco. He may have a room you can trade for.” The guard pointed down the road to a building off to the east side.

I nodded at the guard and continued inside the village. My nerves relaxed once he didn’t ask to use Identify on me. Neither Arthur or Nadia had any helpful advice of what to do in that situation. I knew I would have to deal with that in the larger cities and in Etes.

The village was made up of thirty or so buildings laid out in a rough circle. There were a few storefronts open indicating the trading nature of the place. I wondered how much traffic was coming in from the other countries these days. The rhythmic pounding of an anvil sounded as I passed a smithy, a tannery identified itself with its putrid smell. One of the stores had a sign hanging from a window and it was the first thing that had made me smile since finding those bodies, an apothecary!

That would be my first stop after visiting the Inn. I needed to find Nadia’s friend and come up with a plan for her first. The Short Step Inn was a few buildings down from the apothecary, almost at the far end of the road inside of the village. It was a two story building, maybe the largest inside the walls. There were sounds of conversations floating out through the open door.

Walking inside revealed a common room with ten or so tables spread out for patrons, a bar ran alongside the wall. There was a man behind the bar talking with a few other men in hushed tones as I walked over and sat down at an open spot. They continued their conversation for a few minutes while I looked around. The tables were about half full, most people with food and drink to occupy them. In the far corner there was a small stage where a bard or performer could stand. A fire roared in a fireplace central to the tables, keeping the chill outside from penetrating the Inn.

“Can I help you?” The man behind the bar asked while I was distracted, glancing around the room. He had a friendly voice if not a friendly face. He looked to be in his late thirties or early forties, same as Nadia and Arthur. He had the body of a former soldier, muscles obvious underneath his apron.

“I am looking for a friend of a friend named Risco. An old army friend of his is looking for him.” I told the man, carefully using the exact words Nadia had told me to use.

“Is that so?” He answered in a loud, cold voice. “Can’t say I have much interest in old army friends right now.” The other men he had been speaking with further down the bar caught on to his words and stood up. Walking over in my direction with hard, scowling faces.

“The army has done enough damage to our village. I think it's time for you to leave. You might just be a kid, caught up in something you don’t understand, but so were our friends and families. You go back and tell your commanders that the next time they want to send someone to our village to harass us, they won’t be coming back.” He said and motioned to the door. He crossed his arms and nodded to the men that had me circled now.

This was not what was supposed to happen. Nadia had told me that Risco was her friend and he would help her. Had she lied? Was this some kind of trap by itself? I backed away from the bar with my hands up in a gesture of peace. I needed a way to turn this around before it got any worse.

“I don’t want to cause any trouble. My friend needs help, her name is Nadia. She was a stryker for the first army. She told me to come here, not any commanders. Please just listen to me.” I said in a calm voice while backing towards the door.

There was a change in Risco’s expression when I said her name. I should have led with it but she had warned me not to announce her name to anyone but Risco. The other three men recoiled as if slapped.

“Nadia? If your lying boy I’ll kill you myself. Where is she?” He asked, his voice angry now.

“She’s...with a friend. In the forest, near the edge. I can take you to her.” I told him.

“Why isn’t she here with you now?” One of the other men stepped up and spoke. His voice reminded me of Arthur, like he was chewing on a rock when he spoke.

“Shes...not able to travel on her own.” I choked out. It had occurred to me that I hadn’t thought about how I was going to explain the situation to Risco. I looked around at the crowd that was paying full attention to the scene now.

“Can we talk in private? She didn’t want me to say this to anyone but you.” I said and looked at Risco.

He shared a look with the other three, the one that had spoken nodded to him. He turned to look at me and nodded his head to the side. There was a door there that I hadn’t noticed. I followed him through it and found a small private room with just a table and a few chairs. He shut the door behind him and took a deep breath, he sat down and motioned me to one of the other chairs.

“Tell your story, kid.” He said, voice back closer to the friendly one it had been before.