I sat in my chair, shaking my head almost imperceptibly while the other doctors drifted out of the room. The briefing—what else could you call it?—had me pinned beneath some really unwanted presentiments. Those… awful pictures, the prognosis of the situation, the creeping sense of dread. I had to squeeze my thoughts through the hairline cracks in the foreboding just to muster up the resolve to stand up and meet the day. In doing so, my mind wandered yet again.

A memory surfaced, from my time in elementary school.

The people of this new world are as strange as the land itself. Their women tend their looms, while their men plow the fields. They have neither rice nor bean curd, and they salt their fish and preserve it in pungent smoke. Any suggestion of consuming the sea’s bounty raw is abhorrent to them, yet the savor of koji and miso strikes their fancy.

They make no offerings to their ancestors, and view that practice as idolatry. They cast their dead into the earth to rot, like soldiers fallen on the battlefield. With vehemence, they deny the truth of the Wheel of Rebirth, as they also deny the wisdom of the liberated barashai. Indeed, they believe in only two lives: their life in the present, and their life in a world to come, built upon the ruins of this world following a period of great judgment.

As for their gods, they have three, though they insist that it is one god who lives in three pieces. The masses of their people are led by petty kings, though all kneel before the Rasudito, the one whom they believe speaks for their fractured divinity. To them, all things are contingent upon this god. They cannot conceive of that which exists beyond their deity. They deny the laws of gō and jundo.

It is a strange world, my love. And I fear it will seek to expel us.

The passage from Uminokami’s Record was as clear in my thoughts as the day my eight-year old self had read it in history class.

According to paleontological evidence, the human species evolved in the tree-speckled savannas of central T’zaba, with the peoples of the old world being the descendants of ancient lineages of man that, during the last ice age, crossed the lowered seas at the Strait of Uniyagu-Maiko at the new world’s southernmost reach. Then the seas rose, and for tens of thousands of years, the four continents were split in two. These long-lost siblings were reunited only six-hundred three years ago, a year after Kenji Uminokami and his band of intrepid Munine explorers had set sail to the West. They’d hoped to find the land of the dead, said to rest in the shadow-lands at sunset’s end, but instead, they found life; new continents; a whole new world; the world of my ancestors. Thus began the Great Exchange, and, as with Angelfall, the world would be forever changed.

As I sat in my chair, trying to muster the willpower to get up and get to work, I started comparing our situation to the cruel fates the Great Exchange had prepared for mankind. The harshness with which the Munine colonists oppressed my ancestors and ravaged their kingdoms, and the violence we deployed against the occupation, including the oldest recorded instance of biological warfare. Gales of change that nearly defied comprehension swept through the ranks on all sides of the conflict. Sitting in the conference room as the, it felt like history was playing itself out all over again.

I wondered, would I be like Uminokami? Would I never see home again? Was the life I’d called my own forever lost to me?

“So, you gonna help Andalon, Mr. Genneth?”

Out of nowhere, Andalon suddenly appeared. She stood atop the table, leaning over me with her hands at the back of her nightgown.

I yelped, drew in breath, and pushed off the table, rolling my chair back along the floor. It was a miracle I didn’t topple over.

What would you do if a girl’s face suddenly appeared two inches from yours?

“Angelfall!” I cursed softly.

Andalon sat down cross-legged atop the table.

“Please don’t appear right in front of me like that,” I said. “I could get hurt!”

She made a stern face and then nodded. “Andalon will try.”

“How—” I sputtered, “why do you keep appearing and disappearing like this? It’s…” I calmed my breathing, “very disconcerting.”

Andalon lowered her head for a moment—clearly pondering my question—and then looked me in the eyes once more. “Andalon does not know.”

Wonderful.

I rolled my chair closer to the table.

Think, Genneth, think.

Since there was no guaranteeing how long she’d remain before disappearing again, I needed to make sure that I asked her only the most important, urgent questions.

“Do you understand what’s happening here? The plague?” I asked

She tilted her head, staring at me in confusion.

“The fungus? NFP-20?” I asked. “The Green Death?”

“I dunno.” She shook her head forlornly. “Andalon doesn’t like it when people go away. The darkness takes them away.”

“How?”

She trembled. “I don’t know. It’s hard to remember!” She grew angry.

“It’s alright, Andalon. I said I would help you remember.”

She nodded. “I wanna remember.”

