Things came to a head of sorts late that night, as Ana stood watch with her Party.

Ana had been practicing her channeling while keeping an eye on the eerily calm forest. She felt close to a breakthrough; nothing like a perfect Earth-alignment, but locking into any alignment with Earth at all felt like it was on the cusp of becoming easy. She wasn't fumbling anymore. Her control would slip as she missed her mark, but she was almost there, so close she could feel it in her teeth.

As a side benefit, she'd been practicing her Shaping constantly, bringing her to Skill Level 4 in Shaping. She'd been pushing hard to expand her coverage, and could now manage a contiguous area that covered both arms and her neck up to her chin. Getting bit, to put it plainly, fucking sucked. And while some combination of Ana's own Vitality and Touanne's magic and potions was letting her regenerate her lost flesh at a shocking rate, she still had a hollow in her left forearm, with reduced strength in her ring and pinky fingers. Hell, her ear was still flat where she'd lost part of her helix. That was weeks ago. Considering how magically healed wounds still left scars, she wasn't sure if everything would heal back completely as it had been. She did not intend for the same to happen to her throat if she got unlucky, careless, or just plain overwhelmed.

She became aware that something was happening when the soft whispers of her Party members went from the normal light back-and-forth to a more repetitive cadence. It came down the line until Sadie passed it to Messy, who closed the few feet between herself and Ana. Putting her arm around her angel, Messy whispered, "Waller wants to talk to you. Privately. He's asking you to step into the forest for a while."

Ana had been expecting something before they reached the white obelisk, which might be as soon as the next day. She just hadn't expected this angle. She didn't want to worry Messy, though, so she asked, "What do you think he wants?"

"No idea, but he asked Deni to pass the message down the line himself. If he's willing to risk her blowing a hole in him it must be important."

Ana nodded. Sure. Like an assassination attempt.

Ana dropped her almost-there efforts at channeling, and pulled on the pure source below her feet instead. Pushing it into her Shaping, it quickly replaced her own efforts, and a warm pressure spread throughout the protected area as the effect increased noticeably.

"Alright, Mess. Pass the message back that I'll head about a hundred yards in and then turn left. He should be able to find me."

"Be careful, Angel," Messy whispered, kissing her lightly on the temple. "It's Waller. He might do something stupid."

"Yeah. Let's see if he's an asshole and an idiot," Ana said, then walked into the forest.

It didn't take long for Waller to find her. "A little deeper?" he asked. She nodded, and they turned and walked side by side away from the camp. Mentally she prepared to leave the Party, so that she'd be able to take him out. It was hard to even think of a plan of attack, but it'd be fine. The man was still Level 10. He wouldn't stand a chance. And even if there was any real danger, Wings of Glory was ready again. It had taken a bit over three hours, but she could call on her wings if she needed them.

Waller, she thought. What'll it be? A knife in the back, or an ambush?

She meant what she'd said to Messy. The man was an asshole, but he wasn't stupid. He knew that he didn't have a chance at taking her in a fight, so it would be something oblique. Except, the more she paid attention, the more the idea of this being an assassination attempt didn't make sense. She didn't see a world where Waller was a skilled enough actor or liar to hide his true intentions from her, and there was nothing aggressive in his body language. A lot of anxiety, sure; his heart was racing. The man was legitimately scared of her, and for good reason. But there was nothing in his bearing that told Ana that he was looking for an opening, or that he was searching for hidden co-conspirators.

"I don't like you," Waller blurted suddenly, his voice low and uncertain. "There is something just fucking wrong about you, as a person. And there's something wrong about how you wandered in here from nowhere, with such a low Level at your age. You're obviously one of these bastards' victims, but you're not a changeling, and now you're some kind of warrior queen of the Splinter. And you…"

Waller's voice actually broke for a second, before he got himself under control again. "Rankan was a cock, but he was a mate, too. A real mate. I didn't know Larry well, but he was alright. You killed them. How do I forgive that?"

He stopped, and waited for Ana to do the same and face him. "No, really. How?"

"You don't," she said simply. "Or, go ahead. Spend a year on a mountaintop meditating on the meaning of forgiveness if that'll bring you peace or whatever. It makes no difference to me. Two guys attacked me on the road, and I'm the one who walked away. If they weren't as bad as the fucking demons, they'd still be alive. That makes you sad? Boo-fucking-hoo. Now, is there a point to all of this?"

