Ray had been able to help us locate the bulk of the city’s military that had been helping the citizens evacuate. It hadn’t been as straight forward as going directly to a gate or any such specific area, but he had known enough about the logistics of emergency retreat to scope out likely areas they would be operating at. With a demonstration of our newfound abilities and even the subjugation of a few filth jellies and what I can only think to call filth walkers, we had been able to gain their cooperation. They hadn’t been able to lend us the bulk of their forces since they still had to assist the evacuation, but they had been willing enough to bet on a complete solution to the issue that they lent us perhaps more than they would have. The soldier we had reached out to first was a familiar face with his overtly thick eyebrows and goatee. Lieutenant Aaron Kugda, the same royal guard that had joined our trip to the capital along with Ray and Samson. He hadn’t been in charge of course, but he connected us to the people that were and acted as an intermediary between us.

  We hadn’t yet mentioned Ray’s betrayal. We hadn’t seen any purpose in bringing it up when we were still in dire straits. I myself had been unsure whether or not I would make a point of bringing it to the army's attention when all was said and done. I was certain it would come out one way or another, either from one of my companions or, as unlikely as it was, from the horse's mouth himself. He had been an accomplice to the scholar's actions far back enough that I might have even had reason to place the weight of Bennie’s death on his head, but his involvement didn’t seem strong enough to have actually made a difference in the scholar's actions. His sins were bringing us to a place where we would be killed, an intention that would have been erased by circumstance had two not already been killed and also for having done nothing about the scholar when he knew about his whereabouts. These were serious crimes even without the worst of them having played out, but I no longer had any interest in standing in judgement over them after everything that had happened. These matters would be worked out between himself and the king that held his own duplicity. I still held that document, but no longer had any use for it. The king’s machinations would be as meaningless as Ray’s in the changed world and I wouldn’t let their filth deter me from my new path within it. I would tread over it as I would any dirt road.

  “We’ll be rendezvousing with another detachment when we approach Tembralvain. The king, along with his royal guard, followed after the queen to scope out her behavior and possible openings for an attack.”

  “Well, there isn’t any chance we’ll have lucked out and they’ll have already subjugated her by the time we arrive.”

  “I don’t think it’s very likely. I prefer a march forward wherever possible myself, but even I’d advise caution with so many unknowns involved.”

  From what we had been told, the queen had retreated with the other demon possessed onto the top of Tembralvain’s highest spire. I could only assume it was the scholar’s connection to the place that had herded her that way and from the sound of it, her mere presence soaked the area in filth, so this may have been some form of revenge on his part.

  “At least she’s stationary. We thought the hardest part of this would be tracking her down but it’s nice to know that won’t be an issue.”

  “You think that’s the hardest part huh? I was a bit more worried over whether or not she could actually be fought against, but I suppose if a lass like you is more worried about determining the coordinates then I better man up.”

  Having realized that this most likely had been Jossette being obtuse because she valued information over danger, I accidently let out a laugh.

  “And even you’re just laughing at a time like this? Alright I’m convinced, I’ll go mad with ya’ll.”

  Aaron put a stupid grin on his face and drummed the flat of his blade against the plating he had donned.

  “Alright boys, let’s go wrangle us a queen.”

  “Here!”

  They responded in kind and a bit of laughter filled the ominously painted throughway as we marched towards Tembralvain. I felt like I had seen a few light blue lines manifest in our wake afterwards, but I put it out of my mind for now.

  We found the king and his entourage positioned on the second story balcony of what I assumed was a upper class restaurant. The establishment itself had been of little concern, with many of the table and other furnishings moved well out of the way in place of the expected artillery soldiers would normally keep in tents, but the position had clearly been selected for its outlook towards Tembralvain.

  It hadn’t been to the scale of the palace but had still far out stripped anything else within the city in size. I had found its design to be reminiscent of the dream custodian academy, so much so that I had thought it might have been the work of the same architect even though I was ignorant of such matters, only it was ivory instead of obsidian. The small difference had given it a far less ominous appearance, but it still had held a sort of austere claustrophobic weight. Not the kind that would make you uncomfortable, but more the kind that made you feel as if there was a sense of decorum you had to adhere to just by entering, not unlike the hall of justice. It had also been a lot skinnier than my academy with the center building being more akin to a tower and the four sub buildings connected by corridors that looked more like walls in a cross shape.

  King Slumnier had stood at the edge of the balcony overlooking it when we approached. He still wore his crown circlet, but his robe was replaced with more militaristic black clothing under gold painted plating. At his side was a broad sword in a gilded scabbard.

