In one of my well lit but sparsely furnished rooms, a crystal-shelled coleoptera landed delicately on a table, gripping a sugar cube between its front legs before dropping it into a cup. Using one of its legs as a stirrer, the crystalline substance of its exoskeleton protecting it from the high temperature, it dissolved the lump. Finally, grasping the cup with all of its legs, it once again spread its wings, carefully flying across the room towards a comfortable chair on the other side, without spilling a single drop.

It made it almost halfway before losing its grip, the cup smashing on the floor below.

"Not bad," I commented from my chair, although more to myself than to the coleoptera; it wasn't as if it could understand me. I'd almost had it that time. Just a bit more practice, and I'd be there.

The coleoptera flew back to the table, where nine more cups had been lined up, but paused in the act of picking up another sugar cube when a loud knocking came from below.

A visitor? I stood up and released my mental grip on the small monster, which immediately flew up to the roof and settled there. Circling around the outskirts of the room to avoid the broken china and spilt tea, I made my way down to the front door.

"Si'chieen?" I commented upon opening it. "What brings you to my humble abode? Aren't you on duty?"

"Greetings, Ja'yakril. I'm actually here on business. Something new came down from above, and we were hoping to call upon your expertise. And potentially leave it in your capable hands, should you not think it a threat."

"Oh my, a new breed of monster? Give me a moment to get equipped."

"Some shoes will do. You don't have far to go; it's right outside."

I paused halfway to the stairs. "You brought an unknown monster here? Are you mad?!"

"Not at all. It... well, come and see for yourself. It's intelligent, but it seems completely docile."

"You brought an unknown, intelligent monster here?!" I hissed in incredulity. Bringing a monster with unknown abilities down here was one thing, but an intelligent monster, capable of deception and subterfuge? How did this idiot let it sweet-talk him into this?

"It's under guard," Si'chieen insisted. "Like I said, come and see."

Although unhappy, I stepped outside to take a look at this new find, only to see something that looked like a young girl with her ears missing. Surely even the low intelligence members of the warrior caste weren't that stupid. "Isn't that just a regular girl with some nasty injuries?"

"I assure you, it isn't one of us. Look closer."

I walked closer, only to find no evident scarring. Si'chieen was correct when he claimed it not to be an ordinary girl. Nor was it standing naturally with its arms behind its back, as I'd first assumed, but they were securely tied there. Yet it didn't look uncomfortable with its situation, and that tie would have been tough to accomplish without the new monster's cooperation. Combined with the way they hadn't bothered binding the feet...

"So, this is what you wanted me to see? It just let you tie it up like that?"

"She," said the monster. "Not it."

Not just intelligent, but can speak fluently. Identifies as a gender too. Vanishingly few monsters have distinct genders, but it's not uncommon for the intelligent ones to pick one. No harm in being polite and respecting her choice.

"Yes, it did," said Si'chieen, confirming both that this monster had cooperated and that he had no respect whatsoever.

"How interesting," I thought out loud. Bringing her here wasn't such a silly decision after all; it wasn't just the fact that she wasn't bothered about being bound and at the mercy of a guard like that, but she didn't even seem to have noticed the town barrier. This close to it, she should have been distinctly uncomfortable. I had no perceptible feeling of strength from her, so she wasn't overpowering it, which meant that it didn't view her as a threat.

"Not to mention that she could approach the town barrier this easily, despite not wearing a collar," I continued. "Either she's so docile that we don't need to be concerned, or else she's so desperate for something that she was prepared to put her life on the line for it. I wonder which it is?"

"I'm not the sort of person to kill in cold blood, if that's what you're asking," she replied to my musings, which immediately pulled my focus away from her nonchalance and towards the fact that she called herself a person. She's not just assigning a gender, she's assigning herself full personhood. Does she think she's not a monster? Or is this some sort of plot after all? Her statement that she would not kill had not been total; it was as good as saying that given correct circumstances, she would kill.

While her claim needed to be viewed with the full amount of scepticism it deserved, it would be premature to discount it completely. She did, after all, have a very similar appearance to us, was comfortable around us despite being viewed with mistrust, and was either recognised as friendly by the barrier, or very good at hiding the discomfort it should be causing. The temple's teachings were always clear that we were the only known civilized race, and that intelligent monsters were not to be considered people, but they did always prefix it with the word known. They'd never completely discounted the possibility that there would be more somewhere.