She kept her ears open for any sign of movement behind her, and her eyes on Waller, searching for any sign of a signal or telegraphed attack. Nothing came.

"The point," Waller ground out, "is that there are people here that want you dead, who're gonna act on it. They want you to lead us to victory, and then they'll take you out. And they want me to set it up. I told them I would."

"And now you're telling me," Ana deadpanned. She wasn't sure how to react, or even feel about that. She wasn't surprised that they intended to wait until after the final battle, or whatever. Waller ratting them out, though? She hadn't seen that coming.

"And now I'm telling you," he agreed. "I despise you, but I'm not a traitor. This is my Splinter, and my Guild, and whatever you've done, I'm not going to go along with some plan to stab you in the back after you pull us out of the void. So, yeah — fuck you, but I've got your back until this is over."

Again there was nothing at all deceptive in Waller, at least nothing that Ana could pick up on. She was starting to suspect that the man was just honest. Unpleasantly so, perhaps, but the combination of honesty and loyalty at least made him possible to respect to some degree.

"Alright," she told him. "I'm going to choose to trust you. And since you're being honest with me, I'll be honest with you. I came out here expecting to have to kill you."

Waller's eyes widened. It appeared that he hadn't considered that possibility.

"I know that there are people here that hate me, and I expect them to try to kill me," Ana continued. "I assumed that you'd be one of them, or that you'd be willing to work with them. I'm glad that I misjudged you. I don't like you any more than you like me, Waller, but I don't want to kill you if I don't have to. Until you give me a good reason, I've got your back, too."

"Yeah. Uh… were you really gonna kill me?" Waller asked incredulously.

"Only if you tried something or led me into an ambush. But, yeah. I was prepared to leave the Party and… I don't know, actually. And unless you're a better liar than I think, we'll never have to find out. Now, come on. Let's get back. Separately, in case someone's watching."

When Ana was back with the others Messy asked, "What did he want?"

Messy had asked Ana to be honest, and to let her worry. Ana thought for a second, then made her mind up. "To warn me, believe it or not. There are people here who want to hurt me."

"I wish that surprised me," Messy said sourly. "Ungrateful bastards."

"Yeah. Waller says that they approached him to help set me up. He pretended to agree. Now we're going to need to look after him until this is done."

"In case they saw you both walk into the forest?"

"Right. Pass the word down the line that I want Trig and Sylt with him at all times. Ideally they should all be within 15 feet of me, but that might be too obvious."

"I'll let them know."

Messy left, and Ana went back to her channeling. She was so close!

It was more early than late when Ana finally got some sleep. Messy had tried to drag her to bed, but finally gave up, tired and grumpy. Ana stayed up, doing her protective Shaping over and over again until she locked in her channeling on the first try three, five, then ten times in a row. The effect was weak but it was there, and she did it entirely without connecting to the earth beneath her.

The tenth time she did it without fumbling she was finally rewarded with the notification that she'd been chasing all night.

Congratulations! You have learned the Skill Channeling! You have been awarded: Growth Crystal (Lesser).

With a flush of accomplishment Ana rose, her joints stiff and protesting from sitting still so long. She was almost giddy as she cleaned her teeth, though that might have been partially from exhaustion. And she only smiled at Messy's grunted protests as she joined her in their bedroll, burrowing in against her back until Messy's groping hand found Ana's own and grudgingly pulled it into position around her waist.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

It couldn't have been more than two hours later when Ana woke, thanking the System for the reduction to how much sleep she needed thanks to her high Willpower. She'd let herself get carried away, but at least she felt like she'd had a fair — if not good — night's sleep.

"Today could be the day, couldn't it?" Messy whispered. She turned over, and in the dim dawn light that filtered into the tent, Ana could only just see how her amber eyes creased with worry.

"It could," Ana said. "I'd even say it's likely, unless we deliberately keep our distance."

"Nothing will happen to you, will it?"

"You asked me not to lie to you."

Messy looked down. "I know, but—"

"I'm not going to just let anyone hurt me. I can promise you that much. But I'm going to do what it takes to keep you safe, Mess. You understand?"

"I don't want you to—" Messy murmured.

