Chapter 11: Chapter 10

Aranea left the hospital. A makeshift prison camp was constructed in hours, some distance away from the camp. One of the crawlers was standing guard near it, along with most of the pack of warlord Valerye. Fresh forces continued to pour in to Chokepoint A, reinforcing defenses and bringing supplies. Drones were replaced, bunkers and trenches were restored, and new artillery positions were created. The shield gleamed once more over the state's positions. In a few weeks, this place will be even stronger than before.

The wounded and dead were hauled to field hospitals. By the orders of Wyrm Lord, prisoners were to receive the same treatment as state personnel. This caused some people to grumble, but Ivar and Scorpio quenched all dissatisfaction. The blue wyrm might disagree with his liege, but at least he was carrying out his orders to the letter.

As Aranea almost reached the barracks, she noticed two giant forms, lazily lying on the overheated sand. Blue and black wyrms were seemingly chilling near the barracks, speaking with each other.

"All in all, losses are below an acceptable level, soldiers showed themselves to be capable enough," Ivar said, looking at his bandaged shoulder with a scowl. He treated his injury like an insult, some of his golden bracelets were removed by the doctors to clean his wounds, and now captain Ivar fumed with held back rage, "My forces started moving. Yours?"

"After we secure this place, my army will move out. Unless a miracle happens, Regulators are done," Scorpio was speaking with an amiable tone, yet something flashed in his eyes. A dangerous spark, "I am a bit disappointed in the lack of information about Huntsman… One might think that certain someone wanted to get rid of my warlord."

"Don’t blame me for your mistakes," The blue wyrm responded in a cold voice, turning to look into the eyes of Scorpio, "We are both privy to the same reports. You knew about the existence of this human trash. You made an excellent choice in countering him, and yet you failed to find the proper pawn to finish him off. The east was, and still is, your responsibility. Because of your ineptitude, we almost lost a valuable asset and my warlord was injured. Speaking of reports, latest information shows that some new civilians from your area of control are busy openly voicing their dissatisfaction with their new rulers. This is a result of your softness. Stomp out dissent. Stop playing with the food and just devour your foes. Your weakness makes us look weak. Troublemakers are to be dealt with, not negotiated with."

"Ofelia was never in any danger," Scorpio became strangely tense at the implication that his servant was an asset, "And I will make my amends to Valerye soon enough. As for your suggestion, I fully reject it. Does it matter if a few people try to stir trouble? These crazies don’t amount to much in the long run, let them run their mouths all they want, in the end, they will just make fools out of themselves. I ain’t making martyrs out of them. Common people want nothing more than to have a well protected life, be on the winning side, and have a secured future. By winning here, we have proven that Resistance is weaker than us. By rebuilding cities, we have proven to be more stable rulers. People are not stupid, they will see that they have no reason to betray us. In the end, troublemakers just serve our goals by creating annoyance with the resistance in the minds of regular citizens."

Aranea was too tired to listen to their banter anymore. She walked toward the barracks, her pack was currently moved to one of the buildings on the slope of the western mountain range. When a wolfkin from the Foulsnout pack saw Aranea, he lifted his paw to the helmet.

"Spies, cowards, and traitors do have their uses, I will give you that. But by refusing to treat the rot, you will only let it fester in the future…" Ivar turned his head, looking at Aranea. The blue wyrm not even try to hide the fact that he expected to see the wolf hag, "Speaking of which, the woman of the hour is here as expected and not a second too late. It is almost curious how this particular wolf hag manages to be in the most interesting places at the right time."

"Captain," Aranea said, standing at attention, wanting nothing else than to fall, "I must ask you to refrain from punishing members of my pack in future. If anyone of them is at fault, punishment must first start with me."

"It is admirable that you understand the responsibility of leadership. When you are in charge, if something goes wrong, you are always at fault," Ivar nodded in approval, "Of course, it means that I also share responsibility for Chort’s survival. I would like to let you go and have a well-deserved rest, but there is one thing that I wanted to know, however. What is your connection to Iterna?"

