Lakyus checked her map of the Holy Kingdom, she'd marked the teams progress on a daily basis, and they'd seen areas with majority or a totality of Black Justice followers, and she'd taken reports from other groups filed through the temple in the capitol, and as she placed dashes over the estimated area with a supermajority of Black Justice members, it was a very large percentage of the Northern Kingdom, roughly 35% as near as she could tell, as far North West as Prart, all the way to the Capitol, and straight to the border with the Abelion Hills, and then south for a fair bit...all was heavily converted. The various towns she'd visited along the way all had Necromantic magic employed in turning undead, but...though it was against her will, she had to acknowledge they were using it with good intentions.
She felt a presence over her left shoulder, and then a small hand was placed there, touching gingerly, it had to be Evileye. She didn't even need to look.
"Are you alright, sister?" Evileye said softly, "You seem troubled to me."
"I'm fine, it's just...I've been going over the map, this new religion is growing rapidly, I'm a priestess of the water god, it's not easy to see people turn away from what I hold dearest, even less so when they practice something like necromancy, and create vile undead...even if they do it for...good purposes." She said.
She didn't see the way Evileye's head snapped back as if she'd been slapped, but she felt Evileye's hand move off of her shoulder and the woman start to retreat. "It'll be fine Lakyus, you worry too much." She cracked a phony smile that Lakyus couldn't see, and returned to tend to her horse.
Lakyus returned to her map without a second thought, but now focused on tracking their progress to the next location, it had to be near now, only hours away, if that much.
With her course confirmed, she remounted her horse with the rest of her team and they got under way. Eventually they came to their destination, a...well it was supposed to be the town of Kedyn, but it was in fact very clearly now a small city, the guards on the walls wore mismatched materials, some of them clearly wore military equipment in the style of Black Justice, with swords and bows, however they also carried shields bearing the same emblem as was pictured on the closed gate. Other guards wore simple boiled leather equipment and held spears. What was most noteworthy was that no two of different dress were with one another, the ones evidently part of the city officially all stood on one area of the wall, while those apparently volunteers or borrowed members from Black Justice, took another...she could not help but notice that they were conspicuously far away from the front.
Lakyus narrowed her eyes in suspicion as they approached the low stone walls, as she got close, she saw that they were roughly eighteen feet high, secure...but not imposing, made of simple overlapped stone. The gate was wood, but very thick based on how slow it opened. There was no moat and the towers were few in number. The tactician in her started thinking about the ways she could infiltrate if she needed, but she caught herself and simply rode her horse in.
"Sloppy." Tia whispered to Tina.
"Very." Tina whispered back.
Opening the gate without so much as checking to see who they were letting in was sloppy at best, and Blue Rose knew it, even if the guard didn't.
It was not a favorable first impression. Lakyus was dedicated to the safety of the people, the protection of the weak and the innocent, she had laid her life on the line countless times for that higher purpose...so very little made her angrier than those who were most responsible for the security of the people, treating their job as a joke, a jest, a mockery of significance. She was also a noble woman by birth, born and bred and accustomed to command, and she let that aura of authority pour out of her when she shouted...
"Bring me the commander of the watch! Bring THEM NOW!" She snapped with fury, causing a number of guards to jump nearly out of their skin. Beyond the jump, nobody moved. "NOW!" She snapped again. A guard came up to her...who was...sort of a guard.
One look at him told her that he shouldn't have worn that armor. He was clean faced, so much so that it was obvious he wasn't old enough to do it yet. The armor was a poor fit and it would be years before he would be of age to wear it.
"Ma'am, I'm in charge for now..." He said as he took off the much to large helmet.
Lakyus looked aghast. "How old are you, boy?" She asked smartly.
"Thirteen...last week." He said nervously.
"Why in the names of all the gods are YOU in charge?" She asked in shock.
"I'm the only one over here who hasn't been demoted yet an...well...the watch commander is...asleep." He said.
Lakyus felt her eyes narrow, the rest of her team was feeling no better about this.
"Let me guess...he doesn't actually work a nightshift." She said as she leaned down from her horse.
The young man couldn't meet her eyes, he looked down and muttered out a "No ma'am."
"He's passed out drunk." She guessed.
His lack of response was response enough.
"Who is in charge of him?" She asked.
