Germination 4

July 27th, 2032.

An explosion rocked my body, easily blocked by my barrier spell. Though the heat was far less comfortable. I coughed loudly at the acrid smoke. Barely visible in the darkness of an early night.

“Well it seems my ancient runes theory is confirmed now,” I coughed again, waving away the smoke from the explosion. “Runes and glyphs were once part of the same system of magical writing… or perhaps they’re the building blocks of glyphs even.” Who could say to be honest.

What I liked to call the explosion array had ten fire glyphs written along the line of the main circle. A second circle was drawn within the array, marked with ten convergence runes. They were simple runes, just an upside down triangle. Three radiating lines stand for radiating or dispersion, with each cardinal point needing one such rune.

Glyphs always determined the Nature of a spell, while the order of runes was determined by other factors. The guideline runes, the circle can determine the order the runes went. Immense elemental fire was concentrated into a single point… then radiated outwards with incredible force.

It was a rather complicated looking glyph array, but once I had it down it was mine. I could see the weave of twisting shades of red, those threads of khi compressing down to a single point… then spreading outwards into a terrifying blast.

Once I could see the weave, I could shape it using my spell focuses without needing to draw them manually. The main trouble then lay in keeping from blowing myself up. Which was why it was a ten glyph array, it allowed for greater complexity and control over a spell.

Another array I had created was what I called the light bolt array, ten light glyphs with the same inner convergence runes to create concentrated light, then a few direction and bolt runes on the outer circle to form a cohesive bolt of light.

The beam was absurdly powerful, to the point they could destroy metal and concrete. I had cut through a meter of wrought iron without a lick of trouble…

Cutting a tank in half wasn’t out of the question.

Reality rippled and I felt my skin crawl with the disturbing sensation of reality breaking and unbreaking.

Arali was practicing his own talent, his strange tonal magic was decidedly unnatural, distorting the Real and Unreal to his whims. It was powerful but also difficult to control.

So I was helping him out.

“So your meditation is going better then?” I asked the little guy as he sat on his haunches, where his power had rendered through the air. “You’re starting to understand Fire as a concept, what it is on a conceptual level?”

Arali smiled, his tail wagging happily. “Your idea has been helping a lot, I haven’t been having as many accidents. I can focus on the Words, to focus my Voice into a power made real.”

His talent was insanely versatile, he could insist on a concept and make it so. It seemed to have something to do with the language of the spirits, pulling from the knowledge of their sphere to enact their Nature. Spirits controlled what they represented because they were that thing, and Arali worked on a similar conceptual level.

I smiled back at the fluffy little guy I was increasingly seeing as a little brother. “I’m glad my idea worked, your Voice is a talent that should be cultivated and explored.”

Arali puffed up with pride. “Why of course, I’m one of a kind after all. Someday I’ll be the strongest there is.”

I snorted. “Sure you will, and I’ll become the queen of Calafia.” I ruffled his feathers and he protested with a chirp.

“Hey!” Arali hissed and I giggled.

“Hello there!” I jumped at Ultima’s voice, the witch calling out from her house.

“What’s up?” I called right back.

“We’ve got somewhere to be.” There was a serious undertone, unsettling me.

Ultima’s expression was blank, those silver eyes focused, almost predatory.

“To where?”

She unveiled her staff which glowed with chains of written enchantments. “It’s high time we introduced you at the Convocation.”

“Convocation?” I asked, curious.

Ultima nodded. “It’s a Koza involving Wildfolk from all over Danab. Where the remaining covens can meet to exchange knowledge, and interact safely.”

“So there are still a few remaining covens?”

Ultima nodded. “Yes there are, but their numbers are few and far between. There might be around four thousand Wildfolk left in Calafia, and about ten times that number in the Known World.”

“That’s pretty small.” I said with a whisper.

Ultima sighed, acknowledging my response. “Which is why the Convocation is so important, it’s the only reason I’ve managed to keep myself alive so long. So…”

“We’re going then?” I piped up with a warm tone.

She laughed just as warmly. “Yeah we’re going kiddo.”

