Vanaka grabbed at empty air. Saketa was gone. She stood still, staring dumbly at the spot. Then she turned around, looked at everyone, and took out her comm.

“I don’t think she will answer,” Fredrak told her calmly.

She put the device away. Of course he was right. Damn it.

“We need to go!” Ayna said. “I don’t like the sound of all that noise!”

“And the police will have questions about a massacre,” Losan pointed out.

“Yes,” Fredrak said, just before he turned to face the building and slipped his goggles back on.

“No camera system, that I can tell,” he announced. “So we’re good on that one. “Let’s go.”

Vanaka delayed for a second, wondering if she might have left anything incriminating behind. But the fighting stick was in her hand and she’d had no reason to drop anything inside that charnel house. So she followed on Fredrak and Ayna’s heels, and Losan came with her.

They passed the three dead bodies in the yard. Presumably those people had been the first to die in this assault. Two of them were either bisected or near enough.

This was all a lot to take in. That assault on the hideout had been meant to be it for excitement on this night. Now this. A massacre. She didn’t know what was happening inside her own head, or how the churning formula of emotions would turn out once she had time to feel things again.

Up ahead the Dwyyk and the baseline came to a sharp stop, and looked in each direction on the street before the Tanga. Something was up, and it made her shift the stick back into a fighting grip.

Losan sped up just enough to precede her into the street, and a second later she saw it for herself: It was a mob. The kind of angry, belligerent throng that had been making the local news since the moment she came planetside. They were chanting something as they went, maintaining their own angry energy, and many were waving weapons.

Another group just like it was coming down from the other side of the street, at a very similar distance. They were chanting too. And they were both just close enough for Vanaka to notice several of them wearing those shoulder flaps.

The Purists were coming for the Tanga; triggered by the hideout assault or a planned coordination with those three super-killers… it didn’t matter. What mattered was not being here when the two met. The problem was that there was no third route. Straight in front of the Tanga was a lengthy rowhouse.

“Ideas?” Ayna asked, with a slightly shrill quality to her voice.

The Dwyyk turned in a circle as she sought a solution. Fredrak took out his ‘grooming kit’ again, and Losan took his stunner in one hand and a fighting stick in the other.

“Back?” Vanaka suggested. She knew she could make it over the wall around the compound, but the others might be a bit of an issue.

“We can-” Fredrak started, and just then one of the mobs sped up.

There was a soft whoosh of air, and suddenly there were two more people, just inside the gate. No one yelped, but everyone halted in their tracks for a second.

The duo took a moment to realise the situation, then ran out onto the street. Vanaka took a step back, opened her mouth to say she knew not what, and halfway raised the stick, but the two split up to face each mob.

They both wore those distinctive black suits with red markings and carried curved swords with crimson blades. Additionally, the man wore a red capelet. They were Kalero Wardens. And each of them gestured forcefully at their separate crowd.

There was no visible energy. The Purists were just hit with a wave of force that blew them back like leaves before a strong gale. The chanting was replaced by groans of pain and bewilderment.

Vanaka looked at the Wardens, first the man, then the woman.

“Nara??” she exclaimed.

It seemed impossible, but it really was her; the Warden she’d met on Gorono. Her hair, the same screaming shade of red as Saketa’s, was even styled in the same braid.

The woman spared her a glance, and looked almost as taken aback as Vanaka. Then a roar drew both their attention in the direction of the other mob.

One of the Purists was up on his feet and was charging the male Warden. He had in his hands a plasma-axe, just like the one wielded by that sub-leader Saketa had slain.

Losan raised his stunner, but it was designed for self-defence and had negligible effective range. Fredrak had the ‘grooming kit’ in his hand and a readiness in his bearing, but seemed content to watch for now.

The Warden held his sword up as he stepped towards the Purist. He put one palm against the red blade and closed his eyes for a moment. Then, a moment before the axeman came into range, the Warden began his swing.

The sword cut straight through the axe blade, plasma and all, as if the man were chopping a cucumber. He then delivered a perfectly executed kick into the man’s face. That did it, and this time the Purist stayed down.

Vanaka looked away from that particular scene to see that Nara was coming her way.

“Vanaka,” the Warden said. “Greetings.

“Y-yes, greetings.”

“Wait, you two know each other??” Ayna asked.

“Yes, we met once,” Vanaka said to the Dwyyk. “I-”

The other Warden came over too.

“Pietr,” Fredrak said.

“Oh, it’s you.”