Aranea blinked in surprise as Ivar continued to look at her. She had a feeling that he was mildly confused. Whatever reaction he wanted to get from her, he was not getting what he wanted right now.

"Please don't be surprised. We are listening to what our officers speak or send to faraway lands," Scorpio said, purple eyes locked on Aranea. There was no hostility in his voice, just curiosity, "To be honest, you've fooled us far better than the others so far. Selling information is common, even expected sometimes. We allow some soldiers to run their mouths to reporters or to agents of the intelligence agency from Iterna from time to time, which helps to feed disinformation to our rival."

"Yet we failed to crack your code," Ivar admitted, "Your gibberish that you were speaking to this "doctor" Philip leaves us at a loss. We checked him, he had no earlier ties to intelligence of Iterna. What is going on? Who is he? What exactly is so important, could you even possibly know?"

"Captains," Aranea tried to carefully find the right words, but understood that she was too tired. She decided to come clean, "I hurt my friend and looked for a way to help her. To… I don’t know, make it all right again…"

"Gibberish again. Captain Scorpio, find out the truth, please," Ivar cut off Aranea in an annoyed voice.

The wolf hag wanted to argue, even to fight at first. She hated, hated having her mind open. She was loyal, always trying her best and… Then Aranea understood that she was simply too tired. She lost pack members today, she saw the biggest battle of her life, she was beaten and humiliated… She looked into Scorpio’s eyes, fully knowing that he would rummage through her brains. And halfbreed didn't care this time, she just wanted to get it over with. Let him do his worst, she wanted to sleep.

Purple light fell on her, creating a strange tingling feeling over her body. Thoughts were suddenly gone from the head of Aranea, she felt drool dripping from her mouth and no longer cared. All her worries and fears were gone, as someone was looking through her memory, picking them one by one, checking them from each side… Minutes, hours, days, and years passed, and the halfbreed felt her tongue turn to a dry piece of meat, her skin about to wither... Still, no fear, no care came. Her mind was no longer her own. Pain, anxiety, hunger... all those feelings were no longer her. She knew that she existed, but that was it. She had no desires, save for eternal numbness while purple light flayed her thoughts, dissecting and reading her memories, rummaging through her darkest secrets in search of treachery that never even existed.

With a sudden snap, control was given back to her. Emotions flooded back into her. Humiliation, pain, and fear nearly spiraled out of control when she stumbled and fell on her ass. Barely a moment passed in real time, yet Aranea felt as if she lacked her mind for eternity. Her bravado was gone, she grabbed her own shoulders, shaking with fear. This was her own body, right? She was still her, right? She remembered Kate's words and tried to search her memories. Surely, if she had lost something, she would have known it, right?

"She is clean," Scorpio said, in surprise. The eyes of Ivar betrayed a whole rainbow of emotions, from distrust to acceptance and confusion. The black wyrm looked at Aranea and spoke in a suddenly gentle voice, "My apologies, child. Fear not, you are exactly as you was before. And…" He stopped, unwilling to say something near Ivar, but then pushed through, "I will have quite a few things to discuss with Ice Fang order, it seems."

"What do you mean?" Ivar demanded to know, and Scorpio looked at him. While they had a conversation between themselves, a link of light connected the eyes of both blue and black wyrms, "My beautiful tool!" Ivar hissed, crashing the stones underneath his palms, "Kalaisa had paid for her retirement in full and this is how they dared to treat her? We will announce that Aranea is still alive and will sue them out of existence for this."

"Don’t you dare," Aranea whispered, her voice barely a hiss. Ivar looked at her with suspicion, "Don’t you dare take this away from me." The blue wyrm looked at Aranea for a long time with unblinking eyes. Finally, he gave a single nod.

"Venerable captains, pray tell me, what exactly is happening right here?" A cheerful voice asked from behind Aranea. Two paws took her by the shoulders, lifting her in the air, before putting her on the ground. One arm wrapped itself around the wolf hag to help her stand.

