Iskal headed home again after his conversation with Lesquare. He deeply needed rest; as much as possible to allow the gallery of injuries to his body to heal. The gait of his walk was uneven from a slight limp, and he was sure his left rib was now at least cracked rather than bruised. He didn't even want to know what his face looked like after the uppercut from the Bruiser Leader. For such a sinewy goon he packed a punch. Iskal could still taste the copper twang of blood now set at the corners of his mouth, and his gums were jagged with cuts.

  There was still adrenaline in his vessels from the fight though, keeping the mind relatively alert. He thought on Lesquare. His fluid, deep voice that possessed the suave calmness of a man who's probably committed a whole range of dubious acts for what he must feel is the good of the Collosean people. How was it that he'd rushed to Iskal's aid so quickly? What were the chances he'd managed to navigate the maze-like streets of the Materials Town with such prowess that he must have been only five minutes behind? Sure, a Valley Commander like Lesquare must be adept with a map, but this seemed a little too convenient.

  'I'd wager he was following me' concluded Iskal in his head. True, Lesquare had saved his life, but he didn't exactly feel trusted all the same. Perhaps this would be the new reality with his Chieftain rank. A life of trusting no-one. There was also some credence to the theory that the Prime Regent is wanting to keep him close, just in case he was one of the New Becoming's brainwashed acolytes, or, even worse, an operative working for the Haemonine or Ruskel realms. How they could possibly posit that he may have had a hand in slaying his troops in such a manner was beyond him, but there were such cases of these cultists, whether it be New Becoming or some other group, turning on their very loved ones for the sake of the cause.

  When he arrived home he saw Arburne, his young son, playing with some friends in the street just a few doors down. He looked taller than last he saw him standing, far taller than he should be after just 5 weeks. 'Perhaps it's a trick of the light', Iskal thought, trying to dismiss the inevitable turning of the clock hands. As much as he wanted to hug his son and hear the latest exploits in his life, it was good that Arburne was distracted and out of the house. He needed to speak to Viella, to unburden his mind.

  He saw her immediately when he entered his home. She was sat at her corner desk, looking over some papers. She was employed as a clerk for a nearby textiles factory. Her contract was only for two days a week, but on occasion her supervisor would drop more work on her doorstep on her days off, citing the Company's condescending 'aim above the minimum' policy. Viella used to sometimes reject the extra work but, as of late, they couldn't afford to risk a dismissal.

  She turned at the opening of the door, smiling, probably expecting Arburne, but at the picture of Iskal and his bloodied chin the smile turned to a look of distressed shock that hurt Iskal worse than the punch that caused it.

  'Oh the Gods, are you okay!? Fuck, I feel like those are the only words I've said to you in so long. That's fresh blood... What happened now?!' She marched across the room to him, her short, frizzy white hair bouncing with each step, and took his chin carefully in her hand.

  He took her hand in his just as carefully. 'I've missed you you know. And I'm fine, just a meeting with an alley bruiser, and they took to running after a few knocks, the coward.' Iskal felt he could spare this white lie in the face of the bigger truth he was about to reveal.

  'Sit down in the kitchen, I'll get a flannel cloth to clean you up.' She said with a doubting tone. 'Lord knows I've become quite the artist at that now.'

  Iskal sat and enjoyed a few moments of silent care as Viella tended to him. He felt in himself at near-peace for the first time in weeks, there on the small mint green chair in the natural light of the kitchen. He knew he needed to talk the talk though, and soon, before Arburne returned home.

  'Viella, stop just a second, please, come and sit with me.'

  She sat next to him, the reddened cloth in her hands. Quickly, but without leaving a detail spare, he told her of the events in those cursed woods, of his decision to explore them in the first place, of Bilman's last words, of his pilfering of the two-cross ajers. He also told her of his reinstatement as Chieftain, his promotion even. How it sickened him when Prime Regent Leynsham said those words. He omitted the part about working with Lesquare. He usually told Viella everything, knowing that she wouldn't spill any deeper secret even to her beloved sister, but something about Lesquare made him hesitate. He was friendly, and seemed a decent individual, probably even had a staunch set of principles, but also a man who wouldn't hesitate in punishing a loose mouth with all manner of viscious methods.