"The Marquis Ysude...in the great hall." He said, and grateful for a chance to look away, he pointed to a hill near the center of the small city.
"Thank you." She said coolly, deciding that a boy that young shouldn't bear the brunt of her wrath for not knowing how to do what he wasn't prepared for. "We're going to see him, you make sure that you start challenging people who come to the gate."
The boy nodded numbly and went back to his position, while Lakyus and the rest of the team rode through the city. Her eyes swept over the area and neither she nor the team felt impressed by what they saw.
The streets were cobblestone but they had many gaps as if not well maintained, there was refuse thrown haphazardly and they saw no guards patrolling the streets. The homes were nice enough as far as they went, but the people they saw seemed anxious and nervous, or angry and defensive. More than once they saw people yelling at each other in the streets, though the hubub made it difficult to tell just what was being said.
It was a considerable relief to Lakyus when they reached the city center and found a temple to the four gods, and not much beyond that, a slight incline upwards lead to another inner wall, and from there she saw the rise of towers from an inner sanctum area, the center of government and the resting place of whatever power controlled this city.
Lakyus guided her horse to the temple, and the rest of Blue Rose followed without a second thought, when they got to the front, Lakyus dismounted and bound her horse, she looked over to her team, they were still mounted on their horses. "I...need a little while, if you all want to ride ahead, be my guest, but I'd like to speak to the priest here." She said, and looked the temple over.
"We'll wait." Evileye said, glad her mask skewed not only face, but voice, allowing her to more easily hide her sense of anxiety.
The building was white like most temples, and decorated columns bracketed the door, a large bronze thing that had the images of the four gods engraved all over it. She approached, step by step up the stairs, and pulled a rope that ran up to a metal pole that passed through the wall, she heard a bell ring through the hole, and waited until someone opened the doors.
Lakyus did not have to wait long, the door opened slowly, enough for one person to enter, which she did, and an elderly woman greeted her. The woman was dressed in white, but lacked any of the materials that usually indicated a priest, so Lakyus concluded she was a patron or an attendant of some sort.
"Excuse me, I'm Lakyus of Blue Rose, I'm here to see the priest, is he or she in?" She asked.
The woman cracked a toothless smile, "Aye, ees in, c'mon back to is office, I'm sur eed be glad to see ye." She said and turned around. Lakyus looked over the temple, and she inhaled the air as deeply as she could, as if breathing in the essence of the gods themselves, she held her arms out as she stood, as if opening them to the embrace of the deity to whom she had pledged her entire life, she felt the holiness of the place embracing her, the alter shining white as it reflected the Sun through a strategically placed window, it was as if the gods were calling her to it, and she strode step by step forward, her voice, so filled with wrath before, so filled with anxiety over days of shaken foundations, lilted out softly as she sang a hymn to the gods, softly, gently it floated through the air and echoed off the lovingly tended stone.
Finally she was before the altar and knelt in prayer before it. Her hands shook for the first time in weeks, and all the shaking she had suppressed was poured out of her body through them as they clasped together, her head bowed and she prayed to her divine guide.
"Please...grant me the wisdom of the god of water, tell me I am making the right choices, I have seen things I never thought I would see, heard things I never thought I would hear, and I am...I am lost. Lost...so lost..." She looked up to the ornate colored glass representation of the gods that took up most of the wall behind the alter.
"I saw necromancy and did not slay the necromancer, I saw the undead and did not strike them down, I took work to protect those who use them, am I sinning before your will as I suspect...or is this the right path? How am I to know, if you will not speak to me...please...wisdom...that is all I ask for, to know that I do right in your eyes."
She bowed her head again in devotion and prayer, her hands held one another so tightly that her nails dug into her skin and droplets of blood fell from where nail met flesh. Her eyes clenched tight and she did not care for the pain. "If I choose wrong, I damn or doom my sisters...please...something."
A soothing voice carried over to her. "That you ask for wisdom, is where it begins my child." An elderly man answered, as he entered through a nearby door.
Lakyus's eyes flew open widely, "I'm sorry...how much did you hear?" She asked, embarrassed.
"Just enough." He said with a grandfatherly smile. "You're troubled. It is my task from the six that I help the troubled. Please...tell me." He said as he approached and touched her shoulder. He didn't look down at her as his hand touched her, he looked up at the rendering of the gods.
"The gods smile on those who seek the help they need." He said, "We are all stronger together, united as one."