If someone was suspected of a crime, normally priestesses with the ability to discern lies would pass judgement, but there was no way I was going to suggest bringing her inside our walls. I could ask a priestess to come here, but that would take time, and I didn't want to leave her under any less watch than she already was. That just left the obvious option. I always carried a spare pet collar or two around with me, just in case I bumped into a coleoptera species I'd not seen before. I had one that would fit her. It wouldn't be fair to her if she was telling the truth, but I could always apologise later, and if she was lying, it would safely neutralise her.

"An interesting claim, but hardly something we can take your word for, obviously. Let's see now," I said as I fished around in my pouch for one the correct size. "If you hold still a moment, this will let me check if you're telling the truth."

For the first time since I'd set eyes on her, she reacted badly, looking positively alarmed at the collar in my hand. "Sorry, but I'm not going to let you put that on me," she said, presumably recognising what it was. Unfortunate, but it wasn't a response that added any evidence for or against her claim; I wouldn't be happy at someone wanting to put one on me, either. I'd been banking on her ignorance. We'd have to go for the priestess option instead.

"Perhaps his politeness caused you to misunderstand, but it's not optional," said the second guard, who I didn't know by sight, aiming his spear at her. I was about to interject and suggest one of them went to fetch a priestess when Si'chieen grabbed the poor girl by the hair, holding out her exposed neck. With her bound hands, there was nothing to stop him. That was... impolite, but I had to admit I was letting myself be sweet-talked by her here, despite having whined at the guardsmen for the exact same offence earlier. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, so it was best to take this opportunity. I stepped forward with the collar.

Her arms were free. I didn't see how she'd escaped, but she reached out and grabbed the collar from my hands, which vanished. I jerked backwards and noted she'd done the same to the second guard's weapon.

"It tricked us!" he exclaimed. "It took my spear! Hurry and kill it!"

The situation was changing too quickly for me to keep up. She could erase things from existence just by touching them? Then when she'd let them bind her... She'd never put herself into their power in the first place; she had been in complete control this whole time! No wonder she was so relaxed. Dammit, this is why we're always warned about intelligent monsters!

Si'chieen groaned and jumped backwards, releasing his grip on her hair, blood pouring from his wrist. I hadn't even seen what she'd done, but she obviously had hidden weapons somewhere. But it was a conventional wound; she hadn't erased his arm or his body. Did her ability not work on anything living? Whether it did or not, this situation was dangerous... I gave a mental command to my pets to prepare for battle.

"I really don't want to fight!" she shouted while backing away from the three of us, "but I'm not going to let you turn me into a slave."

What did she want? Was she hoping to talk her way through our gates peacefully? To what end? What did she want to do once inside? So many questions, but her ability to free herself at a whim had thrown all of my original musings out of the window.

"Pah," spat the second guard as he drew his knife. "You should be thankful to us for letting you live at all."

I needed to get a grip. The facts were that this unknown creature had successfully talked the checkpoint's guards into letting her through, and had come within spitting distance of our settlement while fooling her guards into thinking she'd been secured. She recognised my pet collar and believed that if I put it on her, she would become a slave. The way she was talking implied that she thought she'd be enslaved forever, not only for the amount of time it took me to ask some questions. If she knew enough about us to bluff her way here and recognise our tools, she must also know our laws, and that they forbade slavery of people.

The girl had almost fooled me. She was a monster. And not just any monster, but a never before seen intelligent species with a never before seen ability. Did I have anything as valuable as her in my collection? Almost certainly not. I wanted her.

"I've never seen anything like that before," I said in admiration. "She has the ability to erase anything she touches! No wonder she let you bind her; it had no effect on her to start with. It doesn't seem to work on living things though, or else she would have used it on Si'chieen."

"Not just that," muttered Si'chieen. "It stabbed me with something. Maybe retractable claws? Regardless, you'd better make this worth the trouble, old man."

"Oh, don't worry," I answered. "I'll give you a fair price for her. Given how unique she is, to do otherwise would be sacrilege. But we do need to collar her first, which is going to be hard if she keeps erasing my collars. We'll need to subdue her. Since her ability doesn't work on living things, let's give my pets a go at her. They fight with their own bodies, so should render her abilities ineffective. I wouldn't want to cost you any more weapons."

