Perdilius looked pleased at the dispy, his arms spreading wide open as if meant to celebrate this occasion. Emyri kept her gre fixated on him, ignoring the nervous looks from his soldiers, and keeping a brave face in front of her family. Specks of ash cascaded from the air, remnants of the fire they had escaped moments before. KuliKuli lifted her paw to catch one, appearing like a gray fke before disintegrating into mist with the slightest breeze. She looked over toward its direction, figuring that the house and fields were separate enough to avoid spreading into the forest where they stood.

  Perdilius csped his hands together, getting their attention. "At st, the mother has arrived. The st time we met was in your little green patch of moss and vines, yes? Your little home. Now look at what your actions have costed these people. A grand home rge enough to house a half dozen families burnt to a crisp. Your little hermit friend left with a bde embedded into his arm. And where's the woman? I was informed she had suffered some wounds at the Market, was she unable to survive the fire?"

  "She escaped, not that you care." Emyri answered coldly.

  Perdilius clutched his heart, fainting shock at her words. "My love extends to all who I encounter, even those that fall tragically under your spell. Those that are lost in the dark need only to find the light that guides them to their salvation."

  She raised her brow. "Your light, I presume?"

  "Not necessarily, but who am I to decline? I'm a father to all, it is my calling."

  "Some calling." She huffed, tilting her head. "Aren't people in your position meant to guide through teachings and wisdom of whatever faith they teach? Goodness, summoning others at your beck and call to pilge and kidnap, surely that wasn't instructed by that old book you carry?"

  Perdilius frowned, raising the heavy book in his hand. "Do not mock my teachings, feline. Thy faith and thy presence have guided me, helped recover those that have been led astray into darkness. For decades, I followed my teachings by lesson and virtue, preaching to the people of Tsaadem. My wife, bless her soul, she practiced the same but under a different light. She tried to preach to your kind in person, you see she had this vision of a peaceful life between us."

  He shook his head, rubbing his eyes briefly. "She was naive and hopeful. That kind of light, it's beautiful, it's pure. Kept the people united, albeit shaken when she introduced some of your monster girls into our gatherings and events. I strived to support her, to embrace her vision, but I voiced my concerns in private. I had absolute faith in her; I did not have faith in them. That made the outcome harder to bare. I lost her, I lost many like her. Friends, neighbors, loved ones, drowned in darkness, their voices rebelling, retaliating, bitter, angry, and then... silence."

  He tightened his grasp, flexing his fingers and squeezing his fist so tight that it began to shake as his eyes focused onto Emyri. "Your kind have been nought but a burden to our nds and our home. You are a sickness, a disease! A pgue that needs to be cleansed! I have spent thirty years practicing the faith in life, and another thirty years following my mission."

  "You think killing us will bring back your wife?" Emyri asked in disbelief.

  "Nay, but it will prevent you lot from taking the wives and lives of others." He muttered through clenched teeth, pointing at KuliKuli as his face shifted from resentment to satisfaction. "Thanks to your spawn, I have the perfect tool to make this happen. I must thank the both of you for this, it was ughable to discover the perfect sacrifice required copution between opposing sides of magic, and yet it happened! And thank you hunter, for choosing the right path toward forgiveness. I assure you, after all comes to pass you will be born again an enlightened man no longer weighed down by his greatest sin."

  KuliKuli's face twitched in disbelief, looking at Leone. He met her gaze briefly before turning away, hanging his head in silence.

  "What... you mean?" Syri mumbled, feeling at a loss of words as she pieced the puzzle together. She clung onto Dimyri, panting as her heart started beating so hard she could feel it throb under her skin. Dimyri brushed her hair and remained silent, her sagging ears reflecting the dread she felt as her theory came true.

  Felix stepped through, grabbing KuliKuli's paw. She snapped her head back, eyes bewildered with her fangs exposed as she huffed through her nose. "Felix, this is what you... what you meant before?"

  "I-I." He swallowed hard, the lump in his throat rendering him mute. With a heavy gulp, he nodded back confirming her fears.

  "No... no." She fell into his arms, sinking down and burying her head against his chest.

  Perdilius cackled loudly, his glee coming across as loud and obnoxious. "You mean you never told them? I could only guess how you kept their father a secret. Did you not wonder who your father was all along or how I came to find you? That one day, I would be fortunate enough to be present as a stranger stepped into my confessional, and hear it from him that he longs for his family? A family, mind you, not of an adoring wife and mother to his three children, but rather a monstrous cat girl and her clutter of kittens!"

  Emyri recoiled under his choice of words, her lip twitching in disgust. He took pleasure in her reaction, pushing further as he approached her.

  "Did you think it was a coincidence that I employed the same hunter you slept with all those years before? Or that he led me to your clutter so that I could track down your daughters? Or that it was the middle child who voluntarily sought me ought so that she may learn more about those, what did she call us? Hoo-mans?"

  "Stop it." KuliKuli hissed, pulling away from Felix and hissing at the priest.

  "You, you were perhaps the second most important tool I required. Your stupidity and short-sightedness made you easier to catch. I detest men who reject faith over science, but I admit that their experiments on that pretty little skull of yours proved to be most useful! Thanks to you, they were able to craft me this!" He pried his book open and revealed a rge red stone, shimmering brightly like a red star. He plucked it with his grubby fingers, raising it over his head for everyone to see.

