CJ didn’t have much to pack. He was stuffing some of his new belongings into a pack when he realized some of his bondmates were approaching. Mae and Alyss were coming, and Mae was frantic. He closed the leather backpack and pulled the straps tight, then turned in time for his door to burst open. Thankfully, this ability did make it less likely for people to come charging in on him without him being ready. Mae had a bad habit of thinking she could open any door she wanted without knocking first.

“How can I help you, princess.” CJ said as he walked over and sat at a chair near his window.

Mae’s face was red, and there were signs she was crying recently. But she put on a brave face as she marched through his room.

Alyss closed the door behind them.

“I wanted to fill you in on everything that is going on,” Mae said. “You should understand how dire the situation is.”

CJ crossed his arms. “Byr laid most of it out. It seems like the eyeball gambit wasn’t necessary? You didn’t even call me in there.”

She shook her head no, “They weren’t listening to me at all!”

“I need to ask, how were you in contact with the king anyway? Their castle is further South isn’t it?”

Alyss looked at him with a flat stare. “It isn’t important right now. But there is an attunement used for long distance communication.”

“The Kingdom of Barune has some of the strongest masters of the attunement in the world.” Mae said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I can speak to uncle Mandin anywhere those masters are present. If you were worried about it, I’m sure it was really him.”

There was an awkward moment where the three of them realized the conversation was flowing because they each had a feeling what the others were worried about. The connection still wasn’t as strong as that first day, he couldn’t read their every thought. But it did save them some steps.

“We’re being forced out,” CJ said. “How do we stop that?”

“We can’t,” Mae said. She practically sobbed the words, then took a deep breath. “They’ve done something, and now the King believes even my father would declare war on him.”

There was a curious feeling. Whatever lie Mae was holding on to about her father, it bubbled to the surface. But CJ couldn’t suss it out.

“How could they make Barune think the Duke is still in charge?” CJ asked. He looked to Alyss, but she was leaning against a wall with her eyes closed. She didn’t seem to want to take part in the conversation.

Mae shook her head no.

The door opened, and Byr walked in. “There you are, Lady Mae.”

“I was talking with CJ, but it seems you already explained the details to him.” Mae said. She went and sat on the couch in his room.

“How could Barune believe the Duke is alive and declaring war?” CJ asked Byr. “Their messenger should have seen the devastation, right Sir Byr?”

Byr walked up and stood beside the couch with Mae. Byr, Mae and Alyss were all near the couch, while CJ was across the room at his window. The evening sun was coming in over CJ’s shoulder. He could see their expressions grow dark even as golden light flowed over them.

“The attunement that creates the Ash Walkers,” Byr began, “it is said that the most powerful masters of that blasphemous path can bring a person back to life and puppeteer them.”

“Well yeah,” CJ said. “I saw that myself.”

Byr shook his head no. “Not as an Ash Walker. These creatures can look like a perfect copy of the original, and are intelligent as well. We call them a Grey Soul. If the Duke was turned into one of these, it would be extremely difficult for anyone to know he wasn’t his normal self.”

CJ looked at Mae. Her eyes were squeezed shut, a tear was trailing down her cheek. Alyss was angry, but also ashamed. In some way it seemed like she blamed herself. Byr had better control of his emotions, he sniffed at the air and then took a step toward CJ.

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“That isn’t for sure what we are dealing with,” Byr said. “But it could explain the situation.”

CJ nodded. “Okay, but that doesn’t change our current situation.”

Mae looked up. “How could you say that?” She went to stand up, but stopped herself as her eyes met CJ’s.

“Whether we are being exiled to meet a Grey Soul, or just the enemy army, it doesn’t matter, we die. So how do we avoid that? Between here and Akahi, is there another path we can take that would avoid ending back in your duchy?”

Byr shook his head no. “We will be escorted. We could fight the escort, but even then the paths away from here cross guard posts that belong to Barune.”

CJ could feel Larl approaching. He was, excited? CJ didn’t understand, but he would find out soon enough. CJ watched the door, and soon Mae and Alyss were doing the same. It prompted Byr to turn his attention there too.