Warlord Valerye, still in her helmet, was standing near Aranea. She was dressed in green colored pants and a green t-shirt. Her body looked weird. There was no fur on her abs, her fur coat was thin on her arms and chest. She had so many scars that they were covering her entire body. Like rivers, they run across the body of the perfect warlord. A few scars run from under the neck protection of the helmet onto the shoulders.

"We were just investigating a possible lead. No harm was done to the wolf hag, we just checked her memories for a bit." Ivar replied, looking up. His tail rose, the tip of the claw on his tail moving to his lower jaw, scratching the scales, while the blue wyrm was lost in thought.

"How curious!" Aranea blinked. She barely knew Valerye, but this right here felt as if another person had hijacked the body of the warlord. This woman here was cheerful, her posture was relaxed, the land was not cracking underneath her feet. And most importantly, confidence was emanating from Foulsnout, "I assume that you have bothered to inform Janine… Oh wait, she is injured. Tsk, tsk, guess this makes me warlord in charge of Aranea’s pack until Janine is healed. Surprisingly, I received no mention about the Investigation Bureau's taking an interest in one of my subordinates. This is the strangest thing, I do remember that there is a certain law that only allows for the questioning of a warlord’s subordinates, after the warlord is informed and is present for the trial. You have no right to look into the minds of our people without permission from the warlord or from the commander himself. Shall we ask the Wyrm Lord if he was the one who gave you the permission?" Scorpio quickly frowned and Valerye continued speaking, "And I sure as shit never gave you permission. It's a good thing that I asked my soldiers to wake me up, if either of you appear next to my kin, right? Why was I not informed?" All cheerfulness was suddenly gone from her last words, a thinly cold rage was behind them.

"We will make sure to make up for any trouble that we caused to the honor of both you and young Aranea." Scorpio smiled, trying to mediate the situation.

"You surely will! Strange thing, I accidentally called Wyrm Lord before I arrived here. Sorry for failing to mention it, but the commander can hear everything we say," Valerye gently hugged Aranea and giggled, "How careless of me not to mention this from the start. What a sleepy head I am."

Ivar almost smiled, "Sometimes I forget how different you are after having a nap," Actual warmth appeared in his blue eyes instead of his usual cold expression, the blue wyrm enjoyed admired that someone took advantage of him and put him in a difficult spot, "There was no trial, the honor of Aranea Wintersong…" This name bit Aranea like a snake. Aranea tried her best to bury this name, to never speak it… Ivar knew Aranea’s origin, and he used knowledge like a weapon, twisting it like a dagger, guessing her weak spot perfectly, "… Is fully protected. I apologize for our actions. Take the wolf hag and have her rest. We will think about compensation." Ivar gave command, unbothered by the news about the fact that Wyrm Lord was aware of his breach of rules. Instead, there was concern about something else on his long snout, "If not her… Who is the dagger then?"

"There is no dagger," Scorpio said casually, shaking his shoulders, "and you are vastly overestimating King. He is but a shallow person, with shallow plans and a huge ego. Charismatic, true, but a pest at the end."

"No." Ivar said, his neck twisting, allowing his head to look up even higher at the skies, "We are missing some clue, some part of the picture. There is a pattern behind what he is doing, behind even this defeat. Why did he feed us, if not to lure us in?" The neck carried the head to the left side and then to the right side, giving the blue wyrm an uncanny resemblance to a snake that was trying to hypnotize its victim, "We will work with what we got. Chort made a number on our scout parties. Time to return the favor."

"Alpha and Zero still some time away and we just…." The back wyrm tried to say something, but Ivar’s body moved in a sudden burst of speed, carrying him close to Scorpio. The head of Ivar lowered down, allowing the blue wyrm to look into the mocking purple eyes of the black wyrm.

"I know it. Remember my words about responsibility. I will take responsibility myself and will rile up this annoying pest. You, on the other hand, must make up for her death. Valerye, be ready. He will come for you. You are to face him in your prime next time, and this decision is final. Everything else is irrelevant." Ivar spoke with boredom, moving his wings and preparing to take off into the skies.

