“Protection from harm, huh.” Dia, Nero and Risti squatted around a Moonlit baby, their hands offering cookies and other little snacks to the happy little fellow as they talked. It was hard to find a space to discuss things related to the Eternal Bulwark — the name of this secretive organisation they now belonged to — but the problem had been handily solved by appropriating a Moon baby.

“Goo. Gah!”

“D’aww, so cute. Want more?” Risti asked.

Nero was still a bit out of sorts, but he had largely recovered after the meeting yesterday. Sadly, no one could identify the Coloured God that had chaired this meeting, partially due to how everyone’ voices sounded the same. It definitely didn’t help that they all had a detached way of speaking, which meant that Dia didn’t really feel that valued despite the many inferences she had made from their actions.

Yawning again, she pulled out a small chocolate chip cookie and waved it in front of the Moonlit toddler, who immediately fixated on it. Dia still wasn’t sure why the Moons were allowing little kids to roam the streets of Licencia and other cities, but it was a good chance to have fun with children who didn’t have much in the way of needs.

Dia let out a small sigh as the toddler squealed happily, her mind racing. “Shouldn’t they give us more of an introduction as to what the Eternal Bulwark does? We also need more rewards and resources too!”

“Organisation. Close-knit. Top-down.” Nero hugged himself.

“…Did something change in him again?”

“He’s now in the recovery phase. Most of his mental resources are dedicated to the recovery of his mind. The burden of plucking knowledge out and giving it to you guys was borne by him, so he had to pay the price for it, that’s all.” Risti pondered for a few seconds. “We’ll get him some alcohol later. I think Schwarz’s brews are likely to result in a minor miracle or something.”

Nero looked at Risti. “Sorry. Out of it.”

“Don’t worry, we can see it very vividly.” Risti looked around. “Still, when’s the count going to show up? We’ve fed the little guy a lot of food already, and he doesn’t look that well.”

“Let’s feed another toddler instead,” Dia suggested, before shifting aside. “Alright, little guy, run along!”

The Moonlit toddler looked up at the three of them and then waved goodbye. It was a shame that they couldn’t quite speak yet — those that had gained the ability to speak were swiftly whisked away to be raised at wherever the Moonlit Ones called home — but they already knew the basics of communication.

Rubbing the little fellow’s head, Dia sent him off and looked around the park. Count Nightfall had sent a message about wanting to meet up, and the venue was around the area.

“Ah, he just came.” Risti motioned at the count, who was busy luring a hungry Moonlit baby with some food like bad people. “And that looks very shady.”

“Right?” Dia added. “Like luring a baby using food or something. How unethical. Does he not know that feeding babies too much food is bad for their health? Sure, we don’t know why they’re here, or whether we’re using the same metrics for ‘too much food’, but luring those little ones like this is a bit too degrading.”

“Agreed. We at least had the decency to squat down around the little guy and feed him food slowly. This idiot is just setting the stage up for the toddler to trip over his feet or something.”

The two sighed.

Nero, who was still recovering from the trauma that giving out two immaterial quotas apparently foisted onto him, said nothing.

“You guys are early,” Nightfall noted.

“No, you’re just late,” Risti replied. “We finished half our stock feeding a Moonlit baby waiting for you. What caused the hold-up?”

“Another bunch of kidnappings. We caught the suspect in the act, and I had to intervene to nab that asshole. For some reason, there was a bi-folder trying to carry out some odd ritual spell. Not affiliated to the gods or anything; it was a life-siphoning ritual that was fake to begin with.”

“A fake life-siphoning ritual?”

“Yeah. Some madman released a bunch of ritual spell instructions into the county a few days ago, and we’ve been trying to deal with the fallout. Most of these ritual spells seem to point at that someone, and…never mind. It’s just a pain in the posterior, if nothing else.” Nightfall let out a heavy sigh. “If I find that punk, I’ll murder him three times over, and then display his entrails or something. We’ve been running ourselves ragged, since there’s a bunch of insecure fellows who think using fellow citizens as fuel for lifeforce will make them one-folders.”

