Lilith stood beside him.
"This happened overnight."
Atheline crouched and touched the soil. Earth Law moved faintly through his Aether as he studied it since the ground remembered disturbance.
Atheline closed his eyes.
Something had moved through here but it hadn't traveled across the ground; it had just appeared.
His eyes opened.
"They didn't come from outside."
Lilith looked at him.
"I know."
"No." Atheline stood. "I mean they literally didn't enter the village."
Lilith's expression changed.
"They appeared here."
"That's what the evidence suggests."
Atheline looked around.
"Corruption doesn't do that."
"Apparently it does now."
"No." He shook his head. "Something using corruption does."
Lilith became quiet.
That distinction remained with him. A disease and contamination spread, even magic needed a path unless someone deliberately created one. This wasn't spreading anymore, it was being placed.
The final confirmation came twelve days later.
