The change in the villagers was palpable. By the time Lusya and the others returned to town, the thick mist of Malice had thinned to a wispy haze, and the villagers’ condition had changed accordingly. They still looked ill and bore the marks of having been ill for weeks—baggy eyelids beneath reddened eyes, flushed faces, and pale skin slick with sweat—but they had seen a remarkable surge in energy. If anything, they seemed to have more vigor than was typical, though perhaps that was just a reaction to the relief of their fatigue. There was a notable spring in their steps, and Lusya heard multiple people humming or whistling jaunty tunes to themselves. There also seemed to be more people out and about, despite the late hour.

“Looks like everyone’s feeling better,” Beldo said. “Although, I’m worried they might overdo it…They probably won’t be fully recovered for a couple days.”

“They’re all so happy!” Ariya exclaimed. “I’m glad we helped.”

“The speed of their recovery is remarkable,” Lusya said. She was inclined to agree with Beldo, however. It was a valid concern that the villagers would make themselves ill again in their excitement at their partial recovery. “It seems we will have no shortage of people to ask for information.”

Beldo sighed. “That’s not really the point, but you’re not wrong. Excuse me, Miss?”

“Yes?” A passing woman replied, pausing to give him an inquisitive look.

“We’re travelers passing through,” he said. “I have to say, we’ve never seen anything like this strange purple mist, and everyone seemed a little under the weather until a minute ago. Could you tell us what’s going on around here?”

“Oh, I know, it’s just terrible, isn’t it?” the woman exclaimed. “First, this weird fog shows up. It was really thin at first, but then it just kept getting thicker and thicker. That was creepy enough, but then everyone in the village starts getting sick, all at once. It was crazy, I tell you, I thought we were done for!”

The woman barely had time to take a breath between words, though it was hard to tell if that was an effect of her recovery or just the way she was.

“And we just weren’t getting any better forever! It’s weird, isn’t it? Everyone says it’s a plague, but a plague doesn’t usually hit everyone at once, right? Some people thought we were cursed instead, but I don’t know about that.” As far as Lusya was aware, curses weren’t real, so one probably wasn’t responsible for the mist or its effects. “So anyway, we thought we were doomed, but now I’m feeling a lot better, and it looks like everyone else is too. And is it just my imagination, or is the fog going away?”

“It does look thinner than earlier,” Beldo said.

“Right? Well, that’s about it, did you need anything else?”

“I was just wondering if you have any idea what might have caused this, or—”

“Nope, sorry! It’s a total mystery. Bye!”

The woman practically skipped off without another word. She definitely seemed to have a bit more energy than even the other villagers. Perhaps that was simply her personality.

“I do not believe we gained any useful information from that,” Lusya said. All they had learned were things they could have guessed themselves and things they already knew.

Beldo sighed. “I know. We’ll keep trying.”

They flagged down several other men and women, and slowly began to piece together more details about what had transpired. It seemed the fog of Malice had first started to gather about two months ago. It had rapidly grown thicker for the first week or two before stabilizing at more or less the level it had been when Lusya and the others had arrived. That was also around the time when the villagers had begun to fall ill.

While it was obvious the Malice was responsible for the illness, it was difficult to tell if it had needed to get to that thickness before causing difficulties, or if it had simply taken a week or two for symptoms to appear. It may have been a combination of both. Considering Ariya had been fine, it was obvious it did not immediately cause mortals illness even at its greatest density.

As the first woman had described, the villagers all agreed that they had all become ill all at once, in a manner atypical of a disease. It had not been a rapid spread. Rather, they had all woken up one morning feeling weak and sickly. Only one or two villagers had taken about a day longer to begin showing symptoms. So there was some variance in susceptibility.

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Unfortunately, the villagers were unable to shed much light on the true nature of the incident. None seemed to have any idea what had caused it. Some were happy to speculate, but none mentioned the device, and—while a few suspected a demon might be at work—none said anything to suggest they realized that the fog had been Malice itself.

That was not surprising. While the existence of Malice and its rough mechanics were common knowledge, few mortals had ever seen it, and thus they did not know what it looked like. Many demons, for that matter, never truly saw Malice, although they had a vague, instinctive knowledge of its appearance regardless.

As for the device, it seemed evident it had been planted in secret. Either that, or it had taken a while to take effect. If its placement had been public knowledge and coincided with the onset of the fog, Lusya was sure someone would have mentioned it. Of course, it was possible someone was lying or that there was someone they had not found yet who knew something.

