[quote][sub][color=gray]Meryn found Cogswall on the map again and traced a line northward with her eyes.[/color][/sub][/quote] The old map was drawn with meticulous care, in sepia ink on aged paper; it had been folded and re-folded, bore tea stains and small margin notes scribbled in a runic code. Much of the map was forested by clever penstrokes, while plains and desert were noted by the sparsity or scraggle of trees. Cogswall was most prominent, with its moat of barren burned wasteland -- and Enn, half-hidden in the forest, smaller and inconspicuous. There were others -- Lune, Kestrel, Raskiln -- and the temples: An'Dast, the ruins that Spook had called the "Temple of Spring Whistling"; and An'Hiket, which appeared larger and, according to the drawing, slightly more impressive. North of Cogswall there was -- nothing. Only Sorrow's Deep lay to the north: a round craggy bay crowned by mountains. The old man shuffled behind Meryn to peer over her shoulder. "Sorrow's Deep, eh?" He scoffed. "Dangit if that damned crater doesn't keep comin' up. You an' the Prophet and Spook -- the temples an' the lot of the crystal-skins, all you all gosh-dang care about is that gosh-dang crater." He worked himself up to exhaustion, and he creakily lowered himself into a chair. He set his beady eyes on Meryn and pointed a knobby finger at her. "I'll tell ya somethin' 'bout that crater, missy. Leave it alone. Let it be. Boats sail in and don't come out. Birds fly out over it and don't come back. There ain't nothin living in that water -- not a fish or a scrap of weed. It's been dead and death always, and it'll be dead and death after we're all gone. Don't you believe the fairy tales -- the creature sightings or caught fish, or people returnin'. They're lies told by the temples to bring in new recruits, see. Spook hisself swallowed that garbage line and sinker. We wouldn't be in this mess." He huffed a sigh and leaned on his bony knees. "The best thing is to just leave it be. Leave it all be. And if the temples are right, and somethin's comin', then we'll just stay out of its way." Machinery elsewhere in the tower whirred down, and pipes clanked. An uncomfortable silence draped over the room. The old man turned his head, listening -- then shuffled over to a sink and turned on the spigot to find only a few short spits of sludge. "Dangit now the water's out, too." [quote][sub][color=gray]Ronken positioned himself between the man and as many kids as possible. He then reached out to the man's right shoulder from the side. He kept his other hand at his side in a fist. He was hopefully ready to block a punch if needed, but he didn't want to threaten the man if he could avoid a fight. Not in front of kids. "Hey Mate, you okay there? Seem on edge."[/color][/sub][/quote] The hooded man stiffened, and slowly he turned, his eyes blazing. He was either furious -- or terrified. "Get out," he hissed, his voice deep and trembling, mad with diseased insanity. "They're coming. Too many here. Get out. They're coming." A crystalline hand suddenly snatched Ronken's shirt, his fist like stone. "They're in the waaaalllssssss!" [quote][sub][color=gray]Rather, as she looked down she realized that her hands were locked in a death grip around a fold in the boy's shirt, unable to let go. Instead she tried to be as small as she possibly could be and hide behind the boy, trusting him not to be the bait for some elaborate trap.[/color][/sub][/quote] Below, a small circle was forming around a big hooded man and the smaller man he was holding up by the shirt; heads had turned to see the source of the crazed voice that echoed in the wide chamber, and some recognized the gleam of black crystal that grew on the brute's exposed arm. The boy, however, was undeterred. "It's okay!" he assured Feela with a pat of her hand. "We're all refugees. C'mon, let's get some grub, yeah?" He encouraged Feela down the stairs, holding onto her wrist, and waved over his head at a few friends who had spotted him from another side of the room. "That's my sister, Glinny, and [i]her[/i] friend, and that's Bobo and Tizzy. They're saving a spot in line for us, it's okay!" He pushed his way through the crowd, skirting around the fight in the middle of the room to reach his friends who were calling over the crowd's murmur. [b]"PEOPLE OF COGSWALL!"[/b] a man's voice bellowed. Up above, a man in a white hooded cloak stood at the mouth of one of the drainpipe entryways, at the top of the stairs. He had his arms outstretched. His nose and mouth were covered by dark cloth. [b]"THE INFECTION HAS SPREAD, AND IT IS DEADLY."[/b] Somewhere behind him, faintly, came the choked sob of a woman. The man who restrained Ronken was trembling. [i]"They're coming, they're coming, they're coming for us.[/i] [b]"ALL OF YOU HAVE BEEN EXPOSED. BUT YOU'LL ALL BE JUST FINE -- A CURE HAS BEEN FOUND![/b] A ripple of excitement spread through the room. Murmurs whispered in the crowd. Water began to trickle out of one of the four drainpipe entryways. Then a second began to drip. [b]"A MEDICINAL WATER HAS BEEN MIXED. EVERYONE HERE MUST ONLY SUBMERGE THEMSELVES MOMENTARILY, AND ALL TRACES OF THE CRYSTAL-SKIN WILL BE WASHED AWAY."[/b] The third drainpipe began to leak water. [b]"WE WILL BEGIN TO FLOOD THE FLOOR WITH THIS MEDICINAL WATER NOW. PLEASE DO NOT BE ALARMED, AND HOLD UP YOUR VALUABLES. SOAK YOURSELVES IN IT AS MUCH AS YOU CAN!"[/b] [i]"They're coming, they're coming, they're coming, they're coming . . ."[/i] Water began to flow freely out of the drainpipes, splashing down the stairs to the floor. People rushed to it to rub the water on their skin, splash their faces, scrub their hair. [b][i]"GET OUT GET OUT NOW!"[/i][/b] This screech was not the man in the drainpipe, but it was Switch's voice. She pushed her way through the crowds, shoving people aside with a blade withdrawn, raced up the steps to get at the man in the white hooded cloak. [b][i]SLAM[/i][/b] A metal grate slammed down between her and the man in the white hooded cloak. [b][i]SLAM SLAM SLAM[/i][/b] Each of the four drainpipes closed off just before the water began to surge. Frothing water surged and roared out of all four pipes, and waterfalls spilled down into the crowd. The boy tugged on Feela's shirt while water rose at their ankles. "C'mon, we gotta get wet to get cured!" The crystalline brute at the center of the room was still shaking. Whispering. [i]"Get out. Get out. Get out."[/i]