Dragan's eyes flicked open. The dark stone of a cave loomed above him -- and in the distance, he could hear echoed whispering.

Was he dead? It certainly felt like it. His entire body was screaming at him, as if every nerve was trying to break away and make a go of it for themselves. His body temperature was shifting, rapidly, from a burning fever to an ice-cold chill. His body was trying to fight off what had happened to him, but it couldn't quite work out how to do it.

So it was trying all the usual tricks. Lucky him.

"You've looked better," came a voice from his side. Sockets stinging, Dragan flicked his eyes over to look at the source of the voice.

Bruno sat on a nearby rock -- covered up with a threadbare blanket -- his chin in his hands as he regarded Dragan.

"Where am I?" Dragan groaned, lifting his own hand up to rub his forehead -- only to immediately regret the exertion and lay it back down on the makeshift bed beneath him.

"Rebel camp," Bruno replied, curt. "Ruth got you back here after you did that Aether burn -- which was stupid, by the way."

Dragan sighed. "It was necessary."

"Doesn't mean it wasn't stupid."

Fair enough.

Indeed, now that he was feeling the aftereffects of an Aether burn for himself, he had no desire to ever do it again. Bruno and Serena had done this on Taldan, and had been back on their feet not long after. Dragan hadn't quite realized how impressive that was until now.

Still, there were more important things to be concerned about than Bruno's position in Dragan's imaginary tier list.

"Rebel camp?" muttered Dragan, Bruno's words replaying in his head. “What, so there's rebels and everything now?"

"Apparently," Bruno nodded. He didn't seem any more enthusiastic about their current situation. "And we're being hunted by the ruling government, in case you were curious."

Dragan squeezed his eyes shut. Now that he was thinking about it, being unconscious really hadn't been that bad at all. He sort of missed it

"Sounds like a pain in the ass," he finally replied.

"It is," Bruno said -- and from the sound of his voice, Dragan could tell that he was nodding. "Skipper's here, too -- he's still unconscious, though."

Dragan's eyes flicked back open. "Unconscious? How long has it been?"

"Since we crashed here? Two days, around."

"Shit," Dragan hissed. It wasn't a good sign if Skipper was still out. Not that he really cared or anything, but it didn't bode well for his health.

Bruno raised a hand placatingly, no doubt mistaking the irritation on Dragan's face for concern. "Don't worry," he said. "One of the rebels here has a healing ability. They're keeping him stable. He's mending -- slowly, but still mending."

Dragan sighed in relief. There was that, at least. He looked up at the rock above and sniffed the wet cave air.

"So," he said at last. "Where's Ruth?"

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Ruth traipsed through the woods behind Lily, hands stuffed into her pocket and her gaze cast down to the ground. It felt strange to be nervous around someone younger than her, but this was an uncomfortable situation to be in.

"So he's not dead," Lily hissed, ducking under a tree branch as they moved forward on the patrol.

Truth be told, the girl probably should have still been receiving treatment, but Ted had apparently reached the limits of his control over her.

Ruth sucked in air through her teeth. "Things got complicated -- that thing you told me about, the red-and-blue thing you saw under the monastery, it came after us."

Lily hesitated just a second, her hand resting on the tree trunk next to her. "It did?"

Ruth nodded. "Nearly killed us. It was strong. We weren't in any shape to go back and finish things up."

The glare Lily cast back at her could have frozen fire. "Go back?" she asked. "Why would you need to go back? You should've done it while you were there without fucking around."

The girl didn't wait for a response -- instead continuing her march through the woods, reaching a clearing from which the slopes of the mountain could be seen. Far, far below, the tents of the Regulator's war camp could be seen.

Since the Regulators had stepped up their hunt for the rebels, they'd been forced to relocate further away from Coren -- making a temporary base in the caves of this mountain, Abrais' Peak. It was a huge piece of geography, covered in forests and overgrowth, perfect to hide in.

But even that wouldn't last forever.

"How soon until they start climbing, d'you think?" Ruth muttered, looking down at the tiny dots that must have been soldiers.

Lily scowled. "Not long. They don't waste time once they've set up an operating base. The old guy you captured squealed quick -- but since they've changed up their strategies now, the intel we got from him isn't of much use."

The unspoken accusation -- you messed it up -- was practically beating its fists against her words.

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Ruth ignored the obvious hostility. "You got a plan?"

"I'll think of something."

"Like what?"

Another freezing glare. "I don't know yet. I haven't thought of it yet."

A sigh escaped Ruth's throat. She'd never thought she'd miss Rupert Grave, but at least his resistance had been properly planned out. Improvisation was good for a single fight, but when waging a guerilla war you needed someone who could plan ahead.

She bit her lip as a thought occurred. He'd only just woken up, and it would increase his ego to apocalyptic levels, but…

"I think," Ruth said reluctantly. "I might have thought of something."

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"Let me get this straight," Dragan smirked as he forced himself into a sitting position.

Lily and Ruth were standing before him -- Dragan hadn't met the leader of these rebels yet, and he had to admit she wasn't what he'd expected. Ideally, a resistance would have a leader with some kind of military experience, who looked like they knew what they were doing -- not a teenage girl who looked as if she'd never seen a comb in her life.

