They left Manorest behind them and spent the next few days crossing the wastes, passing through the few small villages that clung to the patches of moss and bare earth out here. No one had recently been visited by the people Tala's group sought, but they all knew of them. Several of those they talked to had a dull violet glow behind their eyes.

They managed to trade the fresh water and remaining goods for a few sums of nitre, though far less than they had hoped. It seemed the fine white powder was gradually becoming more difficult to make as the manure from which it was produced diminished, the animals necessary for production dying out. There were other ways to make it, and the city had its own soils prepped to produce the explosive, but they would never produce enough to keep up with demand. It made Tala worry.

They found the objects of their search on the early afternoon of the fourth day, a blur on the horizon that moved slowly towards them. A tree line ran in parallel with their direction, an almost perfectly straight divide between dry, cracking earth and grasping, violet-tinged foliage.

"They can run into the trees at the first sign of trouble," said Hurstrom, shielding his eyes from the sun with his hand.

There were 5 of them, a man, a woman, and...

Tala's gasped in shock. The other three silhouettes, now drawn closer, were nothing but children. The oldest could have been no more than 11 suns, and the youngest barely an infant.

Tala had her group approach slowly, hands held out from their sides and away from their weapons to show they meant no harm. When they were a few hundred metres away Tala made the others stop and she went ahead alone, leaving her rifle and knives behind.[1]

The man and woman both had sunken features, looking only a few meals from death. The children were hardly in better shape. The youngest appeared especially ailing, staring out into space without reacting to anything happening around her. They drew to a stop as Tala approached.

Behind them a cart was being dragged by a grakar. Tala had never seen anything like it. The beast was scrawny and more than half-starved, but its sharp teeth still glinted in the sun. Oddly, its chequered eyes were half-closed and there were strange, long pins of rusty metal driven into the sides of the eye sockets. The cart was fixed to the animal at the haunches, a makeshift but sturdy looking harness held with nasty-looking hooks that bit deep into its grey-green flesh. The skin around the hooks was wet with fluid that leaked from the wounds.

It was the first time Tala had felt sorry for one of the creatures.

"How did you do that?" Tala asked, dumbstruck, all other questions forgotten for a moment.

The sickly group said nothing, dirt-stained faces staring blankly at her.

"Who are you?" she said, shaken by such empty expressions.

"Will you buy?" said the man suddenly.

He turned around without prompting and stepped over to the cart, slinging back the tarred canvas that covered it to reveal a plethora of leaves and vegetables piled between and atop cured meats and more mysterious, unidentifiable materials. Yanotake mushrooms were scattered throughout, glowing vivid blue within the darkened folds and gaps in the mess.

"You sell this?" Tala asked, then felt foolish for doing so.

The man did not reply.

The woman had come over to stand by him, the children close behind. They didn't seem curious; it was more as if the only place they had to be was now here instead of there.

"Will you buy?" said the man again.

What had happened to these people? She had never seen such dead expressions on anyone living, and they were definitely living. There was not a trace of violet in any of their eyes. Could this be an effect of the red water she had yet to see?

A sudden sigh broke her thoughts.

The woman was looking up at the sky, hands outspread towards the sun.

"Not buying," she said, sadly.

The man began pulling the canvas back over the cart. The children, previously motionless, shuffled onwards in the direction they had been heading as the man slapped the hinds of the grakar. It creaked into motion.

“No, stop,” said Tala.

The group stopped, the cart rolling to a halt several seconds after the rest. The man turned once more to face her.

“Will you buy?”

This time his voice carried a hint of impatience, the first sign of emotion he had given.

“Yes, yes, I will buy. We need panax or nitre, and much more. What do you have?”

Tala was seeking more to delay the group rather than make a trade at this point, but it was true. They still needed more than the goods they had stocked in Manorest or the villages beyond.

The canvas was once more removed, and the eldest of the children clambered up onto the cart. He carelessly pushed aside the upper-most goods as he searched, crushing several bushels of corn beneath what appeared to be scrap metal. The mother tutted but made no move to stop him.

At least the boy moved with something like vitality, with less of the dull movements that had typified the strange group up to this point. After several minutes he stood back up, drawing with him a heavy-looking clay vase topped by a wooden stopper. The roughened surface of it was coated in the fine white powder the city sought, suggesting both its contents and a carelessness when it had been filled.

“That’s all nitre?” asked Tala. If the container was as heavy as it looked, they were going to be getting more of the stuff than she had dreamt since Manorest.

The boy nodded, clambering down off the cart and dragging the vase with him.

“How much do you want?” asked Tala when the traders made no other action.

“What can you trade?” replied the woman.

Tala had nothing with her.

“Just… wait, ok? I shall bring my friends and we can set a price. I have nothing on me right now.”

Tala didn’t wait for a response after she spoke, but turned and let out a piercing whistle towards her group, stood watching where she had left them.

