It looked exactly how she remembered it. It had the same pure white fur, the same pale red eyes, the same massive paws, and the same cold aura. Their eyes almost met and she saw flashbacks of the night when she had seen it last.

“‘Ey Jerry, look!” said a voice to her right. The speaker was a red frog wearing a suit. “The new guy’s almost as big as you!”

There was a deep rumble as the elephant sitting in the corner started to chuckle. It stood up and walked over to the door to greet the newcomers, the ground shaking with every step. It stopped a dozen feet from the warg, and for a few seconds, the two just glared at each other. The entire room grew quiet, and the tension in the air was palpable. Then, the elephant laughed again.

“I like this guy,” it said. “Freddy, where’d ya find em?”

For the first time, Elise noticed that there was someone next to the Warg. She had gotten so tunnel visioned on it that she didn’t have the mental capacity to even remember that someone else brought it. The man next to the Warg looked human at a glance, but there was something about him that just seemed fake. He was too perfect.

He had long blonde hair and bright blue eyes and a jawline that most men would kill for. When he smiled, his teeth were so white they were almost hard to look at, and they were perfectly straight. He was wearing an extravagant suit, but she could tell he was well-built underneath it, and his posture and the way he carried himself spoke of absolute confidence.

“I was just taking a stroll through my territory and he tried to attack me,” said Freddy. “I almost killed him before I realized what he was. Walter, would you like to introduce yourself?”

“I Walter,” said the warg.

“I’m Jerry,” said the elephant, nodding its head. “Good to finally have someone I can relate to. It’s hard to get around when you’re as big as we are.”

“Walter get around fine,” said the warg. “Walter knock down tree in his way.”

Jerry the elephant laughed again. “Well, that’s one way to do it.”

A small crowd started to form around the warg as other members of Ostra introduced themselves to him. Meanwhile, Elise was still frozen in place on the table, staring in disbelief. The experience was surreal. There was the warg, Sylvanna and Corwin’s murderer not fifty feet away, and he was… talking? Making friends?

Why is there such a crowd around him? Where’s my crowd? Said a voice at the back of her mind.

Shut it, she replied.

“No matter how frustrated you might be, it’s never-”

You shut it too.

“Is something wrong?”

Elise looked up to see Jag looking down on her with a look that might have been concern. It was hard to tell, since he had the head of a jaguar, and there was blood from his steak dripping from his mouth.

“That warg- He’s- I’ve seen him before.”

“And I take it it wasn’t a pleasant encounter?” guessed Jag.

“No. He killed- he killed the people who were taking care of me.”

“Mmm,” said Jag. “I’m afraid it comes with the territory. I don’t know how many I’ve killed, and I don’t like to think about it. Most of us weren’t lucky enough to be born Fey. We had to become what we are the hard way. I hope you won’t hold too much of a grudge against him. He didn’t know what he was doing.”

What the hell kind of excuse is that? she wanted to say. He hadn’t evolved since she had last seen him, which meant that he was capable of higher thought when he killed the Grays. Sure, maybe he was new to it, and was still mostly ruled by instincts, but that didn’t change the fact that the Grays were dead.

Logically, she acknowledged that this revelation should make it harder to hate the warg, and made him more sympathetic, but emotionally, she felt the opposite. If anything, she hated it even more now. Whether it was sapient or not, it enjoyed killing the Grays. It enjoyed toying with her. And now she was supposed to forgive it because it didn’t know what it was doing? Hell no.

She kept her mouth shut though. Jag seemed to sympathize with the warg, and getting angry would only alienate herself from him, and that wouldn’t help anything. Her goal of revenge remained the same, and Ostra was just another tool she could use to get it.

“Let’s go meet them,” said Elise.

“Huh? Really?”

“Yes,” she said. “I can handle it.”

“If you’re sure,” he said. “Don’t force yourself.”

“I’m not.”

Jag stood up and walked, and Elise turned her wings on and flew into the air toward the crowd. By now, almost half the room was there with Freddy and Walter, talking and laughing. As soon as she was within range, Elise used {Inspect} on Freddy. If he was going to be protecting the warg, she needed to know what he was.

[ ???, lvl ??? ]

She didn’t even have time to be confused before the man’s smile slipped and his gaze snapped to her. For a moment, she was fixated by his cold, calculating gaze, then a moment later, he broke out into a wide smile.

“It looks like Walter isn’t the only newcomer we have today,” he said loudly. “My name is Frederic, but you can call me Freddy.”

Immediately, the entire room turned to look at her, including the warg. As soon as it saw her, the temperature in the vicinity dropped, and its lips curled up in a snarl. An icicle formed in the air above its shoulder, and for a second Elise thought she was about to die.

“Walter!” snapped Freddy. “No!”

The warg froze in place, and a second later, the icicle clattered to the ground. It took a step back, and its tail curled between its legs.