"Let me finish. Please," Ana said. A gentle but firm finger under Messy's chin brought them eye to eye again. "Either we win, or we lose everything. So, losing is not an option. And I don't know if it's my Class affecting me, or if it's the fact that you're the first person I remember ever feeling entirely safe with, but I can't allow you to get hurt. You're the first person who isn't replaceable, and no matter what happens to me, you have to make it through this. Alright?"

"No! That's not alright," Messy insisted. "You can't risk everything for my sake! You're not the only one who feels like they've finally found the right woman! I can't have found you and then lost you in a few weeks! What am I supposed to do if I lose you, Ana?"

"Move on," Ana said, then kissed Messy just as gently as she'd spoken.

"You can't do that," Messy whispered after Ana pulled back. "You can't tell me that I could possibly move on, and then make me love you more."

"Fine," Ana said, shuffling down and resting her ear against Messy's chest, right above her heart. "You have my permission to move on or not, to love me forever or to hate me if you have to, as long as you survive. But this is all academic, anyway. I don't plan on going anywhere. I just need you to understand why I can't promise that I won't."

"I understand," Messy said, wrapping Ana in her arms and pulling her close. "I still hate it."

"And you're going to be alive to hate it a hundred years from now," Ana promised, "or this Splinter will fall apart, and none of this will matter anyway."

Shortly before noon, the vanguard reached a wide path, cleared and worn and leading dawnward into the forest. Enough of those who'd prayed to the Wayfarer agreed; this was the place. The caravan turned off the road, and began their approach to the white obelisk, where they hoped to find Karti and his cult.

It was less than an hour between the bouts of unnatural thunder, and the strange temperature changes almost as often. Sometimes rain would hammer down for two seconds. Sometimes it would be hail or snow. Fog so thick that Ana could barely see the trees around her would rise and burn away in moments. More than once the ground shook so that trees swayed and people stumbled.

They didn't have long. Two days at most, Ana guessed, before the thunder was just one constant roar, and the temperature swung from forty below to a hundred in the space between two heartbeats.

Other than that, the forest was eerily quiet. There hadn't been a single attack all day. It should have been a chance for calm and for everyone to gather themselves, but the opposite was true. Everyone was on edge. The caravan had stopped for a moment, and Ana wasn't sure what it was about the silence that unnerved her so until Rayni said, "Where the hells are all the animals? Not a bird singing, not a fly buzzing. I haven't seen a fresh track all day, and I've got an Ability for that. And look at the plants! Trees losing leaves, brown spots on the leaves of bushes… Why is everything so dead?"

Omda loomed out of nowhere, making Rayni jump. "Death-mages?" he suggested.

"Gods beyond, man!" Rayni hissed. "Don't do that!"

"He may be right though," Messy said. "Who knows with those creepy bastards?"

"Sorry," Omda said with a shrug. "Ana, the captains want you. At the front."

Ana nodded. "Thanks, Om. Mess, stick close?"

"Of course, Angel."

"Good. I don't like the vibe here at all. You too, Ray. Stay in range. Fifteen feet."

"Alright, Ana," the Huntress said. "Sure."

At the front they found the two captains conferring with a group of scouts, fast movers who ranged far ahead of the vanguard.

"Ah, Marshal Cole!" Captain Falk said as they approached. "Miss Mestendi and Miss… Rayni, I believe? Good, good. It is, as they say, time. Miss Kosh here and her Party have seen the white obelisk, and the camp surrounding it. We need to discuss our order of battle. We're just waiting for the others."

It didn't take long for the other leaders to trickle in. Once everyone was there, Kosh, a [Human Pathfinder (23)] who'd been with Falk's expedition, laid out what she and her Party had found.

"There's about fifty of them, right? Less than twenty mid-Level casters. Binders and Summoners, a single Deathcaller, and a couple of Fire-mages of different kinds. Around thirty Cultists, lower Level mages, combat Classers and hybrids. Not gonna lie, their average Level is higher than ours by a bit, but we've got them outnumbered two to one, even without the spears. Saw this Karti guy, too. Elf, Level 37 Grand summoner, right? Not someone I'd have pegged for a death cultist. Looks more like a city priest than anything. Still, a Level 37 mage of any kind is some scary shit.

