The Marshall
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"I'M TELLING YOU, SOMETHING'Shappening with the cursed farm," Kenji said, guiding his horse around a fallen branch."The shield's been active for two days.Someone's actuallythere."
Jin didn't respond immediately.He'd felt it too—that prickle of his ability, the sense of a presence where there shouldn't be one.The cursed farm had been empty for years.Decades, even.Most people forgot it existed.
But someone was there now.
"Could be squatters," Kenji continued."Or maybe someone from out of town who doesn't know the history.Either way, we should check it out."
Jin nodded.It was their job.The Marshall and his soldiers, keeping the territories safe, checking on settlements.Even failed ones.
They rode in comfortable silence.The morning had started foggy but cleared nicely.Good weather for patrol.The safe window was open—eleven to two—when the monsters slept and the roads were relatively peaceful.
Relatively.
"You think Viktor knows?"Kenji asked.
"Probably."Viktor knew everything that happened on properties near his holdings.The man had ambitions, and information was currency.
They crested a small rise and the cursed farm came into view below.Jin pulled his horse up short.
"What the—" Kenji stopped beside him.
The shield was up.Clearly active, though showing damage—red cracks visible even from this distance.But that wasn't what made Jin stare.
Inside the shield were trees.A whole grove of them that definitely hadn't been there last week.And a structure—a treehouse?—rising from a massive pecan tree.
"Someone's been busy," Kenji said slowly.
Jin's ability hummed.One person.Female.Currently...
His eyes tracked to the gate, then beyond it.
There.In the grass.
A woman in velvet and silk, holding what looked like a bizarrely festive, sharpenedstick, directing several...creatures?They were golden-eyed and lion-shaped, but wrong somehow.Too hollow.Too plant-like...and what was with the fluffy manes?
And they were gathering blue bulbs.
"Is she insane?"Kenji breathed.
The creatures bounded through the grass, fearless, snatching up glowing bulbs and bringing them back to her.She was stuffing them into a leather purse, working quickly, efficiently.
But she was too close to the tree line.
