Efrain deigned to sit down on a rock, the cold of the morning seeping through his clothes and undead status. He made a motion as if to stretch, while he watched the man’s eyes. They were playing a game, the two of them, to see who could secure what from whom.

“Like I said, there’s a road, of a kind,” Efrain said, waving his hand to the forest around them, “It’s one of those you can’t use unless you understand magic, and the land you’re within.”

“Well, obviously, I have little experience with magic,” said the man, sitting down on a rock opposite.

The sun was beginning to rise, its orange and cream rays stretching over the tips of the trees to outline the rocks. Efrain thought that, in the light, Naia seemed younger then his first impressions.

“I suppose you could say it’s gated behind knowledge, but I can show you the way. It’ll allow you to cut straight through the woods. Less time, and exposure than the cliffs to the east.”

Innie at this point was giving him a particularly angry look. She knew exactly what he was referencing, and was clearly not pleased with the idea.

“Sounds convenient. What’s the price?”

Efrain chuckled. The man wasn’t naive, that much was clear.

“From me? Nothing, really. I have as much of a desire to be out of these lands as you do, I suspect. But…”

“Let me guess, the road has a toll of some kind.”

“Precisely. When dealing with magic, there’s usually an exchange of one nature or another.”

“What, then?”

“First, courtesy and respect. The beings and maintain and walk such roads would not appreciate you waving swords or fire around.”

“My men will follow my orders,” he said.

“And the paladins?” Efrain said, pointedly.

“I can wrestle them under control, for a time.”

Efrain was unconvinced, but then again, they hadn’t attacked him yet, so he supposed that he could trust the man, at least partially.

“Well, then, there’s only one more piece. Well, two, technically, but the second we have no control over.”

Naia raised one eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.

“How are your soldiers?” Efrain said, “in terms of injuries, I mean.”

“A handful of serious ones, most will heal with time and treatment, more-or-less,” he said, his brow furrowing.

“And the dead?”

“Only two. One was the man who was dragged out into the snow, the other caught an unfortunate blow to the neck.”

Efrain mused as to whether two would be enough for such a large group. Mayhaps, for the usage of the green road, but that would be contingent on the mood of the ‘manager’, as it were.

“Then that will be enough, hopefully.”

“What exactly do you want with dead men, Efrain?”

“It’s not what I want, commander Naia. It’s what they want,” he said, pointing towards the depths of the trees, “what you should be considering is how much a direct route would be worth to you. There are risks, but I’d argue no more than going through the pass.”

Naia tapped his fingers on his makeshift seat. He wanted this path, Efrain wasn’t entirely sure why, perhaps he wanted to get the one’s whose wounds weren’t ‘more-or-less’ healing to safety, or perhaps he suspected there was a threat on their heels. Efrain wanted to make a point, and a warning to the man about thinking him a convenient tool. Finally, his fingers topped, and he looked up at Efrain.

“So, what do we have to do?”

“You aren’t going to like it,” Efrain said, smiling his eternal grin.

A temporary tent had been set up to address the needs of the wounded from the battle. Efrain ducked in to see rows of makeshift beds, being tended to one of those curious medics with a ribbon of crimson cloth. He wondered where such an innovation had come from, and whether they were in use for long. There were more wounded than he’d initially thought, most relatively minor. A few, however, were clearly closer to Efrain’s existence than the other men.

“Commander, another one passed during the morning,” the young man said, pointing toward a body covered with a pale sheet behind a separate partition. Naia drew it back, showing a dark skinned man, eyes closed. Blood had splattered up his neck, the veins distended due to pain or stress.

“Weituan,” Naia sighed, “what a pity, he was quite a promising combatant.”

“Must’ve caught a bad blow,” Efrain said, “but, if it’s any comfort, he can continue serving in death.”

“Excuse me, sir… er, commander, who is this?” the boy asked.

“He’s a guest,” Naia said, as Efrain peeled back the cover to examine the gashes that ran across the man’s torso. They were black with coagulated blood, the skin red and inflammed.

They don’t run that deep, he thought, boy didn’t keep the wounds clean.

Deciding that maybe it wasn’t his place to criticize and it served him all the same, Efrain replaced the sheets.

“Tell me, commander, how much would it be tolerated if you were to leave the bodies here, to be consumed by bird and beast?”

The man cocked his head, eyes flickering as he processed the sentiment.

“That depends on the solider. Some come from places where it is a practice to leave one’s dead to the whim of nature.”

“Can you deal with the backlash that might result?”

“I don’t understand what you’re implying.”