"Don’t you forget about something, captain?" Aranea let out a breath, speaking with difficulty. Ivar moved his serpentine neck, lowering his head almost to the ground to look into the eyes of the wolf hag. Once again, she marveled at just how huge he was. His jaws could easily swallow her whole, a mere twitch of his neck could leave her a blood smear on the ground. Ivar gave Aranea a fish-like expression, with no emotion visible behind his cold eyes. "You owe me compensation, right? Here is the idea, leave my pack and Janine out of your schemes. You want to put someone in a life and death situation?" Aranea wanted to say "pick someone else" but stopped herself. The sheer thought of sending someone else to die in her stead was unbearable. She bit her tongue to keep herself awake and continued, "Pick me. And only me," She looked in the eyes of Ivar, unbothered to hide her hate, and said, "Don’t you ever dare to make me lose anyone else like you made me lose Kostya and Yuki. Or I swear to the Spirits, I will tear out your throat."

"I have no idea what you are speaking about, but your dedication to your pack is admirable to the point that I will ignore this jest," Ivar responded calmly, yet his eyes betrayed his lie. There was warmth yet again. Ivar admired her for putting two and two together. His head moved up and he proudly stood, towering over Valerye and Aranea, "Worry not, Aranea Wintersong. We are well past the point where your personal involvement could be useful. And warlord Janine will need time to heal the damage," Ivar said, looking toward the hospital, "Live on, Wintersong, you have no foe in me."

The wings of the blue wyrm flapped, and the large body easily jumped into the air. As the blue wyrm rose higher and higher toward the skies, Aranea was hit in the face by a strong wind. In just a few moments, his massive body became a black dot on the horizon. Strangely, Ivar was flying to the north, toward the lands of the enemy.

"Valerye, you still like white or perhaps you have moved on to red?" Scorpio asked, raising his clawed hand to the communicator near his ear.

"I am trying to quit drinking and become a responsible person, thank you very much," The warlord led Aranea to the barracks, acting as if they were pals returning from a night of drinking. Suddenly stopping, she beckoned Scorpio with a finger. The finger that was covered by several scars, the place in which the claw was sliding into flesh, was hollow and partly grown by skin. When the head of Scorpio moved to be above the pair, his scales nearly touched their skin. Foulsnout whispered to the massive wyrm above, "Should Ice Fang learn about the whereabouts of Aranea… I will ensure that Alpha is aware that you are messing with us."

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"Situation may be out of my claw already, child," The black wyrm almost murmured, lazily turning his head to the side, looking down on Valerye and Aranea. The wolf hag felt how the muscles of the warlord shifted underneath her skin. This feeling was weird, it reminded Aranea of the tremors in the ground that she felt when the giant machine of the Resistance was moving. Purple light once again fell from the eyes of Scorpio, but this time Aranea no longer lost her consciousness. Instead, she appeared in a large room. The walls of this room were painted white. A large portrait of Ofelia was on the north wall, in the middle of the room was a golden table with several chairs made of silver. The fireplace was at the south end. At the west end of the room was a large window, revealing a green garden outside. The east side of the room was covered with shelves with countless books and maps on them. Two more figures were in the same room as her. A tall man with bronze skin and large gargoyle wings behind his back. Like Leila, he had clawed hands, yet black scales stopped growing around his neck, leaving human skin on his neck and face. Just like Leila, he also had only three fingers on his hands, but unlike her, he preferred to wear expensive clothes. His long legs were covered in black pants, a blue shirt covered his upper body along with a vest without sleeves, simple black tie held the collar of his shirt pressed tightly to his neck. His face was scar-free, his short black hair gleamed in the light, and his small moustache gave him a dashing appearance. A figure near him was wrapped in a crimson cloak, from head to toes, large hood was over her head. Based on the posture, Aranea could guess that this was the warlord, but at the same time, there were no smells in the room to be sure… "Reports came in. While you were resting, we lost someone important. Dynast is not happy with this development and sends someone to "investigate" our competence." The man said, before coming to a halt in surprise. He frowned and looked at Aranea, "Pardon me, but can you assume a more appropriate form?"

