I led the core twelve, as I started to style them, out of Fastidious House and into the Tier Three settlement.

For a moment, I had freedom from the overpowering stench of the perfume within the house. But after leaving the musty and muddy round chamber, with the furniture still pushed to the edges, that perfume stench was replaced with the stench of manure.

Out past the farms were the open expanse of the grasslands. Part of me wished I could take Exalted Pine and flee out into them and live there happily, far away from the pain and rigidity of living in the Heartlands. But I feared that if I did that, then I would never be able to settle down.

But the hope and desire and promise of unbound freedom was so strong.

Those waving endless plains so enticing, so close, yet so far away.

The lifeless Tier Three just ambled along, mere autonomons rather than flesh and blood people who should have the option to be able to live their lives.

Beyond the manure heap was the open-sided workshop for the wood carvers. They were sitting at their workstations, the blocks of wood they should be working on in front of them. But as they didn’t have their crude metal tools, they were just sitting there, blank faced and unmoving.

I walked forward towards the pens, which were holding the children. My indoor shoes were soft soled with a thin material on top. Unlike the outdoor shoes I had worn last time I was here, they couldn’t keep the mud out. The mud sunk through the shoe and coated my toes with an almost sickening slickness of mud.

In the pens, most of the Tier Three children in the pens were blank faced and sitting listlessly in the mud. There was only a single child, a naked mud splattered toddler, who showed any interest in us. They were standing up against the rough planks which made the pen and were reaching out through a gap formed from a broken plank towards us with a sense of desperation.

Finding the toddler’s actions somewhat strange, I broke my personal rule and analysed them.

Name: /none/

Concept: Desperate Toddler

Traits:

‎ Resiliant Body: 2.1

‎ (6 unused trait slots)

Oh, wow, that was interesting. I hadn’t expected to see a Tier Seven out here, especially one with their system already unlocked and a trait active.

I turned to the core twelve, about to point out this child to them. Exalted Pine was standing next to me, the rest of them were huddled looking through the door. They were grimacing and looking around at anything, but nothing. I motioned for them to come out, but they did their best to ignore my summons.

‘Red Frog,’ I said, calling out the one who seemed the most hesitant. ‘Come out here. I have something to show you.’

With reluctant and hesitant steps, she made her way out to us. Her face twisted in a grimace as she stepped into the mud. She grabbed her nose with her hand and shifted her head up and away from the mud and pile of manure.

It took her far too long with her small, faltering steps to make the short distance to me. Finally she stood near Exalted Pine and myself.

‘Go on, pick up that child.’ I said, pointing to the toddler, who was still doing their best to reach out towards us between the half-broken plank.

‘There are no children here.’ She said, her confusion overwhelming the disgust on her face for a moment.

‘Can you not see that child reaching out towards you?’

‘That is no child, it is merely a thing .’ She spat out. ‘A sub-citizen and not worthy of notice.’

‘So what makes a sub-citizen?’ I asked.

‘Being born with only three tiers.’

‘So anyone who has more than three tiers is a person, and if they don’t, they’re a thing.’

‘Yes, that’s the way it always has been.’

‘Have you ever carried a child before?’

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‘No, my husband never blessed me with a child before he passed on. That was a failure on my part. No matter how much I tried to fulfil our duties, he was obsessed with that other one. To my shame it is she, and not me, who is carrying my husband’s first born. I will just have to take it from them and raise it as my own.‘

‘So you are not a virgin? You have seen what a man looks like under their clothes.’

‘I am still a virgin.’ She mumbled, looking away from me.

‘Okay, come with me.’ I walked off, heading towards the fields. I was sure that when I came through here before, I saw someone who looked remarkably similar to Red Frog. After a short walk through the muddy paths, I found her.

I got her to stand up and stand next to Red Frog.

Except for her face not being quiet as smooth, or as pale, because it was tanned. This woman looked remarkably similar to Red Frog. Even down to her pretty face and wavy hair being a similar colour, despite being matted and ill looked after.

I analysed this woman too.

Name: Farmer Eight-Six-Six

Concept: Inner Field Farm Labourer

Traits:

‎ Follower of Sanctuary of Peace: 1.1

‎ Worker of Fastidious House: 2.8

‎ Farmer: 1.5

‎ (two locked traits)

This was the second person I analysed out here and the second which had more than Three Traits.

‘So you’re telling me, Red Frog, that this woman here isn’t a person?‘ I asked.

‘Of course, that is obvious.’ She said, probably still doubting my sanity.

‘So if I stripped her off and gave her a bath, looked after her hair, then had you standing naked next to her, someone would be able to tell the two of you apart.’

‘Of course.’

‘So if I had sex with the two of you in a room with no light, I’d be able to tell the two of you apart.’

‘That’s stupid, of course you would. These beasts are incapable of breeding.’

I started laughing at the pure stupidity of Red Frog. ‘So those children we saw in the pens?’

‘They were imported to raise into the next generation, such as the crops here are raised.’

‘Exalted Pine, can you go and find that twelve-year-old I told you about this morning? And bring that toddler who was reaching out for us, please.’

Exalted Pine smiled at me, then sidled up close to me. ‘If you are really going to go all the way, my dear husband, at least let me watch. I’ve never done that before and I think it might be a bit of fun.’

I looked at the teasing look on her beautiful, dusky, tanned face. ‘Oh, my, you’ll let me increase my harem as easily as that. I must be the luckiest man alive.’

Her face flashed through so many emotions I couldn’t keep track of them all.

In the end, I gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. ‘You’re more than enough for me,’ I said, looking at her beautiful eyes, ‘and to be honest, I’m not sure I could keep up if I had more than one.’

She nestled against me. ‘You say that now, hun, but I’m worried about her . That you would run off and leave me for her.’

‘I don’t think I will,’ I told her. ‘I love you and from what I heard from her, I would more likely spend my time between the two of you.’

‘Good,’ she said, looking up at me with wet eyes. ‘I will just have to make it so that when she comes for you, then you’ll never forget about me.’

I gave her a kiss and a hug.

‘Okay, I’m off now to find those two. I’ll leave Red Frog to you and please remember your promise.’ She pulled out of my arms.

‘My promise?’ I asked, unsure what she was talking about. I didn’t remember any promise.

‘That I’m enough for you. So when you see the two of them naked, and you’re overtaken by lust, come and find me.’ She then gave me a bright smile and skipped off, acting way too young for her age and position.

‘Well, you heard it, you two. I’m about to get you two naked. But first, we’ll have to wash and apply the same beauty treatments to…’ I looked at the farmer. ‘You’ll never give me a name, even if I asked for one. And I don’t want to go around calling you by a number… Okay, I know, I’ll call you Hope. For upon you, the hope of your fellow farmers and workers out here will hang.

‘Come of Red Frog, it’s time for you to take Hope and teach her how to bathe herself properly.’

I looked at the farmer I had just renamed. I don’t know why, but I was sure that I saw some emotion coming to life in those previously dead eyes.