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?


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    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.


    <hr>


    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.


    <hr>


    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.