“The Rot, despite its perennial and ubiquitous nature, always hungers for more, and while its existence may be natural, its tainted touch is not. At its core, it is a defiler. It spreads its influence here, and on the infinite other versions of here, through the cracks that it finds. Places and people and things that are lost or abandoned. Forgotten and forlorn. It gets into their hearts and twists them into something far different and far worse—into slaves that serve whatever purposes such an old and wretched thing might have.

The small monster put a clawed hand to its chest. “We are not from here, but many of us have made these worlds our homes and seek to protect them as we are able.”

I raised my hand and when it nodded, I asked. “What are you? A good alien or something?”

Its shoulders shook as it chortled slightly. “We are not from another planet, no. We are from another Realm of existence that is commonly called Incarnata. Those you see before you are just one of a multitude of various kinds that inhabit that place. Some good, some evil, though with the implied understanding that these are frequently arbitrary terms of limited subjective value. As for our own…moral alignment…I can put it like this.”

It pointed a fur-covered glove toward the Red House. “We oppose the Rot and the harm it would do to this world and those that live in it. Since time out of mind we have fought to stem the tide of its growth and corruption. And rest assured of one thing, Mr. Spires. Whatever we are or may be, there is no sane and accurate definition of the Rot that does not describe it as truly and objectively evil.”

****

“I’m not a bad guy, Jack. Really, I’m not. Am I the best person in the world?” Oscar shook his head, beads of sweat slinging off of him as he moved. “No, can’t say I am. Am I the best husband?” He let out a small and nasty laugh as he cut his eyes toward me. “Well, I guess that’s a matter of perspective, but I know there’s an argument that eating Jenny like a cantaloupe was in bad taste at the very least.”

He paused, fixing me with his eyes again as he sat down on an outcropping of packed earth nearby. “Not that Jenny tasted bad, mind you. She was damned delicious, if you don’t mind me bragging on her a bit. Hell, if I had known what kind of good eating I was missing out on, I might have done it well before I got taken to this place for the first time.”