FORTY-ONE: ANSWERS

  Snowy-white hair was pulled back in a tight warrior’s braid, purple-black skin shone under the light as pale red eyes blinked slowly, squinting against the sun’s rays. Long slanted ears rose to the top of their head, black iron rings inserted through the long lobes.

  “Forgive my rudeness earlier, I am sub-altern Imbros of the Valthar bloodline,” the creature said, bowing low at the waist in an elegant movement, sweeping its free hand in front of it as it bent.

  “Rudeness? Was that when you shot at us?” Vira asked, stepping forward and standing in front of the creature.

  “It was. We did not know if you were intelligent enough for speech, but it appears you are. Surface dwellers are hard to understand sometimes, but it appears as if the language modifications were successful for all of us.”

  “Explain,” Vira said with a flat voice as she looked at the other two figures. She waved at them to pull their hoods back which they did. Both of them were built similarly to Imbros, with the only exception being eye color and ear piercings. One’s eyes were orange and they had crushed rubies on their earrings while the others had lavender eyes with opals firmly implanted in their earlobes.

  “You do not know what this place is? Or what it is that we attempt to do?” Imbros asked.

  “If I did, I would not have asked,” Vira said coldly.

  “My apologies heiress, I did not mean to insult you. It is simply thus, it is better for you not to know. For my own people. Already leaving you alive here will draw questions from my superiors,” Imbros said. That was enough to draw Cassius’ attention away from the creature’s strange appearance and back to the blood sword in its hand.

  “You threaten us?” Vira asked quietly, her voice flat as a winter day.

  “No, young heiress, I simply state fact. It is not my place to dictate the policy of the High Council. We are far from our home, but if you follow the wall east past your own home, you will find them,” the creatthey have failed the ure stopped to toe at the imploded corpse at their feet.

  “And further east?” Vira asked.

  “A dead place. One already consumed by these…creatures,” Imbros said, pointing at the dead witch.

  “And your home? Past that?” Vira guessed. Imbros nodded once, graceful in the movement.

  “I formally invite you to treat with the Outer Council. If you arrive upon our lands simply state that Imbros of House Valthar has called for you. That will prevent any harm from befalling you,” Imbros said.

  “I can bring this invitation to our own leaders. Would it need to be me that presents myself to the Outer Council?” Vira asked. The creature smiled widely, handsome as their head tilted to the side.

  “No, but I would prefer it was you,” Imbros offered a lascivious smile. Vira stiffened slowly and the creature’s smile lost a hint of its luster. Tension tightened again between the two groups as Vira and Imrbos locked eyes.

  “I shall bring this offer to the senate of our republic. They shall decide what to do with it. What is it that you call your people?” Vira asked cooly.

  “It translates to the True People, or maybe the One People, or possibly even The Only People. But you may tell your…senate…that your First Consul called us the Magnus Inimicus. But our cousins call us the shadowed ones.”

  “Cousins?” Vira asked with a tremble in her voice. She could translate the Old Tongue better than Cassius could, and even he could piece it together.

  “They are out here as well. Be wary of them, Dayside elves, the golden ones, they are not quite as straightforward as we are,” Imbros said as he began to back up slowly. The shadow elves never took their eyes off of the trio of humans as they walked away.

  Cassius and the others watched them leave the hilltop without a word, the three cloaked figures leaving the hills and quickly disappearing into the dark shadows of the forest. Cassius slowly relaxed, a tension easing from him as he slowly calmed down from the fight. It was finally over.

  “What was that?” Valeria asked, letting herself sit down. Cassius wanted to as well, but feared his legs wouldn’t allow him to rise back up. Again and again their world was shattered and fresh realms opened up to explore further.

  “More mysteries. My mother will be interested to hear what it is that we have learned today. I am more worried about how that fight ended,” Vira said, shaking her head slowly.

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  “It seemed that our witch fell into a trap of his own. There are many predators in the Wilds,” Cassius said.

  “I fear what monstrosity they were able to summon with the death of this one,” Vira said, kicking at the corpse again.

  “Nothing we will be able to face,” Cassius said, turning to look back the way they had come. Their wild flight to escape the shadow elves had led them further than they should have gone and now they needed to backtrack to reach the century.

  “Agreed. We have failed our mission and return with worse news. More foes upon us. I fear the coming days.” No one spoke after Vira’s announcement. Cassius walked down the hill to return with the glass staff while Valeria lifted the unending water barrel out of its spot, the wide keg left on the ground as she panted. All the while [Regenerate] slowly healed the after effects of the battle.

  “It would be a fair sight easier if this thing could be emptied,” she complained.

  “Defeat the purpose of it,” Cassius volleyed back. The mood was still somber even as the sun hit midday and they prepared to leave the hilltop.