  KuliKuli winced and rubbed her head, a reaction that immediately caught Perdilius' eye. "There she is, the monster who helped me come this far and keep going. Think back, have you been having any memory loss? Absence or a reduction of cognitive functions? Possible personality retraction resembling that of a child?"

  Felix's eyes widened in horror upon hearing this.

  "Nityri, that was your name. But you go under a new name, correct? Your wolf friend mentioned you as KuliKuli, described you as a naive child with space between your ears. Can't quite remember who Nityri was, can you? Can you remember anything at all, hm? Tell me, hermit, did she have a name when you found her, or do we have you to thank for naming her KuliKuli?"

  "What did you do?" Felix asked.

  "I needed to test her, to control her so that I could control them. But ensvement wasn't enough, a body is only useful if they serve in mind as well. You're proof of that, that tattoo at the back of your neck. You escaped as soon as the window of opportunity presented itself, no doubt! So, I needed to dig deeper, and I had my men with scalpels dig around inside until they learned how the mind works for them. I had no use for Nityri or Satyri or whatever your nonsensical names are, I needed empty husks that obey my command. Nityri is dead, I needed her wiped out, to make space so that the only thoughts running through your head were mine. You were my ticket to finding your clutter."

  He smirked, waving his hand toward Leone. "Your father guided me toward the general location, but it was difficult to track your clutter. You lot tend to move often and hide your tracks, it proved most difficult for us. But you were under my control, you escorted us into your secret hideout at the dead of night. Taking your friends was easy enough to be a sport. But what I did not anticipate was you and your siblings jumping into a waterfall. That gave us quite the trouble and then came the elves. We couldn't fight; we are practitioners of faith not battle-hardened soldiers of war. I admit that my group isn't well-trained, but their loyalty and persistence is enough so long as they share my vision."

  He chuckled lightly, adjusting the red stone back into the confines of his book and sealing it closed. "It was you who helped me make these colrs so that your kind bend to my word, and it was your father who confessed to me about his spawn which started this journey. Don't bme him, he was young and weak. He saw a naked beast resembling a woman and was seduced. He only did this to start over, to be rid of you reminding him of his past mistakes."

  Leone gred angrily at him. "You threatened to expose me to the Order if I chose to decline serving you."

  "Some men need a push in the right direction." He argued back with ease.

  "And you said the mission was to capture them, not to sacrifice them!"

  "Are you threatening to break your contract, hunter?" Perdilius gred back, dropping his smile.

  Leone didn't waver at first, only to gnce at KuliKuli as she wept in Felix's arms. "I... I'm sorry."

  Unbeknownst to them, Janette snuck around pnting her back against a tree. She sucked in her breath, eavesdropping on them with a hand pressed tightly against her wound to stop the bleeding.

  "You're sorry?" KuliKuli repeated with a quiver in her voice, her eyes looking like daggers pointing at him. "You told him about us and you're sorry? You helped him kill our clutter and you're sorry?"

  "Not kill, they're alive-" He stammered, seeing her gasp in slight relief as he confirmed her hopes.

  "Be silent!" Perdilius' voice echoed loudly like thunder booming in the middle of the night.

  MiMi's nose wrinkled as she sniffed the air, catching his attention. She smacked her lips, tasting something metallic in the air. Turning around, Perdilius squinted at the girl with interest.

  "Bring her to me." He ordered, snapping his fingers.

  With a snarl, she dove into their left, slinking away under the dense bushes and thick trees. Janette gasped, frightened at the sight of a pair of glowing cat eyes leaping at her with an open mouth aiming to bite. She sunk her teeth in, cmping down on the satchel as Janette used it to protect herself. But now she tugged back, feeling her stomach pulse each time she tried to pull the bag away.

  "No, let go!" She groaned, yelping as she fell forward. Vardare slipped from the satchel, toppling over wide open just out of reach. She crawled up and snatched it when a gloved hand squeezed her wrist and yanked her into the open patch, exposing her to the others. Janette put up little resistance, keeping Vardare in her delicate hand as the soldiers dragged her toward Perdilius.

  "Janette, no." KuliKuli gasped.

  Perdilius frowned, his eyes scanning her up and down. He leaned forward, inches away from her face. "You are wounded, child. You shouldn't put yourself in harm's way like so."

  She spat at his face, nding a wad of spit across his cheek. "Fuck you!" She hissed, the soldiers pulling her back. She nearly fell on her backside, catching a glimpse of a golden twinkle running across the tree branch over their heads. She smiled briefly before being brought back to face him.

  Perdilius stood up as Raz held a handkerchief for him to wipe himself with. After doing so, he took interest at the item she held and plucked it from her grasp. "And what is this?" He asked, opening the book and flipping through its contents. "Empty, nothing but a waste of time. Was this meant to be a diary of some sorts? You won't be needing it."

  Having said that, he grabbed a fistful of pages and tore it off, crumbling them into a ball of aged paper before tossing the book aside.

  "Nooooo!" Janette cried out, her eyes following Vardare as he fell into the mud.

  "It's just an empty book, don't be dramatic." He remarked, crossing his arms. "Just what where you pnning to do, hiding away like that? You didn't think you alone would be their savior, did you?"

  Reta blinked and looked down, noticing the cuffs around her cws beginning to rattle with a gentle golden hue surrounding them. Looking up, she spotted Tootsie as she pressed a tiny finger to her lips in return.

  Janette peeked over his shoulder, locking eyes with Reta and exchanging an affirmative nod. "No, I'm just the diversion."

  Reta understood the signal, testing the cuffs with a slight tug as they broke apart like soggy paper.