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We didn’t go as far as I expected, simply wandering into the deep wild forests that made up half of Comedo. In the dark it felt like we were walking forevermore. No twists or deviations but my mind said otherwise. I was sure Illusion magic was at work, light and shadow blending into one another. An uncanny feeling.

Eventually my Mentor stops at a crude archway created by two slanting slabs of stone. Covered in moss and tendrils of chitinous bug-vines, jaws aching to bite and sting. The opening was clear, simply the woods of Comedo. But there was a biting chill in the air, and I wondered.

“Is that what I think it is?” I asked, awed at the intricate spellwork that had to be involved.

“If you mean a warp then yes, that’s what you’re seeing.” She squinted at the carvings and I did too.

There were indentations and carvings in Cyfrinic. Chiseled words I knew had to do with travel, pairs, linked closely with… are those glyphs?

They looked like faded void glyphs, worn enough to barely resemble what they once were.

“Maravilloso.” They were beautiful patterns, hidden away as they were. “How do we open the door?”

Ultima simply gave me a smug look. “Try. I have a feeling you’ll get it.”

I pouted at her. “Fine.” I rolled my shoulders as I approached the gate.

Warps were static portals, they worked by forming a connection between them in the spirit world. The connection was strengthened, until it became a means to open portals between them, phasing people into the spirit world to travel.

I brushed my fingers against the stone, and I felt my fingers tingle with electric energy. I saw the colors of the light, shaded by the darkness.

In my mind, magic was light. I could reach out from white to the primary colors, red, blue, green and violet. I could then reach out to the secondary colors like yellow, magenta, cyan and orange. It was a turbid medium, black and white emerging from gray to weaken each other. North and south poles forever linked.

The main limitation was that I lacked a full understanding of the darkness, didn’t have a glyph to picture its weave. Not yet.

The warp gate spun with the Gray and the fading chaotic waves of the Blue, which reached out to touch the edges of my mind. The Blue was the darkness illuminated by light, it connected all life.

Hi there.

The warp didn’t find me wanting, and I was led to an indent in the shape of a hand. So I placed my right hand on it, and pushed my energy into it.

Silver void energy cut through space and time, and the image within the warp was replaced by a forest of frost and snow. The substrate of the void… seemed very important when it came down to moving through space.

Could I learn to move through the void one day?

It didn’t matter. “We just go in then?” I asked.

Ultima nodded. “Yep. Let’s get going.” Arali straightened his posture, extending out his long tail.

Together the three of us stepped through the warp, which felt like stepping through molasses. The membrane popped and the summer heat was replaced by the cold and nipping breeze of the Tagl Peaks. A range of exposed vertebral arches paralleling the Peninsular Ranges of home, ranging from two to five kilometers tall.

Though there was only a single arch per vertebrae… time and decay had broken the dense bones down into multiple peaks. So it was closer to hundreds of massive compact masses of earth and soil and stone over dense cores of crystalline bone.

I didn’t know which peak this was, but it didn’t matter aside from the replacement of dodona-oak with glacier-pines. Strategically placed to form a massive perimeter, huge cyfrins carved into, then linked together with golden-edged rope.

“It’s a giant Cyfrin Chain, spelling out Protection. Ten cyfrins in total. This is old and powerful magic.”

“You’ve chosen a clever little apprentice haven’t you?” A voice called out from the darkness, and I froze up.

The voice belonged to a gorgon, and I flushed at how utterly pretty she was.

Her mane of snakelike tendrils undulated around her head, scales shifting in waves, with strange simple eyes staring right back at me. Her eye sockets glowed like lanterns in the night, burning with the Green in her soul. She wore a tight, revealing black dress, revealing skin covered in fine scales in shades of green, black and gold. She looked wild, a seductress and warrior in one, a polite grin flashing fangs like needles.

“Euryale, I see you haven’t kicked the bucket yet.” Ultima greeted the woman with a smile of her own, her magic flaring to cover Arali and me.

“Of course not, it would be troublesome if my domain was Lost and the last Wildfolk were forced to scatter would it not?” Her voice had a quality to like like fine aged wine, and I flushed at her knowing gaze. “So I believe we should start our usual pleasantries then?”