Lakyus nodded slightly and relayed who she was and what she was here for. As she got to the information about Black Justice, she felt him grow tense.
"I know them." He said. "Kedyn has been...infested with these necromancers for some time."
Lakyus looked at him, prompting him to continue. "They do their dark arts in secret while they worship in public, we have seen them with the undead, and they bear arms like bandits, swaggering around like bully boys...they're nothing but trouble. They may speak one way, but they are not what they say at all." He said.
Lakyus swallowed hard, "What am I to do?" She asked.
"What do the gods will?" He asked. "You know that already. Do you truly need me to tell you, leader of Blue Rose, defender of all mankind, what the right thing to do is?" He asked with a soft chiding in his voice.
She shook her head slowly. "No."
"Then why are you asking for permission to follow your conscience?" He asked with an almost humorous tone of voice.
"It doesn't seem right though, it's not what my conscience is telling me..." She said.
"That is the test of faith, that is what the six give us to challenge us to do right, no matter what, even if it doesn't feel wrong, who should we trust more, the gods, or ourselves?" He asked.
She was silent.
"You know the answer." He said softly and squeezed her shoulder.
"I do." Lakyus said. "Thank you. I feel much better now."
"I am but the instrument of the gods." He said and bowed his head.
Lakyus stood, and began to walk out of the temple without another backwards look, and came out and found her team standing around in apparent idleness.
"Better?" Gagaran asked.
"Much." Lakyus said with a genuine smile.
"Good." Said the twins in unison.
"Let's go then." Evileye added.
"Not yet, I want to see more of this city." Lakyus said. That prompted an odd look from the others, but as they shared a look, they shrugged.
"I'd like to know more about what we're dealing with here before I go speak with the Marquis, there may be more issues at play that we don't know yet." Lakyus explained, and the others expressions showed their understanding. So they began to roam around the city, and eventually they found themselves at a small square with a midsized building done entirely out of black stone. "This can only be one thing." Lakyus said.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
"Black Justice." Evileye said, speaking what Lakyus thought.
"Do we go in?" Gagaran asked casually...more casually than she might have said weeks before.
"We do. Or at least, I do." Evileye said. "I'll check it out, why don't you all wait here? Keep an eye on the street, see if anything catches your eyes."
The rest of them found that acceptable and they dismounted from their horses, Evileye secured hers and walked up the black stairs and was confronted with a large door of ebony wood, she knocked firmly and the door opened slowly. When she walked in she found a service going on.
"...For though we find our neighbors against us, our brothers and sisters are with us, as we are challenged by what is wrong, we must be right. The will of the god of justice is that we learn what it is to do right, and do that, in imitation of his mercy, his wrath, his glory, the shadow of our small actions may be small before his own, but they are ours, and cover our little place in the world with the consequences of our presence..." A priest said from the front. As he spoke, Evileye looked left and right, there were many kneeling figures, and the priest held a spiral staff that clicked as he paced, the spiral angled up, peaking at the top with an apple. It was a curious thing to see, but she was even more impressed with the design. The windows were laid in such a way that the sun shone through various areas and fell directly over the areas where people knelt or sat, and cast a shadow on a red stone floor. Shadows, blood, and shining light...it wasn't lost on the observant Evileye.
She waited patiently as the service continued until its conclusion, and when the people filtered out...again she noticed there was not one of them that was not armed, she approached the priest. She looked him over more closely, he was middle aged but had a firm looking body under black cloth that clearly concealed at least some armor.
She held out her hand to him, and he took it and shook it firmly as she said, "Good afternoon, my name is Evileye, of Blue Rose." His eyes widened but he did not break his grip.
"Ulthis Ndarion. Priest of Black Justice in Keydn, and I know who you are, I've been expecting you. I did not however...expect you to be a vampire." He said softly.
She froze, then she tightened her grip and her eyes widened behind her mask, her grip became tight enough to crush a human hand three times over...but he didn't even flinch. "Have I passed your test?" He asked. "Dispel illusion." He said in a tranquil voice, and his eyes went from their gentle brown, to blood red.
"You're...how..." She fumbled for words, unsure if she should draw a weapon or not as she released the handshake and stepped back.