As much as I didn't want to risk harm to my pets, she was more valuable than they were. If I lost a few, I could subtract them off the price. Besides, given Si'janrii's expression, if I let him near her right now, she'd likely end up dead, so I really didn't want them fighting.

Of course, the best option would be if an overwhelming display of power caused her to give up. Even the most stubborn of monsters valued their lives over their freedom. She should be able to see how well I treat my pets; their appearance alone makes it obvious how much I care for even the least of them, and she would be the pride of my collection. She had nothing to fear from me.

"Please," I called to her, once my pets were in position. "I don't want to hurt you, and I don't want you to harm any of my precious pets, either. You can't possibly escape from here. Just let this little one give you a nip and you'll fall right to sleep." I motioned to a small creature with the most potent anaesthetising bite in my collection. "By the time you wake up, you'll be safe, and have nothing left to worry about. I'll take good care of you."

I was practically pleading, making sure she understood my sincerity, but she rejected it immediately. "I'll fight to the death rather than let anyone enslave me."

I didn't believe her. Either she was confident in her ability to escape, or she believed she could overpower the three of us and all of my monsters. Either way, this was likely going to result in harm to my precious pets. "A pity," I replied to her with sadness in my heart.

Given the wound she'd inflicted on Si'chieen, she obviously had some ability to fight. I sent in some of my smaller, more agile pets first to test her abilities, but she had no difficulty evading their attacks, as well as dishing out some of her own. She fought her way to my house, standing with her back to the wall to prevent my pets from surrounding her, showing at least some knowledge of strategy too.

I increased the numbers, hoping to overwhelm her, but she pulled out the spear she'd stolen from the guard, as well as a shield I'd not seen before, and she was proficient with their use. Not enough that I wouldn't be able to win if I wanted, but I wanted her alive, not dead! None of my monsters with non-fatal venom could get close enough to use it. My precious pets started dying, but I was getting even more excited. She could restore anything she erased?! Were there limits to that ability? The uses, not just in warfare, but in logistics, were incalculable. It was time to put my efforts at learning fine control over my pets to use.

I had one of the larger flying monsters pick up a flash grenade and flew it in front of her face. I couldn't command my pets to shut or shield their eyes, or she would notice and understand what was about to happen. I felt sorry for them, but it was better than letting them be killed by her. The grenade went off and was a complete success. The girl-shaped monster staggered, obviously blinded. I sent in every monster I had that possessed an anaesthetising bite or sting. I was risking nothing; she needed to be asleep before her sight recovered.

Her weapons and armour vanished. A knife briefly appeared in her hand, which she used to slash her own throat before it too disappeared.

I stared in disbelief as the naked body fell to the ground, bright red blood rapidly pooling around it. Had she seriously just killed herself to prevent her capture? I screamed for a healer, my desperation leaving me only half aware of the world. We were outside the walls; of course there were no healers here. I was forced to watch helplessly as this unique and precious creature died before my eyes.

Why? Never before had I seen a monster commit suicide like that. It was simply not something that they did. But even if they wouldn't kill themselves outright, there were those who would sacrifice themselves. We'd seen it most recently with the chilopoda infestation; swarms of the things charging at the checkpoint that separated us from the caverns above without regards to their personal safety, but instead prioritising the swarm. They hadn't been intelligent. This one was. Was she here not for herself, but for a swarm of her own?

The worst-case scenario was that there was a force of intelligent monsters up there, and she was a scout sent to obtain information. In that context, a suicide would make sense. Her mission had failed, and had she been collared, we'd have been able to reverse the situation and extract information about the upcoming invasion.

This couldn't go unchecked. The fight had attracted a number of gatekeepers, and the pair of checkpoint guards were still here. I explained my concerns... and was shot down. They felt that the garrison would not be at risk, particularly since the potential scout had failed to return with any information. How could they be so short-sighted? Hadn't this experience taught them not to underestimate a monster's intelligence? What if they were capable of scaling the cliffs, bypassing the checkpoint completely?

There was one option remaining to me, and even if I was wrong about a potential invasion, it would still be something I'd consider. Si'chieen was greedy, always after that little extra on the side, and with the death of the monster and loss of the bounty I'd have paid for it, he'd jump at the chance to replace it. I may not know the second guard, but so far his behaviour had been similar. If I put out a bounty to capture another member of this new species alive, they would jump at the chance.

