Chapter 240: Chapter 237: Barbarians

As before, Ronnu didn’t mince her words, telling us how weak we were. By shifting back, I avoided her command - the fact that I could now speak even in my animal form, though not very well yet, being not something I thought would earn me points in her books - but that was it. According to her, my determination was my greatest strength, while Stella’s were her swords.

“What you have shown me is simply not enough to stand on the front lines,” Ronnu said strictly, making it clear that there was no arguing with her. Her mind was made up. “Keep your heads up, though! You’ll get your chance. You are now part of the 7th Rosicrucian Order. We take care of our people here. Knight Commander Stouch will introduce you to someone in our unit who is willing to show you a thing or two.”

We took her silence as a cue to speak. “Thank you, ma’am.” “Appreciate it, ma’am.”

She gave us a nod and then smiled to herself, the kind when you know it is the end of your shift, her eyes bright with the same kind of fervor. “Anything else . . . no? Then, dismissed, I’m off.”

And off she went, briskly returning to the comfort of her tent. Even now, knowing what to expect, I watched her with mixed feelings. The difference between the Traiana we knew and this one was surreal, leaving me wondering what had happened. Was it the battle to come? Or was it the millennia she had spent here that had changed her? The odds were that whatever they did to her to make her the patron of the Labyrinth, the guardian and guide, was the reason.

Anyway, there wasn’t much I could do about it, nor did Traiana ask us to.

“Palemoon, Grey,” Knight Commander Stouch spoke from behind a curtain of rain, scaring me once again. 

I tried to listen to our surroundings, I really did, for the very reason that he wouldn’t surprise me this time, but to no avail. The guy, short for a man and even shorter than me, approached us unheard, beyond the reach of my senses. At first I blamed the noise of the rain, but now I was sure it wasn’t that. I could hear others talking and walking, felt some of their stares on the back of my neck. Nothing from this guy. Sah could learn a thing or two from him, for sure.

Instead of pondering it further and staring like an idiot, I stood at attention, following Stella’s example. “‘Sir.’”

He stared at us hard, wanting to make us squirm in the dark about what we’d done wrong. Make us sweat under his gaze. Unfortunately for him, we already knew what he was like, so the only thing running down my back to my ass were drops of rain, not beads of cold sweat.

“Your faces. That’s what gets me every time - newbies,” he laughed as much as the last time, regardless of the fact that he didn’t catch us off guard as much.

“Don’t take this place too seriously, you two.”

The same advice we got last time.

“Look, I’m not saying you’re free to goof off and disrespect your superiors, but we don’t have to be so uptight here all the time, do we? We’re not on the battlefield. So relax a little.”

“Understood, sir,” Stella said.

“So do I, sir,” I added.

“Good, good to see you haven’t let the High Commander get to you,” he smiled, smoothing his wet mustache. “She tends to have that effect on the rookies. Anyway, welcome to the 7th Rosicrucian Knight Order. I am Knight Commander Stouch, one of the twelve commanders under High Commander Ronnu. If you have any questions, concerns, requests, anything, come to me and don’t bother the High Commander. That said, don’t let her get under your skin. Really! She can seem tough on her men - and she is. But it’s because she hates losing them on the battlefield. In fact, I’d say you’re lucky to be under her command.”

“We didn’t ask to be assigned here, but we are aware that we are, sir,” Stella said.

“Oh, you are?” The Knight Commander looked up, grooming his mustache. “What have you heard?”

“That the Seventh is the order with one of the lowest casualties, sir.”

“You’re right, Grey,” Stouch nodded at my answer.

“But don’t think for a moment that this is due to some stroke of luck or that we’re a bunch of gutless wimps hiding behind other orders. We fight on the front lines. We bleed like everyone else. It’s the readiness of every man and woman, backed by the leadership of High Commander Ronnu, that keeps us alive,” he stressed, then eased up, brushing the water from his mustache.

“Anyway, like I said, as long as we’re holed up here in the encampment, don’t take it too seriously. It wears on your mind when you have to be on edge all day, every day, for weeks, months, years. Now, let me give you a quick tour of the place,” he said, pausing at the sight of me. “Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea if you put some clothes on.”

I couldn’t help grinning. Not because I was enjoying standing there naked, covered only by my wings and tail, I wasn’t, but because of his remark - the way events were unfolding similarly to the previous cycle, despite what we had done.

Nevertheless, after I put my clothes back on, we were given the same tour of the facilities of the 7th Rosicrucian Order as the last cycle. We barely got a chance to use them back then. Something I hoped would be different this time. If only because of how good it smelled in the mess tent.

“Now, about where you’re going to sleep . . .”

I cleared my throat to stop him. “Sir, I’m sure you know about Rairok and us.”

“Yes? Go on, Grey.”

