Sometimes, important events don’t start with a bang. There was no announcement, no explosive incident, nothing to indicate that something fundamental was changing, just a single whisper, passed from one person to another.

In this case, the single whisper went something along the lines of, ‘Have you heard what that insane witch living in the old brewery did?’ and continued from there, either describing how that witch had abducted a young, innocent maiden to corrupt, sometimes speaking of inexplicable horrors perpetrated on the bodies of their fellow men. Not even death meant you were safe from the witch’s perversions, or at least that was what some of those whispering claimed.

Of course, not everyone agreed with those whispers. Some of those taught by the witch spoke of their teacher’s benevolence, about her great deeds and the things she had done to protect them and help everyone on the farm set up their current way of life. It was only thanks to their teacher’s guidance that they had people able to conjure water at a moment’s notice. Those conjurers gave everyone who needed it fresh to drink, greatly improved sanitation and irrigated the fields. What’s more, it was only thanks to the nature magic some had learned from her that the crops were ripening quickly and yielding enough grain to keep everyone fed, despite the lack of modern equipment and fertiliser.

Sadly, despite the voices speaking of the witch’s, or the Pale Lady’s as many called her, deeds, the horrifying stories were repeated far more often. Maybe it was a natural fascination with the macabre, maybe a drive to tear down those greater than oneself, or maybe there were other reasons, at the end of the day, it mattered little. The whispers became more and more numerous, and those whispering started to increase their volume until they weren’t whispering any longer but shouting at the top of their lungs.

And once they shouted their vile words, it didn’t take long for them to shout other things. To call for action. Not that those loudly shouting were the ones who wanted to take that action, no, they wanted to be heard and obeyed, even if that desire was only subconscious. And maybe, just maybe, they were a little afraid that those taking action would be met with resistance, with retribution and horrifying fates, for they had heard the whispers of the witch’s power. No, those shouting loudly didn’t want to suffer for their shouting.

To Wu Chunhua, the shouting mattered little. There was no real structure in the leadership of the farm. They had formed a council, allowing those who could lead to do so, to debate their decisions and provide some guidance for the people living in their community, but that was it. There was no voting, they didn’t have any kind of mandate, beyond the simple mandate of stepping up when leadership was needed. It was the best and worst kind of mandate, they didn’t have any formal responsibility, no oath, no structure, nothing to guide them but their own conscience and experience, and no duty but to keep their people alive.

It was with that duty in mind that Mrs Wu had decided to give her student, the one mostly called the Pale Lady now, what she had asked for. If giving Samantha some supplies meant she, alongside her companions, would leave the area as she had implied, there would be no way for those shouting loudly around the farm to vent their ire. They could shout as long and as loudly as they wanted, they might even set fire to the brewery or something along those lines, but it would all amount to nothing. Nobody would get killed in that mess unless those shouting were exceptionally stupid, and hopefully, it would all blow over eventually, once their target was gone.

The alternative was incredibly dangerous, namely that those shouting continued to shout, that they turned their ire away from the somewhat distant and remote Pale Lady to the local spellcasters. Because if that happened, things would get seriously troublesome. The Farm and its people needed the spellcasters, just like the spellcasters needed the raw manpower symbolised by the people living on the farm. Even with their impressive powers, the few people walking the Arcane Path lacked the ability to do everything, to say nothing about those important, yet mundane, tasks like standing guard or the various tasks needed to turn the produce into food. All those were done by ordinary people, most of whom weren’t really interested in the paths to power at all, or were walking the martial or the civilised path.

Maybe that was a problem to be dealt with in time. Only about a quarter, perhaps a little more, of the people at the farm had developed an interest in gaining personal power. The rest were all too willing to go back to a peaceful life, as they had enjoyed before the world had changed. A life without the need to defend themselves, allowing them to sleep peacefully thanks to soldiers, police officers and various other rough men standing ready to do violence on their behalf. Only, how long would that work as it did currently? And how long would the rough man be willing to do that violence, unless there was some serious reciprocity?

And the existence of attributes didn’t help matters, as gaining the benefits of levels came with combat and danger. How long would it take until people started to require certain attributes for certain jobs? A certain segregation was almost unavoidable, though exactly on what lines was, luckily, a question that would only be answered in the future.

For now, there were far more important questions that needed to be addressed. Maybe an inspection of the guards and their duties was once more a necessity. Once the disappearance of supplies from the communal stores was discovered, the guards would be scorned for a time and maybe that scorn would finally get them to do their job properly.

To Wu Chenhua’s surprise, the guards weren’t slacking like they usually did. Instead, they appeared to be attentive, almost to the point of being scared. Upon questioning, they all admitted that they had a strange feeling in their gut, a primal sense of unease that sharpened their senses. Something was out there and none of them liked it.

It didn’t take long for the question of what was out there to be answered. Sadly, the answer came as a loud scream of pain, clearly human in origin, and when they all investigated, they came across one of their guards, dead. Dead and torn apart, as if she had been mauled by some sort of beast. Only, if a beast had done the attacking, there would be something missing, animals didn’t attack out of spite, they attacked when they were desperate for food or to defend their young. Or, rarely, if they had some sort of disease, which might be the case here.

Nobody could really tell, only that something had come for the young woman, something that managed to strike her down without giving her time to do more than scream in pain. And by the complete lack of any indication of a battle, it didn’t seem like she had a chance to fight back.

Suddenly, the remaining guards were far more attentive, even beyond their earlier improved performance. Something out there had struck at the farm, struck in a way none of them could explain.

Only Wu Chenhua had a theory. She doubted that it had been Samantha’s doing, her old pupil wouldn’t attack somebody out of spite, not without a motive. Simply killing a guard, especially after all debts had been cleared, didn’t feel like something her student would do. No, Wu Chenhua thought it was far more likely that her former student, with the considerable power she had at her disposal, had served as a deterrent, her mere presence enough to keep some of the more mystical creatures from attacking.

Samantha was a monster but maybe the presence of that monster had kept all the other monsters out of her territory. Now, the monster had moved on and left the territory she had claimed behind. And the people needed to deal with the other monsters out there, needed to prepare a defence. For they were coming, as the dead guard proved.

The alarm was raised and the more experienced fighters were roused from their sleep. The farm was under attack for the first time, under attack by an enemy they knew nothing about, other than that they had slaughtered one of their guards out of hand.

And just as Wu Chenhua thought things couldn’t get worse, a strange howl filled the air, echoing in an impossible way as if it was bouncing off something nobody could see or feel. It was impossible and all the more eerie for it, though it made sure everyone was on high alert.

They only had to survive the rest of the night. And the next day, and every other day, now that they no longer enjoyed the protection bestowed upon them by the benevolent monster next door.