Void System: Every Heroine Makes Me Stronger

Severin took one step toward the north well.

Behind him, the registrar shifted her leather case under one arm. "An appraiser and buyers?"

He looked back. "Send both. The bodies stay whole until they see them."

She took the road toward Greycross.

"Not yet," the older woman called from behind him.

She had caught up with the 4 field workers. Lamp smoke clung to her shawl, and she held the village book under her arm.

"The meeting house is full," she said. "The watch at the dungeon gate changes at dusk. No one knows who takes the next turn."

The man with the wet trouser leg waited beside the road, looking toward the well.

Severin pointed toward the well. "Keep everyone away from the marks. Bring the woman who measured the well when I call. No digging. No clearing the stones."

The man nodded and ran ahead.

Severin left the marks untouched and followed the older woman. The dusk watch still had no names.

They entered the meeting house.

2 oil lamps lit a long worn table and the faces packed around it. Mud dried beneath boots. Someone had brought the handbell from beside the stove and set it next to the inkpot. Tressa sat near the door, angled toward the passage so she could leave without pushing through the room.

Severin placed the sealed claim on the table.

The older woman opened the village book. "Mereford owns 1 part in 10. What does that put in the chest, and what do you expect from us?"

"Work and supplies are paid first," Severin said. "Out of every 10 coins left after that, 9 are mine and 1 goes into Mereford’s chest."

A field worker frowned. "Do the 4 of us get part of the bodies?"

"You are paid for work. You do not each own part of a Beast."

The man accepted that with a grunt. The older woman dipped her pen.

"What work comes first?" she asked.

"Tressa’s."

Every face turned toward her.

Tressa faced the room. "No one died."

A woman near the lamp closed her eyes for 1 breath.

"The driver is alive," she continued. "He still cannot sit in a cart, much less work. The other man is breathing on his own, but he does no lifting tomorrow."

"What put him down?" Severin asked.

"He kept carrying because no one told him to stop." Her fingers tightened once around the edge of the bench. "No one wrote down who had rested. He said he could take 1 more load, and everyone had something else in their hands."

Without the rest list, another worker could drop tomorrow.

"What do you need?" Severin asked.

"2 people who listen. 1 with each patient when I am not there. Clean cloth, boiled water, food, bedding, lamp oil, and medicine when I ask for it."

"And the workers?"

"If someone is feverish, injured, or too tired to stand a turn, I stop them." Tressa looked across the table. "If I pull someone from a watch, I need another name ready. I will not leave the dungeon gate unwatched because someone says he can keep going."

Severin nodded. "You choose the 2 helpers. 5 Silver a day each, with meals."

The older woman’s pen paused. "And Tressa?"

"1 Gold and 5 Silver each day. Meals included. It begins tomorrow at dawn."

Tressa looked at him. "My room?"

"Still Mereford’s promise. The 6 Gold is still yours. This pays for the work."

Her shoulders settled. "Then I accept."

The older woman wrote the wage and the dawn start beneath Tressa’s name.

"Mereford still owes you 8 Silver for today," she told Tressa. "The new pay begins at dawn."

Tressa nodded.

"We have no coin from the dungeon yet," the older woman said.

"The first body sale pays these wages, the meals, carts, rope, cloth, medicine, and the appraiser," Severin said. "Only then do we divide what remains."

"And if the bodies sell for less?"

"The unpaid amount stays in the book. I take nothing before it is paid."

The older woman’s pen resumed. 2 men who had been staring at Tressa’s wage looked at Severin instead.

Severin looked at the 4 field workers. "8 adults. 4 pairs. 6 hours to a turn."

A field worker rubbed the back of his neck. "2 people against whatever comes through those doors?"

"You watch. You warn. You do not fight."

Severin picked up the handbell and set it in the middle of the table.

"3 hard rings if a Beast comes out or anything moves between the stone doors. The watcher nearest the bell rings and runs toward the village. The other keeps the dungeon gate in sight while backing away. Neither crosses it. Neither follows anything inside."

"What if you are inside?" someone asked.

"You still do not follow me."

The man stared at him for a moment, then nodded.

The older woman began drawing lines for the turns.