"I was born with a talent...I call it 'Identify'. Without even trying, I know what a creature is on sight if I see even a glimpse of flesh. It has been almost useless for the last one hundred years, I never expected it to be useful now." He replied in a tranquil voice.
Her hand went to her weapon and the priest closed his blood red eyes, "There is no need, fellow vampire, I am not going to give up your secret, but, you can remove your mask, nobody will disturb us here, the only other person in the church is my wife, and she is in the basement of the church doing inventory and will not be done for hours." His voice was as calm as a gentle summer breeze, and though she was breathing hard at her secret being exposed, she realized there was no further harm to be done at this point, and it felt...so good to take it off before. She gingerly, slowly, reached up and removed it from her face, and blood red eyes met blood red eyes.
"You said...wife. Is she...?" Evileye began.
"No, she is a human being." He answered.
"Did you ensnare her with hypnosis?" Evileye asked with a hard edge to her voice.
"No." Ulthis said in a voice that, though soft, carried iron conviction within it.
"Does she know...about you?" She asked.
"She does." He said with a gentle smile. "She...donates to me." He answered.
Evileye felt her eyes go wide. "So she's just...food?"
She saw the first real hint of fury in his eyes at what she said.
"NO!" He said firmly. "She is my wife, and has been for twenty years. I love her and she loves me, she donates to me out of love, and the act between us is one of intimacy and warmth, our embrace is comfort, and I take from her only what she offers, and that only tenderly and with care. We have the trust of years and trials and a common bed, that I would never betray." She felt the outrage in his voice, and she lowered her head to him.
"I apologize. It is just..." She began, but he interrupted.
"That vampires are usually predators." He finished. "You needn't tell me that." He answered, "But as you are an exception, you should know that I am also, if you can exist, why can't I?" He asked softly, the tranquility returning to his voice.
"Does your congregation know?" She asked.
"Only a few of the leaders, those I have known for years. In time I will open up more fully, but the more people who know a secret, the more likely it is that it will be leaked to the wrong people. When you trust people, you put yourself in the position of trusting the people they trust, including people unknown to you, and their trust is not always well placed. So I keep it to a bare few." He said.
"Were you ever a predator?" She asked.
"To my shame." He said with his head lowered, "A hundred years ago when I was turned and knew nothing, is that not true for all in...our position?" He asked.
It was Evileye's turn to lower her head. "It is. I suppose I cannot turn on you without turning on myself." She said.
He chuckled. "We're a pair aren't we. The oddity of our circumstances being what they are?"
She rolled her blood red eyes, "I suppose so. I suppose so...but I hope you'll forgive me if I want to confirm that you're telling the truth, you know, about your wife and all." She said gently.
He shrugged. "I can understand that. Join us for dinner tonight, I live in the house around the corner from here, it has a red door on the front with a knocker shaped like a miniature mace."
"I'll take you up on that." She said.
"Does your team know?" He asked softly.
"They don't." She said with envy in her voice. "So...how did you come to be here?" She asked, changing the subject.
"I joined Black Justice some time ago, I was a follower of Neia Baraja during the war, I'd used my ability to help my wife escape the demihumans, and as she spoke, I saw that she was going to change things significantly, and I hoped I could influence her for the better...I didn't really need to as it turned out. With the undead King and her observations in E-Rantel, she was the most openly accepting human I'd ever seen. One of her followers found out what I was...accidentally, but when he saw that my wife knew, and after investigating found that I had learned to live among humans, not simply prey on them, he invited me to join the priesthood. I spent two years in Nazarick several months ago, and studied the holy book that is to be distributed to all. I also studied other subjects in his library to prepare me to tend to the needs of the people, including ethics, rhetoric, and counseling, among other things, all from the library of Ashurnibapal, and was then assigned here. Now...here I am." He said simply.
Evileye was still struggling with the concept of years passing within a month or so, but the important issue at hand was whether or not he was being truthful, and she found she lacked reason to doubt him, and his presence suggested he was speaking the truth, in particular that he had taken the risk of revealing himself to an adamantite ranked adventurer and revealing that he knew her secret as well.
"This is...a lot to take in." She said, "Heteromorphs in Black Justice, living alongside humans...acceptance by humans..." She became whistful in her voice when she uttered the last words, and lost her focus on the fantasy.
