Suddenly, everyone's attention was drawn to the tattoo on Luna's lower arm after the hareling pointed it out. The other beastling's eyes widened when she noticed it as well, "How the hell did no one notice that when we found them?!"

Meanwhile, the two humans panned their gazes with confusion between the three beastlings, while Kane did the same with curiosity.

Noticing their awe, Luna thrust out her chest with pride. "Of course!" she nodded with satisfaction. "Not just that, I'm his first Valkyrie!" Then, she narrowed her eyes at the hareling and ramling, "So don't either of you get any ideas! I have veto rights on his second!"

The fact that Luna seemed to immediately assume these people might want to make their own blood oath with him seemed to slip past them, as the two beastlings suddenly looked at Kane with far more respect, and even a bit of shock.

Quite a bit of shock, in fact, something that Kane regarded with interest.

Then, Luna shrugged nonchalantly, before looking fondly at the tattoo on her arm. "Anyway, when I woke up in that cage, my body was covered in dust and grime, which I cleaned off when I got access to my Mystic energy again. I guess that's what obscured it."

Meanwhile, Aelia scratched her head and appeared confused, "I don't understand. What's the big deal here? Blood oaths are like a beastling thing, where one person swears their life in service to another, right? Why should we care?"

"You don't understand," the hareling shook her head, appearing surprisingly determined, despite her soft voice, and somewhat meek demeanour. "Blood oaths, are… sacred to us beastlings. They can only be made willingly, and only with someone approved by the The Mother."

The ramling nodded seriously in agreement, a respectful gaze fixed on Kane, "Blood oaths can only be made to someone who is blessed by The Mother, and those blessed by The Mother are considered Lords and Ladies. I don't know why The Mother saw fit to bless a… whatever he is, but by rights… he is a Lord."

"But that's not the really important part," the hareling picked it up again, her voice filled with awe and a hint of excitement. "Losing all of our Lords and Ladies was the reason for the sundering that rocked Feralis after the last great war."

Clearly intent on continuing their paired performance, the ramling nodded again, enthusiastically this time. "That was when the royals took power, and since then, no new Lords or Ladies have appeared. Until now!"

The hareling nodded along in agreement, before the two beastlings turned to each other, and appeared to come to a mutual agreement.

Then, they both turned to Aelia. The ramling was solemn, while the hareling appeared a little anxious.

Surprisingly, it was the hareling who spoke up, softly, "Aelia… we'll still follow your lead, but you should know that the both of us are in favour of following this man. And I believe most of the beastlings under us would agree."

Aelia and the other human looked at them both with surprise. "Seriously? Even you, Anna?" Aelia asked the hareling with raised eyebrows.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The hareling answered something, and the four of them started discussing with each other, but Kane was focused on other things.

He kept an eye on them, but meanwhile, he talked telepathically to his partner, "Luna? Do you know what they're talking about? Who is this Mother, and why and when did she bless me? I thought the blood oath was just… make it and done?"

"So did I, Master…" Luna answered, confused and curious. "I've heard of The Mother before, though. My mom has talked about her as as kind of guardian spirit to the beastling race. I've never felt much connection with her, but she's widely revered among traditionalists back on Earth."

Suddenly, she pursed her lips, "And just as I'm saying this, I'm realizing that this Mother is probably the beastling's patron spirit, right? I've never heard of her being related to blood oaths, though…"

Kane frowned and nodded "You're probably right," he muttered thoughtfully. "As for her relation to blood oath… it would explain some things. For example, I've always wondered how that tattoo even appears on your arm in the first place. It's not like you use any Mystic energy for it, right?"

Luna shook her head, "No, we don't. We just say something like a prayer with the name of the one we want to bind ourselves to, and that's it."

At this point, they looked into each other's eyes, and came to the simultaneous realization that the patron spirit really was involved in making a blood oath.

At the same time, as they both thought back to that night on a roof in the Riftshade slums, Kane suddenly remembered the glimpse of a spiritual figure he'd seen behind Luna. Back then, he'd written it off as his imagination, but now he was sure it had to have been this Mother.

He shared that memory with Luna, before switching his mental channel to Ella, and asking her what she knew about about this.

"No idea," was Ella's expected answer. "We've had a few beastlings turn up on Alfheim over the years, but I doubt there were ever enough for their patron spirit to spawn. Either way, I've never heard anything about it."

So, Kane decided to ask Mána about it later as well. He wanted to know if he actually was blessed by this Mother, and what exactly that meant.

'I'm fine with being a beastling Lord or whatever, especially if it helps me turn beastlings to my side, but I need to be sure there isn't anything else going on,' he thought to himself. 'I also need to talk to this Anna and the ramling later, to learn more about the exact situation in this Feralis they mentioned.'

For now, however, he had other things to deal with.

His conversations with Luna and Ella were far faster due its telepathic nature, but Aelia and the others still managed to have a short discussion in that time.

Aelia and the other human looked a little frustrated, but all in all, the conversation seemed to have gone in Kane's favour. They turned back to Kane and Luna.

"Exactly what happens if we decline your proposal?" she asked him with narrowed eyes.

Kane shrugged calmly, "On the one hand, I believe I've punished your people enough for our capture by killing all the men. On the other hand… you may have noticed I'm not exactly human, and I don't want that news to spread, so I'd still have to kill everyone who has seen my other form."

Immediately, Aelia scoffed, while the others looked uncomfortable, "Which includes us, right?"

Kane nodded helplessly, "I'm afraid so." Then, he thumbed over his shoulder, "But you've probably already realized that we left all the women alive back there, just like we did here, and not all of them have seen my other form, so I would let those live."

Aelia narrowed her eyes again, "Fine… I guess that's fair." She and the others knew it was a harsh world out there, and considering Kane's power over them, he already seemed more reasonable than most.

"But say we agree to your proposal instead," she continued, "how are you going to make sure news doesn't spread anyway? The rumour mill is unstoppable."

Kane smiled mysteriously. Holding up his hand, he summoned the lust within him and made the symbol with the rune appear there again. At the same time, all the women in the room suddenly started feeling a little hot, as strange desires began to surface.

"I'd need each of you to agree to be marked by me," he explained to the female bandits, while lust rose in the eyes of his audience.