“…The culprit was trying to trick a bunch of idiots, then,” Dia evaluated.

“And it’s working,” Nightfall replied. “It’s clear that everyone’s increasingly ragged over chasing down the insane selfish idiots in my county, and I didn’t even know that these people actually had these sides to them.”

“How bad are we talking about here?” Risti asked.

“Five mana-user wannabes so far. The number’s growing, though. Over thirty missing people cases have been brought to my attention in the past week, and it just keeps getting better.” Nightfall folded his arms. “Thousands of leaflets that carry details about this fake ritual have been discovered, and they’re spreading quickly.”

“…That’s bad.” Risti folded her arms. “It’s going to make people think that everyone else is doing the same. And since the number of people in this city is limited, they’ll all rush to do the damn thing.”

“Which accounts for the surging number of grisly murders. Moons.” Nightfall held his head. “This is insane.”

“You won’t call us to settle this issue, right?” Dia asked.

“…I’ll think about it,” Nightfall replied. “Let’s not talk about my troubles for now, though. Risti, can the two of us get an actual introduction and the rules relating to the Eternal Bulwark? The three on the podium didn’t exactly tell us much.”

“To be fair, the three you talk about are ancient entities. I don’t think they’ll going to be fussed with talking about rules and regulations,” Risti pointed out.

“Yeah, I know. So I’m asking you. And Nero.” Nightfall folded his arms. “We’re part of a secret organisation, right? There has to be a reward system for doing our job, and new members usually have some gear to start them off with. Where are they?”

“Well, there’s a giant dome around the Istrel Sovereignty,” Risti replied. “Also, there’s a local branch in the Lustre Dukedom, set up by yours truly.”

Dia decided not to ask why the local branch of the Eternal Bulwark was set in Lustre and directed her attention to higher pursuits instead. “Was everyone present last night? It seems like there’s too few people.”

“That’s all we have,” Risti affirmed. “No one can get out of a meeting, even if they’re in the toilet or something. So that’s really all we have here.”

“…Really?” Nightfall asked.

“Why would I lie do you?” Risti replied. “Anyway, it’s just the trend of the times, in my opinion. And it’s been quite a long time since many of the previous Watchers were actually activated. Most of them probably forgot about being part of the Eternal Bulwark after a while, and then passed away without a successor.”

“Bummer.”

“On the bright side, the Coloured Gods, the Moons and the Dark are more likely to not kill us,” said Risti. “And besides, even if we don’t know about Limbo, we would still have intervened anyway. You two are just now aware of the dangers Limbo truly poses, and how the world reacts to it.”

Dia paused. “So do we get any training to take enemies from Limbo out?”

“How do you kill someone?” Risti asked.

“I stab them?” Dia replied.

“Yeah, that’s essentially how you kill anyone who’s bearing too much entropy to the point of turning into monsters.” Risti looked at the small toddler that was following behind Count Nightfall, and then gave the little Moonlit fellow a biscuit. “Not that different from normal people, in other words. They just happen to be a bit tougher, madder and more deadly, that’s all. They’re as human as you and me.”

“Reassuring, I suppose.”

“Yeah. Besides, don’t forget that any true incursions by Limbo would be met with lethal force from the world itself. The Coloured Gods, the Moons, whatever. They’ll all send down enough lightning to create a grave to bury the poor fellow in, assuming he or she still has a body.” Risti yawned. “If you see lightning, just back away real fast. They’ll handle it instead.”

She paused. “Right, I do need to tell you guys about the rules and everything. I hope you guys remembered what I said not too long ago, regarding secrecy and the knowledge that can’t leak out. Essentially, don’t be an idiot and definitely don’t go telling other people about Limbo unless you’re prepared to pull them in and make them suffer.”

“Suffer…”

“Yeah. People like us, we teeter on the edges of madness.” Risti shook her head. “You two just got really unlucky about it…come on. Let’s go crash at your place, Nightfall. I’ll explain the tenets of the Eternal Bulwark there.”