“Pietr!” Ayna said as well.

“You know each other??” Vanaka said.

“We met briefly…” Ayna said. “After Uktena Station. It’s a long story. Or maybe not. Look… nevermind. We-.”

“Where are they?” the one named Pietr asked.

“We felt certain energies,” Nara said. “And I doubt you four missed whatever just went on.”

“Two dead, one escaped,” Fredrak said, and pointed towards the Tanga. “If I understand you correctly.”

“Saketa went after them,” Vanaka said to Nara. “She was just here, seconds ago. She… did the vanishing thing.”

Both Wardens stood there in stunned silence for a moment.

“Saketa was…” Pietr began, then trailed off as he looked around with an air of frustration.

Nara, for her part, looked thoughtful.

“She is hunting the one those… disciples… answer to,” Vanaka continued, and that brought both of them out of their respective reveries.

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They looked at one another, and Vanaka caught something of a whiff of an internal secret.

“She believes this person is planetside?” Pietr asked.

“She was positive of it,” Fredrak said. “She claimed to have the information needed to track him down, but made herself scarce before sharing it.”

“Of course…” Pietr muttered.

“This is maddening,” Nara said.

She looked up at the city of lights in the sky, and it was only now that Vanaka realised it had shrunk considerably. The two Wardens shared a few quick words in their exotic, trilling language.

“They’re stirring,” Losan said to everyone.

The Purists were stirring. Clearly quite a few of them had suffered broken bones, but at least some seemed to be trying to get their bearings.

“We should relocate,” Pietr said. “At least a little.”

The two Wardens started walking without further conversation. Vanaka was happy to let them take the lead, and Losan of course followed with her. The other two made up the tail of their little train.

Pietr and Nara still hadn’t sheathed their swords, and Nara held hers out at the wretched, battered crowd as they passed them by. The woman was exactly as Vanaka remembered, and Pietr was the same, to a degree. They carried themselves with that air of danger that didn’t even seem to be a conscious statement. Like apex predators. Just like Saketa when they’d first met.

As they left the Purists behind, Ayna jogged up ahead to lurk behind Pietr. She seemed to be studying his sword.

“Um… look, how did you even do that?” the Dwyyk asked. “I don’t think even pure keramak could have gone through that ultra-axe like that and been fine.”

“A Warden’s will is their sword,” the man told her. “Focusing one is focusing the other.”

“Look, you two…” Vanaka said, and found herself stumbling. What was it about Wardens?

She cleared her throat.

“Why are you… I take it you are with the fleet? You are going to help in the assault on Ciinto Res.”

“There is no point in denying it,” Nara said, craning her head back to look at Vanaka. “Yes. We are with the Sixth Fleet. And it is leaving.”

“Witnessing history…” Ayna said with a nervous chuckle.

“And we are leaving with it,” Pietr added.

“Look…”

Vanaka ran ahead to get in front of them, and walked backwards.

“Look, you both: There is something wrong with Saketa. She’s not herself.”

“Oh, we know,” Nara assured her.

“And if her target is really so much stronger than those… th… disciples...”

Nara’s dark look made it clear that she understood just fine, and Vanaka stopped.

She thought of her brief glimpse of Saketa’s fighting inside the Tanga, and of her own and Losan’s engagement with the woman. She had been so fast, her blade weaving through the air like something in a nightmare. And she’d kept it right up, even after Vanaka had smashed her arm.

And that hideous buzzing noise. Like death and pain in raw form...

They stopped at an intersection of lesser streets. Vanaka gave Losan a hug, because he’d really earned it back there. Fredrak and Pietr talked, with the occasional butting-in by Ayna, calling back to whatever previous association they had. Vanaka, Losan and Nara were left a bit by themselves a few steps away.

“Can’t one of you stay?” Vanaka asked her.

Nara sighed.

“We are an important part of the battle plan,” the Warden told her. “We will be helping to handle the outer system fleet, freeing up a great many Alliance ships to go for the planet itself. Saketa’s quarry is important, but… this entire turning point is more so. Normally I would not leave this planet until I’d either found Saketa’s target or felt sure he’d left. But I have a duty to defend, and ending this war must take priority.”

She looked up at the dwindling city of ships. It was like some primitive timekeeping device, counting down until the Wardens’ departure. She then looked back at Vanaka.

“Saketa has many great qualities, and I love her, but she is her own biggest obstacle at times.”

“Isn’t everyone, really?” Vanaka said. She had no idea if it was wise or foolish, but nothing better sprang to mind. “Look, I am very worried about her.”