“Yes.” Was what Ultima said as the Gorgon rose up, tendrils flaring wildly.

“Ultima Grimshaw. You stand before the domain I’ve created for the Convocation. Why?” I understood her words, announcing guest rites.

“Me and my kin seek communion with the Wildfolk, a place to learn and meet and exchange knowledge. I wish to introduce my Apprentice, to show her those who still know the Old Ways.”

Euryale’s body seemed to utterly radiate power, the world turned Green as she inspected us down to the spirit.

“Then you are welcome here.”

The Gorgon witch guided us into her domain, and light and shadows danced and peeled themselves away… to reveal a much larger space. It was a massive clearing surrounded by trees, the sky shaded by interlocking branches and vines like a tent. Moonlight shined through the spaces between the branches and…

There were close to a hundred witches ambling back and forth throughout the space. There were small stands for food and drink; others were chit chatting with friends and family. Many were dressed fancily, even if it was mostly just extra jewelry or fine cloaks. I had just added a skirt and worn my amulet, and Arali had a vest. Ultima had opted for a red wraparound tunic, and silver bangles on her wrists.

A few witches looked more like guards, wearing armor and carrying weapons. Likely a weapon-form for their focus, or enchanted items. To my delight I saw that Fayla was doing her own selling, her stand having models of magical homes and domains.

One witch among the crowd came up to us, and I gasped at the bultungin, a werehyena. The witch looked decidedly savage, if Euryale was the vicious beauty of the wilds. The werehyena was the violence and brutishness of nature, red in tooth and claw.

The witch was about seven feet tall, and had to weigh at least three hundred pounds. Covered in terracotta armor, with cyfrins wrapped into chains of magic. A gigantic bipedal hyena covered in armor and holding a staff as thick as my arm was… intimidating.

“Ahh. I thought I smelled a fresh Apprentice in our midst, it warms my heart that you’ve taken a student under your wing.” Their voice was… deep and resounding, with qualities I couldn’t quite discern.

I also knew the witch was blind, with milky eyes which saw nothing.

“Elder Crocotta,” Ultima looked joyful, practically bouncing on her heels. “Do I refer to you as he or she in this glorious night?”

Crocotta chuckled. “He is sufficient on this night, it has been a long time my old student.”

“You’re Ultima’s teacher!” I covered my loud mouth, turning bright red at his head tilt.

“I am. The spirits have spoken well of you young one. Your Gift is a strange one, there are so few who remember what Void is, was and will be.”

I felt embarrassed. “Umm… Thank you sir, um Elder. I… enjoy learning about the Craft, it’s amazing.”

Crocotta made an odd screechy purring sound. “Good. Keep that joy and wonder, so few do these days.”

“Hmm, so this is the old witch who taught you magic?” Arali spoke up, making a sniffing sound. “Pretty mangy aren’t they?”

The hyena snorted. “I like this sassy child, it seems I missed his arrival into your life.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Ultima shrugged. “Yeah… where did you go, Crocotta? I thought you were dead.”

He looked distant. “I traveled far and wide, following the path the spirits and our Titan guided me down. Beyond the known world, to places of death and decay, traversed the great perpetual storms of Ocean’s wrath. I returned when they beckoned me back, but it took me years without easy paths in the spirit world. By the time I returned… a decade and more had passed.”

There was shame there, a quiet guilt I felt in my bones.

Ultima shook her head. “It’s good that you left, means you didn’t get caught up in the previous purge of Elders. There’s only six covens attending now, when dozens used to attend the Convocation.”

Crocotta frowned. “Much has changed, the Wildfolk have been scattered. The professions of old are more and more absorbed into the Circles of the Chantry. Shamans, Smiths, and even the Keepers are being broken down and remade.”

“It's not the change that's an issue though, is it?” I spoke aloud.

Crocotta snorted bitterly. “No. Change is inevitable, but not like this. Change does not need to kill the heart of what we are.”

I nodded, not disagreeing. “Do you want some time alone with your old Mentor?”

I had a feeling, though I didn't know why.

Ultima’s eyelids crinkled with her smile. “Keep an eye on Arali for me would you?”

