A week has already passed since Gharna, Azhul, Yenna and Oinna had left for Road's Turn, most likely already arriving there by now, but that was a minor thing on Michael's mind compared to the work he's signed himself up to do at the Tuskir village. The wooden walls of the village now had barbed wire looping on posts above the spikey ends of the wood pillars, slightly outwards. The terrain surrounding the place has been ever so slightly altered, by using Runhar's limited earth based magics, to make certain paths more bottle neck like. Other areas have been more heavily reinforced with harder to traverse vegetation, which also served as a good cover for pitfalls deep enough to twist ankles or break legs and with barbed wire thrown at the bottom, just for good measure.

Things were looking pretty well over all, Vodra and Nushii, two of the three Hay-yen captives, have also been keeping out of trouble, which only helped them keep their benefits of water to wash and drink and food to eat. Still, as with anything that involves captives, hiccups are bound to happen. As Nushii and Vodra were eating, after the slightly exhausting process of getting them them out of the cage they shared with Letra, the latter stopped herself halfway through her meal. The Hay-yen licked her teeth for a moment before she huffed looking over at Michael who was watching over them from a small distance.

"Daeman. I wish to make a deal with you." She said as her eyes stared from him at the plate in her lap.

"Hmm? Oh? That means you want something." Michael said rather monotonous in return, but there was a slight expression of surprise on his features, but the foreign facial structure would make it hard to read anyways.

"In private." She said in a lower tone, her eyes darting at Nushii who was more enraptured by the freshly cooked fish in her wooden plate, rather than the passive conversation.

Michael looked at Vodra squinting his eyes slightly before they darted towards Nushii and then towards the wooden cage with Letra inside, who seemed to be laying down. He got up with a grunt, his muscles sore from the constant week of physical work he's been putting himself through. He then silently approached Vodra and took from her the half eaten plate of food and sat it aside. "Spek, do me a favour and keep an eye on the other one while I do somethin', please." He said as he then grabbed the Hay-yen woman from under the armpit and helped her up.

"Don' worry boy, I got me eye on 'em all the time." The old Tuskir said with a huff as he nodded from his seat on a stool.

The young man nodded as he then grasped Vodra's chains and signaled her to go in the direction Michael usually took them when it was time for a wash. Only when they began moving did Nushii start to be aware of the movement around which made her follow the two with her gaze. "Is somethin' wrong?" She said in the direction of the two after clearing her throat from the food she was eating.

"No. I just thought you and your friend could use a wash again, it has been a few days since the last one." Michael replied back before Vodra could say anything. He then continued walking with the Hay-yen in front of him until they reached the usual washing stop. "Alright. This should be far enough... I am listening, but keep the distance, please."

The Hay-yen woman took in a deep breath and she then silently huffed out of her nostrils. "I want for myself and Nushii better livin' conditions and safety for what I be about to reveal to you."

"That will entirely depend on what it is you are going to tell me, but I am willing to negotiate. So, although you don't exactly have any power here, I am all for fair trades." Michael said leaning against one of the wooden buildings.

Vodra listened nodding and she let out a purred growl while contemplating how much of a good or bad idea this was. "Letra, the one you have been having problems with... she has been clawing away at one o' the bars for our cage, but her escape plan is born of hatred and desperation so, I know it will end poorly. If I didn't say anything about it, I know if it didn't work, all three of us would all suffer for her choices and our predicament showed me you aren't soulless, even though ya be a daeman..." Before she could continue Michael couldn't help himself but let out a small laugh, which made Vodra stop surprised.

"Sorry. But, I am not, whatever you think a daeman is. I mentioned it before, but I guess it was in a rather tense situation. Michael's my name. Remember?" The young man said as he could see Vodra's widening eyes show some form of surprise, even if he couldn't exactly read her Hyena like expression.

"Huh, right, Michael... You certainly could be one." She added in a tone of slight disbelief, but she quickly cleared her throat and her gaze refocused. "Anyways... like I was saying, I wished to avoid any additional conflict on this matter, so if you do anything about this, can it not be known I betrayed her secrets to you?"