The Warden’s intense eyes looked her over in silence for a few seconds. Vanaka had no idea what the woman was looking for, and opted to not put on any kind of show for fear of getting it wrong.

Nara pointed at the other group.

“Those two have met Pietr, and the Dwyyk met Saketa. You’ve met her too, as well as me. And here we all are, on the same planet at the same time.”

“It is all… insane coincidence,” Vanaka said.

“It is.”

The Warden unfastened the sheathed sword from her belt.

“Please remind Saketa how I feel about those when you see her.”

“When… I?”

“We met only briefly on Gorono, but I was told how you conducted yourself once things got hard. You have proven you have it in you to do good things in the face of danger. I believe you will find Saketa if you are willing to meet the moment and apply your will. And when you do, give her the means to win this fight.”

Nara held her sword out to Vanaka. It felt surreal enough that it took her a moment to realise that the woman was indeed handing it to her. She wrapped her fingers around the scabbard, hesitantly, as if the Warden might suddenly take offence.

“Wa… what about the battle?”

“I will make do with the companion blade,” Nara replied, and patted the shorter sword at her hip.

Vanaka looked at the big sword, then back at the Warden.

“Isn’t this… sacred to your kind, or some such?”

“Well, you are not planning to pawn it, are you?” Nara asked. “I have faith Saketa will bring it back to me. And if something goes wrong… well, a Warden and her blade are not easily separated.”

“But… but I have no idea where she is going!”

“Since her quarry has been setting up a cult, he will have a lair,” Pietr said as he walked over. “A local outlet, shall we say.”

“There will be telltale signs,” Nara said. “Listen well: This will be a place of power, and it will have been such for a very long time. It will have old history on this planet, and probably ties to its mythologies and folk beliefs. It may very well have been a religious site at some point. And since it is being used in this fashion it will not be in public view.”

“Power disturbances in the surrounding area are quite likely,” Pietr said. “As is a recent rash of disappearances.”

“And surrounding flora will be damaged or dead,” Nara added. “Although that may not have been noticed by the wider world. If you can find where these points intersect, you can find Saketa’s quarry. And thus herself.”

Pietr turned to Fredrak.

“You are intent on seeing this through?”

“I have a mission to finish,” the man replied.

“You can work together, then,” the Warden said.

“I choose to put my faith in friendship,” Nara said.

She put her hand around one of Vanaka’s, and thus around the sword. She really wasn’t any less scary, but Vanaka did see the human being underneath all that.

“Will you do it?” Nara asked. “Will you find our sister and give her this sword, for the sake of friendship?”

Vanaka clutched the weapon tighter. The woman’s sheer, quiet intensity seemed to have a steeling effect.

“I will have to,” she said. “I will. I will look for her. I have some ideas.”

Nara nodded.

“Good.”

Pietr reached out and took Vanaka’s forearm for a moment. Then he took off his capelet and put his hand around Nara’s sword. Vanaka let him have it, and he wrapped the crimson garment around it, then handed it back.

“Give her both of these,” he said. “And now we really must be off.”

He seemed to direct that last part mostly at Nara, and she looked to the hovering fleet.

“We must,” she agreed. “Farewell.”

“Farewell,” Fredrak said to the group.

They each stood still and focused for a moment. Then they vanished.

Vanaka looked up, and wondered if a Warden emerged on the other side truly instantly, or if travel times were simply very quick.

“Well, our babysitters are gone,” Ayna said. “We should make more distance between ourselves and all of that.”

“We should,” Losan said, and they started walking.

“I can have Erine pick us up…” Vanaka mumbled distractedly.

Her attention was on the weapon in her hands. She knew, on a rational level, that considering her strength it might as well have weighed nothing at all. Carrying it around still felt… heavy.

The capelet, or whatever it was, was strange to the touch. It was very smooth, and almost put her in mind of some sort of rubber, except it didn’t stretch like rubber. Ultimately she couldn’t think of a material to compare it directly to. She unwrapped it just enough to be able to grasp the hilt, and pulled the sword free.

She had never trained with swords, and in no way had the knowledge to judge by any professional standard. But it sure was elegant. And the red colour truly didn’t seem to be painted, at least on the blade itself.

Vanaka sheathed it. What a night.

Ayna exhaled loudly.

“This is all ten different kinds of crazy!”

“Yes. It is.”

“Never mind any of that,” Fredrak said. “Let’s talk about what we need to do.”