“Would it be a problem if we spent the nights - all our free time, really - in his lair? He’s willing to show us a thing or two.”

That took Knight Commander Stouch a little off guard. Yet once he caught on, the corners of his mustache lifted in a broad smile. “No, not at all. I like your enthusiasm. But has he really offered to . . . you know, teach you?”

“Yes, sir. He did.”

“The blood of his kin runs through her veins, sir,” Stella added to explain.

That gave him pause again, his eyes falling on me, only to shake off his wonder after a moment’s thought. “There are many rumors about Dia Eichenralke. Nice to see that you live up to the more honorable ones. If you keep this attitude, you will make fine members of the Seventh.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“And as for Rairok, sir?” I added to Stella’s over-politeness.

“Your word is one thing, reports another, but I like to confirm things myself. I’ll check with him and Knight Commander Tailut. If neither of them has a problem with it, I don’t see why I should.”

At the mention of the name of that obnoxious guy from the Cages, I winced, and Stouch didn’t miss it.

“Something the matter, Grey?”

“Sir,” it was Stella who spoke. “We didn’t leave the best impression on the Knight Commander.”

Stouch actually smirked when he heard that. “Not surprising. I’d be more amazed if you did.”

“We really pissed him off, sir.”

“All right, all right, I get it, Palemoon. Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime, unless you have more questions or something else to tell me, you should familiarize yourself with this place. I’ll get back to you as soon as I know more, both about your accommodations and your training.

With that, we were left alone, in the rain, without much to do. Going back to Rairok would mean risking more trouble with that obnoxious guy, and we had no one to train with. You could say it was the perfect time to get to know some of the people here. But that wasn’t my thing. Unless I had to, or fate didn’t throw them my way, I shied away from new acquaintances.

A shortcoming of mine that Stella knew all too well, I made no secret of it from her, from any member of Squad Four. So while I found a quiet spot, hidden from the rain under a tarp, where I could focus on my mana and presence in peace, she set out to get to know the Seventh better.

 

***

 

We ended up spending the night in Rairok’s lair without having to deal with that obnoxious guy. And this time out of the cages, sort of. Well, more precisely, not locked in cages. When we showed up, we found a tarp-covered cage with two bedrolls inside. How Stouch managed that was a wonder to me, but I was falling in love with the guy - if only he didn’t have a mustache, was taller, and wasn’t just a memory from the past.

And of course, if I wasn’t so messed up and just your average gal . . .

Anyway, he sent a knight, a woman, a messenger to us in the morning, saying he had found some knights willing to teach us. I was expecting two, one to show Stella some tricks with swords, maybe even her auras, and one for me to instruct me on how to be a shifter. Thus my surprise when Stella found herself under the guidance of three and I was faced with two.

A man and a woman, right out of barbarian flicks. No joke. They were both huge, wearing little in the manner of Ronnu. And honestly, they had nothing to be ashamed of, with their chiseled bodies, all muscle. The guy was three heads taller than me, his shoulders twice as wide as mine, with arms as big as my thighs. The woman, though a head shorter than him, was not far behind in build, like him with a six-pack so chiseled I could have sworn her stomach was carved out of stone. And her boobs . . . well, she could beat me to death with those things.

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Their physiques weren’t the only thing that spoke of their common origin, though. The lines of their faces and the way their hair was braided couldn’t have spoken more blatantly of the two of them sharing the same tribe - clan or something like that.

“You, Grey?” the man asked, and without a second of hesitation, I nodded. My instincts kicked in, screaming at me not to mess with these two. I may have considered myself a predator, and I was, except under their gaze, I felt like mere prey. They were both three-star knights, level three hundred plus. Actually, if my instincts were not wrong, the woman was halfway to four hundred and the man just a few levels shy of four-star status.

In other words, they were damn strong.

“What? A bird took your tongue?”

Didn’t she mean a cat? Anyway, differences in sayings aside, I straightened up even more. “No, ma’am. I just didn’t expect someone as strong as you to guide me.”

My attitude brought a grin to her face. “Looks like someone’s instincts aren’t half bad. That’s a good start.”

“Indeed, it is,” the man agreed, his arms crossed over his chest. “Most shifters have a hard time leaning on them.”

“That’s because a lot of them go wild when they do. But I say their fault.”

“And indeed, it is their fault. They failed to embrace the beast within them first. It’s like letting a beast out of its cage before you train it.”

Hearing him say that gave me pause. I wasn’t a typical shifter; I didn’t come to be one like others; I was forced into it. Shifter wasn’t even my class. It wasn’t what Deviant of Humanity was primarily about. Yet, from what I knew, accepting the beast within oneself was how people became shifters. Hence my confusion. How could they not embrace the beast in them if it was a core requirement to become a shifter? Perhaps they hadn’t accepted it nearly enough?