Still, her eyes were firm. On the inside, at least, she seemed to know what she was doing.

Bruno lingered at the entrance to the cave, arms crossed as he leaned against the stone wall. His eyes were closed as if he were resting, but it was clear that Serena would jump out of him at the first sign of danger. With the amount of stone here, she'd have no difficulty creating strong weapons.

Ruth rubbed the bridge of her nose with two tired fingers. "Could you not?" she sighed.

Dragan frowned. "Not what?" he asked with devilish innocence.

"Can you not do the thing where you say let me get this straight," Ruth replied -- doing her best to make her Dragan impression as dopey as possible. "And then you go over our plan and make it sound really stupid, and then you agree to do it anyway."

Dragan's frown deepened. "Did you read ahead in the script or something?"

"If you're going to do it," Lily snapped, tapping her foot impatiently. "Then do it. Stop wasting my time."

"Of course," Dragan nodded respectfully -- and a second later, the smug smirk returned to his face. "So let me get this straight, you've gone and gotten us trapped inside a mountain while the people wanting to kill us surround us on all sides."

Lily sniffed, jerking her head in Ruth's direction. "Isn't me who got us trapped."

Dragan ignored the jab. "And now, the next step of your master plan is to approach some guy you've never spoken to before and ask him to come up with a plan to save you, because his friend says he's real smart."

"It's more than that. From what Blaine says, people like you are beyond smart, even if they're assholes." Lily's eyes narrowed. "You won't do it?"

The aching in Dragan's body reached its zenith, and he was finally forced to lie back on the bed. He rolled over on his stomach to continue looking at the others, looking for all the world like a sea lion peeking over a rock.

"Well, of course I'll do it," he chuckled, with confidence not suited for his bizarre position. "I just hope you appreciate how stupid it is."

The slightest smile played across Ruth's lips. Had she really thought he wouldn't do it? He'd die too if these assholes caught up to them. He wasn't so petty that he'd let that happen.

"So," Dragan said, the gears of his mind already beginning to churn. "We've got Regulator forces surrounding the mountain on all sides. I can't imagine they've got enough guys that there's a full perimeter, though -- so there's big war camps with smaller patrols running between them, right?"

Lily blinked. "Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly it. Did someone tell you?"

"Nope."

Her eyes widened. "That's…"

Dragan's smirk spread into a grin. "Spooky, right? What's their commander like? They've been chasing you for a while, from what I understand -- given the timeframe since our escape, I doubt they'd have put someone else in charge yet even if they wanted to."

Lily spat on the ground. "Their commander? Dickhead named Nael Manron. Sanctimonious true believer type. He's been after us for months now, but never this close."

Sanctimonious true believer type, huh? An unwelcome image of Atoy Muzazi drifted into Dragan's mind. He'd hoped he was done with that man back on Taldan, but if this Nael Manron was anything like him, that actually worked in Dragan's favour.

After all, Atoy Muzazi was an instrument that Dragan knew how to play.

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Nael Manron flipped through the scouts reports with his hands, eyes scanning through each page in seconds. Nothing he saw there was outside his expectations, unfortunately.

The captain of the scouts and his personal aide, Grena, shifted uncomfortably in front of him, her feet tapping against the ground. That was only natural -- the green-haired girl had been one of the forest folk before joining the Regulators, and preferred to move through the trees than stand around. He'd send her back out before long; he had no desire to extend her discomfort.

He reached the end of the stack of papers, putting them down on the desk in front of him. "And you saw no sign of them either, Grena?" he asked.

The scout shook her head, her thin straight reachers audibly swishing through the air with the movement. The dark-green poncho she wore for camouflage rustled as well -- looking at her and hearing her was truly like seeing the forest personified.

"No trace," she signed hurriedly with her hands. "But they came here. Are here. I can smell them."

That was more than superstition -- before the war, the forest folk's keen sense of smell had been well known. If Grena was certain they were here, he was certain.

Nael sighed as he adjusted his red long-coat, running a hand over his ringed reacher and through his pale-white hair. As one of the youngest Regulators of his rank, he'd been trusted with this assignment, but the length of the odyssey was proving truly exhausting.

And then there had been the visit from Aka Manto. A shiver ran down Nael's spine -- that Guardian Entity had appeared while he was resting in bed, hovering inches from his face. It truly had no sense of decorum.

The Head Regulator wanted this matter resolved as soon as possible. How much more would he tolerate?

As Nael considered his immediate future, the entrance to the tent twitched -- and a moment later, a red-faced junior Regulator stumbled on, hurriedly saluting.

"Sir!" he exclaimed, clearly out of breath. "There's a… there's…"

Grena took a protective step towards Nael, but he raised a hand of placation -- he knew his aide was always wary of assassins, but he had nothing to fear from this young man.

"You speak to a friend," Nael said calmly. "Catch your breath."

The junior Regulator nodded, taking a few deep breaths to calm down. Then, they continued:

"It's the enemy leader, sir. They've come to meet with you."

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Dragan Hadrien was beginning to think this was a very bad idea.