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  Viella was quiet throughout, and for a minute or two after Iskal had finished. She just looked out the window. 'Where are these flora?' She said eventually, in monotone.

  'Underneath the false bottom of the third draw in our bedroom rolltop. I put them there this morning.'

  'Why the fuck did you take them?' Her voice was no longer monotone. It varied in octave. 'What were you thinking? If they were found that is this family done. The end of us Iskal. Who were you even going to sell them to? Do you have a secret library of contacts over in the spirits town I wasn't aware of?'

  'Viella, please,' Iskal replied, 'Please keep your voice down.' She looked stunned by the audacity of the request. Her eyebrows shot high into her forehead.

  'I don't have contacts, clearly, but they wouldn't be hard to find. I'm a... was a peacekeeper constable. I literally ran into a few bruisers today.'

  'I thought it was just one?' Viella said stonily.

  'Right, sorry, yes one.' He sighed and looked at the chipping paint in the kitchen, the fraying rag in Viella's hand, the damp creeping through the skirting boards. 'Do you know how much one of those flowers costs? 100 ryals.' He said the number as if he couldn't believe it himself. 'You talk about these flowers being the end of us. They could be everything for us. A life of beauty, free of fear, free of wanting. A big house in one of the mountain towns where Arburne could breathe air so clean that it washes your lungs out. When I stood there in that forest, alone, with my unit dead on the floor, staring at nothing with their greyed eyes... I just didn't know what to do. I thought I was going to be discredited completely, dismissed from all ranks, not Promoted! What kind of Frontstock loses his unit like that.'

  Tears were falling from his eyes now, but there was a great tide of relief in his heart. To free the words that had been burning through the cells in his

  brain these last few days was a salve on his soul. He gathered himself as Viella took his hand. Her expression was one of mournful frustration. Iskal took a breath. 'Look at this place. It's crumbling. Half the cupboard doors are at an angle. I thought we might not have a choice.'

  Viella looked around. 'It's not just us', she sighed, 'The whole town feels like it's been circling the drain, ever since that undara serum came to be. while you were away on monthwatch, the Verwoods' boy down the road came down with a case of the dust, you know? And they didn't even have enough money to buy the shallow ingle to cure it.'

  'Gods grace us...' Said Iskal.

  'The whole road had to chip in to help them.' Continued Viella, 'My Grandfather told me stories of when the dust first came to Oros, before the ingle tea was discovered. You always think of bugs and bacteria as without sin, mindless, but not the dust. Something like that feels evil, designed as punishment. Maybe it was the Gods who sent it, who knows. He told me how the smoke of the burning bodies was so great in size it formed an endless cloud above the valley. Seeing those people with the water seeping from their pores and tear ducts until their skin dried and cracked and split into great... craters along their body, and the thick blood that would pore out. You know they used to stand them neck high in the lakewater but still the fluids drained from them.' She smoothed out a corner of the tablecloth that had become bunched. 'The Verwood boy survived in the end but it was close. I think I know why you took those flowers. If we can't even protect children from that fate, what's the point? I think most of us are asking that question. But you getting locked away for life or killed would only destroy us more.'

  Iskal gazed at the floor for a long time. He knew she was right, He'd known this truth for a few days now, but he needed the person he trusted the most to cement it, to give it life. 'Yeah.' He said, rubbing the tear tracks from his cheeks,. 'Course, you're right. I'll bury them or destroy them.'

  'Today?'

  'Not today but soon. There's a chance my movements are being watched, a good chance actually. Soon though.'

  'Watched?' said Viella, a little startled. But before she could continue, Arburne burst into the room with a small toad cupped in his hands, and, seeing his father, dropped it immediately and rushed into the kitchen to hug him.