Where we gather and where we learn,

We must blacken, and we must burn, else

The Tower’s witnesses bring

The Tower’s illnesses

To those within.

We struggle to uncover the buried,

To return the world to the varied, from

The Tower’s tyranny and

The Tower’s heresy

To what it once had been.

We fight against the absolute,

The Tower’s stranglehold.

The grasp to keep all mute

And to reduce the fold.

-From the original address of Siegfried the Sighted to the Blackened Sanctuary.

“Hold still.” Vefir’s voice interrupted me from responding to the Bloodpriestess, and as I felt myself get drawn in by her eyes once again, I was ripped from that reverie as he yanked the barbed arrow from my right shoulder. I hissed in pain as his magic immediately soothed the surge of agony and began to restore the flesh ripped away by the barbed arrowhead. “You’ll damage yourself worse if you keep moving with it still in there like that.” He began to toss the offending weapon away, but I reached a hand out for it. I held it in my hand and lamented the losses of our poleaxes as I turned back to the apparent leader of our saviors.

“I am sorry.” I chewed the words as clearly as I could out of my unsuited maw. “I am the only one who can understand you. Thank you for saving us.”

“Didn’t save you for you.” She responded, her own snout and large canines obviously uncomfortable with the language. “We hate the warlocks,” She spat the word, “and I could use you to spite them. Nothing more. Now that you’ve lived up to your use, though, you must prove your value or die.”

“I… what do you mean?”

Ana’s eyes literally flashed from milky white to purple, and I could see a couple other pairs of eyes in the surrounding forests do the same. “The Mother does not support the weak, nor the foolish. If you are not more valuable alive than your blood offering would be, then you will have value in offering your life’s blood. I do not care in which of the two forms you can serve.”

“Please allow me to consult with my swarm, as they cannot understand us.” I said after a pause.

She flicked her long middle finger at me, apparently giving her permission. As I turned to the vestiges of my swarm, Sybil immediately asked, “I did not understand all that was said. Are we to understand that we are still in danger?” Her obvious anxiety led her to ask questions much more quickly and easily than she would have otherwise, and though I wished I could, I only rolled my right shoulder, the pain having faded to an ache.

“We need to prove our value to them. Or they’ll kill us.”

Brutus and Took both squared their shoulders and began low, threatening snarls that bubbled deep in their chests, and many of the swarm began to echo the sentiment as they set up in an outward facing ring. “WE CANNOT,” I exclaimed, bringing their focus back to me, “face them and survive. These are their grounds, and we do not know them. If we tried to run back across the river, we'd be slaughtered there. There is only one chance for survival. And we will do whatever it takes to survive.” In my desperation, I remembered Vefir’s own Speaking of the Words of Power, how he saved Sybil’s life. “I am the peak that casts the long shadow!” Nothing. No feeling of sacred power, no [System] notification that could help with the still waiting Bloodpriestess Ana. Speaking of the [System]...

Administrator, why was there nothing while we were being chased? Once they got close to us, the few times I hoped for answers, I got nothing!

[Any individual System user cannot receive any advice or immediate growth whilst in direct conflict with another System user.]

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

So one of those High Speakers was humankind’s [System] user? The thought sent a shiver down my spine. With so much time to research the deepest depths of the [System], they’d have such an advantage over me.

[I can offer you no further information except for this reiteration: your individual Systemic guidance cannot give any advice or growth while in direct conflict with another user.]

So you cannot give any specific detail or advice regarding another [System] user to me?

[Correct.]

Nievtala bless me with wisdom. That was a worry for later, though, as I looked at the Bloodpriestess and she obviously no longer was willing to wait for me. I began to stalk forward, and two of the other furred people stepped forward with a strangely birdlike chirp warning as I did so. Nervous, I took one more step forward as their eyes flashed red before I bowed. Even with a deep bow, my nearly seven-foot frame stood taller than her, and I spoke.

“Thank you for your patience, Lady Bloodpriestess. I am the one called Ashlani, Alpha of this swarm… if we still merit to be called as such. We owe our continued existence to you and yours, and thank you for it.”

Ana’s too-large eyes flashed purple once again before she inclined her head back to my own. “I have Looked on you, Ashlani, and I call you Saharliard, a scaly friend.” The way she said Looked communicated a depth I didn’t understand, so I simply nodded in response. The Bloodpriestess continued, “I stand by my declaration, yet I hesitate to call your companions such.”

Ana deliberately looked into my eyes again and again, and though her gaze lacked the absolute magnetism of before, she still commanded my attention. I’d thought her about to continue her thought, but instead, she looked at me more. Her eyes faded from their usual gray to a pure white, and while she continued to stare, she said nothing. The conversation had stagnated as she looked at me expectantly, so I ventured to speak once more.

“... I must ask that you forgive my unfamiliarity with the rites and customs of your people. My own are a more direct lot. My–”

“You say my people are not direct? You reveal to us your unfamiliarity in calling us profaners of the truth.” Bloodpriestess Ana’s eyes literally glittered, the white flaring to a vibrant scarlet and yellow, a starry light gleaming from within them, and her previous subtle smile was replaced by the beginnings of her baring her teeth. I was struck by the reality that she and her squad would leave us all as corpses upon the ground with the smallest provocation. I swallowed dryly.

“I meant no offense. I simply meant that my people do not assume intelligence among others. We are, unfortunately, as a whole, a somewhat dim-witted people.”

Ana’s eyes ceased their vaguely threatening yellow tint and shifted once more to purple while her smile returned as if she’d never threatened my extinction. She twirled her index finger, gesturing for me to continue my thoughts.

“What would qualify my companions to be called Sa… Sahaliad?”

“Saharliard, Ashlani. You could vouch for them, if you proved yourself fahvalo, an honorable foe.”

“But I’m already a Saharliard, a scaly friend. Isn’t an honorable foe lesser than a friend?”

Not only Ana, but for the first time, all around me came true vocalizations that I supposed were laughter. The warriors all around me made the same “Hoop” sounding laugh, but just for a brief, single moment. The swarm behind me startled and bristled once more at the sudden, unnerving sound. I gestured for them to calm and gather themselves back together as Bloodpriestess Ana began to explain.

“Ah, Ashlani, that isn’t so. A friend is one who occasionally does good things for you. Perhaps they will give you some of their meat, or give a gift when your children are birthed. An honorable foe, however… will hone you. They will shape you. They will change you to your best form. They will pit their strengths against your weaknesses while you put your strengths to their weaknesses. You both glory in it as the struggle will draw from you depths of self-understanding and desperation and growth that a friend can never offer. A friend is one you share meals with. An honorable foe is one you share scars with.”

I nodded slowly, understanding her point. “Then… to prove I am fahvalo… I must show that I am a suitable stone upon which to sharpen yourselves?”

“You prove yourself a capable learner, Saharliard Ashlani. Do you wish to prove yourself fahvalo?”

“And the other option is to pass through your lands and leave my swarm here to be slaughtered at your hands?”

“I would offer them death at the fifth finger, an honorable shedding of their blood for the Mother. But yes, their ends would be as sacrifice.”

“Ok, then I guess I need to prove myself to you. How?”

The grin that crossed Bloodpriestess Ana’s face was positively vulpine as she lurched into her unnerving rushing gait forward and entered my personal space.

“Oh, I am glad that you have chosen the path of honor. You could not have remained Saharliard if you were to have abandoned your swarm to the Bloodsoaked Mother Narsha’at.”

With that, I had passed the first of the Moonchildren’s tests.