Caruso and Eve walked through a stand of pine trees on the edge of Zone 2. The plan was to find some medicinal shrooms to eat while they had their chat. Caruso assumed she wanted to discuss his time with the Foresters. It was not a chat he was excited about.

The shroomlights and the moonlight exposed the shape of the forest and helped them spot a rotting pine log. It was ripe with dog’s vomit. The green-brown mushrooms puddled thickly over the log. The old Zone 2 gatherer in Caruso had a flash of excitement at the bounty. Before they began picking, Eve pointed her blink pole at Caruso.

‘Just a friendly reminder. You try walling or running, I will fuck you with this stick. And not in a fun way.’

‘If I wanted to run I could’ve done so today when you weren’t watching.’

‘You sure about that? You really think I let my guard down?’

Now that he thought about it, Eve didn’t seem the type to let her guard down. He began slowly peeling one of the sticky shrooms from the log, trying to remove it without tearing it. Eve did the same on the other side of the log, but a lot less carefully.

‘What is your plan with me?’ Caruso asked.

‘My plan is to make sure you are not reunited with Ferris and Niko. If we fail to get a slimekey for Webber in the next few days, then I’ll allow you to stay on this world with him. That’s a better deal than I give most Foresters.’

‘And if you get Webber a slimekey?’

‘Then he will want to come with us, and the two of you will have to have a tearful farewell. I doubt you staying behind will change his mind.’

Caruso had a suspicion Eve was right about that.

‘So you won’t let me enter the Godshroom with Webber?’

‘I will not let you enter the Godshroom regardless of Webber. Even if you promised not to return to the Foresters, you’re gonna wake up on the next world with a choice. And right now, I think you’ll make the wrong one. You’re still Ferris’s pet.’

‘If you’re just going to eject me from the Zones, then what’s the point of this talk?’

‘To give you a better idea of who the Foresters really are. I’d hoped that showing you everything back at the anima station would kick start the process.’

‘But why do you even care what I think?’

‘I admit, this was more Pango’s idea than mine. He has a thing about saving everyone he meets. But since Webber is insisting you travel with us, I would sleep a lot better knowing you had at least some doubts about the Foresters. And who knows? Maybe I’ll end up changing my mind about you.’

‘That seems unlikely.’

‘Webber did say you were clever.’

‘Even if I did return to the Foresters, is that really so bad? It’s not like I’m dangerous or anything.’

‘I know you’re weak. But you’re weak enough that you will do whatever the Foresters tell you to do. And that makes you dangerous.’ Eve ripped a dog’s vomit from the log, not caring to remove it in one piece. ‘Did Webber mention I used to be a Forrester?’

‘He did. He didn’t go into much detail though.’

‘Ferris trained me the same way he trains all his minions, the same way I’m sure he’s been training you. So I know exactly what you would become if you returned.’

'And what would I become?'

'Another one of his mindless minions. Doing whatever fucked up thing he says. All Ferris knows is how to control, how to corrupt. And with Niko's help, he's pretty fucking successful at it.'

‘But he’s been good to me, he’s helped me.’

‘You must have been a pathetic piece of shit if what he did has actually helped you.’

Caruso patiently picked at the edges of a stubborn dog’s vomit. ‘Maybe he’s changed since you were with him.’

‘No he hasn’t fucking changed, you dumb cunt. Ferris doesn’t change. No one does. I served him for a thousand years, remember? He’s always been the same. A manipulative, evil, cock-sucker. Do you honestly believe he cares about you?’

‘Yeah I do, he’s been my friend.’

‘Next time you say something retarded, I’m going to slap you. Let’s review your time with Ferris and see how friendly and helpful he has been to you. In your case it all started with a nice friendly kidnapping. Once you were brought to the compound, I’m guessing Niko forced you to have a truthbutton. Correct?’

‘I wasn’t forced.’

‘Oh, she gave you a choice, did she?’

‘Well, no… but I had nothing to hide.’

‘She examines all new recruits this way. Gets them to reveal themselves, to see if they meet her criteria.’

‘What’s wrong with that? That seems reasonable enough.’

‘If you didn’t meet Niko’s criteria, do you think she would’ve sent you on your merry way with a fresh horse and a care package? No. Ferris would’ve fucked you into the ground without breaking a sweat.’

‘...I find that hard to believe.’

‘You saw for yourself today that a civilian’s life is worth less than nothing to them. To them, killing you to recycle your slimekey would be as meaningless as swapping out soiled bed sheets. But hey, you passed Niko’s test. Assuming her criteria hasn’t changed, that means she found you to be a spineless wimp who can’t think for himself. So congratulations!’

Eve’s jibe struck an unsettling chord. Caruso remembered waking up after Niko’s exam, confused about why he had been selected as a Forester.

‘After passing the exam,’ Eve continued, ‘I’m guessing Ferris took you immediately into the forest?’