There was a knock at the door.

“Come on in Larl,” CJ said.

The door opened to the priest standing there with Chuck the captain of Scaleback’s guard garrison.

The two of them walked in, and Larl looked over everyone. “Not the best mood in here, hopefully I missed the worst of it.”

Chuck and Byr saluted each other with the Akahi salute.

“We’re trying to figure out how we don’t die.” CJ said. “Sorry, Chuck right? I don’t know if you’re allowed to be here man, uh sir. We can’t associate with-”

Chuck walked over and closed the door. “Oh you can forget about that, there have been some new developments.”

Everyone looked to Chuck except Larl, who walked over to stand beside CJ.

“Well?” Byr asked. “What is it?”

“After the meeting with the mayor and the king, I was called in to discuss our contingencies for an attack from Akahi.” Chuck said. “Our forces here don’t usually worry about that, this is a long standing alliance after all. I sent a request for more forces to guard against a possible full scale attack from the forces of the duchy, and the mayor intercepted the order and canceled it.”

“Canceled?” CJ was confused. “Does he think you can handle it yourself?”

“That was my original assumption. But he didn’t tell me directly. To my face he considered this a problem, then he went behind my back as soon as I tried to protect the town. Then one of my guards discovered something troubling.”

CJ had a bad feeling. It was possible it was the collective worry of everyone in the bond, but he felt like if he opened his mouth, nothing would come out but an eep!

“Scouts determined that enemies are already marching on us from Akahi. They seem disorganized, a mass moving with the cover of night. But the worst part is that this was discovered as early as two days ago, but someone tried to destroy the message.”

CJ felt his body growing tense.

“Sabotage? Spies?” Byr asked.

“Likely yes,” Chuck said. “If they have already infiltrated Scaleback, then they were possibly here before you were attacked.”

“This is all some kind of set up,” CJ said. “We are being played.”

Everyone looked back to CJ.

“We get exiled back to Akahi,” Mae said, “then Scaleback gets attacked.”

“Akahi takes the blame regardless,” CJ said with a nod. “Then Barune has all the proof they need that they should wipe Akahi off the planet, and that Duchess Madaleene was part of the subterfuge.”

Chuck nodded. “I know Sir Byr wouldn’t be part of anything like that. You are a good man, an honest knight. When you came for help, you came with your soul bare to all of us, Sir Byr. So I wanted to come to you and see what you think is happening.”

Byr looked down. “I am reluctant to say it, but I think Eastman is right. We are being manipulated. Someone is playing a game, and we are still on the back foot because we don’t know how to score any points.”

CJ thought about everything that happened so far. Mae thought someone brought him here. Someone attacked Akahi with zombies that no one would be caught using. Though the Princedom was blamed, so far all the fighting was being done by zombies and mercenaries. Now there were spies trying to cut off communication, while Mae’s refugees would be forced out at the same time Scaleback would be destroyed like Akahi.

“I think I have a guess at what is going on,” CJ said.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Byr said. “Being right once doesn’t mean you know an ashen thing.”

CJ stood up. “How far away is the enemy, Chuck?”

“We have about two days until they arrive,” Chuck said. “They don’t rest for long.”

“What would it take to prepare this city to defend itself?” CJ asked.

Chuck shook his head no. “I need the Mayor’s permission. The garrison here doesn’t have the supplies we would need to reinforce the defenses, we don’t have enough troops. We would want to request more.”

Byr looked at Chuck. “What if the Mayor wasn’t a problem?”

Chuck’s eyes went wide, but he immediately calmed himself. He understood fast. They were going to ask him to do the impossible. The question was if he would go along with it.

“Is your oath to the mayor, or to this city? To your kingdom?” CJ asked. “It sounds like the mayor might be compromised, or someone working for him is. We don’t have time to find out. If we want to get set up, we have to move immediately, right?”

Byr nodded. Chuck closed his eyes, and then nodded as well.

“If your only goal is to save this city and the people within it,” Chuck said, “then you have the help of the Scaleback garrison. We will do what we have to do in order to save our people.”

CJ clapped his hands. “Sweet, then why not a coup?”