  “Oi your majesty! What are you brooding over? Trouble in paradise?”

  The king turned to Thomas with a bitter grin.

  “I should have you hung for that, but I’m afraid executions haven’t been panning out well as of late. So care to tell me why you aren’t at your stations and why you’ve brought a group of scrubbers along? Don’t tell me you plan on handing them mops and having them clean up this mess?”

  In response I took the mop that was already in my hand, walked out from the encirclement of soldiers and swiped it across the top of the balcony’s fence.

  “You’re not too far off the mark.”

  He had arched his brow as he watched the filth vanish under the mops head then motioned me to hand it to him. Naturally, when he had tried the same, nothing happened.

  “And are you gonna tell me exactly how this is possible?”

  “While I can give at least a few theories, there’s to little evidence to say anything conclusive.”

  After Jossette had given a serious answer, Karen folded her arms smugly.

  “It could only be heart, grit, and determination, couldn’t it?”

  “I’ll second heart, grit, and determination.”

  “Eh, why not. I know I got plenty, and I reckon these folks aren’t that far behind me.”

  It had been clear we hadn’t been taking the king seriously, but he just snorted at us.

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  “Have it your way, as long as that heart, grit, and determination can pull us out of this pit.”

  “Your majesty, have you gathered any information on the enemy?”

  A long red haired soldier, one I think ranked higher than Aaron, spoke up to move the conversation along.

  “We have. We’ve encountered one skirmish with the queen and her defenders, the possessed, resulting in several injuries and three deaths on our side and one dead possessed on theirs. The possessed can move oddly. They can suddenly appear right next to you, but otherwise they move like a human and can be killed. The queen is ferocious and would easily overpower a single soldier but can be handled by a large group. The only problem is that we can’t damage her. Our blades sink in like they’ve been put into some gooey tar when we are actual able to strike her and her ability to shift makes that much difficult to begin with. The good news is that the demons themselves, while clearly responsible for the shifting, don’t actually do anything to those fighting the possessed. We were also able to confirm with our kill that the demons dissipate when those they posses perish.”

  That had been, quite frankly, a lot more promising than I had expected. There had always been the possibility that the queen had become something humans simply couldn’t stand up to, and we had gone forward knowing nothing.

  “Have you encountered those jelly-like floaters yet? We discovered some on our way to find help and Thomas was able to cut one. I imagine it would be much the same for the queen."

  “That’s interesting, but not much use if only your lot can use them. At any rate, outfit these four with a blade each. You’re not trained, don’t try to use them. Just have them ready in case anything happens.”

  A short blade had been given to each of us to strap at our sides. Me and Karen had just jostled them in confusion while Jossette had intently studied hers, but at least Thomas had looked comfortable with one at his side. Maybe, I thought, it would feel reassuring just to have a weapon by my side when the time came to go into danger, but I continued holding my mop.

  “Well, how about a quick sparing match? I’ll take on Douglass and Jossette can pair up with Thomas. Whoever cuts their own fingers off first loses.”

  “You’re on, but I think we should count toes as well since we’re just as likely to drop them.

  The king let out a sigh and took one of the swords and unsheathed it.

  “Alright I get it, if something charges at you, just take it out and stick the pointy end towards it. Maybe the possessed will materialize right into it.”

  There had been a bit of a lull in the conversation following our antics. There was much that could have been said and many questions left to ask, but I think we all knew there was only one issue left to address that would hold any real meaning at this point.

  “So?”

  The king took a deep breath at my unworded question.

  “We’ll leave on the hour. No training or intel is going to change what’s to come if we don’t want to let her stew up there spreading her filth indefinitely.”

  When we left, we moved slowly. We had found three more mops for the rest of us in a storeroom before leaving and made sure they were soaked in case we had no access to water. We did bring canteens and the like, but in truth we should have found better tools, but nothing practical had come to mind in the short span of time we spent preparing.

  We were encircled by soldiers at all times and were packed tightly enough that if a possessed had tried to use their shifting to approach they wouldn’t be able to easily assassinate us. At the time I had thought they might try to do so to stop us, but it hadn’t occurred to me that they had no way of knowing that we could cleanse filth in the real world yet. At any rate it was probably still a good precaution to take since they had meant to kill the scrubbers originally and they most definitely would be attempting to kill anyone who approached regardless.

  We made it all the way towards the doors of the institute with no interference. There had been jellies floating about, much more than I had yet seen and in almost solid colors, but they did not become hostile even if they did react to our presence. Unlike before, they seemed to drift towards us when we had passed through, ultimately congesting the throughway, but never touching us.

