Annie turned on the terminal and connected it to a wide display. The display blinked for a moment, before a black square flashed with colors, showing a brightly lit hospital palace. In a spacious room stood a single hospital bed, with soft white pillows and white sheets. On the other side of the room was a window, showing the bright day outside. Judging by the shadows falling from the window, Annie decided that a tree must partially block the sunlight. A small dresser stood near the entrance door. A bunch of purple balloons, with a golden script "Get well soon" on them, were tied to the bed. The pack of Ultis asked Annie to buy them for their leader, and Annie did so, asking hospital personnel to deliver the balloons to the patient.

Ultis herself sat on the floor, in a space between the bed and the window, hugging her own knees and swaying slightly back and forth, looking both small and vulnerable at the moment. A white hospital robe was on her, around her thick neck was a pristine white bandage. The scout tried to ensure that the shadow of the bed covered her constantly.

"Get well soon, Ultis," Annie said, looking into the scout's angry eyes, "How are you?"

She asked the doctors, of course. Wolfkins could heal almost any injury, but even they couldn’t regrow the lost organs. The insides of the scout still bore the marks from the time when she clawed out the bomb from her womb and her vocal cords were horribly damaged. The doctors admitted to Annie that it was a miracle that Ultis could even speak before. Several of her bones were deformed, either from harsh living during the Wolf Time or from her time as a slave. The operation was declared to be a success, but unlike with Annie, the damage to Ultis’ body was far from recent and needed proper care to heal properly. The doctors intended to keep her for at least half a month in the hospital to ensure that her body fully recovered. The scout was less than happy with this development, soon attempting to refuse to even leave her room for the recreation procedures. The doctors tried to contact Dragena, but instead it was Alpha who answered the call. In the absence of Dragena, Alpha was overseeing both packs. Ultis no longer dared to resist the doctors and obeyed them in everything after a single call from Alpha.

"Wolf hag," Ultis looked up and spoke in an unusually deep, calm, and assured voice, "How is my pack?"

"Training," Annie responded. Seeing the eyes of Ultis, she decided to speak the truth, "Tarco got his ear torn in a dispute with Uka. Nothing serious, Svetlana assured me that there would be no scar when it healed. I assigned Uka to clean up the toilets for a month to cool off her temper."

"Uka is too harsh on him," Ultis complained, "Boy is a bit slow, true, but he never falters in combat. I will have to remind Uka that mentoring others is not her duty upon coming back. Thanks for the balloons, by the way. Give my thanks to them as well. Permission to speak freely, wolf hag?" Ultis asked. She stopped swaying and looked at Annie, allowing anger to disappear from her eyes.

"Of course."

"I hate it, hate it, hate it…." Ultis mumbled quickly, resuming her swaying, "I am all alone here, these blasted ice boys continue to waltz in, trying to "socialize" with me as they say, the doctors keep taking me for checkups and I lie on a bed, while they poke me, study me, check all parts of my body even… I want out!" She almost screamed. "I want out before they put something inside of my body and rob me of my freedom again. Please, Annie, get me out of here, please, my body will heal on its own, please. I need…Everyone."

"Ultis, you spent nearly a month infiltrating Hilda’s arena. And you were fine…" Annie tried to reason with the scout.

"Who says that I was all right? I was scared shitless of making a mistake! All I wanted was to relax and calm down after the mission… And now I am all alone, with no one whom I trust to watch over my back when I sleep! And these "cousins" of ours… I am sure that some of them were in the nearby room on purpose!" Ultis replied, looking around with wild eyes, "Recovery, as if! At least one ice boy is there each time I want to use the training room. No coincidence, no coincidence at all!"

"Ultis, this hospital serves as a primary healing facility for the Ice Fang order. It’s a little wonder that some of them are here. You are an adult, please act like…" Annie tried to call for the dignity of her soldier.

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"Screw you, I am an adult who is freaking out!" The scout replied bitterly, "I don’t like this place. It smells just like the place where I received a slave collar."

"All hospitals smell the same. Ultis, the Ice Fang order won’t harm you. If nothing else, because we, no… Because you saved one of them!"