Aranea looked at herself and felt her cheeks turn red. She was a cub. Again, each time something happened in her mind, she reverted to this stupid form. Aranea had no questions about why she was in this place, she could piece two and two together, but upon being dragged into this mind real by the captain Aranea once again ended up looking small and insignificant. But how come the other two look more impressive? All she could do was...

Her anger overflowed her, causing her form to rise up, her body to twist. Her spine loudly cracked, yet no pain followed. Encouraged by this, Aranea let her frustration out, willing the change to occur over herself, and treating her current situation as if it were a controlled dream. Her ribs shattered, the white bones came from the skin as her chest expanded. Bigger, bigger, bigger! Aranea commanded her own body, stopping in disappointment upon seeing the mangled mess she turned herself into. Her legs were too short, her arms reached all the way to the floor, her snout became similar to that of a crocodile, and her eyes moved to the sides of her skull. She reached up and could not find either her mouth or nose.

"Scorpio, this is her first time in this place," Aranea felt the paw of Valerye on her shoulder, calm from the warlord somehow forced her mind to calm down. Frustration was gone, leaving just shame for her childish behavior, and the form of Aranea became smaller under the amused gaze of the black wyrm. When Warlord spoke, her words were calm and assuring, "Breathe deeply. You are not in your mind right now. Your memories are your own, your personality is your own, but you are using the mental faculties of the captain to exist in this place. I know it can be off-putting at first. I ended up naked here at first. Have you ever seen a completely naked wolfkin, one without even their fur? Trust me, it ain’t pretty." She let out a cheerful laugh at the memory.

"In a sense, you are a wyrm right now. Enjoy, as your exhaustion is temporarily forgotten," The captain said, approaching the shelves with books and taking one in his clawed hands. When he opened the book, there were empty pages, but at the next moment, the pages were filled with words. Scorpio showed the book to Aranea, and she saw her own thoughts from this very day, "By allowing your personality to merge with mine, you are now also affecting this place in a minor sense," he closed the book, "Worry not, your privacy is your own from this moment, child. I won't read your thoughts without your permission."

‘Ea…ea…easy for you to say," Aranea managed to say, stuttering. Her jaws split for a moment, creating two rows of fangs in her mouth. She closed her eyes and slammed her paws together. There were no thoughts before. There are no thoughts now. Only she. She is safe. The wolf hag felt something was changing in her form, as it slowly became more and more solid. Finally, she opened her eyes. She was still a mismatched abomination, with one shoulder almost twice the size of the other, her fur grew so long and thick that it almost covered her arms fully. But at least she regained some semblance of her form, "Best I can do. Mock me all you want, asshole."

"You look ridiculous, your nightmares are howling in my green forests, and you smell like you've never had a shower in your entire life," The black wyrm replied bluntly, frowning as he heard Aranea\Ravager's howls, "You have even more problems than Valerye right here. Sign up for therapy, child."

Aranea looked in the window and saw the gigantic black form prowling in the nearby forest. Wherever this being walked, it was accompanied by the sound of rattling chains. The once bright and calm forest was turning into a dark and creepy place, following the will of the entity that was howling in rage within it.

"Crawl in a hole and…" Aranea wanted to say "die" but stopped. Despite all her hatred for the black wyrm, after seeing how many people died today, she no longer wanted to see anyone dead… Three special people aside, of course. But aside from them, she wanted no one else to die, not Scorpio, not even Ivar, no one. Swallowing her words, she said, "Let me out. I want to go and sleep."

"In a few moments. Chill out while adults are speaking… Well, adult and adolescent," Scorpio flashed a smile, full of white fangs, before turning to Valerye, "No point in hiding it. A warlord is dead."

"Which one?" Valerye angrily demanded to know, then stopped, composing herself, "It can’t be Janine, she is still having her jaw fixed. I saw a drunken idiot on the way here, so she is also fine… Damn it," The warlord sighed, her anger mixed with acceptance, "This was because of me, right? Had I still been in action, she…"

"Speaking of which, how do you feel yourself?" Scorpio conjured a glass of wine and offered it to the warlord.

