“What?” The single word slowly escaped me as Silva towered over me. Her declaration felt so off for the rest of the time I had spent with her.

“I’m taking control of our group and, as of right now, this rebellion. You’ve gotten far, but you need an experienced leader if you want to see this through.” Silva stated affirmatively. She had made her position clear and wasn’t going to back down.

It was true that I had fucked up. I should have better prepared for an ambush on the road. However, I couldn’t just give up my power to someone else. Alex had told me that if I died, everything would be for nothing. Giving up would just be another form of surrendering.

“No. This is my rebellion. Without me, everything falls apart. Isn’t that right Alex?” I shifted my torso to glance at him, only to find him shaking his head.

“Actually…” his words trailed off into the ether. “I support Silva.”

There was a collective “What?” from everyone else, including myself.

“North, I’ve been fine with you so far. You’ve done a good job for the most part, but this isn’t just a simple revolt anymore. This is full on war, and we need someone with experience. Silva is a person I trust wholeheartedly, and I know that she is totally in line with your mission. The problem is that I don’t trust you to lead us.”

I clenched my fist, holding back my frustration. Even if he was being nice, even if he was doing it out of a place of genuine empathy, it was a betrayal of my trust.

“I’m not letting this happen. We can’t deal with this right now, especially after this loss.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t allow that. If we keep doing this, we’re all going to end up dead.” Silva was shaking her head, and Alex clasped his hand on her shoulder.

“What she’s trying to say is that we need someone else to get us out of this situation. This is a bit beyond what you’re used to or can deal with. You’ve always had numbers on your side. Silva and I fought in small mage battalions.” There was a pained expression on his face. “Just let her do this for the time being.”

Alex…

“And what is your plan?” I asked, staring the Nacilian in the eyes. If she was planning on taking control from me, she had better know what she was planning to do.

Silva took a deep breath to try and calm herself.

“We retreat. Head back and attempt to meet up with the westbound group.” She gritted her teeth as she spoke.

We’re supposed to retreat?

“And how do you expect us to meet up with them? They’re already on the road, and they’re far along the way to the western camp? We’d just be chasing behind them the entire time.”

“It’s better than being alone like this!” She yelled in my face, letting the mask slip. I locked eyes with her and stepped forward. She was scared, and every survivor here knew it.

“And what if they’re dead too?”

There was silence. I hated saying that with all of my being, but it needed to be said. We had no idea if Arlin had also gotten the drop on Elm’s group. There was a good chance that we were the only people left of the rebellion.

“What made you think I would give up?”

Before I could get another word in, Silva’s hand jumped forward and placed something at my neck. It was ice, formed into a sharp blade by her attunement. She’d just given up on negotiating.

“Don’t make me hurt you. What I said wasn’t a suggestion. It was an order. Now stand down, and let me save this rebellion.”

A blur entered my vision and began closing in on Silva. It was Mell, moving at a speed that no one his size should be able to do.

His hand darted through the air and encircled her neck, lifting her off the ground. It was such a fast motion that it barely registered. Silva's legs dangled as Mell held a tight grip on her throat, her eyes bulging in her skull. The ice knife that she had in her hand fell to the dirt.

“I follow North, and North alone.” Mell spoke with a lifeless, factual tone. Alex quickly raised up his open fists, prepared to blast him with fire until Mell turned his gaze to the Nacilian. There was a burning rage in his eyes, one that hadn't been stoked in a long while.

“Move, and she dies.” His large hand continued to put pressure on her throat. Silva tried raising her arms to pry herself free from his iron grip, but Mell simply tightened his hold.

“Mell, put her down.” I slowly ordered, making sure to emphasize each and every word.

“I can’t do that sir. Not unless she submits.” His tone snapped back to that of the kind Asarnian, but every single word was filled with venom.

He’s actually going to kill her.

“Yeah, Mell. Please put her down.” Alex softly asked in the vain hope to ease the tension. Silva was still beating against Mell’s body to try and make him loosen his grip, but her hits grew weaker and weaker.

“No. Either I kill her, or she accepts North as our leader.”

I could see water begin to form around Silva’s body to attack, only to quickly dissipate as he once again tightened his grip. The color was draining from her face, leaving it a sickly blue-grey tint to her skin. Mell, in response to this attack, spoke only a single word.

“Submit.”

After a few seconds, Silva began to tap on his arm. Although she had no air to do so, I could see her mouthing out the words ‘I submit’ as best as possible. Mell’s iron grip finally opened and dropped her onto the forest floor. Alex darted over to her side as she began desperately gasping for air.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Mell quickly pivoted around to me, his polite smile returning.

“Sorry about that sir. I just couldn’t allow that to happen.”

I wanted to say something, but Alex interjected.

“You really think we’re just going to be able to go along with you after this? You think we can just forgive and forget, just like that?”

Mell turned away from me and looked directly at the Nacilian duo and simply stared down them.

“I don’t need you to forgive me or anyone here. Because if you try that again, I won’t give you the chance to submit.”

After spending time catching her breath, Silva gazed up at me. She looked even more irritated than before now that she had handily lost, and her red hair was completely disheveled.

“What’s our plan then, North?” She asked between deep breaths.