I offered enough money for them to hire a couple of extra adventurers, and as I expected, they agreed immediately. The second guard, who introduced himself as Si'janrii, ran into town to see who he could hire, while Si'chieen stuck with me as I autopsied the corpse. It would pay for them to know what they were up against. While her internal biology was rather different to our own, I found no venom or claws, or any signs of physical offensive ability. Her attack on Si'chieen must have been made by restoring the dagger she'd cut her throat with, then erasing it again before anyone noticed it.

I also found no mana crystal, which raised interesting questions about how her erase and restore ability worked. Surely it had to be magical?

Si'janrii returned with a pair of adventurers, before the four of them set out to search the upper caverns while I waited with nervousness. Hopefully, they'd either return with advance warning of an invasion in time to save our settlement, or they'd return with a precious prize for me. Either way, my money would be well spent. Worst case was that they'd find nothing, but that in itself would be reassuring.

I found myself waiting outside. I had injured pets to treat anyway, and if I could do so in a position to keep watch for their return, so much the better. Time passed until I saw Si'janrii in the distance, sprinting towards me. No, not towards me; he headed straight for the gates, ignoring me completely. And he was on his own. So, invasion it was then. It was a pity about the other three, who I could only assume were dead, but better we find out about it now.

With a sigh, I resumed my treatment of a pierced vespidae wing. I could clean it up, after which it would heal on its own, but the poor creature was going to be grounded for a few days. But I'd barely finished the cleaning before I saw Si'chieen and one of the two adventurers they'd left with also returning at a far more sedate jog. That... made no sense, after Si'janrii's rushed return. Si'chieen diverted over to me while the adventurer headed back into the city.

"It isn't dead," he said bluntly when he arrived. "What did you do with the remains?"

...What? What in the abyss happened up there? "I can assure you, she was most certainly dead. You saw another one? Maybe they all look the same?"

"Looked the same. Same outfit, including some cuts I saw your monsters inflict. Same shield. Si'janrii's spear. It remembered us. Knew everything that had happened down here. It put your slave collar on Si'janrii."

I blanched. When he'd run past earlier, he was under her control?! "I saw him earlier. Why didn't you run back? He's entered the settlement already!"

"Don't panic. The idiot adventurer that was with us volunteered as a substitute hostage, and it let Si'janrii go. He's under some delusion of it being a person. Sent the other one to fetch a priestess to question it. But let's check on the corpse, please."

We did, and it was exactly where I'd left it, and still very much dead. Then what could explain what they'd seen? They'd ruled out her being a shapeshifter before allowing her through the checkpoint. There are undead that can separate their spirit from their body, or reanimate themselves after their body is destroyed, or even possess the bodies of others, but she was no undead. Something living with undead-like abilities? Or some sort of telepathic swarm with knowledge sharing? And one could restore what another erased? That would make them truly fearsome opponents even if each individual was lacking in physical strength. Fortunately, it was not my problem. If they'd taken a hostage, people far more powerful than anyone in the group I'd sent scouting were going to take an interest.

Sure enough, not long later, the adventurer re-emerged, accompanying someone wearing the robes of a high priestess. Si'chieen left to accompany them. There would probably need to be a crusade of some sort. Large presences were generally frowned upon in the upper caverns, which were the Lord's domain, not our own, but for dangers like this it would be a necessity.

So, when the priestess returned later, with Si'chieen, the two adventures, and a guard captain in tow, and with the monster walking with them completely unbound, I could do nothing but stare. It really was her. The face was identical. And they were bringing her into the settlement? What for? Had she convinced the high priestess that she was not a monster? Once again, all I could do was clutch to the knowledge that it was no longer my problem.

'Not my problem' became my mantra for the next few hours. When I felt an intense blast of mana from the settlement, driving my pets into a barely controlled frenzy, it was nothing to do with me. When the smoke started rising from behind the walls, with the sounds of fighting in the streets, still nothing to do with me. When the arch-priestess herself stepped outside the walls and mounted the severed heads of Si'chieen, Si'janrii and a bunch of others on pikes right outside the gate, still not me.

When she started walking towards my house, extinguishing the lives of my pets with every step she took, now it had become my problem.