"And that's only the, uh, regular people, I guess. They've got fucking pens of these changeling creatures, don't know how many. Hard to get a good count, but a hundred, maybe? A half dozen demons, too. High twenties to mid thirties, based on their threat to me, and the Binders are keeping them docile somehow. Freakiest damn shit I ever saw."

"Thank you, Miss Kosh," Pirta said drily. Ana thanked her Perception for picking up the barely-there twitch in the captain's eye. "And what are they doing? Did they see you? Do they know that we're approaching?"

"Weren't panicking if that's what you mean, Captain. But I can't imagine they don't. They're on guard, and most of them are working some kind of big ritual in shifts while the others rest. They've got these huge bonfires going, too. Keep feeding them so they burn good and hot."

"They're trying to finish us off, I say," Captain Falk said. "To speed up the collapse of the Splinter. Bonfires for Fire-mana, perhaps?"

"That sounds likely," Pirta agreed. "I don't see why else anyone would build multiple bonfires on an eternal summer Splinter."

"If the white obelisk is the focus for a destabilizing ritual, a counterpart to our own Waystone, then it makes perfect sense that it would be powered primarily by Fire-mana," said Spira the Hydromancer. "Just as the Waystone draws a lot of Earth-mana to do the opposite."

"We should take out the bonfires if we have the opportunity, then!" Falk said with great satisfaction. "Now, the question is how to subdue such a large number of miscreants."

"What?" Ana snapped, and everyone else fell silent and looked at her. "Subdue? No. We line up at the treeline, and we have the backliners mow them down. Push them back from the bonfires, then escort our Water-mages in to put them out before mopping up."

The low conversation among the officers cut out as Ana spoke. A few of them nodded or at least looked at her thoughtfully, but most looked shocked.

"Ana," Simt said uncomfortably, "they're criminals, and they're bad people, but they're still people. We can't just— I mean, it's one thing when they're attacking us, but—" She cut off, shaking her head.

"Offer them a chance to surrender if you want," Ana said, a little more sharply than she'd intended. The looks hurt, and she cursed herself for not expecting them. She'd gotten too caught up in the constant praise and hero-worship, and let herself forget how normal people could empathize, even with their enemies. "It will lose us the element of surprise, though. If they don't see the first volley coming, we'll take more of them out before they can retaliate."

From behind she felt Messy approach. No one commented when the elfin woman put herself at Ana's side, with a supportive hand on Ana's back.

"I know I'm not part of the leadership," Messy said a little awkwardly, "but Ana — Marshal Cole — is right. If we can take them by surprise we should. And I'm not just saying that because I love her; these people have kidnapped thousands of innocents and forced us to kill them. They command demons and revenants, and send them at us. They are trying to kill us, destroy this Splinter, and destabilize every nearby Splinter in the process. They don't deserve a warning, and we can't afford to give them one."

"Thank you," Ana whispered to her side.

"You're right," Messy insisted in the same tone, the tips of her fingers rubbing small circles right above the collar of Ana's armor.

The next to speak up was Wandak. "Distasteful as the idea is, I agree that attacking without warning is the right move," he said. "It could be the difference between those pens Kosh talked about being opened or staying closed. I don't want to have to fight and kill a hundred more of Karti's victims needlessly."

"They think they're doing something good!" Halmer said. "Don't they deserve a chance to— to repent, or whatever?"

His words didn't have any conviction behind them. Halmer was one of those who'd initially tried to merely disable the changelings, and who worked hard to make good on the empty words that Ana had spoken to Touanne. The idea that they might have been able to save some of the changelings they fought after leaving the outpost had never been serious; it was just a way for Touanne to salve her conscience. Halmer had learned that soon enough, when a man with two broken legs dragged himself close enough to bite Halmer on the ankle. Even now he was reluctant to do what needed to be done.

But not, Ana thought, impossible to convince. "There may be over a hundred changelings in those pens," she said, looking directly at Halmer. "Our enemies put them there. And Wandak is right; if we get the drop on them, we may be able to stop them from releasing those changelings." She looked around the group, focusing on the reluctant ones as she continued. "You want to gamble our future to preserve some lives? Let's start with the innocents in those pens. Or are you content to throw their lives away to possibly save some death cultists?"

Ana didn't know if it was empathy or fear that made them hesitate now, in the eleventh hour. It didn't matter. Shame broke their resolve regardless.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.