"Its a new world being birthed within these walls." He said in a peaceful voice. "There are bound to be great pains in labor as we strive to bring it forth. But it may yet be ours. I sometimes think I can see it, I know the god of hope can see it, I heard it in his voice when he spoke on the subject."
"God of hope?" She asked.
"That is the aspect in which I worship the Sorcerer King." He said, "I have lived in shadow, shame, and fear, for far longer than I have lived among people. Meeting my wife years ago changed me for the better, it gave me peace, but that did not end the need to hide what I was, out of fear not just of violence by others, but out of fear of losing those I loved best. To have hope that the world will one day let me simply be, and judge me by how I treat with them, not the nature of my existence? That is what I was given by the Sorcerer King, that is the promise of his rule and of Black Justice. So that is the way in which I serve him." Ulthis's voice was as calm as ocean waves on a calm day, and as he spoke, Evileye got lost in the vision of what he was trying to build.
"I would love to see a world like that..." Evileye said wistfully. "Perhaps I should meet with this Sorcerer King." She said, "Or at least with Momon and learn his views..." Her voice became a little moony, and she forcibly shook her head as if to dispel the growing thoughts, and then focused on Ulthis again, “I'm bantering to much, let me get down to business for now." She said.
"As you wish." Ulthis said congenially.
"We've been hired by King Caspond to secure the people, stories circulated about renegade paladins killing followers of your religion, and we are the response." She said firmly.
"Well I don't know about outside renegades, but we have problems enough inside as it is." He said in a tired voice.
"What do you mean?" She asked him.
"Come with me." He said and walked towards the back of the temple.
Evileye followed and he spoke with a lowered voice, "The followers of the four gods are a problem. Every time something goes wrong in the city, they blame us. A loaf of bread goes missing, we're thieves, a traveler disappears on the road, we kidnapped them for our secret evil rites. A person converts, we cast dark magic on them to brainwash them." He said with frustration as they reached the back.
He opened the door to his office, allowed her in, then closed the door and they sat at opposite ends of his desk. "If there is so much as a sniffle or a sneeze, we're accused of trying to cause a plague. Our people make up half the city guard, our total numbers are almost one third of the city...but we can't hold a service without someone complaining, even though we chartered the temple lawfully and built it with the express permission of the Marquis Ysude's father. We haven't broken any laws, but things keep getting worse, thanks in no small part to the priests themselves. They preach against us all the time." He said in frustration.
Evileye frowned, and let him continue. "We offer our healing for free as we're instructed, but the temples refuse to allow their followers here to come, saying we're putting curses in our spells and using the people for dark rituals. The Marquis has also expressly forbidden the use of undead labor, and as a result many of us struggle, because the temple priests of the four gods have forbidden their followers from hiring us, buying from us, or selling to us except at triple the normal price, imposing a kind of 'tax' on our existence." He said, rubbing his hand through the thick black hair on his head, his blood red eyes looked very tired, a weariness Evileye felt keenly herself as the weight of the mask in her hand seemed to grow, making it an ever greater burden, and as if she felt afraid of not having it on for so long around someone else, she replaced it. He clearly noticed, but politely did not comment, and he went a step further and briefly cast his illusion spell again, returning his eyes from red to brown, before continuing the conversation as if neither had returned to hiding what they were.
"I am honestly not sure what to do." He said.
Evileye frowned behind her mask. "Has there been violence?" She asked.
He shook his head. "No, lots of yelling, cursing at us, that kind of thing, but nothing more. Our people are half the city guard remember, and all our people travel armed and train often. We've been drawing a stipend from the temple in the capitol to help offset the consequences for our followers, but I don't know how long that can last." He added.
Evileye place her hands on the desk and folded one over the other. "This...might be a problem. I'll have to go over this with my leader...we are supposed to protect the targeted population...but against renegades...this is different. I don't know how the King would feel if we started killing angry citizens if it came down to it. We may need another option." She said grimly.
He nodded numbly, "I understand."
"How many of you are there all total?" She asked.
"Around ten thousand of us altogether, out of a city of thirty thousand people." He answered.
"Is there anywhere you could go if you had to?" She asked.
"That could support us while we started all over?" He asked incredulously. "Not that I know of."
"This...is going to be a tough one." Evileye said.
"Tell me about it." The priest said with a sigh. "To top it off, the Marquis who had been in charge is dead, and his son is no friend of ours. He's tied to the traditional temples, so he does absolutely nothing about our harassment, and if that isn't enough, he's been selling positions in the city."
