“I can’t imagine what would hurt them.”

Cara backed up from the tall birds. Violetta shook her head.

“It’s not them getting hurt. Even foxes won’t tangle with them. It’s only Mossbears or other big predators. They even kill smaller undead, like the rabbit from yesterday. It’s us. That’s why they have separate cages.”

The young woman blinked at Violetta. The girl pointed inside and spelled it out for Cara.

“In case they die.”

“Oh.”

The penny dropped. Cara looked around and saw it.

There was glass in this world. She’d seen lanterns. But Landsmecht houses had thick shutters with bars.

They had doors with iron. They went nowhere without locking the door and closing the windows.

Even inside—they locked the doors before they slept. Violetta had made Cara lock her out of her room.

Just in case she died in her sleep. Or Cara did. Or her father did.

This was how they lived. From animals to people, they were isolated as they slept, to prevent a horde of the undead from rising. Violetta didn’t like talking about it.

“Is it true it takes days for undead to rise everywhere else? And animals don’t always…come back?”

“You saw me with the rabbit. Honestly, it’s not something I worried about back home.”

Violetta’s eyes flickered as she went back inside with the haul of big eggs.

“I wonder what that’s like. That’s…I would want to know what that feels like.”

“Your village is quite beautiful, though.”

That was all Cara could come up with, but it helped. Violetta smiled. She took Cara out of the house.

“Father! I’m going to the fields.”

“Good. I was working on a new part, but Dereatha finished before I did. Go do your job. Take Miss Cara with you if she wants to go.”

Her father waved Violetta off. The girl nodded to Cara.

“I work in the fields. That’s my job. I have to go. You could come with me?”

“Sure. I could do some work. As long as you put up with an amateur.”

Cara didn’t know what she expected. Hand-harvesting and sowing? Or something involving cattle? She had arrived in time for a fall harvest, apparently, in two fields.

“Some [Farmers] have speed-growing Skills. That’s Mister Peluv’s farm over there. His wheat isn’t as good as other’s, but he grows a lot. Others have wonderful food…”

Predictably, the crops were shades of grey. Or black. Cara saw her first field, waving with black wheat which barely reflected the light. She stared, fascinated. It was black and grey, and produced the bread which had been so good.

Afiele grew food. It did not make the people rich, and Cara understood why after seeing her third bountiful field; there was too much produce.