“What did I say about using your skills here?” asked Freddy.

The warg looked away from Freddy and spoke in a low voice. “Don’t… use skills here.”

“And what did you just do?”

“Use skills.”

“Why did you do that?”

“Rabbit break Walter leg.”

Freddy glanced at Elise. “The rabbit broke your leg?”

“Two leg.”

Freddy looked up at Elise again, with a glint of interest in his eyes. “Is this true?”

“Yes,” said Elise.

There was murmuring all around from the crowd. Elise felt a little proud of it. She knew that the others’ opinions of her had just turned from dismissive to respectful. She and the warg were newcomers, but it didn’t take a genius to deduce their general power levels.

“Fascinating,” said Freddy. “Why did you do that, and if you don’t mind me asking, how?”

“He was trying to kill me, so I tricked him into jumping off a cliff.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

She left out the rest. They didn’t need to know that she had a reason to seek revenge.

A few of the creatures around him started to chuckle, looking back and forth between her and the warg. Walter shrank back in shame.

“Walter, is she correct?”

“No,” said the warg.

“Walter…”

“...Maybe.”

“Then you should not be angry at her,” said Freddy. “Her response was reasonable. Do you remember what happened when you tried to kill me?”

“...Yes.”

“Then because you were in the wrong, you should apologize.”

“Walter sorry.”

“Not to me. To her.”

The warg looked her in the eye, regarding her with undisguised hatred.

“Walter sorry.”

He doesn’t mean it.

“Good job,” said Freddy. “And I’d like to apologize to everyone else here. Perhaps it was too early to bring him around.”

“It’s fine,” rumbled Jerry. “There was no harm done, was there? Just a bit of a scare and an interesting story.”

Some others around him made noises of assent.

“Well, if you’re all fine with it, then let’s not let this incident spoil the mood. Drinks are on me tonight!”

That statement was followed by a little bit of cheering and a lot of laughter. The drinks were already free, so his promise was moot, but the joke did a good job of lightening the mood. The crowd dispersed, returning to their original positions, leaving just Elise, Jag, Freddy, and the warg out in the middle.

“I never caught your name,” said Freddy.

“My name is Elise,” she replied.

Freddy smirked. “Elise?”

“Yes. Is there something funny about it?”

“Oh no. I’ve just never met an Elise before. Did Jag bring you?”

“Oh no, I’m just showing her around,” said Jag. “Emilia brought her.”

“Yes, I did,” said Emilia, drifting into the middle of their group. “I meant to introduce her to you myself, but it seems she beat me to it.”

“Where did you find her?” asked Freddy. “She’s an interesting one.”

“I thought you’d like her. She’s been living with me for a little over a month now.”

“Did you also know about Walter then?” asked Freddy. “Oh by the way, this is Walter. Walter, this is Emilia.”

“Nice to meet you, Walter.”

“Nice to meet you,” said the warg.

“And to answer your question, no I did not know about him.”

“That’s strange,” said Freddy. “Apparently they’ve met.”

“They have?” asked Emilia, looking at Elise. “Well, she hasn’t been living with me for long, and I know very little about where she was before she came to me.”

“Well, I’d love to hear the story then, but I believe that I’m running late,” said Freddy. “The meeting is about to start, isn’t it?”

“We pushed it back to give you some more time,” said Emilia. “We still have another half an hour.”

“Oh, wonderful,” said Freddy. “Then Elise, if you don’t mind…”

“Sorry,” she replied after a moment’s hesitation. “I’d rather not.”

Jag made a silencing motion with his paw behind her, and Freddy caught it, so his disappointed frown only lasted a moment before being replaced once again by his blinding smile.

“Then forget I asked,” he said. “If you’re here to join Ostra, would you like to sign the contract now? Apparently, I’ve got time, so if you want, we can complete the process right now.”

“I’d like to see the conditions of the contract first,” she said.

“Not a problem! Let’s find a table and I’ll go over it with you.”

They bid Jag and Emilia farewell, and after dropping the warg off with Jerry, they found the most remote table they could and sat down. Freddy was popular, and got greeted by absolutely everyone as they moved, but he also seemed feared, and once they sat down, no one else dared get within a dozen feet of them. Freddy produced a sheet of paper from thin air and set it down between them.

“The contract is quite simple, really,” he started. “All you need to do is not tell anyone that we exist, and show up to our meetings occasionally.”

“How occasionally?” she asked.

“At least once every three years. If you sign right now, you can disappear for two years and 11 months before you need to come again. Oh, and don’t worry too much about breaking that part of the contract. That part at least isn’t lethal. You’ll just feel a general, but growing sense of unease until you return.”

“Is the confidentiality part lethal?”

