The Waste. A line of blasted demarcation between rebels and the fascist caribou. Ignorant application of their anti-magic devices, done by primitive and bigoted savages with no idea about the power they had led to the dying of magic in places they had ravaged too strongly, letting nature move in and reclaim it as scrubland, a land red in tooth and claw. No one goes there save out of duty or desperation.

Three figures, nobodies, wanted by the caribou authorities, are caught there and put in chains. The three are strangers, yet united by a common bond, they are marked men, bound for fates worse than death for crimes against the caribou. They make good their escape into the waste, and there find a small bundle of hope. In the foal they discover they will have a reason to go on once terror has faded and they must contemplate the fates that drove them to their states.

In the waste is death, but in hope there is life.

(A story in the Etiamsi Omnes universe, a kind of side-story about figures in it but not strictly directly connected to The Black Knight or other central figures. Therefore, look out for some vague descriptions of sexual violence, and depictions of violence in war and self-defense. This story was vaguely inspired by the fantastic movie "The Three Godfathers", a most excellent picture.

I hope I can maintain a schedule with this. If I can kick my own butt hard enough I should post one chapter a week, keeping in mind I have another chapter-a-week story I'm also doing and that schedule is threatening to slip.)