“Shall we ask about the device?” Lusya asked. “It is possible it was planted long enough ago that they have not made the connection, but that they did know about it.”

Beldo frowned and shook his head. “No. Call it a hunch, but I don’t think anyone knew a thing about that machine. If we bring it up or seem like we know too much, they might suspect us.”

“That would be inconvenient,” Lusya said.

“Yeah, we’d have to leave,” Ariya said. “I wanna sleep in a bed tonight.”

“You will,” Lusya said. “Still, it is obvious our line of questioning needs adjustment.”

“You’re welcome to jump in next time, if you have a good idea,” Beldo said.

He waved down another woman and asked her the same questions he had all the others. She, of course, gave the same answers, repeating all the information they already knew.

“I’m afraid that’s all I know,” she said as she finished. “Anything else I can help you with?”

“I have a question,” Lusya said. “Did anything else unusual happen around the time the fog first appeared?”

The woman pursed her lips. “Unusual how?”

“In any way,” Lusya said. “It need not be anything negative or suspect. Anything out of the ordinary at all.”

“You all seem quite interested in this fog,” the woman said. “Why so worked up about our little village?”

“We’ve traveled far and wide, and seen all sorts of things,” Beldo said. “We can’t help but be curious when we see something new or exceptional.”

Lusya nodded. “Indeed. And I have never seen anything like that before.”

The woman furrowed her brow then shrugged in apparent acceptance of that explanation. “Well, all right. Something unusual…Now that you mention it, there was one thing. A nobleman came through just before then. Count…Re…Re…Rebran, that was it! He doesn’t govern our land, but another chunk close by. Oh, but I’m sure there’s no connection. He seemed like quite a nice young man, and believe you me, I don’t say that about just any nobleman.”

“I see,” Lusya said. “And what did this Count Rebran do in town?”

“Oh, nothing much,” the woman said. “He didn’t have any business here, he was just passing through on his way home from something or other. Stayed the night at the inn, which I’m sure might as well be a mud hut compared to what he’s used to, but he was real gracious about it. Complimented the chef. He even gave Ulis, the butcher’s boy, some coin to use as a dowry, when he heard Ulis grousing about how Lese’s father didn’t think he was good enough for her. Oh, Lese’s father, Erv, is a farmer. Lese is a real beauty and a sweetheart, so I can see why he’s concerned about making sure she gets a good man, but Ulis is as good as any in this village.”

Lusya had not needed much of that information, but pointing that out was likely to make the woman less cooperative, so Lusya refrained. “Was the count alone?”

“No one like that travels alone,” the woman said. “He had his guard of course, plus a few mercenaries he hired. They seemed a little out of place, but what do I know about that? Maybe he was shorthanded and they were the best he could find.”

“Perhaps. Did you see which direction the count departed in?”

“I’m afraid I didn’t,” the woman said. “I would assume the west, where his land is. Why the interest in the count? You don’t think he had anything to do with this, do you?”

“Of course not,” Beldo hurried to say before Lusya could respond. “We just like to learn as much as we can while we’re traveling. Especially about the nobility. Makes everything go smoothly, you know?”

“Oh, I can imagine,” the woman replied. “Well, I hope I was helpful.”

“Very much so, ma’am, have a good day.”

The woman smiled and walked off to attend to whatever business she had been on before they had stopped her.

“Well, I think we have our culprit,” Beldo said as soon as she was out of earshot.

Lusya nodded. “Indeed.”

Though Beldo was right to hide their suspicions. While the relationship between the nobility and commoners was often an adversarial one, that was not always the case, and the woman had seemed fond of this nobleman. It was likely the other villagers shared her sentiment. Even when the relationship was adversarial, it often benefited the commoners not to antagonize the nobility, so they would likely not care for strangers casting suspicion upon the latter. This Count Rebran may not have governed this land, but he could no doubt wield some influence, and so many of those factors still applied.

“Well, we’re going west anyway,” Beldo said. “We might run into more of this count’s machinations. Maybe even the man himself. Are you okay with that?”

“We are!” Ariya exclaimed. “Right?”

Lusya nodded. “I do not wish to go out of my way to involve myself, but we need not alter our course to avoid doing so.”

Even if Ariya had not spoken up, that would have been Lusya’s decision. Solving the problem today had been trivial, so Lusya saw no reason to alter their course and risk a delay to avoid similar situations. She could revisit her decision later if things changed. Besides, she had never seen anything like this before. She could not help but be curious.