“Of course!” I saluted her with a dorky grin, and grabbed a shocked Arali by the waist. I could lift five of him now… which in hindsight is superhuman but magic makes you strong so… meh.

“Put me down!”

“Nope.” I chirped. “C’mon hermanito, let us explore this strange new world!”

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As my clothing dripped with water, I felt a biting rage ready to lash out.

“I hate this new world.” I groaned and reached for the water soaking my clothes, slowly circling my hand to pull the water away into a loose ball.

Reaching out to the Blue worked best using slow, continuous, soft, and circular movements. It flowed like liquid, so taking advantage of that natural flow was best. Elemental manipulation was simply the most… physical manifestation of the sources. The true Blue dealt with flows, absorption, transformation and cycles.

The mischievous child responsible paled at my growing smile, and I drew out energy from it until it froze solid.

“Right, be more careful kid.” I didn't say anything more to the little brat, and I could see Arali glaring at her. “Also Arali, I see you prowling, no hunting kids your age.”

The tiny witch squeaked at the sight of Arali emerging from the darkness of the shade. Dark, dark eyes gleaming with ominous starlight. She ran off and I giggled.

The Convocation had been lovely… aside from the attention I was getting from other witches. Turns out being the apprentice of one of the strongest witches in Calafia had some downsides.

Mainly it was lots of families trying to introduce their sons, daughters, or various terms like progeny, spawn, or offspring for the enbies. Or… well any of them actually, seemed to vary from family to family.

Which made sense when some folk literally laid eggs.

I nudged Arali as I headed towards the stand of a certain Keeper, who was with someone new. To me at least, and I honed in on his presence. Felt oddly certain about that. Fayla was being accompanied by a goblin teenager, a very acerbic looking one.

Goblins were a subterranean species who evolved inside the chasms, cavities and spaces within the flesh of the Titans. Evolving in the muck and grime and bloodied innards of the earth.

And yet…

“Smol.” I murmured and flushed when the goblin in question’s ears flicked towards me.

He was small, only about three feet tall or so. He resembled an odd cross between human, primate and bat. He had a thin frame under a beige-brown tunic, and a black stylish pañosa of all things with bands of velvet. Plus gray pants.

His round green face was pulled into a grimace, revealing blunt fangs and tusks, a lance-shaped nose twitching angrily. His ears were massive bat-like affairs, his frizzy gray hair made him look adorable. Though his sickly yellow eyes and slit pupils told another story.

No, he’s still cute. I'm lying.

Goblins were an interesting species, they predated the umano like the dvergr also did. But they were closely related, having a common ancestor around nine hundred thousand years ago. Which… was apparently something they could check using magic.

An extension of bloodline magic, checking for the ancestry of a person but extended back through thousands and millions of years. So… magical DNA tests.

Which was also… one of the ways the Firstfolk, Oddfolk and Plainfolk had been categorized. Plainfolk all shared common ancestry dating back some three hundred thousand years. while Firstfolk were older and more distantly related or not at all related. Oddfolk were often genetic chimera, possessing a witch genome with segments from other species.

The garou were genetic chimera of witches and wolves, transplanted into them by becoming Host to lupine spirits.

“And I'm getting distracted again,” I said aloud with a sigh. “Hey, Fayla! Seems your stand is earning some business.”

The witch in question cackled. “Yep, the Convocation is a good way to network with people who are a little bit less snobbish than the bluebloods.”

“Only a little?” I asked, inspecting her stand. Full of models of various homes, fortresses or domains.

Fayla snorted. “People are people everywhere Celia, my dear charge here is proof of that.” The goblin rolled his eyes and flipped her off.

“About that, I didn't know you had a charge.” I added as I watched the guy glare at his possible mentor.

She brushed back ruby bangs. “He’s new, so I decided to take him in since he had nowhere to go.”

He sighed. “Names Ajani, are you actually human or are you lying?”

I blinked. “Celia. And are my round ears and lack of fangs not proof of that?”

Ajani rolled his eyes. “Because illusion magic isn't a thing.”

I tilted my head. “Oookay. Not going to get into whatever that is, don't have the mental energy for it.”