"Still have two shattered ribs, a pierced lung, and a half broken collarbone. All in all, feel myself like shit." Foulsnout turned toward the window, ignoring the wine. Instead, the cowl of her cloak looked toward the dark spot in the forest.

"Then no, this was not your fault. You can’t be in all places at once, Valerye. Life is like this, we have to rely on others, and sometimes both we and others die. Such is the price of building a better world," Scorpio tried to comfort the warlord, "It was the third time since the warlord of the Third Army died in battle in recent years. Sorrow aside, it does make us look bad. Our perfect victory was snatched away…"

"You call this perfect? Do you have any idea how many people died, how many..." Aranea couldn't believe her ears.

"I do and far better than you ever will," The captain walked toward the bookshelves and took another book, showing it to Aranea. It was filled with names. Rows upon rows were marked with various names of people, next to them were their rank, the circumstances of their demise, and finally their date of death, "My memory is nearly perfect. For as long as I live, each person who ever died in my service will be remembered. Their wills and names are imprinted on my mind. We are, each and every one of us, reclaiming this world for the good of humanity! To ensure that no child will ever have to starve, to…" he stopped himself, putting back the book, looking almost sorry for his outburst, "Enough with propaganda. I will let history judge me by my actions. Anyway, the Dynast sent a captain of the Second Army. And with her will come her entourage. It is reasonable to expect some members of Ice Fang order at least."

"They have no reason to speak with me, right?" Aranea asked, taking a step back. She wanted to curl up and hide. Ice Fang! The tribe of her father! Perfect heroes of the Devourer! Should she be found by them… No, she calmed herself. Who is she, after all? Just one person out of thousands. She is also an adult now, they have no claim on her.

"None," Foulsnout calmly responded, lifting her hand covered by a crimson glove in a calming gesture. Underneath her hood was nothing but darkness, "Relax. They dare to come to you, Janine will have their hides. This might sound rich, coming from someone who let you down so badly in this battle, but Wolf Tribe stands for our own."

"As so do I and Ivar," Scorpio came to the fireplace, looking at the dancing fire. He motioned for Aranea to take a seat near the table, and the wolf hag managed to squeeze herself into the chair with some difficulty. Scorpio offered her a glass of wine, and Aranea tried it out of curiosity. She felt the sweet taste of the wine, felt the liquid run down her stomach… The wolf hag frowned. Something was wrong, "These are my memories, you experience right now," Scorpio explained, snapping his clawed fingers and making a ghostly scene appear above the table. Four youths, the future captain among them, were laughing and drinking in a bar, "Every feeling that I have ever experienced, I can easily project onto others while they are within my mind."

Even pain? Aranea thought, and Valerye turned to her, while Scorpio chuckled.

"Yes, pain included," The man winked at Aranea, "Your inner thoughts are like shouts to others in here. It takes some skills to conceive them from others while you are within the mind of a wyrm. I will have you know that Valerye mastered her vanishing style here, much to my pride and joy," Scorpio saluted Valerye with a glass, causing the ghostly apparition of the partying men to disappear and briefly looked out the window, where something was crushing the trees in his beautiful forest, "Anyway, before that starts to defecate in my mind, we need to have a talk. You see, we received quite a few requests to find Aranea over the years from the Ice Fang order," Scorpio folded his fingers like a house and put his jaw on the tip of his middle fingers. Aranea was thankful to him that he omitted the use of her former family name, "And we respected the wishes of the Wolf Tribe to keep you in secret. At least I, Ivar was always too dumb to figure it out. Anyway, time to come clean."

"I won’t go back." Aranea quickly said, clenching her fists. Her fear caused her form to grow, turning her into the towering giant that covered the man before her in the shadow.

"Nobody asks you to. But shortly before… the events that changed your life, several cubs of the Ice Fang went missing. And you know that happened to them." Scorpio burrowed his eyes into Aranea, and the wolf hag forced herself to calm down and to become smaller.