“These bodies,” Efrain said, pointing to the other two, “are our passage. If you can bear to part with them, that is.”

The medic was looking back and forth between the two, quite confused at the exchange, while Naia gripped his chin and looked hard at the bodies.

“Would it be possible to retrieve some small part of them, to return to their families? A scrap of bone, perhaps.”

“I can’t guarantee anything,” Efrain said.

A couple of the soldiers moaned in pain, prompting the medic to return to their side. Efrain and Naia exited the tent, to thinly veiled stares from the rest of the men outside.

“I want to know what exactly you intend. I’m not going to give the bodies of my men up without good reason.”

“I understand your reluctance, but you’re going to have to trust me, commander. Suffice it to say, we can use the bodies of the dead to barter passage on the green road, but we will have to leave the bodies in the woods with its curators. Whether or not we’ll be able to recover a piece for posterity… well, I can try, but that’s all I can do.”

The man, to Efrian’s surprise, seemed to be taking this fairly well, all things considered. He’d expected more of a screaming response to the offer.

“What guarantees can you offer that we’ll be safe on this ‘green road’?”

“Oh, you’ll be completely safe, barring a very surprising outcome. Those who maintain it are not of a war-like disposition, though they can and will take offence if you do anything to harm them. If we don’t secure passage, then the road will remain closed to us and we’re back to square one.”

“…I’ll consider it, and give you an answer soon,” Naia said, before ducking back into the tent.

Efrain walked some ways away, ensuring that he wouldn’t be overheard by any errant soldiers, and looked down at Innie.

“Well? I’m waiting for the inevitable ‘this is a bad idea’.”

Innie stared up at him, her amber eyes administering brutal admonishment.

“You’re taking them to see the pourvaja of these woods? Oh, I can’t imagine the ways that this can go wrong, Efrain.”

“I’m well aware of the risks, Innie. If those idiots draw a weapon in the woods, we can just piss off and claim we don’t know them.”

“You’re banking on a lot of mercy from a pourvaja.”

Efrain shrugged.

“In my experience, they tend to be reasonable enough.”

“You have no experience with them. You mean, ‘what you’ve read’. Patient does not necessarily mean ‘reasonable’, Efrain,” Innie said, unimpressed.

“Well, what do you think?” he said, “you’ve dealt with the creature before, no? They’re the one that rules these woods.”

“Maybe three bodies will be enough, assuming they’re in a good mood,” she said, every word begrudged.

“Well, then I have the voice of experience on my side, then.”

“That’s not what I-“

“And besides, the poruvaja will like me. How could it not? I’m dead.”

“Why are you helping them?”

“I suppose, I’m curious. Especially after seeing those children. More curious than I’ve been in a long time.”

“And so you’re going to take them into the heart of the forest and potentially get them dismembered.”

Efrain shrugged.

“Dismembered is a bit much. Betting odds says that they’ll let the soldiers go, even if they refuse.”

“You’re making a lot of assumptions, Efrain.”

“You know, you can always leave. Go back to your woods. Why are you sticking with me?”

“Because I’m worried about you.”

Before Efrain could think of an adequate response to that, he heard footsteps behind him. The commander was standing there, an alarming splatter of red across his leather jerkin. He sighed as he cleaned his hand with a cloth, which Efrain was fairly certain would never be remotely white again.

“Another one passed. Started coughing up blood, didn’t last long,” he said with a sigh.

“Internal injury. Probably to the lungs,” Efrain summarily concluded.

The man tossed the saturated cloth away onto the ground.

“Have you come to a decision?”

“How much time do you think it’ll save us, to go your way?” he said, and Efrain knew he had him.

“The mountain passes will take two to three days, this will take less than one.”

“And the price is the bodies.”

Efrain nodded, as the man mused over this life line.

“There’s another man on the verge of death. If we can get him to the village, we might be able to get a proper doctor. Is there anything else I should know?”

Efrain considered, then shook his head.

“Keep your men in line, and you can leave the specifics to me,” he said.

“I accept your offer, as reluctant as I may be about its ‘specifics’. Now, where are we going?”

Efrain kept his voice as carefully neutral as possible. It would be rather untoward to chuckle at whatever small victory he’d achieved.

“Out to the heart of the wood, about four hours west. Keep the swords in your sheaths, and, unless you really want to become fertilizer, no fire. Let me do the talking, and, at worst, we just come back the way we came.”

“Why?” Naia said, as he glanced out to the wavering boughs, “What’s out there?”

Efrain took stock of the reaction, seeing the uncertainty on the man’s face.

“The forest gods.”