“No, but it is much more powerful. Should you break that part of the contract, you will be more or less crippled. Your location will also be made known permanently to me, and I will be able to track you down. If it turns out it was a mistake, or it was forced out of you, I can remove the conditions. If you are colluding to bring us down… well, I’m afraid that’s when it does get lethal.”

If Elise could grimace as a rabbit, she would have. Free food and information sounded nice, and might prove invaluable once she left the caves for good, but hearing those conditions made her reconsider. Was it really worth signing a contract that permanently tied her to an organization she knew so little about, just for food and information? Probably not. But she still needed more information.

“What happens if I end up trapped too far away to attend a meeting?” she asked.

“The contract only triggers when you willfully fail to attend. However, if you are imprisoned, and cannot attend before the deadline is up, I will be notified of your location, and I will be able to come and rescue you.”

“Is there any way to break out of the contract without suffering from the curses?”

His smile vanished and her blood ran cold. “Nothing is impossible, but if you make an attempt to do anything like this, you will immediately become an enemy of all of Ostra.”

“...Noted.”

“That’s all for your side of the contract,” he said, his smile returning. “Easy right? And in exchange, you can receive free food and information from any of our locations, which you will get a map of once you sign the contract. Does that all sound good to you?”

“Maybe,” said Elise.

“Maybe?”

“I’m not sure yet,” said Elise. “It all sounds good, and Ostra’s goal sounds good, but… I don’t know, I just don’t want to sign such a big contract so quickly.”

“Perfectly understandable,” he said, nodding. “However, if you do not sign a contract while you’re here, we will have to do a bit of careful memory manipulation. We don’t want to force you into a contract, and although you seem reasonable enough, we take security very seriously, and can’t have uncontracted folks running around with all this knowledge in their head.”

“Memory manipulation?”

“Jerry’s specialty. Don’t worry. It won’t hurt a bit, and you’ll keep all your memories of conversations that aren’t directly related to Ostra, so you’ll be able to maintain your relationships. You won’t forget me or Jag or Jerry, you’ll just forget where you met us, or why.”

Elise didn’t like the sound of that. The thought of someone else poking around inside her mind, deciding what she was and wasn’t allowed to know didn’t sound pleasant. But, she thought it might be a little better than the alternative. She could tell Jag was sincere, and she knew he truly believed in Ostra’s goal, but signing a lifelong contract to join a shady organization just because of that seemed… foolish. If they were plotting anything sinister, she didn’t want to be forced to keep her mouth shut.

“Sounds reasonable enough,” she lied. “I’ll have to give it some more thought though.”

“Of course. Take your time. There’s no rush. This gathering will last another day, so you’ll be able to learn more while you’re here. I hope you will decide to join us. I think you would make a great addition to the group.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“Well then, if that’s done,” the paper in front of him vanished. “I have some friends to greet. I can introduce you to them if you’d like. You seem to have already met Jag, and you’ve at least seen Jerry, but who else do you know here?”

“That’s it,” she said. “I’ve only talked to Jag so far.”

“Well, that’s no good. Come with me, I’ll show you around.”

Elise spent the next twenty minutes like a balloon floating over Freddy’s shoulder as he made personal introductions for her to everyone he could. She met Frank, the red frog who had called out to Jerry, and Willy, a Walrus-horse hybrid that the System decided to call a [Worse] for some reason. There was a pegasus named Pierre who evidently liked flashing people with his iridescent wings, and a tiny bear named Pyotr sitting on its back. There was even an invisible gorilla named Hampton who she could only locate because he was wearing a big, polka-dotted bow tie.

Freddy wanted to introduce her to more, but he had to stop when a tall double door in the back of the room opened, and all the Chairs got up to attend their secret meeting. Of the people she had met, Frank the frog, Jerry the elephant, and Hampton the invisible gorilla were all Chairs, and they too left for the meeting.

As soon as they were gone, she was rejoined by Jag, who picked up where Freddy left off in introducing her to people. By the end of the night, Elise had heard the names of just about everyone there, and remembered the names of no more than a quarter of them. She might have recalled more if she was not so distracted by the warg. After Jerry left, it remained in the corner talking to others, but ever so often, no matter where she was, or which way her attention was focused, she could feel its gaze on her.

The meeting of the Chairs took almost three hours, and when they returned, Elise and Emilia socialized for a bit longer, and then that night’s gathering ended. The two went to a suite on the floor above the ballroom, which Elise didn’t know existed. It was not a shabby suite, but it reminded her of a hotel with its uncanny neatness and inoffensive decorations. Emilia had a large bedroom all to herself, while Elise was relegated to the couch in the sitting room, which, admittedly, was still quite comfortable. She woke up in the morning to the sound of Emilia’s voice.

“Up up up!”

“Hrmmmm?” said Elise.

“Today’s a big day,” said Emilia. “Wake up! Breakfast is waiting!”

“What’s going on?” said Elise, blinking the drowsiness out of her eyes.

“It’s Lesson Day!”