"Oh yeah? Then why can’t they leave me alone?" The scout asked skeptically, "A freaking sword saint came to thank me for saving his great-granddaughter. I think that he was speaking of Ulrica. I told him to please leave me alone and the dude asked me what he did to insult me instead of leaving!"

"Ultis they are simply grateful. No one is plotting anything, stop acting paranoid."

The scout took a long breath and raised one finger, "Okay then. Let’s play your game, Annie. Name to me one good thing that came out for you after the interaction with the Ice Fang order."

"Well…" Annie started to think, desperately wishing to come up with something, "They paid the doctors to fix my back…" Ultis continued to burrow the wolf hag with her eyes, "Yes, I sorta got injured in the first place just because of them …" Ultis threw her arms up and Annie cursed to herself. She only told Carty, Kayleen, and Ultis about why she left Svetka’s home so early. The wolf hag never expected that this would come to bite her in the ass.

"Every time wolfkins of two tribes meet, it is us who get the short end of the stic…" Ultis fell silent, hearing the sound outside the door.

The door opened and a tall figure entered the room. Sword saint Camelia looked as gorgeous as ever, dressed in a pristine white business suit. A single purple sash was around her waist, as a gesture of respect, the sword saint left her weapon elsewhere upon coming into the room. Her every move was elegant and restrained, yet the sword saint looked at the scout with a calm determination on her face.

"Demon!" Ultis jumped in the air, landing on her feet and pressing her back against the wall. Her eyes glanced around the room, looking for a way out.

"I've had enough," Camelia calmly said, looking down at the smaller scout. She briefly looked at Annie, nodding to her in greeting, before turning to Ultis. The sword saint came close, but still stopped an arm’s reach away from the scout, "The doctor told me that you need help to get rid of constant stress. The Planet is my witness, we tried to be as gentle as we could. Time for a different approach. Get yourself dressed, Ultis."

"Why?" Ultis asked in a weak voice.

"We are going shopping. You, me and young Ulrica, we are all going to spend this day relaxing as ladies should."

"I am not wasting my tokens on this!" Ultis shrieked in panic, "My tokens are for buying a rejuvenation shot!"

"No one is asking you to pay for anything," Camelia looked down on the scout, standing at the respective distance, "All expenses will be covered by the Voidrunner household."

"Lies! I bet you want to trick me into choosing a bunch of stuff and then you will present me with a bill," Ultis blurted out the words quickly, still looking around and trying to look small, "Give me an official contract under which I will not be charged for any of the stuff we buy."

"Ultis, don’t make me come over there and strangle you." Annie growled, feeling embarrassed about the behavior of her subordinate before her cousins. She calmed down, upon remembering her own panic upon encountering the sword saint. She admitted to herself that the only reason she was not afraid of Camelia anymore was because they were speaking through the screen.

"It is fine, Annie. We are well aware of the peculiarities of lady Ultis’ character by now." Camelia briefly looked at her before producing a list of papers out of the pocket of her suit. She gave it to Ultis, and the scout spent several minutes, carefully reading what was written on the paper. Ultis took a deep breath, visibly relaxing, and ran a paw over her head.

"A moment," Ultis charged past the sword saint and produced a terminal from the bed. The scout checked something and finally nodded, "Copy was sent to the command, now you can’t weasel out. Good enough, give me a couple of minutes."

"Wait, that is all?!" Annie demanded to know.

"Always read the contract, Annie." Ultis waved her finger while Camelia left the room, "You never know what sort of trap you can get yourself into if you sign something without reading."

"The hell are you so calm all of a sudden? What about your fear?!" Annie looked at the scout in a mild shock.

"Eh, free stuff is free stuff. Fear can wait." Ultis shrugged her shoulders, walking to the dresser.

"I am going to strangle you," Annie promised, feeling how the vessels in her eyes were about to pop from pure anger. Her terminal gave a blip sound, indicating that a copy of the contract that the Voidrunner household made with Ultis had arrived. Annie felt how her whole body was slowly becoming red from embarrassment. She forced herself to be calm and smiled, "Have fun, Ultis. And… Sorry about forcing you to be stuck out there."

"I’ll live. Just… Call me from time to time, ok? It’s freaky all alone here, still." Ultis replied before ending the connection.