‘Well, I slept first, but we went in the morning.’

‘And did he happen to take a crossbow with him?’

‘Yeah…’

‘What do you suppose that was for?’

‘For the shroombeasts… We were finding out my Zone 4 ability. Ferris got some boars to charge at me to trigger it.’

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

‘Sorry to disappoint you, but that crossbow was for you. Since when did Ferris require a crossbow to take down a couple of boars?’

Caruso paused. After seeing Ferris fight, it was all too clear he wouldn't have needed a crossbow to subdue a charging boar. ‘But if he didn't need it for the boars, why would he need one for me then?’

‘In case you were a blinker. I’ll let you in on a secret. Ferris hates blinkers; he hates anything he can’t control with his threads. It's more of a superstition than anything. He's far too powerful for any blinker to get the better of him. But either way, he no longer bothers training them, just throws ‘em away like trash. If you had turned out to be a blinker, he would’ve put a bolt through your skull and found a new recruit to train.’

Would Ferris really have shot me? Caruso remembered being unsettled by Ferris’s crossbow. But he also remembered Ferris using it on the boars. ‘How do you know that’s what he intended?’

‘I’ve literally seen him walk off into the forest with new recruits, then return alone with some bullshit story about an Urqaani attack.’ Eve yanked roughly at a shroom. ‘And before you ask—no, Urqaani don’t hang around the compound hoping to pick fights with Ferris, because we’re not fucking stupid.’

‘Then how did you become a Forester if you were a blinker? And what about the other Forester blinkers? Like Kumiko and Serene?’

‘Ferris's whimsical filtering method is a recent addition of his. As for the existing blinkers, Ferris obviously believed they were all under his control. And apart from me, he was right. Before I left the Foresters, I tried to convince Kumiko to come with me. Maybe that was too optimistic, but compared to all the other pieces of shit, Kumiko wasn’t that bad.’

‘I agree with you there. I like Kumiko, she was always fun to talk to.’ It had been weeks since Kumiko had been sent off to guard the civ-camps. A random thought struck Caruso: he wondered if she knew where the civilians in that camp ended up. ‘They call her Green now,’ he said.

Eve smirked. ‘And why don’t you?’

‘I’m not sure. She’s my friend, I just think of her as Kumiko. Never really understood why Ferris takes people's names.’

‘Just another way of exerting his control. It’s a running theme of his. But anyway, count yourself lucky you weren't a blinker. If you were, you'd be dead.’

Caruso liberated a large dog’s vomit from the log and added it to his growing stack. Even though the things Eve was saying sounded plausible, Caruso still couldn’t imagine Ferris killing him.

‘I’m assuming Ferris trained you personally?’ Eve asked.

‘He did. I only really started to improve when Ferris took over my training.’

‘Was he kind enough to teach you the importance of blindly obeying his commands?’

Caruso hesitated.

‘He did, didn’t he? Of course he did. This is the most important ingredient in his mindless-minion recipe. Because what use is a minion if it doesn’t instantly obey you without question? He puts everyone through the exact same fucked up training regime.’

‘But why wouldn’t I listen to Ferris? He’s a better fighter than anyone. He clearly knows what he’s talking about.’

‘Fair point, I’ll give you that. But other than teaching you basic walling, was he really teaching you how to properly fight? Or did he just put a fucking blindfold on you and train you to obey his commands?’

‘...You trained with a blindfold too?’

‘As did all the others. Didn’t his methods strike you as strange?’

‘It made sense to me,’ Caruso said. ‘I had this issue of instinctively walling whenever I was in danger. Ferris said it was a dangerous instinct to have in a fight, so he needed to stamp that out.’

‘So basically, remove your instincts and thoughts, and replace them with Ferris’s. Sounds about right.’ Eve slapped another tattered dog’s vomit onto her pile. She had more than Caruso, but all of Caruso’s were perfect. ‘This is no small thing, This is how he does it—how he controls people. Once he has you under his spell, all he needs to do is give an order, and like an eager dog obeying its master, you will do whatever he asks. This was happening to you.’

‘But I didn’t do what Ferris asked because I was some dog obeying its master. I wanted to, I believed it was in my best interests to.’

‘A dog believes the same things.’

‘Yeah but a dog can’t think for itself. I can.’

‘You sure about that?’

‘Yes. I know the Foresters aren’t perfect, that some of their morals might be questionable. Once I was brought into the Zones, I didn’t have many options. I chose to stay because it was in my best interests. What would you have me do? Challenge Ferris to a duel? Run away and live alone in the Zones, waiting for a group with perfect morals to house me and feed me?’

‘When I showed up at the anima station you seemed perfectly willing to run away. Yet for some reason it wasn’t the torturing of innocent civilians that made you run.’

Caruso didn’t have a response. He began picking at a large dog’s vomit.