The whistle must have disturbed the grakar. Tala was startled as a huge damp breath blew against her side and a rumbling growl sent deep vibrations through her body. She stepped quickly away as the creature began shifting, slowly at first but gradually more wildly. Its claws dug deep grooves into the dirt.

The woman’s eyes widened and she held a finger to pursed lips whilst looking at Tala, and the boy who had collected the nitre jumped back onto the cart and began rooting once more through the cluttered pile. The cart was rocking from side to side now, sending goods spilling over the side onto the ground. The hot blasts of breath and growls were joined by a curious yipping, high pitched whines of confusion and irritation coming from the bound creature.

Tala was starting to contemplate running for her weapons when the boy jumped back down from the cart and ran around to the beast, a bundle of something held close to his chest. Small loose fragments fell from his grasp as he dived in front of the animal.

Tala let out a gasp as the grakar opened its jaws wide, threads of saliva dripping from upper to lower teeth as razor-like molars glinted in the light. The boy was sure to be eaten, and she could hardly keep herself from diving forward in futile aid.

But the boy was not consumed. He tossed whatever it was he held in his arms into the open maw of the beast, the mass of it landing onto a wide tongue within a gaping mouth that snapped shut the same instant. The grakar settled down swiftly, chewing loudly at its feed.

Tala looked down at the trail that had fallen from the boy’s arms as he ran, at the things that somehow glowed even in the bright noonday light, scattered blue leaves lying beside the jaws of the now sleeping animal. They rolled gently in the breeze.

Vivinder.

Tala was barely fast enough to catch Karal as he came sprinting past, grabbing him by the arm and swinging him away with his own momentum. Her shoulder was wrenched in its socket when she did so and blossomed in a pain she ignored.

“What the hells are you doing?” she said through gritted teeth, glaring down at where Karal had crashed onto the dirt.

“What am I doing? Me?” yelled Karal.

He pushed himself to his feet, rage flashing in his eyes. His edged weapon was held tightly in his hands.

“They have vivinder. Look at it!”

Karal swept his hands around as he spoke. The rest of the group, arriving quickly on his heels, stared at the leaves in silence.

“You will buy?” said the man.

It was as if the family of traders, if family they were, had not noticed anything that had just happened, even though Karal had been clearly leaping for the boy. Their blank stares had not altered, except now their attention was focused on him, not Tala.

“You’re trying to sell it to me!?” Karal sounded shocked and almost amused.

"What do you have to trade?" continued the man, unfazed.

Karal turned to Tala.

“It’s like they want to die,” he said, waving his weapon in slow sweeping motions towards the traders. "We can't allow them to carry that poison to the villages."

Tala glanced over at the traders, who remained stood there as if uncomprehending, insensible to the threat in front of them.

"They have children with them," she said.

"And?" Karal spat at the ground; Tala could tell he was girding himself for action. "We take them back with us. Or we finish them off too. It hardly makes a difference if we do it or the wastes do."

Hurstrom gave a look of shock, but to Tala's surprise it was Rakthi who spoke next, voice cool and thoughtful.

"There's something about their eyes. Not violet..." she added hurriedly at the reaction from the others, "...but something... dead about them."

Rakthi turned to Tala.

"Karal may be right," Rakthi said. "There's something off about these people. Why don't they do something?"

Rakthi jumped as the woman trader released another deep sigh towards the sky.

"Not buying," said the woman.

The same process Tala had seen previously repeated itself, with the man returning the canvas cover and slapping the hinds of the soporific grakar, urging it into motion as they resumed their slow pace across the waste.

"Stop," cried Tala again. "We will buy the nitre. What can we trade for it?"

The vase had been returned to the cart at some point. This time only the man stopped, the cart and others continuing on.

The man's eyes ran slowly over Tala and the others as the cart pulled further away, and then he nodded towards the crossbow hanging from Hurstroms belt. It was one of those they had taken from the bandits several days before.

"This?" said Hurstrom, shifting the weight of the weapon fully into his hands. He shrugged. "I guess we can trade this. We took plenty of them, after all."

Hurstrom unclipped the bow and took a step towards the man. Before he could make it, however, Karal was past him and crashing into the man shoulder-first, knocking him to the ground. The club arced through the air, swung over Karal's shoulder and flying towards the man's head with lethal force.

There was a clang of steel on steel as Karal's weapon connected with the edge of Rial's sword.

Tala hadn't seen Rial move. One second he was where he had been the entire time, standing on the edge of the group watching, the next he was stood over the fallen man, sword held out sideways to block the force of Karal's swing.

Tala could see the muscles in Karal's arms strain to force the sword downwards but Rial held it firm with both hands, one leg bent in front and one behind to afford greater balance. The man on the floor beneath lay there, staring unblinking up at the sky.

Karal's eyes bulged in fury as he stared at his obstructer. His face was flushed with rage, breathing ragged and short.

"What are you doing?" he snarled, drawing his club back towards him. "It means nothing if this man dies. Nothing. But if he lives..."

Rial did not withdraw the sword, but switched the edge downwards with that the point was held directly towards Karal.

