“Your Highness, please reconsider,” the Right Hand gently urged. “The hill people make important contributions to our kingdom.”

The King could barely contain a sneer. “They are not part of our kind. It is time to end this farce. The hill people will be rounded up and shipped away from the Kingdom across the sea.”

“Who will clean our homes? Tend our gardens? Cook our food? My Lord, the hill people have lit the candles in this very chamber and washed our vestments!”

But it didn’t change a thing. The hill people were rounded up and sent away across the sea.

The plague started not long after. It was discovered that the hill people carried a virus that kept the entire kingdom healthy. Their contributions were more than just labor, it seemed.