I looked into the face not of the arch-priestess I knew, but of someone bent on destruction. Her attendants were trailing behind her, but they looked frightened. What had happened in there? "You will tell me everything you know," she said, and it wasn't a request, or even an order. It was simply a statement of the way things would be.

I told her everything I knew. I made sure to mention that I was prepared to believe the story of that girl, and would have released her immediately if it was true, but there was no way I could have just taken her word for it. I made every excuse I could think of, but she just stood there in silent judgement. I finished talking, she raised one hand, and I closed my eyes, waiting for death to come.

The temple bell tolled, and the pressure dissipated. I opened my eyes, and she was no longer there. Her attendants were running off, too. Trouble in the temple? Again, what had happened in there?

A few more minutes later, the barrier that surrounded our settlement failed. There came more sounds of fighting, flashes of light and mana in the distance, before the warrior general came racing out of the gates, fleeing into the distance.

There was an inquest, and as a witness to events, I was summoned. I had to tell my story for a second time, in front of the three remaining caste leaders, but in return, I heard the reports of others. How Katie had been taken to the temple, where the barrier had welcomed her presence, and the arch-priestess had confirmed that she possessed a blessing from the Goddess. Immortality, of all things. So it wasn't any sort of telepathic swarm, but literally the same girl.

But Si'janrii had run to his caste leader and had spun him a tale about a dangerous monster that could distort the power of the shrines. When Si'chieen and So'layn had arrived and added their own story about the monster being able to fool the truth divining powers of the priestesses, and that the monster was being brought to the temple, he determined that for the safety of the settlement, he needed to act immediately to get the monster away from the heart of our defences.

They'd kidnapped her, right under the nose of the arch-priestess. But the barrier had tried to protect her. And she'd willingly left its safety to avoid its destruction. But rather than consider that maybe the arch-priestess wasn't a complete fool, the general had fought her, right in the temple, in front of the statue of the Goddess.

That did not pass unnoticed, and the remaining caste leaders had shown up quickly. With the arch-priestess claiming that the warriors had kidnapped a servant of the Goddess, and the general claiming that the priestesses had allowed a dangerous monster into the heart of the settlement, where it had tampered with the barrier, they had little choice but to go and see her to pass their own judgement.

All they found was a corpse. One with clear signs of torture. The arch-priestess, faced with such epic mistreatment of the first person to receive a blessing from the Goddess in a century, had been apoplectic, immediately slaughtering the perpetrators, and things only went downhill from there as people took sides, starting a larger conflict. In the confusion, the arch-priestess had made it out of the barracks, and before long large parts of the city were alight.

Given Katie's blessing of immortality, it was an overreaction, but the arch-priestess hadn't reached her position through moderation. In order to stop her, the general had launched a second assault on the temple, both to attract her attention away from the slaughter of his men, and to destroy what he still viewed as a corrupted shrine. He succeeded, destroying our settlement's most potent defence, before fleeing as a wanted criminal. A criminal that had just saved my life. If I wanted to keep it, I was going to need to move within the defensive walls before the monsters noticed the loss of our holy protection.

It was a mess. It was true that the behaviour of the general had been unacceptable, but it was equally true that an unknown entity should never have been invited into our settlement, let alone into the temple which housed our protection from the monster hordes. The remaining leaders made their judgement. Nevertheless, the warrior caste took the bulk of the blame, and with the leaders' public acceptance of the blessing, the public sided with the temple. Knowing that Katie was still alive, somewhere, they dispatched people to wait for her at the upper shrine, to invite her back to our settlement as a guest. She would need to be questioned, but should be brought in safe and unharmed.

I snorted at that. Given her previous experiences here, why in the abyss would she cooperate? And if she didn't cooperate, they'd just take that as a sign that she was an enemy. I found the thought of any sort of reconciliation implausible. As to what she actually was, I didn't know what to think. I wasn't going to discount the abilities of the arch-priestess as easily as the warrior commander had, but I did feel that a real servant of the Goddess wouldn't be so... troublesome. Though, with the riot over, it was back to not being my problem.

Up until the point she knocked on my door.

She'd not only resurrected herself once again, but had found her way here without alerting the garrison. Come to think of it, why did I assume that when she formed a new body, it would always be in the upper caverns? She could come from anywhere! Was she here for revenge on me?