"I… can’t go back," Aranea weakly said, imagining seeing the empty or destroyed house in which she lived with her family, imagining allowing Keyl to see the monster that she had become, imagining seeing all these Elders, Camelia, all of them judging her once more and… "You want me to tell them what happened? You saw it in my head, I don’t know much. Maybe…" She licked her lips, "Maybe it is possible for me to tell what happened over the Net?"

"Investigation is still underway… I understand that it may be hard for you to testify in person. So I ask you to allow me to copy all your memories of those days and allow me to imprint them into the head of Camelia Wi… Sword saint," Scorpio quickly corrected himself, "And in the heads of the agents of the Investigation Bureau. Naturally, your whereabouts and privacy will be kept secret as much as possible."

"This is income…" Valerye never finished talking, Aranea cut her off and jumped off her seat.

"I agree," She looked at the warlord, "What? This way we all get what we want, right? But please, captain Scorpio, make sure to tell Ice Fang that I do not want to see them nor hear from them. Make them understand that W… that girl is well and truly gone."

The wyrm nodded and stood up, reaching for the Aranea. This time, no light shone from his eyes, but she felt him in her mind, watching her own life as if it were a movie. He browsed her memories, forcing Aranea to remember the last days of being with her family, that fateful day when she ruined everything. Academician's words, his helper's words, Tilden's words, and others were all taken in by the Scorpio. The memories were still with the wolf hag and yet these same painful memories were now within someone else, each color, each sound, each smell, everything was copied by the wyrm. He left the wolf hag unharmed and took a step back.

"Ideally, you should have no problems, nor interactions with our guests. But the future is always subject to change, thus I warn you in advance. With this, I bade thee farewell. Until we meet again."

The room collapsed to the size of a tunnel in a vision of Aranea. There was no sound, everything within her vision just compressed itself, becoming smaller and smaller, until only a tiny dot of white was before her eyes. And then it was gone, and Aranea returned to the real world, once again nearly falling from exhaustion. The whole conversation in the head of Scorpio lasted barely a moment of real time. The scaled head of Scorpio moved away, allowing the light of the lamps to fall on Aranea and the warlord. With thunderous steps, the wyrm walked away, jumping and flying toward the eastern mountain range.

I am an adult now. They can’t just drag me away, I have rights now. They will never return me to the ice cave, and they will never imprison me... Aranea wanted to run, to hide under a rock and wait out the entire visit of Ice Fang, hating herself for being so terrified of the mere idea of meeting with her distant kin. "No! Stop being afraid, you moron, you have a responsibility to your people, and you must...

Foulsnout almost dragged the wolf hag to the barracks. Aranea was too tired and confused to move on her own correctly. Interrogation of wyrms sucked the last bits of vitality that she still possessed.

"Warlord, wolf hag," The smiling Alek welcomed the duo, standing at attention. He was without armor, underneath his clothes were visible bandages. The lens on the metallic part of his face was missing, broken armor glass was removed from his empty eye socket, fresh stitches were on his neck and flesh cheek. The metal side of his face bore crude slashes, "With Ursico and others out, I am sort of looking out for the remains of your group, while you were away. Told ya, that Ursico can’t die, the man had his liver crushed. A metal spike hit him in the heart and yet medics say that he will be out by the end of the month!"

"Thanks, for your help, sergeant. Aranea is a bit too exhausted, "Foulsnout chuckled underneath her helmet, dragging the wolf hag to the bed. Aranea weakly asked how her pack was doing while she was away.

"Licking their wounds, cleaning their weapons. Anxious that no leaders are present. Worried about the ones who decided to get augs. One had a nervous breakdown, it was her first battle and with shit like this… Well, you get the idea. Her friends and a few others all got themselves drunk, so this problem was resolved…" Alek became silent as Valerye gestured to him to be silent.

"I still have more than an hour left," Warlord said in a kindly voice, putting Aranea onto bed, "You sleep, I will take care of everything."

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