  “Let us be gone. It will take several days to make it back and the Wilds are not safe even without the shadow elves shooting at us,” Vira chided them, stirring them into action.

  “I will be glad to be back with fellow legionnaires after this is said and done,” Valeria said as Cassius hefted the barrel up on his shoulder. Without spear and shield he’d been elected porter for the group. His pack bulged with the gear they’d salvaged from Titus and Leto, the reforged superbia that fluttered on the makeshift pole, wedged into the straps to float above Cassius’ head.

  “This would have been an impossible task two weeks ago,” Cassius grumbled as they started down the slope of the hill and back into the forest. Its warm heat welcomed them as sweat began to bead instantly. Vira took the lead once more while Cassius was stuck in the middle using [Hunter’s Sight] to see if there was anything the noblewoman missed. Valeria walked behind them slowly, often turning to watch their backtrail with her shield protecting their flanks.

  They camped at night and took turns on watch, though in the darkest hours it was always Cassius and his skilled sight that allowed the others to sleep easily. It was a cursed shift that ensured he would not sleep well or long, but he took it without complaint. [Unyielding Spirit] could compensate for most of the troubles that lack of sleep caused.

  When it was Vira who took the first shift she often took time before falling asleep to sit on her heels and talk. In that darkness of the night, beneath the wild trees Cassius let his skills fall away and experienced the moments with the slightly older noblewoman.

  “What do you think awaits us? Truly?” Cassius asked on the third night they had done this. They were getting close to where they had parted with Marcus, Vira certain they’d find them in the morning.

  “Dungeon time can be tricky. When the world never changes, how can you track the time. By now, my uncle should have arrived and joined forces with Statia. Your tribune should be on the march as well if not the entirety of the Thirteenth Legion. Cursed gates, my mother might even be stirring depending on the reports. Nobody wishes for her to arrive.” Vira gave a theatrical shudder, nothing more than a shadow to Cassius.

  “Is she so bad?” Cassius asked quietly. He had seen so many others speak of parents or siblings, but he could not imagine what that would be like. Even here with his brothers and sisters in the legion he had not bound himself truly to them. The events of the last weeks had seen that he would stand outside of them for the future.

  “If my mother crossed the Shifting Wall and is now here, then yes, it will be poorly received. The balance between the strata and the senate is a delicate balance maintained by everyone playing their roles. If mother comes out here with her household guard, then they will find dungeons like we did,” Vira said. Cassius saw where this was going with ease.

  “She will claim them for herself, raise her guard into the second tier, and become an even greater power,” he said.

  “Yes. Not to mention the riches to be pulled out of the Wilds. Monster skills are always strange and powerful, not constrained or cultured like a dungeon does. Rare woods, ore, artefacts, and who knows what else. She’d become the most powerful noble in the entire republic in a single move.”

  “Something that her rivals would not wish to see,” Cassius guessed.

  “There are many in the strata, but the other first strata families would see this as a direct threat. We would be at war the moment the news broke,” Vira explained.

  “Could you win? With all the advantages that the Wilds provide?” Cassius asked.

  Vira snorted and shook her head.

  “I forget that your knowledge is not of the houses and bloodlines. No, we are borderlords. Farmers and warriors for the most part, regardless of how we decorate ourselves with silk or fany words. The interior strata are different. They are older houses, interbred and woven into the very fabric of the republic. Merchants, craftsmen, senators, mercenaries, adventurers, grain mongers, and anything else they can dig their fingers into. They are vast, wealthy, and well connected in a way that my family and the other borderlords are not.”

  “Sounds complex. Then our best hope is that it is the Thirteenth waiting for us, either the cohort or the legion itself?” Cassius asked.

  “Will you two be silent already! I am trying to sleep!” Valeria interrupted them, her hiss loud and vehement as Cassius winced at his rudeness. Vira chuckled as she found her own bedroll, tucking herself into her cloak as they night drifted past, leaving Cassius alone with his own thoughts.

  That he was no longer a slum rat was undeniable, but could he still consider himself a legionnaire? He had spent precious little time with his brothers fighting in the lines and now he was stronger than almost any legionnaire in the entirety of all the legions if Vira was to be believed. Him and Valeria.

  Cassius looked over toward his sleeping sister and wondered how she felt about the change. She had been in the legions for years compared to his weeks. They were the family and home she had taken from her. Now she stood apart from it. It would be easy enough to lead Marcus and Pius to the dungeon and have them advance though.

  “It is this type of thinking that leads a man to dangerous thoughts,” Cassius whispered to himself, shaking his head. He could not be thinking of how to change the legion, to lift his brothers and sisters up. That was the work of the officers, his was to obey and try not to end up in a monster’s belly. He spat sour saliva to the side and rested against a tree, [Hunter’s Sight] laying the world bare to him as he waited for the dawn.