Thankfully, all she was here for was information. She wished to descend into the catacombs, and wanted to know the location of the entrance. Historically, not a single soul who has descended into that darkness has returned, but somehow I suspected that even that place wouldn't keep her down. Whenever she died, she simply popped back up again in full health.

So what if she didn't die? Couldn't we neutralise her by sending her to sleep and leaving her unable to act? Maybe not forever, but long enough for our town to pull itself back together? Wait for tempers to calm to the point she could be dealt with fairly?

After the rampage of the arch-priestess, I'd moved my smaller surviving pets into the house. That included a number that produced anaesthetising secretions, some of which were highly potent. I couldn't get them to attack her, but what sort of host would I be if I didn't provide refreshments? Picking out a creature that could provide a potent poison that would take effect when administered orally, and that had an easily maskable taste, I mixed her up a drink.

She drank it. Nothing happened. Then she calmly admitted knowing that it was poisoned, and used the knowledge to blackmail me into handing over a mana crystal. Did she have any idea how expensive those things were?! How hard it is to get one before the mage's guild snaps it up? But I had no choice; I'd only barely survived the last time. If she made it to the temple without me, and informed anyone there that I'd poisoned her, my head would be mounted on one of the pikes by nightfall.

I handed it over, but went with her. I didn't want to sit here wondering whether she'd tell them, waiting to hear the knocking at my door. If they would even bother knocking. If my attempt at neutralising this demon was going to cost me my life, I'd rather get it over and done with.

She kept to her word, using the mana crystal to repair the shrine that the commander had broken, and happily informing the priestesses that I was the one that had provided it. She didn't mention the poison at all. And just as she had claimed she would, she willingly entered the catacombs.

A fact which made the recently arrived arch-mage very cross.

If there was one thing her latest actions had made clear, it was that to her, we were the ones that weren't people. She was on her own mission, and to her, we were mere obstacles, with our settlement inconveniently placed over the top of the route she wished to take. She preferred peaceful cooperation simply because it required the least effort on her part. With it denied, she was happy to employ subterfuge or even, I suspected, to simply wipe us out in our entirety. We were fortunate that she didn't seem capable of such a feat. If she were, maybe that would have been the route she'd have chosen to start with, and our first encounter would have been in violence.

After spending far too long berating me for not walking slower or otherwise delaying Katie, the arch-mage finally let me go. I gave my advice that we should just ignore her, and let her come and go as she pleased, merely supervising her to make sure she did nothing but travel into the catacombs, but it was painfully obvious that the arch-mage was never going to let that happen.

His behaviour was actually rather discordant. He didn't seem to give a toss about Katie being in our settlement, so he obviously didn't view her as a threat, yet he still wanted to... What? Talk to her? Put her on trial for the death of the arch-priestess? Show her off to everyone to prove in some way that she wasn't dangerous and try to heal the rift between the warriors and clergy? Take revenge for the death of his nephew, So'layn? Maybe it was just professional curiosity in the way her abilities worked.

Ironically, I felt my situation had reversed. An hour ago, I wanted to move inside the city walls, desiring their protection after the loss of the barrier. Now it was the opposite. I was glad to be on the outside, protected by the newly repaired barrier, and with a nice thick wall between me and whatever was going to happen here.

So why, a number of days later, were there guards outside my house, making it perfectly clear that my attendance at an inquest in half an hour's time was not optional. Why?! I'd already told the town's leaders everything I knew! Couldn't they just leave me in peace?

When I arrived at the Hall of Truth, it was clear what had brought this on. Katie was shackled and strapped securely to a chair in the centre of the floor, unconscious, a pet collar around her neck, with the three remaining leaders sitting in judgement. Behind Katie were an array of guards and five of the six high priestesses. The sixth, Do'myrith, was seated in the witness box, looking highly frustrated. It was an emotion which I shared; this inquest would achieve nothing. Why could they not leave well enough alone?

I took my seat in trepidation. What insanity would Katie inflict on us this time? I very nearly held my breath when they removed the constant feed of sleeping gas that was keeping her unconscious. Seeing that really knocked home how naïve I'd been with my attempt; the dose she was getting there should have been instantly fatal, and yet she started to stir within a minute of it being removed. Jru'belem started proceedings, while arch-mage Mru'walyn looked completely disinterested. After the effort he took to get her here, he could at least pay attention.

