Like any other village, this one was a thunderstorm of emotions, and the visitor felt it all. The happiness of the children blazed like a sun. The sadness of the woman whose husband had passed away the night before and the surprise of the man whose child was just born with red hair. But the most intrusive of them all was their fear.

You could smell fear in any town from here to the empire. But Tamno was drenched in it. It was in the smoke from the chimneys, in the puddles around the houses. The sweet rotting smell of dread filled the man in black’s lungs, almost making him feel sick.

The children didn’t notice him until his shadow loomed over them. They turned around to see a silver cross and a sword hilt glinting like stars in the darkness of his coat. The man felt their happiness evaporate like the sun’s warmth when it hides behind a cloud.

“Who is in governing this village, children? Do you have a speaker or an elder?” - his slow, calm voice came from under the hood.

They looked at him in bewilderment for a moment and ran towards the village as fast as they could, bouncing between houses like flies in a tavern. But they had no reason to fear him. The man in black wasn’t here for them.

With the same calm rhythm, he stepped towards the houses, and the footsteps around him went silent. There was no one in his sight. Wherever he turned, a door had just closed, a window had just shut. Water splashed from a bucket, carried in a hurry. A child’s laughter died off as it was pulled inside by a parent. But the man in black kept walking and house after house, the stench of dread only got worse. He turned a corner and felt the sudden explosion of surprise in someone’s mind. A man stood before him, holding a broom in his hands, looking like he’d rather be everywhere but here.

He did his best to hide his fear. But the man in black didn’t have to see the drop of sweat sliding down his temple or his tight grip on the broom.

“I’m looking for the person governing this village. I’m sent from the…” - the man in black started.

“The inn is two houses down, the freshly whitewashed one. The speaker’s there.” - the man interrupted him, giving his best to keep his voice steady.

“Thank you. God’s blessing upon you.”

The villager refrained from asking which god’s blessing he had just received, for the men in black recognized only the dead one.