Eve continued, ‘And what about when Ferris was training you?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘What animal did he get you to kill?’

The question took Caruso by surprise and he ripped a shred off the shroom he was peeling.

‘I told you,’ Eve said. ‘He puts everyone through the same fucked up training regime... I had to kill horses.’ Eve had finished clearing the dog’s vomit from her side of the pine log. She came around to help finish up on Caruso’s side. ‘When I started training with Ferris he told me I needed to blink with more confidence. That made sense. See, I wasn’t confident back then. I was weak and spineless and pathetic, just like you. But Ferris and Niko were strong, I admired that.

‘I started wearing a blindfold during training,' Eve continued, 'and blinked whenever Ferris said. I got used to doing what he ordered, and in fact, came to enjoy it. I felt that if I did everything Ferris said, then his strength would be mine.

‘One day he put a horse in front of me and ordered me to blink into it. I didn’t hesitate. I hated it, but I didn’t hesitate. And after dozens of horses, I stopped hating it as much. I remember thinking how wasteful it was but was happy that Ferris would waste them on me.

‘Then came my graduation day. Ferris brought me up onto his Urqaani torturing stage, pointed me at some poor soul and had me blink. I don’t even remember who I killed. I gave it no thought. The scary thing is, it didn’t even bother me. And why would it? I'd been taught the "Urchins" were a bunch of deranged rapists, screaming through the forest, flinging boar shit at eachother. So that's all I saw. I can’t tell you how many people I killed after that, because I never cared enough to count. By the time I realised what a monster I’d become it was too late for me. I couldn’t change what I’d become. Like the saying goes, “Who you are on one world, is who you are on all of them”. Ferris made me into his weapon, so now I’m forced to be a weapon on every world. At least once I'd opened my eyes, even though I couldn't change my nature, I could at least aim myself in the right direction.'

There was a heavy silence. Caruso knew that Eve’s training was far too similar to his own for it to be a coincidence.

‘That’s enough of my story,' Eve said. 'What animal did Ferris start you on?’

‘He had me kill cats, the big shroomcats. I didn’t like killing them.’

‘Good. And did he get you up on stage to heroically kill an Urqaani in front of everyone yet?’

Caruso felt a smothering panic. He knew he could just lie to Eve. But there was something else that caused the suffocating feeling. The same thing that had been stirred up back at the anima station. Something inescapable, something that demanded attention. Caruso shook his head.

‘No, he didn’t. It was just cats.’ The lie came easily.

‘Maybe you got out just in time.' Eve picked up her heap of dog's vomit. 'Well, that’s it for my talk. I’m sure something I said must’ve gotten through to you. Even though you’re a fucking idiot, I’m sure you’re not a complete moron.’

Caruso nodded, he didn't know what to say. He pulled meekly at a final shroom but it wouldn't budge. The things Eve had said couldn't be ignored; they surrounded him, gnawed at him, ate away at the walls he needed to shut them out. He grabbed his small stack of dog's vomit and followed her back into Zone 3.

—

Caruso couldn’t sleep. The sky was black and starry. He noticed Pango and his stoat weren’t by the dying fire, he also noticed a grinding sound coming from the nearby trees. He got up. The surrounding ash trees were full of metamine which gave a blue glow to the forest.

The sound came from Pango: he was rubbing his back against one of the ash trees. A bakkostem dangled from his mouth.

‘Sorry if I woke you,’ Pango said. ‘Sometimes my scales itch.’ He kept grinding up and down against the tree, scouring the bark from the trunk.

‘You didn't wake me. I couldn’t sleep either.’

‘You were lucky today,’ Pango said.

‘I was?’

Pango discarded his bakkostem, but continued rubbing his scales against the tree. ‘Maybe you felt it. There was a moment, when you and Webber came down off that shroomcap. I was afraid Eve was going to…Well, I’m glad Webber was there to calm her down.’

Caruso remembered the look in her eyes. ‘I think she wanted to do it.’

Pango nodded gravely.

‘She really hates the Foresters, doesn’t she?’ Caruso asked.

‘She thinks they ruined her life.’

‘She thinks? You don’t think they did?’

‘Depends how you look at it.’ Pango stopped his grinding. ‘They changed her into a remorseless killer. But Eve is the one who believes that’s who she must be.’ Above Pango, a stoat climbed down a branch and onto his shoulder. Pango brushed its fur with his talons.

‘So you think she can change?’

‘I don’t know,’ Pango admitted. ‘Sometimes I’m not even sure if she wants to. I don’t know why.’

‘Maybe it’s easier for her that way.’

Pango nodded. ‘Webber’s been good for her.’

‘He’s a good friend.’

‘As long as she keeps him around, I think she’ll be alright.’ Pango made to head back to the fire. ‘Same goes for you, Caruso.’