The woman chuckled. “Damn, you’re like a puppy. So easy to read.”

“I’m aware of that,” I said, clenching my hands in frustration. As much as I found it annoying that they could read me like an open book, it was only logical that they would be more than familiar with the body language of shifters. In fact, I was kind of hoping they might have some advice on that. “Sorry if it bothers you, ma’am.”

“Me?” The woman marveled. “It should bother you. I’m not the one flaunting her thoughts for all to see. And stop with the ma’am. It’s annoying. I’m Vienlin, Vienlin Steglas. Remember that.”

“I will. I definitely will. I’m Korra, by the way. Korra Grey.” Fucking great way to introduce myself.

This time, even the man laughed at my display of awkwardness. “Cute name - like you. Geranven Selarde. Everyone calls me Geran.”

“Cute name?” I had to ask; there was nothing cute about my name.

“It doesn’t have the right ring to it. Don’t worry, it’s our clan thing.”

“All right,” I said, wondering how they would react if I told them my full name with the best pronunciation I could manage. I quickly shoved the thought away. It wasn’t the time - but the end of the cycle might be different. 

“Back to your instincts,” Geran bellowed, grinning at my reaction to my ‘cute’ name. Wait, he called me cute too, didn’t he? A thought that must have been nipped in the bud, or else I would have died here in shame.

“As Vienlin said, a good start. Believe it or not, many one-star shifters still have trouble leaning on them. Makes me wonder if your lineage has something to do with it.”

“You’ve been told - what was done to me?”

“Sure,” Vienlin nodded. “That’s why we’re here. We found you interesting.”

Oh, a zoo specimen to stare at, huh? Not that I could blame them. 

“Of how many species are you? I smell four, you Geran?”

“Besides a human, two.”

“Seven . . .” I said, hesitating to say more. “. . . and a core.” If I was to learn as much as possible from them, they had to know who I was and what I was made of.

Vienlin whistled. “Damn, seven beasts and a core. You’ve met quite a lunatic. I’m surprised you’re still alive. Makes you all the more interesting, though.”

“Damn interesting,” Geran grunted in assent. “It makes me itch to see your beast form, but let’s not be too hasty. How have you dealt with your inner beast - well, beasts? Or are you still fighting them?”

“No, I’ve come to terms with what I am. I won’t say I’m fully comfortable leaning on my instincts yet - I’m afraid to go wild - but I’m trying to tap into the ancestral wisdom in them.”

“Good, those instincts are instincts for a reason. It is knowledge hammered into the bones and blood, passed down from generation to generation, honed to a fine edge. Don’t be afraid of them, learn from them. I hear you’re also learning from . . . Rairok, actually?”

“Yeah, his kin is one of the beasts whose blood runs through my veins.”

“Great opportunity, don’t waste it,” Geran said firmly, emphasizing the last words. “A good shifter is a shifter who has learned to be a beast - and where else but from the beasts themselves - while never forgetting that they are human.”

“Don't cling to your humanity,” Vienlin took over the lesson. “That’s one of the things that holds most shifters back. But as Geran said, don’t throw away your humanity all the way. Do that and you won’t come back.”

“I’ll go wild.”

“Yeah.”

“Have you seen it happen before?”

“More than once, unfortunately.”

“Such shifters must be put down,” Geran said with a heavy voice. “Since they are of both worlds, they are a danger to others as well as to themselves. They cannot live among humans nor beasts. Some will turn back into humans upon death, others will remain beasts forever.”

“I see.” They were so deeply gone that even death could not reverse their transformation.

The sudden snap of Vienlin’s fingers pulled me out of my dark thoughts and forced me to refocus on her. 

“On a lighter note, I hear your presence is rather impressive. Let’s see it.”

“Here?”

“Does it matter? Or do you need a special place? A condition?”

I ignored her remarks - attempts to taunt me. “No, it’s just that my control of it isn’t that great. I’m working on it, but . . . I don’t think I can target just the two of you. If it was just one . . .”

She waved me off. “Don’t worry about it, and just let it out - we’ll deal with the fallout, right, Geran?”

He nodded. “Sure. Give us your best, Korra.”

Reassured - though still feeling iffy about it - I gave the two of them a look, took a breath, and hit them and our surroundings with my five-hundred-level presence and all that went with it. Ripples spread out from me in the mud beneath my feet, and a gust of wind swept over the area around me. In the next beat of my death-bound heart, I jumped back, a shiver running down my spine, as they both bared their fangs and growled.

They weren’t about to attack, though. And I didn’t need my instincts to tell me that.

Both Geran and Vienlin were grinning from ear to ear, ecstatic.

My near cardiac arrest and their glee aside, seeing them like that an obvious thought I hadn’t considered before crossed my mind: ‘What the hell did humans even shift into?’

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