And then Katie casually informed her guards that she was infected with blight.

Had these idiots knocked her out while she was on her way back up from the catacombs?! There was some muttering from around the room, and some of the guards backed away in alarm, but everyone largely remained calm. Then she died, with no warning and while still strapped to the chair. A small dribble of black liquid left her mouth, the corpse began to twitch, and the room erupted.

"Silence! Calm yourselves!" exclaimed the arch-mage, in a commanding voice, which nevertheless did little to stem the riot. "Barrier!" he added, blocking off the exits. "I said silence! Return to your seats! The priestesses will ensure that everyone here is clear of blight before a single person is allowed to leave."

"Purify!" exclaimed one of the priestesses, targetting Katie's restrained corpse, successfully burning away the black substance and killing the husk before it rose. So, it hadn't been a complete lie; she really was infected.

The six high priestesses worked together to purify the room, while everyone, the leaders included, remained in their seats. I noted that Katie had used her mysterious skill to erase the shackles and pet collar just before her death, but hadn't done anything to the chair or ropes. Did her ability have some limit? Was she just collecting items that she thought would be useful?

Still, things could have been worse. With the arch-priestess dead, and none of the high-priestesses having the skills required to replace her, had the blight escaped the confines of this room, the consequences could have been dire.

The town emergency bells started to ring, and I slammed my stupid head into the seat in front of me. Where had they captured her? How many people had she infected on the way while being brought here? It didn't need to escape this room; it had been outside to start with!

I saw the faces of the town leaders pale; they knew what the bells meant. The high-priestesses were on their knees, panting. They'd barely managed this one room. How could they purify the whole town? Our settlement was doomed, and would be lost to the blight.

The arch-mage teleported right in front of the chair and slammed Katie's body so hard that it burst, screaming in anger, and completely ignoring the blood he'd just covered himself with.

"I think this answers the nature of Katie," he said, which I felt was rather unfair. She warned them about the blight the moment she woke up. They were the ones who kept her unconscious. "All priestesses capable of casting purify, move to the side room. I will teleport around the town and rescue as many citizens as your remaining mana will permit, then I will move our group outside and destroy the town."

So, this is how our civilization ends. With how the priestesses already looked, maybe we could save another ten? Twenty if we're lucky. There were almost forty people here. Sixty people out of thousands, at the most. And what was to say the blight hadn't already escaped the confines of the town?

If I needed more evidence as to how doomed we were, I had only to look at the other two caste leaders. They weren't, as might be expected, demanding that the arch-mage rescue their own families and senior subordinates. Nor was anyone trying to assign blame. Everyone was just standing around quietly, looking lost.

In fact, the arch-mage's choices were remarkably pragmatic. Rather than focusing on his own mages, he mostly brought in casteless labourers, as well as many children. Some of the later rescuees were in bad condition, already oozing black, blighted fluids from sores on their bodies, and the poor priestesses struggled to purify them without letting the infection spread. The sight of a small child, crying about her mummy biting her and asking what she'd done to be such a bad girl to deserve that, was heartbreaking.

Once they'd squeezed out every last drop of mana their bodies possessed, which was thankfully more than I'd expected when the arch-mage brought back a batch of mana potions from one of his trips, he brought us all outside of the town.

I could immediately see that the closest copse of crystal trees were infected, veins of red and purple running through their branches. The arch-mage clicked in annoyance, but didn't seem surprised, and brought us all several more hops, until we ended up in a mining tunnel. That explained the casteless labourers; he must have expected things to have spread already, and was intending to settle in a mine. We'd need miners to expand it and make the entrance defensible. Along with the children, it was obvious he was planning for the future, and not just seeking to eke out a few more years of our own lives.

He didn't rest, searching for any uninfected both inside and outside the town, and successfully rescuing a few dozen more. And so our town of thousands had been reduced to a group of little more than a hundred, all because of a single human who had approached us peacefully and didn't even mean us harm.

A human who was now an irreconcilable enemy to four of our five leaders, with the only one prepared to defend her already dead. One glance at the face of the arch-mage was enough to know he wasn't going to leave the matter alone. After all the effort he'd put in to saving our race, would he now risk destroying it utterly?