"What do you mean?" Evileye asked with trepidation.
"Just what I said." He explained, "If you want to be a tax collector, you buy the job, if you want to be a judge, you buy the job, if you want to be a watch commander, you buy the job. Once he sells the job, nobody can fire the person who bought it except for him. The people who have those positions now have to turn a profit from them, so they frequently extort payments for doing the work they're already paid to do. Need to go before a judge for a civil case, you buy the ruling, or even the specific verdict. The tax collector wants to turn a profit, he tells you that you owe more than you do and he pockets the difference. Some can afford it, others can't." He said with a grim voice and even more grim expression.
"Wow...thank you for the information." Evileye said as she stood, she shook his hand again and walked back out to her team.
She briefed them on what she'd learned about the city, leaving out the part about the priest being a vampire for now, but she added, "The priest invited me for dinner with his wife tonight. I intend to go." The group nodded in understanding. "Also...there is more..." She paused, and that drew concerned looks. "It shouldn't be revealed here, just take my word for it for now, we need to be far away from earshot for this." That drew even more concerned looks that went from Evileye to Lakyus, and Lakyus said...
"If Evileye says it should wait...that is enough for me. Does it change anything about how we confront the Marquis?" She asked.
"No." Evileye said flatly..
"Then I think it is time we paid a visit to the Marquis Ysude." Lakyus said with a hint of anger in her voice.
"Agreed." The twins and Gagaran said together.
With the discussion settled, they remounted their horses and rode to the inner wall. This one had the sense to ask for identification, and at the mention of Blue Rose the iron gate could not rise fast enough. They found themselves faced with a man in shining steel armor who introduced himself as the commander of the interior, Gneaus Haroni.
"Take us to the Marquis, Gneaus." Lakyus said, "I would have words on the state of his guard at the front gate, and the state of the city that I've seen thus far."
Though he had begun to speak a more elaborate welcome, her frosty tone made him think the better of it, and he closed his mouth quickly and sent a runner to alert the Marquis about his important guests.
Blue Rose was given a small escort of a single squad as they walked into the hall, and they soon found themselves before a sizable throne on which there sat a man of medium build, he had a short brown beard, a slightly crooked nose, and was clad from head to toe in expensive silks. In his hand was a bejeweled goblet, and not far away a servant held a bottle of expensive looking red wine.
Blue Rose approached in a diamond formation, and Lakyus bowed politely, as did the rest of her team. "I am Lakyus, Adamantite adventurer, leader of Blue Rose, and I am here at the request of King Caspond." She said.
The Marquis did not look pleased to see her, but she saw the very slight widening of the eyes that occurred when someone recognized the opportunity to exercise their greed. She let out an internal sigh, but let nothing audible come from her.
"Welcome Blue Rose, its good to have you." He said with a voice that said it wasn't good at all. "What brings you to us today?" He asked.
"We've been contracted to assist in the securing of citizens under threat by rogue paladins under the former commander, Remedios Custodio." Lakyus said in a formal tone.
"Well I have heard of that being an issue somewhat farther South...but if you ask me...this is one time you should abandon a contract." The Marquis Ysude said.
"Why is that?" Lakyus asked curiously.
"I know of the ones you're speaking about, the ones called 'Black Justice', they're followers of the undead, they don't deserve protection." He drank from his goblet and held it out for the servant to refill. "My city is swamped with many of them, they gripe about their taxes, they interfere with temple business, and they want to practice their necromantic arts in public. Quite frankly they're nothing but criminals." He said contemptuously.
"I saw them manning your walls though. You let criminals man the walls?" Lakyus asked sardonically.
He waved a hand dismissively. "They do that just to look good, but I know what they really are, jumped up thugs following a monster. The only reason I don't have them all arrested or killed is because..." He paused and looked around, "everybody else get out." He said, and the hall emptied leaving him alone with Blue Rose. As the door shut, he finished his statement, "is because I can't be entirely sure we can win."
The eyes of the members of Blue Rose widened. "You are a priestess of the water god, am I right?" The Marquis Ysude asked.
"I am..." Lakyus said cautiously.
"Then you know of what I speak, they're spreading, they're dangerous, you should not...cannot protect them." He said firmly. "Instead, I ask you, help me kill them."