***Tirnanog, The Mycelium***

***Charmaine Pinault***

Charm was torn between excitement and impotent childish rage at the appearance of these strangers. On one hand, they were the most exciting thing to happen in her entire life. People from beyond the endless fog! What fantastic stories might they be able to tell?

On the other, they had killed the pretty violet shroomhead she had fancied as a favourite pet for so long – if one she could only look at from afar. The violet shroom had been unique and so the loss irked her to no end.

The strangers meanwhile looked taken aback at her accusation.

Despite their evident confusion about Charm’s reaction, the whole situation also felt a little intimidating because these people were equipped with very imposing gear. Their armour looked worn and each of the newcomers carried more weapons than she had seen on the village guards so far.

Charm suddenly no longer felt as confident as before. She was alone, facing six adults she didn't know and who could do anything to her. With their expressions hidden behind their helmets and their entire focus on her, it felt like they were judging her. It was too much even for her overblown confidence. Her father was the strongest person in the whole world and Charm was sure he would have no problem dealing with these people, but he wasn’t here at the moment.

She was also suddenly very conscious of the larva still wriggling in her hand, which made her look childish, and Charm didn't want to look childish in front of strangers.

“Killed who?” The busty woman with the wings asked before taking off her helmet, revealing a cute, almost bewitching face. Beneath her helmet, she didn’t look terrifying at all, so some of Charm’s confidence returned.

“You killed the pretty violet shroomhead,” Charm repeated her accusation. “And all the others… the villagers will be mad once they find out.”

“Oh, deary, you know that the infected can’t be saved once their condition has gotten this far?” The woman spoke with a soft, compassionate voice. “The mycelium eats their brains.”

“Are you sure you should tell that to a child?” the lighter-armoured woman of the group interrupted.

“I know that!” Charm shot back, feeling irritated at what she perceived as condescending treatment. She was big enough not to be coddled! “I was just feeding them so I could look at the pretty ones.”

The beautiful woman frowned, apparently put out by Charm’s explanation. “These aren’t some animals to play with, deary. And I wouldn't exactly think of them as... pretty.”

“Can anyone explain to me why these people allow a child to be out here?” the lightly armoured woman inserted herself once more into the conversation. “There has to be something wrong in their heads.”

The others ignored her and instead waited for Charm to speak.

The girl was about to reply with a sermon about colours and how precious they were to admire in this endless, boring, foggy world when they were interrupted.

“What do we have here?” a woman's voice asked, a voice Charm knew all too well.

It was Annika.

Charmaine reacted quickly and decisively, throwing her last remaining larva over the balustrade to get rid of the evidence. Now that she wasn't the centre of attention, she moved without a second thought.

Then she turned to face the newcomers with her hands behind her back and the most innocent expression she could muster.

The ‘Quadruplets’ were not related at all, unlike their nickname implied. One man and three women were standing just a few metres away, fully geared for combat.

But despite being adults, they were the youngest villagers aside from Charm. Their shared age had caused them to form a little clique and consequently their tendency to do everything together had earned them their nickname.

Cruz, the only guy among them was their de facto leader – though Charm assumed it was only because the women allowed it. Despite his age, he wasn't the brightest and Charm wasn't naive enough not to notice that the women were only flocking around him because they were hoping for a chance to partner with him at some point.

To partner with anyone, in fact. It wasn't like the village offered a lot of choices. Charm didn't understand it nonetheless. Picking Cruz was like taking last month's boiled leftovers and dipping a woodlarva into it before taking a hefty bite. She had said so on multiple occasions with all the childish honesty a girl her age could muster – which hadn't exactly endeared her to the group. It was just Charm’s luck for them to be on watch-duty when she decided to play with the shroomheads.

Luckily, the strangers provided a convenient distraction.

Cruz, the 'Quadruplets’ leader, pointed a finger at Charm. “We will deal with you later. Your father will be very displeased once he learns you are coming out here despite his order. But first, we will see to these strangers.”

One of the newcomers stepped forward. She was covered in full body armour which admittedly looked wickedly cool to the girl.

Among all the strangers, this woman and her partner were instilling an almost instinctive respect in Charm. The blue glow coming from the four eye-slits in their helmets had something otherworldly.

The mantle of spears on the woman’s back reminded Charm of a cape that kind of looked like the ones in the worn-out superhero comic her father had given her. To top it off, that helmet was stolen straight from the history illustration about Roman legionaries. Charm didn't know a lot about humanity's history, but the one book she read had given the impression that the legionaries were the top warriors of their time.

Their entire gear also looked like nothing she had ever seen in the village, ticking all the right boxes of adventure for Charm.