"He has done nothing to you," said Rial, watching Karal carefully for sudden movements.

"Nothing? Nothing? He peddles death, and everybody's buying. We have to stop him."

"Why are you so... so passionate about this, Karal? We can destroy his stock, here and now, if that's what you want, but first I need to know why. Don't move..."

Rial's last comment was directed to the sprawled man beneath, who was slowly pushing himself up. The point of Rial's sword swung downwards to the trader's throat for a second, then back up towards Karal.

The trader lay back down in the dirt, same impassive look on his face.

Tala looked out towards the cart, which had come to a slow halt some distance away. The other traders had turned back and were watching events without emotion.

"It... destroys everyone who touches it. Vivinder," Karal said. His bludgeon hung at his side, now. "They think it brings people back from the red death, but they're wrong. The people that come back are... they're not the people you once knew. They may seem so, at first, but they'll do anything for the leaf; anything. They'll sell their own children for it."

Tala saw Rial's sword waver, an almost imperceptible tremor that ran down the blade.

"And then..." continued Karal, "...then they become like this."

He waved his club in the direction of the fallen man.

"No better than the dead. Stumbling around with no care for themselves or others. They shuffle around repeating the same motions they did in life, but without any concern for what happens to them. And then the world kills them."

There was a silence as the others took this all in.

"The death of the id and the ego..." said Rial, under his breath.

Tala barely heard it. Rial had said the last part to himself, and she wondered what it meant. It sounded like one of those things that concerned his 'friend.'

"This is what happens if you continue to take vivinder?" Rial asked, looking over to Tala and the others.

Tala shrugged.

"Karal's seen more of its effects than any of us," she replied. "We only know the stories, or its early effects. Never seen someone who has a constant supply."

This was true. There had never been a steady enough supply of the leaf around the city for such long-term effects to become apparent.

Rial stood straight and sheathed his sword, then reached down and helped the trader up by the arm.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Name?" the man's voice was a far-away whisper, a sigh. "I... My name..."

The man's faced crumpled in concentration.

"My name... Devan. I am Devan."

A smile flickered over Devan's mouth and disappeared.

"Will you buy?" Devan said, eyes falling dull again.

"You khaf!"

Karal was all rage again. He lunged at the man, only to be blocked at the last second by a knock from Rial that sent him wide of Devan. This time, however, he did not fall but came swinging round in attack.

Something glinted in Karal's hands. Tala looked down in surprise to see the razor-edged club lying on the floor. In Karal's hand now was a dagger, serrated edges longing for something to tear at.

The dagger flashed out at Devan, turned away at the last second by Rial's fists smashing down on Karal's forearm. It fell from Karal's grasp, but he managed to close his fist around it once more and span away, coming to a stop in a predatory crouch a few feet back.

Karal didn't give Rial any more time, however. He was instantly springing from his crouch into a forward leap directly at Devan, knife outstretched and aimed squarely for the man's throat. Rial barely drew his sword in time, blade crashing into the dagger almost too late and sending it arcing into the sky overhead to land in the dirt ahead.

Karal was already rolling, tucking down to pass Devan whilst at the same time kicking out one leg just so, a scorpion strike to the backside of the man's knees that sent him sprawling. Karal was up in a flash, dagger back in his hands, crouched on one knee besides the prostrate trader.

All this had happened in a few seconds. Tala and the others had not had time to react, and now there was no way Rial would be able to block Karal's next dagger thrust.

Devan was face down in the dirt with his head by Karal's feet, feebly moving his palms across the ground. Karal smashed a fist into the back of the man's head, and the movement ceased.

Rial stood only a few steps away, sword held to his side with point facing back and down at the ground, ready for a quick lunge. Even with his speed though, Tala knew, he would not be fast enough to stop Karal killing the man.

"Karal!" barked Hurstrom, "We don't need to rush this! We can talk about it for as long as we need."

"Talk? Talk!" There was an edge to Karal's voice Talahad never heard before; something desperate, something scared. "We have to stop this NOW!"

"We do, Karal, but with everyone's agreement," said Rakthi, her voice kept slow and soothing through strength of will.

"Everyone? He's not even one of us! Who is this guy?" Karal waved his knife towards Rial for a second. "We know nothing about him! And now he's trying to protect vivinder dealers!"

Tala was worried by Rakthi's response, a thoughtful pause of contemplation rather than resistance and resolve. She would remember that.

"Karal! Put the knife down NOW!" shouted Tala.

Karal looked from Tala and the others back to Rial, knife making small circles in the air as his internal fear and panic built.

"I... I..."

Tala breathed a sigh of relief. Karal was clearly coming to his senses. Her grip on her own knives slackened.

Which meant she was too late to do anything when, expression calm and voice level, Karal spoke again.

"I have to do this."

The dagger stabbed down at the same time as Rial's blade flew towards Karal's throat.

[1] She would have taken them had she been able to hide them with her jacket, but in this heat wearing a jacket would have been suspicious.