We are having a day of rest and recuperation. Healing drains you. I don’t know whether the effect is psychological. It feels very, very real though. That I have to do with an improvised tent does not improve my mood.

  I may be able to live off the land. I cannot feed anybody else, let alone supply them with medication. That is not new. New is that I have stopped caring. I am not Albert Schweitzer. The local people have a town full with people trained in all kinds of supernatural arts. Hell, they have gods of healing as I have learned. If they cannot be bothered to send aid, it is not my problem.

  I am getting a viitor. He is bearing a teapot and therefore most welcome.

  PN: You looked quite angry.

  P: I was. In fact, I am.

  PN: Nobody died. Nothing irreplacable was lost.

  P: This time.

  I smile to take the sting out of my words.

  P: Tea in that pot?

  PN: Sure.

  Among the advantages of iron rank is that it is harder to be damaged from mundane sources, including hot beverages.

  P: I know that we have to take risks. But that was too close.

  PN: Are you just bitchy because we were doing an altruistic hunt?

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  P: Well .. Yes, that is part of the problem.

  PN: What else did we do wrong?

  P: We used vehicles in a closed configuration in an unexplored territory.

  PN: And that’s it?

  P: No. At the core we do not know what we are doing. We have a sixth sense but we are not training it.

  PN: OK, we can train that.

  P: Well, then there won’t be anything after that. If we take the time this will take, this epidemic will be over, one way or the other. Then we move to a city.

  He remains silent for half a minute.

  PN: She will not like that.

  P: Then we need to change our basic approach and get ahead.

  PN: You mean we need to have a vaccine?

  P: Yes.

  PN: Do you have an idea how hard that is to make?

  P: Pasteur did it with late 19th century technology.

  He remains silent again for half aminute.

  PN: What do we do now?

  P: Nothing. And tomorrow we train, including an analysis of our errors.

  Lidija is approaching my tent.

  L: How do you feel?

  P: Rotten. We came to close.

  L: Bad luck.

  P: That is the very point. If you regularly depend on good luck, you will be disappointed. A calculated risk is still a risk.

  L: And what do you want to do? Just give up? We should go back to the place the monster got you and exterminate them all.

  P: You cannot exterminate them. That is the point. We can never truly win. Monsters will keep spawning.

  She senses that I am in a foul mood today.

  Z: How was it?

  L: You are right. I think he is at the breaking point. What can we do?

  Z: Give him time.

  L: And the people in the fort?

  Z: They will have to depend on the efforts of their government, not on us.

  L: That is not nice.

  Z: ?Nice“ is what they say at your eulogy. The point is not becoming the subject of one.

  L: And how do we do that?

  Z: I suggest we try to train for combat. It just have no idea where to start. Which of your capabilities have you used least?

  L: My teleport mixup ability.

  Z: Well, let’s find that scholar.