  The thickening, almost congealing, filth increased in volume the closer we approached. Just like the jellies, its colors were starting to blend together into a bog of maroon. When our feet pulled off the surface it stuck just slightly but then snapped back and rippled like water. The impressions this filth radiated out were so alien that I can’t even say that it had any real effect on my mind outside of general disconcertment. While the jellies were in full force, we had yet to see any of those walkers that were so coated in filth that it moved them like puppets.

  When we reached the tall ivory doors, two heavily plated soldiers with broadswords stepped out in front of the line of shields that proceeded the encirclement. They pulled open the doors so that they would be behind them and anything that might have waited on the other side would meet the wall of shields first, but they would be ready to jump out from behind them to pin attackers against them.

  What we found immediately within the doors was not the possessed, but a congregation of the filth coated walkers in such numbers that I can only assume they had been corralled here intentionally. The filth on there bodies fully coated them and was starting to blend its color as the jellies and ground had done. It was almost like a gooey carapace and it was starting to remind me of the queens transformation, but much slower. If that was true it was likely they would eventually perish, but before then…

  They turned towards us and their eyes that appeared as flickering green lights searched us over. One close to us held out its hand and a lines of filth appeared and twisted together in the shape of a spear that some in the edge of the encirclement carried.

  “Men, steel yourself.”

  The king wasn’t exactly at the front, but he was much closer than the four of us packed in the middle.

  “Pin them one at a time and try to make a bubble for the scrubbers to get into.”

  The only silver lining was that while they were numerous, they were not a battalion, and they were scattered enough through the hall that we shouldn’t have had to deal with them all at once.

  “Well, it should be fine with how slow they were moving right? They’ll be on the floor before they get anywhere near us.”

  “Those ones had seemed a lot more lifeless. I don’t think we should expect the same behavior from these.”

  As if to vindicate Jossette’s doubt, the filth walker that had manifested the spear leapt towards the soldiers in an odd manner that almost felt as if the spear was pulling him along more than the motion of its human body. Its spear was parried but the sword that blocked it stuck to it rather than reflected it away. It pressed forward to reach towards the wielder of the sword, but many spears impaled it as it had attempted to do so. They had stuck as well, but there was enough force to press it to the ground.

  More were approaching, but those with shields did what they could to bar their way as spear wielders prodded at them through the gaps leaving us just enough room to approach from behind the encirclement and sweep the heads of our mops over the pinned body of the walker. I had worried the water they were soaked in wouldn’t be enough to wash away the thick layer of sludge, but I shouldn’t have been considering this phenomenon based on my common sense. The filth washed away easily enough though it did take slightly more time than it had with the jelly whose colors hadn’t blended as much yet. The faint light blue shine I saw, similar to the one that had appeared on Thomas’ knife, did a bit to assuage my worries that our mops might become too dry.

  “This whole situation is absurd.”

  We had gained a floor but were still a way off from the roof. There were more walkers as we proceeded, but never enough that we had to deal with more than four at once. Their nature might have made it difficult, but our numbers were more than enough to deal with it, though not without injury. A few soldiers had to be left behind, but so far we had suffered no deaths.

  “It’s been absurd since this morning and I’m damn well accustomed to it by now.”

  “I doubt it will get any stranger than this. We already know the worst we’re gonna have to deal with so at least there won’t be any surprises. So, lets sally forth and just get the place spic and span already.”

  At Karen’s words a new walker approached from out of a corner walking in a jagged manner like some form of broken machine.

  “Looks surprising enough to me.”

  Its bones were cracking with its stretching limbs. It would surely ultimately break apart like we had expected the queen to do, but before then it would assail us with its last throes. The face, completely obscured by filth, stretched into a hideous caricature of a human as it fell on all fours like an animal and charged towards us. Behind it I could see a heavily disfigured and scarred human with disheveled black hair limping towards us in a flickering approach that betrayed his slow movement. He had loosely held a dagger I felt might fall from his grip and his eyes appeared lifeless, but not in the way of the walkers. It had been in the way of a man that had been broken and I’m sure he had been before he had made his deal. In tandem with the mutating walker, he shifted beside a shield wielding soldier and stabbed him in the neck before shifting back away while the walker plunged into him and whipped his all to thinly stretched arm at the next to approach him.

  It really was absurd and I had lightly laughed at that absurdity in nervousness. I’m sure that when I did, very faint blue lines squirmed within the surface of dark red beneath us.