Michael took a few silent minutes to think on it and he nodded to himself as his eyes looked into Vodra's. "Right. Well I will be honest, that is a mighty nice thing to offer up and it will certainly help us avoid an unnecesary situation, but... every resource we are expending on you and your friend is a resource we have to gather somehow, so I feel like I will need a bit more out of you, mainly, some information about your people."

Vodra's notrils let out a few heavy sighs as she nodded along. "I was expecting this... and I have been contemplating on it. If I tell you anything and they find out, I will be charged for treason of my own kin, but if I say nothing, I have to deal with either the consequences of the choices made by others, with being washed like an animal and sleeping in an open air cage. So... if I am doing this, I might as well, divulge all mine people secrets."

"Not a bad choice, because you see... Vodra? Was it? Vodra, I appreciate when someone can show their true colors. Some might think 'if you could betray them you could betray us', but the thing is, loyalty, true loyalty comes from a place of respect and care, and from what I heard from the Tuskir about your people, I don't think your kin really, does any of those things do they?" Michael said, intentionally dropping the hardened behaviour he kept around the Hay'yen before. "I want to know more about your people, you told me about what they believe in, I still need to know what they fight for, if you are willing, how they fight and most of all, what were their intentions regarding the Tuskir people, because I know there have been remote skirmishes before, but I have a feeling I might have just rattled a hornets' nest, because of our previous encounters."

Vodra looked at Michael a bit confused, towards the end of his speech. "I am not too familiar with the meaning of that last bit, but I can tell you all of those things, but you have to keep to your word, dae-... Michael."

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"Certainly, but if you don't want your friend... Letra? Right. If you don't want her to find out, we will need a bit of theatrics. You'll get a wash up, with cold water sadly, because we don't have time, Nushii will get a warm one and then when we return you to the cage, I will say, I want to inspect the interior to make sure it's clean or something and then I will... 'notice' the scratches. If she's been at it for a while I am guessing it will show on her claws. Then, for Letra's ears, I will ask the others if, for security reasons, we can move you and Nushii to a shed, which we will secure to make sure you can't leave and after we do repairs on the cage, Letra will be the only one left in it. But... to really sell it, we'll be filing down all your claws."

Vodra's eyes widened as she seemed to slightly recoil. "File them down?!" After a moment, a spark of understanding hit her. "If you only did hers, it might seem suspect to her, because why would you trust us more, unless we made deals without her knowledge... She expected me to say some things to earn us better food or conditions, but not to spill everything I know and if we don't collectively get punished, even if there's no evidence, she might feel like something is going on behind her back, especially with me and Nushii being moved to a shack..."

"Yes. So instead everyone gets 'punished' and I ask for you and Nushii to be moved and make it seem like I am doing it just to spite your friend and for security reasons. Then Letra doesn't suspect you and I am the only villain in her eyes." Michael added with a small impish smirk on his expression.

Vodra stood thinking a moment and there was just something on her mind, that was gnawing at her. "I know you are doing this to uphold our deal, but I still can't understand why, you would go through all this effort... why not deal with your hostages like any other would?"

"I would love to say, because I am not a cruel monster, but I did use the corpse of your friend to lure you in a trap... heh... well... because as much as it would be easier to do that, its truly because sometimes people fight not because they want to, but because they have to. I have no joy from seeing innocent people suffer, but neither do I care for others' people before myself and my own. The Tuskir are starting to warm up to me and I to them... I have no blood or kin of my own here so... I would like to start thinking of them as such. The Hay'yen seem to be killing them and others due to religious practices and honestly... when you follow someone like 'The Devourer' and your choices are to kill others or die yourself, well... I can see how some would do it out of necessity while others would become zealous killers in his name. Until now you and Nushii seem to be normal people, doing what you needed to, but that might be a farce, I can't know and I won't know until I see what decisions you will make." Michael said speaking as direct and frank as possible to Vodra.

"Huh... wise insight for someone who barely knows about us. What would you do if you were in our place? Born under such a cruel God?" The Hay-yen woman asked genuinely curious.