“We are messengers from Clan Aerie,” the woman began. “We have to deliver a message for Pin-”

“We don’t care about any messages, outsider! The major will deal with all of this after we arrest you,” Cruz interrupted and stepped forward, hitting the woman square in the face with all the power his strength-mutation gave him.

Charmaine expected the snapping of a spine, or the woman being sent flying.

But nothing of that sort happened.

Instead, the heavy ‘thud’ of a fist hitting a helmet could be heard and the woman took a few befuddled steps backwards, clearly more surprised by the attack than truly hurt.

Then things happened faster than Charm could comprehend.

One moment the two groups were still facing off each other. The next, the heroine’s partner stood in front of the Quadruplets, his spear in the finishing movement of an upwards swiping arc drawing a trail of blood behind it.

And then he blurred!

A fist hit the faceplate of a helmet, denting it inwards and sending Annika almost comically spinning down to the ground.

An arc of electricity connected the warrior and another Quadruplets, causing Bojana to scream, shudder and fall, no longer in control of her limbs as she twitched and flopped around like a fish on land.

A foot hit a knee with a resounding ‘crack’, baring white bone to the world and angling the limb in a direction it was not intended to go. Consequently, Megan also went down screaming.

A falling Cruz was sucker-punched, then grabbed and whirled around like a rag-doll. The warrior lifted him with ease, performing some move Charm couldn't process except for the fact that Cruz ended up above the man's head. The pose reminded Charm of when her father picked her up as a little kid. Though, he hadn't done so any more since Charm's mother died.

Once Charm's mind caught up with what was happening, Cruz’s entourage of women was on the ground and the warrior was holding a catatonic Cruz – sans a leg which still stood in its boot upright on the floor, previously severed by the warrior's first attack.

He had Cruz at the scruff of his neck and the belt, poised as if to throw him over the balustrade – to feed him to the shroomheads.

Given that the Quadruplets always displayed a thuggish demeanour and hadn’t the best of reputations in the community, Charmaine couldn’t care less. The girl was nonetheless frightened by the sudden explosion of unfiltered violence.

Then time caught up with the other strangers and they ganged up on the warrior. He was just in the process of hauling off to dispose of Cruz in the most demeaning way possible when they stopped him in the nick of time. They desperately clung to his arms and legs to prevent the fatal ‘coup de grace’.

Again, it wasn’t like Charm particularly cared about Cruz, but being eaten by a horde of shroomheads was a sad way to go. Poor Lesner's death came back vividly to Charm's mind at the thought of Cruz being thrown down the balustrade.

“Let me go!” the warrior screamed.

“Stop!” the busty woman shouted.

“He hit Astra!” came the justification for homicide.

“I am fine! No damage done, see? It didn't even hurt,” the warrior's partner tried to reassure.

“It's a matter of principle!” the warrior stated matter of factly, his utterly serious tone causing a shudder to run down Charm's spine.

“You can't just kill a villager when we are trying to get their leader's help!” one of the men argued.

“I can! We just tell them it was a tragic accident!” the warrior argued back, which sounded flimsy even to Charm.

“How would we explain this!” the warrior's partner asked, hanging from his arm with her full weight.

“I don't know... he tripped and the zombies got him... or something.” The man hesitated, his mind slowly catching up with his actions.

Charmaine Pinault couldn't tell why, but seeing these powerful people bickering in this manner caused something inside the girl to die. Adults just weren't supposed to behave... like this.

“If you don't put him down right now, there will be repercussions!” the busty one threatened.

“He really didn't hurt you?” the warrior's sole concern was for his partner.

“He did not!” the woman reassured.

The warrior took a few sweet moments to think, which felt entirely too long for Charm, given the situation. It wasn't that much of a moral conundrum!

“Fine, fine, I promise I won't kill him. I guess death is going a little too far if no true damage was done.”

“He has a reputation for throwing people,” one of the other men reminded the group.

“Promise you won't throw him!” the warrior's partner apparently saw the necessity to close some loophole in their argument.

The warrior let out a frustrated sigh. “I promise I won't throw him.”

The group slowly let go of the overeager warrior, who then brought Cruz down on his knee, folding him over sideways with a 'crunch' before rolling him off and onto his belly.

“Whoops! Sorry.”

“Magnus!”

“He will survive a few broken ribs,” he justified himself. “They will be a good reminder. The next few days he will think of his actions every time he draws breath.”

“You think cutting off a leg wasn't enough?” one of the men asked in a deadpan voice.

Charm began to consider whether it was safer with the shroomheads than with these people.

Just when she thought about sneaking away, the busty woman remembered that she was there.

“Oh, dear. I am so sorry you had to see this. Do you know why they attacked us?”