I smiled forgivingly. “That’s good, but… it’s kinda tough to help you if you keep disappearing on me.”

“What about the questy?” Andalon asked, clenching her fists and furrowing her brow. “The mission! It’s super important! Saving people is super important!”

“How can I help you if I don’t even know what you want me to do?” I asked.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“I…” Andalon pursed her lips.

The door to the conference room squeaked open.

“Ah, there you are,” Dr. Horosha said, sticking his head into the room. “I had thought I might have missed you at the end of the meeting.” Smiling, he bowed graciously. “Dr. Howle, I presume?”

Suddenly, Andalon was gone. I did a double take, but I couldn’t see her anywhere.

Dr. Horosha furrowed his brow. “Is something amiss?”

“Yes,” I said, but then I shook my head. “I mean, no, everything’s fine,” I lied, “and yes, I am Dr. Howle.”

I got out of my seat. As soon as I began to move my legs, the lag returned with a vengeance, making me stagger a bit before I found my footing. I fidgeted with my lucky bowtie, pretending to adjust it. “It seems we’ll be working together,” I said, after clearing my throat.

“Quite.” Horosha nodded. He pursed his lips. “Are you certain you are alright?” he asked.

I ran my fingers across the tabletop. “I was up late last night, and didn’t wake up well this morning. And, yesterday, I had a debilitating panic attack. So… I guess I am a bit of a mess.” I sighed. “And then there’s the plague. It’s a lot to take in.”

“I concur,” Horosha said. “All the more reason for us to get down to business, yes?”

I nodded. “Right.”

The door opened again. This time, Heggy stepped into the room.

“There you are, Genneth! I swear, I thought you’d gone plum and disappeared on us.”

Dr. Horosha chuckled. “I did not realize the two of you were on a first-name basis.

I gestured at Heggy. “Well, Dr. Marteneiss and I have known each other for many, many years,” I told him. “Since it seems we’re going to be working together for the foreseeable future, if you don’t mind, maybe could you tell us a little about yourself?”

The slender man raised an eyebrow. “Pardon?”

Heggy nodded in agreement. “That’s a good idea. It’s always good to get to know the folks you’ll be in the trenches with.”

“I see,” Horosha said. His expression was neutral to the point of inscrutability.

“Is something the matter?” I asked.

Bowing slightly, he shook his head. “Not really… well… perhaps a bit of novelty.”

“Eh?” Heggy asked, cocking back her head. The motion sent a ripple through her curly golden tresses.

“Until recently, there was little if any room for camaraderie in my line of work, so ‘soft skills’ as such are not my forté.” He smirked. “Thankfully, I am no stranger to… mmm… unfamiliar situations.”

Stepping away from the table, Horosha leaned his back against the wall and crossed his legs. He wore dress shoes; their black leather was polished to a sheen. “I was born in a suburb of Noyoko,” he began. “My mother had four cats, the fourth of which was to replace the third cat after it perished in an unfortunate accident involving an excessive amount of ice. My father was in senior management at a well-known Munine aeronautics firm, and helped raise its standing in the broader DAISHU corporate hierarchy. I could have gone into academia, but I chose to pursue laboratory work—straightforward research and development work—but, eventually I found my true calling.”

“And that would be…?” I asked.

He pursed his lips. “Hmm… shall we say… field work. I am no stranger to doing consultations for matters of public health, epidemiological inquiry, and biosecurity—both for public and private research institutions.” His expression soured. “I have a wife and children, and—”

“—Most folks smile when they talk about family,” Heggy said, crossing her burly arms over her chest. “Is something the matter?”

Horosha sighed. “I am not as close to my family as I would like to be. It is as if I have not seen them in years, and I suppose I am to blame for that. My work is my passion, you see, sometimes more than I would prefer.”

Heggy smirked. “On that front, you and Dr. Howle are two of a kind.”

I groaned softly. “Can we not talk about my family problems right now?” I asked.

Heggy raised an eyebrow. “Did something happen?”

“You have no idea,” I said. “I was late for Rayph’s play, and the evening only went downhill from there. It was a grizzly fate.” I shook my head.

Horosha nodded. “I have seen my fair share of grizzly fates. I would not wish them upon anyone who did not thoroughly deserve it. Then again,” he raised his gaze to the ceiling, “I suppose the Holy Angel and the Moonlight Queen are—and must be—the ultimate arbiters of our judgment.”

Not knowing what else to do, I cleared my throat.