"Dawn to midday," Severin said. "Midday to dusk. Dusk to midnight. Midnight to dawn. 4 Silver for each person on a turn and 1 meal."

"Can someone take 2 turns?"

"Not unless Tressa says they can and no other name is ready."

Tressa leaned forward. "Do not ask me after they have already stood 6 hours. Ask before the second turn begins."

The older woman tapped the page. "Names here, then. The pair leaving and the pair arriving both mark the book."

The field workers began naming people. A man offered his brother for the midnight turn, then took it back when reminded the brother had spent the day repairing the cart. Another name replaced it after a brief argument about who slept through bells.

Severin let them choose the names. He did not need to decide which villager woke easily.

"The bodies," he said when the 4 turns were filled.

The room quieted again.

"All 15 stay covered and whole. 4 people move them by cart to dry ground past the last fence, away from the houses, well, and spring, where the watch pair can see the rope. Set the coverings back."

The broad-shouldered worker asked, "Can we skin the smaller ones before they spoil?"

"No. No cutting, skinning, gutting, eating, feeding them to animals, burning, burying, or selling. The appraiser sees them first."

Tressa added, "If anything leaks toward water or draws clouds of flies, move that body farther and send for me."

"5 Silver and a meal for each person moving them," Severin said. "The 4 of you confirm the count before the first cart moves."

The men nodded. They had kept the count at 15 for 3 days. The older woman wrote their names and the 5 Silver owed to each.

Severin turned the sealed claim so the Guild stamp faced the room.

"No one goes through those stone doors without my word. If you reach the Dungeon Core, you turn around. No one touches it."

A younger man near the wall raised his hand halfway. "Why?"

"If someone pulls it free, the dungeon collapses."

He lowered his hand.

"Write that on a board," Severin told the older woman. "Faultroot Warren. Rank E. No entry without Severin Morcant. Do not touch the Dungeon Core."

She copied the words onto a loose sheet and sent it to the carpenter.

The older woman wrote the wages, the 4 watch turns, and the pay for moving the Beast bodies into the village book. Beneath them, she wrote that workers and supplies were paid before Severin or Mereford took coin. She added the rules for the stone doors and the Core last.

Severin signed beneath the page. The older woman marked it below him. Tressa read the pay and care duties before adding her name.

Tressa pushed herself up with 1 hand and took the first step carefully before her stride settled. "I left 1 person with each patient. These 2 will relieve them. If either patient worsens, someone comes for me before they come for you."

"If someone stops breathing, send for both of us."

Tressa nodded once and left with the 2 villagers she had chosen.

The first watch pair carried the handbell toward the last fence. The body workers went for carts, rope, and the old coverings.

Severin waited until the people around the table watched Tressa leave, then folded the sealed claim beneath his coat and let the Void take it. The paper settled beside Wisdom’s Edge in the Void Vault.

By the time he reached the last fence, the carpenter was driving the warning board into a post. The 4 original workers counted all 15 before the first rope pulled tight.

Village carts moved between the stakes and the dry ground while lamps appeared in Mereford. After the final body left its marked place, the 4 workers counted them again on the roped ground. All 15 lay beneath their coverings.

Then he walked to the north well.

The wet-trousered man waited with a woman holding a length of charcoal. A fresh line marked the inside stone 2 hand-widths above the older mark.

"It has not fallen," she said. "Not since I marked it."

Severin crouched at the rim.

Fine rust-colored grit had gathered between the stones on the north side. Thin trails kept slipping from a dark seam and curling along the wall.

"Was that there when the well was cleaned?"

"No," the woman said. "I scrubbed those stones 6 days ago."

"Which way does loose straw usually move?" Severin asked.

"Toward the east stone, when it moves at all."

Severin broke a dry shaving from the handle of a kindling basket and laid it flat on the water.

It drifted north.

The shaving turned until its tip touched the north wall, on the uphill side of the well.

Rust grit slid past it in another thin curl.

"Close the well until dawn," Severin said. "No buckets. No one touches the grit or the marks. Bring me whoever knows the north ditch best."

The woman looked at the water, then nodded.

More rust-colored grit slipped past the shaving where it pressed against the north stone.