Emergency Cases from Ten Thousand Demons Valley

The previous Guardian of the Boundary welded the world shut. I stitched it back to life.

Gout? Just uric acid crystals. Plague? Nothing but a viral infection. The line on the Winged Serpent King’s heart had snapped eight hundred years ago? I built a bypass and gave it a new line.

They say welding it shut is safest. I insist on stitching it back together. If the stitches fail, we all die together. If they hold, then you’ll have truly lived through these eight hundred years.

I’m Chen Du, the 137th Guardian of Pestilence. I’m seeing patients now: whether you’re a demon, a monster, or an eight-hundred-year-old wound in the world, you’ll have to wait your turn.

(Teaser in small print: Later, silver patterns spread across my face, and I stitched myself into the world’s wound.)