“Well… it’s always good to have colleagues that are also passionate about their work,” I said.

Heggy nodded approvingly. “So, I take it you’re Lassedile, Dr. Horosha?” She leaned toward him. “Mind if I ask what denomination?”

“Oatsman—and from a very young age.” He exhaled. “In the chaos of this life, the divine blessed mankind with the truth of the transcendent order of the world. That transcendence was always a great source of comfort to me. It gives me purpose, even now, in these dark times.”

“Well,” Heggy said, “I’m glad to get to know you.”

Nodding, Horosha turned to face me. “And what do you have to say about yourself, Dr. Howle?”

I huffed. “I’m a neuropsychiatrist who’s growing increasingly worried that he’s in over his head,” I said, tugging at my bowtie once more. “I fiddle with my lucky bowtie when I’m stressed,” I added, “and—as long as we’re in talking circle time—I have a bad habit of beating myself up whenever I feel I haven’t done as good of a job as I ought to have done.”

Heggy snorted. “That would be an understatement.”

“Well… it is good to make your acquaintance, Dr. Howle,” he said.

“Please, call me Genneth,” I said.

“I shall keep that in mind,” he said. Horosha turned to Heggy, “And what of you, Dr. Marteneiss?”

“Ex-military, current co-chair of internal medicine, and eternal spinster. I assign physicians’ duties, negotiate with the head nurses, resolve disputations, requisition supplies, and turn straw into gold—whatever it takes to help keep shit shipshape over here, pardon my language. If you’ve got any other questions, I’ll be more than happy to answer them.”

“I see.”

“Now that we’re all on friendly terms,” Heggy said, pulling her two consoles from her coat-pocket, “if y’all don’t mind, we’ve got our work cut out for us, so… let’s get crackin’.”

Dr. Marteneiss headed for the door, and Dr. Horosha followed suit, as did I, after spritzing down my chair and area on the table with some sanitizer. Horosha looked back in to check what I was doing; I pointed at the sanitizer bottle, and he stared.

Awkward.

After waiting for him to get sufficiently far away, I took my leave. I was barely three steps out into the hallway when I saw Heggy was already hard at work. She leaned against the wallpapers’ many green hues, pinning her phone in place with her shoulder—already in the middle of a voice-call—while busily jotting down notes on her work console.

Details like that were why I’d always been amazed by Dr. Marteneiss’ preternatural competence, especially when it came to juggling too many things at once. My approach was to carry as little as possible with me at all times—figuratively speaking—so as to minimize the far-too-likely possibility of misplacing something as I went about my business.

“E,” Heggy she said, emphatically, to whomever was on the other end. “Ward E. Be there, ASAP.” She hung up and huffed. “Foo.” She breathed in relief. “Glad that’s taken care of.”

“Meaning…?” I asked.

“Meaning I’ll be damned if I’d let someone else nab Dr. Arbond for their Crisis Management team,” Heggy answered. “Early bird gets the worm, don’tcha know?” She smirked. “Knowing we’ll have that old coot on hand for when things get dicey settles my stomach better than a three-course turkey dinner.”

“Team?” I asked.

Heggy furrowed her eyebrows. “Yeah, weren’t you listenin’? Us three are now the official leaders of the CMT overseeing Ward E. We gotta recruit the middlemen, and the viziers, the torturers, the undertakers, and all that jazz.” She smirked again.

Blinking, I brought my thoughts back in focus. “Right…” I nodded.

It was going to be difficult, having to manage Ward E in addition to my own condition, but… what other choice did I have?

“Other than Dr. Arbond and the Angel himself,” Heggy asked, “do any of y’all got some ideas for who else we can recruit?”

“I fear I am still unfamiliar with the staff of West Elpeck Medical Center,” Horosha said. He nodded politely, first at Heggy, and then at me. “I have faith in your experience and the choices toward which they guide you.”

“Genneth?” Heggy asked me.

I spent a moment on it, finger on the bottom of my mask, where my chin would be. “I was thinking of Dr. Lokanok. She’s got the kind of temperament that keeps patients at ease.” I turned to Dr. Horosha. “Oh, and Brand Nowston. He’s a brilliant cellular biologist and pathologist. With any luck, maybe you and him could crack the code and figure out how to beat this thing.” I lowered my head. “I’m sure he’ll find this all fascinating,” I muttered.

Intrigued, Horosha smiled. “With any luck, indeed.”