"Religion is nearly all the same, regardless of the Gods' names or the specific traditions. They either help you deal with life and help you with lessons about morality or it controls and supresses you, holding you with reigns of fear. If I were you, I would most likely do the same thing, but I am not, so here is a bit of insight to help you on your decision making about that." Michael's expression turned more serious. "What if you could choose what God you believe in? What if you could follow a different one? What says you must follow this one? Lastly, what if your Devourer is not real, what if Gods in general aren't real."

At this points Vodra was starting to look at Michael like he was dropped on his head and turned insane, but before she could say something in opposition, Michael continued. "I am not asking you to stop beliving, but to think, what if your situation wasn't like it is. My people learned of ways to immortalize moments so they can view them back later on. We believe in Gods too, but ever since we learned how to do that, our Gods seem to have stopped doing huge showy miracles, which they were known for in our history. Funny how that worked out, isn't it?"

"So you are saying Gods don't exist?" Vodra asked trying to understand, although the whole discussion felt weird, these types of ideas and concepts... nothing like this went through her head before and they felt... outlandish, heretical towards everyone and their Gods. 'What if...' Is what went through her mind as awaited an answer.

"Honestly? I used to believe there is a higher power up there, still do, that only got emboldened recently... but what I didn't believe were the preachers that spoke of what Gods said through them. The religious figures of my people say that our God is in everything, including us, but for a long time they also said that God only spoke through them, His chosen ones. So. I am choosing what I want to believe. If God, is truly in everything, well... I will listen to the world and those living in it for His words, not just one person. Think on it... now we will have plenty more to discuss later. Wait here a bit and don't move... I am going to grab a pot of water and ask someone to heat up another. Brace yourself for a cold wash." Michael added as he let go of Vodra's shackles plainly in place, she still had them on, but none of them were hooked or pinned in place.

"R-right... we can talk more later." The Hay-yen woman added as she looked at Michael, this conversation left her a bit confused. 'What if it is all a lie...' She thought to herself and then got surprised that she had the nerve to even complete such a thought in her mind. She looked at Michael and her slacking shackless pinned to nothing, but she didn't move. This moment might be the best time to attempt to break out, unsupervised and with shackless that gave her a bit of slack due to the chain lenght inbetween. As Michael turned the corner she noticed how he didn't even look back at her as he stepped away. 'He isn't even concerned I will try anything... Why don't I want to try anything? Do I even want to escape?' Vodra snarled under her breath at herself. 'Is there anything home that is better than here?' And as the Hay-yen woman thought about it... realization came to her. 'Its the same thing... But back home I couldn't see the chains.' She said as she pulled her arms slightly apart to make the chain rattle as the oval rings of it straightened in a line between her wrists.

++++

At The Hay-yen camp Vespertilia was stood in her tent, Lidaya once more summoned before her within the dimness of the shaman's sanctuary. "This will be your last chance to redeem yourself, understood? Scouts reported a good number of them leaving their home a while ago, specifically some of The Tuskir that you have seen coming to assist your quary, so they should be weaker. To ensure that you shan't fail me, I have brought you medicine blessed by me to assist you." The large Hay-yen shaman, said pointing at a small wooden box with vials in it, all of them filled with a dark purple substance that had consistency akin to slime.

The Stalk captain stood stiff and listened without a word leaving her, before her mistress finished speaking. "Y-yes your Excellency. I will make sure to bring in your quarry kneeling before you, as it is wished by The Devourer."

"Indeed, as it is wished by The Devourer." The woman repeated in a cold tone as she nodded towards the box, which Lidaya immediately headed towards to grab and take with her. Before the Stalk captain left, Vespertilia added. "Failure is not an option and haste is necessary. Make sure you mobilize by the next sun rise and that by the sun down you are descending upon them."

As Lidaya then made her way out, the shaman growled under hear breath as she clutched at the edge of her armchair's handle tightly. "Grrr-... not much time left... I am starting to run through my supply and I still need to find which one of these mutts dared to spy upon me. Damn it all... better inform the rest..." The woman said as she pulled out a crystal clear ball that began to light up a dull grey and within which she began peering. "Heh... at least Lidaya and her Stalk of bitches will make good puppets should they start failing." She said whispered as she laughed lightly under her breath.