Charm looked at the woman, then at the Quadruplets, of which only Megan was left conscious. The guard was holding her knee and sobbing, while the rest were out cold. Or dead. Charm couldn't tell.

“They are village guards?” the girl tried questioningly, feeling like this was some trick question. “It's their job to deal with trespassing monsters...”

Then, after a moment of thought, Charm added, “... and people.” These strangers weren't monsters after all, though they behaved like ones.

“So it's normal to attack strangers who visit the town?” the woman asked.

“I can't remember anyone visiting the village,” Charm admitted helplessly. “Ever.” She supposed Cruz would have behaved with a little more restraint if they got regular visits from such powerful people.

“Right.” The woman bit her lower lips before she smiled at Charm. “Ah, where are my manners? I am Thalia and these are Mark, Astra, Magnus, Ginevra, and Thiago. We need to speak with your town's leader.”

Charm winced while she tried to memorize all the names. Offending these people felt like a bad idea. At least as long as her father wasn't around. “Are you sure about that? I am Charmaine by the way. The major won't be happy once she hears about... this.”

“There is nothing to be done about it, Charmaine. We have a job to do.”

Charm still wasn't convinced whether this was a good idea, but she led the strangers to the village square – after they had done a quick and dirty job of first aid for the Quadruplets. Now, they were carrying them as best as possible considering their injuries.

The village square was where the remaining villagers normally met for all sorts of reasons like trade, events, and announcements.

It was also right in the middle of the settlement, so the group didn't escape attention for long, but long enough to make it to the town hall. Soon, they were being followed by interested villagers and mere moments after their arrival at the square they were surrounded by more guards, experienced ones this time.

The door to the town hall flew open and Iria Vencer, the village's major stepped outside. “What happened? Who are you people?”

The woman who had been identified as Astra stepped forward, followed by Charm's sparkling eyes who expected more exciting things to happen.

Astra took off her helmet, revealing the most beautiful face Charm had ever seen. Astra's glowing eyes were even more beautiful now that they weren't hidden by the helmet. And there were also glowing lines flowing along the woman's neck and up to her temples like tribal tattoos.

“We are very sorry for the inconvenience. We are messengers from Clan Aerie and had a small altercation with your guards. They are alive! But hurt.”

“They also killed shroomheads!” someone called from the crowd and others joined in.

“There are dozens at the wall!”

“They desecrated our dead!”

'That was quick', Charm thought to herself, wondering whether a villager had watched the whole incident.

“Excuse me?” Astra asked.

Vencer pressed her lips together and glared at the group with undisguised displeasure. “Since you aren't from here, you probably don't know better, but we venerate our dead. The shroomheads are a living reminder of our sacrifices and they keep the other monsters away from the settlement. So killing them is a great taboo.”

“Ahem.” Astra cleared her throat. “Look, we don't seek trouble. The shroomheads were in our way and your guards attacked us first. All we are searching for is Ancient Balthasar Pinault. We have a message for him from Ancient Mary Frost.”

Charm drew in a sharp breath at her father's name. She didn't know about this 'Ancient' thing, but if these people were here to see her father, then Vencer would assuredly do everything in her power to prevent it.

No attention was paid to Charm at this point, so there was nobody to stop her when she turned and ran to the staircase that led up to the next level. Taking two steps at a time she ran to a luxurious house next to the central stem, her family's home. It couldn't have taken more than a minute or two before she found her father in his herb garden, drinking tea with yet another stranger.

Charm didn't have time to wonder about unknown people showing up out of nowhere from one day to the other. She only stared at the woman for a second while gathering her breath and gesticulating wildly.

“Dad... come quick! They... are gonna... kill each other.”

Balthasar Pinault frowned at his wayward daughter. “Who is killing who?”

“Messengers... from... Aerie... trouble with... the villagers.”

Balthasar's expression turned stony and he put his tea down before addressing his visitor. “If you'll excuse me for a moment?”

“Of course,” the woman replied.

Charm wasn't sure what to do as her father ran off quickly. She gave the woman a wary look and the stranger smiled at her, which looked a little bit too artificial for Charm's tastes. In the end, she chose to follow her father and see what would happen on the square.

When she arrived back at the scene, the square looked nothing like before. The earth was scorched with black marks and the village guards had taken a very respectful distance from the group of newcomers. The warrior who had shortened Cruz by a leg had taken a new hostage. He stood on top of the town hall, holding Vencer above his head threateningly, clearly intending to drop her if the guards did so much as twitch.

Charm began to wonder whether that was his thing.

Balthasar meanwhile was marching right in between the two fighting groups with suppressed anger in his steps. “All of you idiots, stand down or I will spank you like the little children you are! Nobody uses violence in my place and gets away with it!”