Well, we can’t head back. They’re probably already at the border, and they haven’t followed us, which means they’re currently awaiting us at the roads…

I forced an image of the map into my mind, and thought about the geography. The forests were basically unmapped, but one natural feature had been outlined.

“We keep moving. There’s that massive lake next to the camp, right? As long as we keep heading in the same direction of the road and hit that lake, we’ll make it to the camp.”

“No.”

Everyone’s attention was now on Sera, who had just flatly denied my proposal.

“We’ll all die if we stay here.”

“And we’ll die if we go back on the roads. At least if we stick in the forest, they won’t follow us and we’ll have the element of surprise when we get there.”

Sera shook her head, causing her brown hair to whip all over the place.

“Because we won’t make it there. Ruby, how long did you say the trip would take us on the road?”

Ruby pulled out the map she had in her bag and held it up in front of her. Although faint, I could see she had taken notes on the side of it.

“Two and a half weeks for the full journey, but around two weeks from where we are now.”

“See? Fourteen days in the place where most people don’t make it an hour. We don’t even know if anyone has broken one of the rules!”

The group all fell silent. I’d grown up in Corith and lived near the forest, but the idea of rules was never fully explained to me.

“What rules?” The words slowly fell out of Alex’s mouth.

Sera took a deep breath before turning her attention back to me. “North, you grew up here. What did they tell you to not do with the forest?”

I racked my brain thinking of all of the different things I was taught as a kid. Memory wasn’t my strong suit like Sera, but certain things were pretty well ingrained.

“All I remember is to not go out at night alone, never go into the forest, don’t chop down trees or cut off branches unless you’re a lumberer, and never to set fire to the forest. That last one was emphasized a lot. I mean the main one I think they always said is to never offend the forest?” I was counting on my fingers as I returned to the several lectures my parents had given me.

Sera’s frustration grew as she bit her lip.

“You’re not wrong, but that’s not the full thing. You never traveled the roads, so nobody ever taught you the full rules. My dad made sure I memorized them in case I ever got stuck in the forest. The most important part is you never want to gain its ire.”

Silva stood up, her frustration now replaced with confusion.

“You keep talking about the forest like it's alive and has a mind of its own.”

“It does.” Sera stated unabashedly.

There was an air of doubt that surrounded everyone. It was weird, saying that something as massive as the entirety of Corith was sentient.

“It makes sense.” I added, calling back on my own experiences. “If mana is dense and stable enough, I think it starts to have a will of its own. You can feel it, right? The flood of energy, all around us?”

I’d been ignoring it, as I had more pertinent things to focus on, but the mana in here felt even more powerful. It was almost like the energy of the mines but more controlled and logical. The last time that I had a moment where I felt mana have a will was when I was interacting with a massive brick of refined magore.

“Sure. But you keep talking about rules?” Silva continued to question Sera’s statement.

“It’s because the more rules you break, the more the forest tries to kill you. We’ve already broken one rule, and that was entering the forest. I’m pretty sure our safe period is just about to end, though.”

Safety period…

“Wait, is this why they said you weren’t back in fifteen minutes, nobody would come for you?” I flashed back to that specific wording. It was one of the reasons why the Liam panic was so chaotic.

“Yeah. The forest can still kill you, but it doesn’t start actively punishing you for around fifteen to thirty minutes. That’s only one of the rules. The more you break, the worse the individual punishments get.”

“And what are they?” Silva was aggressively pushing for more answers.

“Don’t cut down trees unless they’re on the edge of the forest and there’s nothing living in them. Don’t kill animals that are pregnant or animals that are extremely young. Don’t kill for sport. If you hunt an animal, you must use as much of it as possible. And the most important, don’t start a forest fire. If you do that last one, the entire forest will consume you whole no matter what infractions you previously wracked up.”

I could feel the entire group lean in closer at those words.

“And what happens with the others?”

Sera spent a moment searching her memory to try and form a list.

“Staying in the forest past the safe period means that the creatures will attack us over other prey. Cut down trees, and that only increases that effect. Kill a mother or a child, and the forest will actively summon creatures to your location to kill you, even if they aren’t pack hunters. Kill for sport, and the prey animals will avoid you and the plants will become dangerous to eat.”

I nodded along before responding in what must have sounded completely insane.

“So we break as few rules as possible.”

Everyone stared at me incredulously, which I expected. Sera looked entirely mortified, but I held firm. After Silva’s attempt at betrayal, I couldn’t look weak.

“If we don’t break too many rules, then we have a better chance at survival. It’s better than getting picked off on the roads, because if we can do it, then we’ll have the jump on them.”

“North…”

Sera wasn’t able to finish her sentence, because the forest around us began to shake. The trees all shifted and groaned as their bark twisted unnaturally. The mana around us focused on our location, growing heavier and more violent. Everyone, even those without attunements, could feel the primal rage emanating in the air.

“Sera, what’s happening?” Ruby was shaking visibly as she gripped tightly onto the map.

A cry came from above. A high pitched wailing that I only heard at nighttime in Marlisle, yet could never forget.

Cassobans. The pack hunters of the sky.

“We just broke our first rule.”