He scowled again and I was very tempted to flick him on his big nose. Not that there was anything wrong with that… it was just a big target and— oof that sounds bad.

I rubbed my face. “Anyways, I wanted to show you some of my work on my spell focuses. I know you're more of a Keeper but glyphs are pretty useful aren't they?”

Fayla’s eyes lit up. “Oh, Ultima bragged about your creation,” I turned red. “Let me see your little creation, I'm curious now.”

It was with slow and cautious movements that I reached out, splaying out my fingers. My bracelets were firmly emplaced over my bracers, after some… tweaks.

Fayla blinked slowly like a cat as she gently prodded the bracelets, made of a strong durable and resistant wood.

“So these are glyphs then?” Her question was rhetorical but I nodded anyway. “What a curious smell… are they spirit-touched?”

I shrugged. “Maybe, a lot of the glyphs I've learned come from nature. I learned the Kaba glyph from how Ultima makes portals… and Frazo from Dinah.”

Fayla looked amused. “That makes sense, it is in her clan name.” Her claws poked at the grooves and channels of my bracelet. “There is a powerful magic in these focuses of yours, an ever-growing connection to the Sources.”

“That's good, isn't it?” I questioned her.

Fayla nodded hesitantly. “It is, but you must take care with such power. Less you let it master yourself instead of mastering it.”

“Oh. I understand.” Ultimate always emphasized a healthy respect for magic and what it can do. To not let the flaws of the elements and their sources drive us.

The pride of air, the zeal of water, the stubbornness of Earth, the arrogance of fire.

I rubbed my hands together, and Fayla paused. “That leaves one other thing, I have a letter here from a certain friend you've made.”

Friend?

“Who—” I took the offered letter, and it opened at my touch to…

Dear Celia,

This is Dinah if you were wondering. I would like to ask for your help on a task with my duties as a herald. It gives us room and space to discuss things freely…

I choked and the letter folded back and shoved it down into a pocket.

Fayla froze up, and I felt a presence loom over me. I turned around and blinked as I met the eyes of a coven head.

Euryale had her own coven, led by a plainfolk witch who was giving me a look of disdain.

Fayla bowed her head politely as did a stiff Ajani. “Oh! Elder Euryale, Coveness Dagna.”

Dagna was tall, and muscular and her pale freckled expression displayed a hint of contempt I didn't like. She wore green and brown earthy armor, with a bladed staff head at the ready. Wispy blonde hair curled down her shoulders and she stuck her nose up at me.

“I hope you are enjoying your time at the Convocation, it is an exciting time of year with new apprentices attending this year.” Euryale’s gaze was pointed and I fidgeted.

Fayla smiled. “Quite, Celia here was just showing me some of her own work. Ultima has chosen well.”

“It's not that impressive is it?”

Dagna snorted. “You were always easily impressed, Fayla dear,” I mirrored Fayla’s expression. “I must protest that a human of all things be considered one of us. Their distaste for magic is well-known, and I would consider her betrayal likely.”

Excuse me?

Euryale’s warm looks had gone cold as she stared at her kith. “Is that so? You would consider my choice to be wrong then?”

Fayla spoke up as well. “She would do no such thing, she is a good and kind soul. I know that much both from her mentor and from our own encounters.” She sounded pissed and I saw how her soul blazed with all the colors of the elements.

“Pretty sure condemning people to death and worse than death is an evil I refuse to do,” I spoke, unable to hide my rage at the mere idea of doing such a thing.

Not with what I had seen here, and at home. I refused.

Dagna flinched.

Oh.

I pulled back the energy flowing from my body with a grimace. “I… just want to learn and understand. I want to help others learn and understand.”

I thought of Dinah.

“And that is your right. All young witches should get to learn of magic and its beauty and terror.”

“But Elder—”

“Dagna.” The coven head swallowed her pride. “Please, enjoy the rest of the Convocation.” Euryale looked sad.

The pair walked away and I shuddered out a breath. “Jeez.”

Fayla shook her head. “Dagna has suffered much because of the Chantry… and she's had encounters with humans. Bad ones.”

“Ultima?” I asked carefully.

Fayla nodded.

So many people had been hurt in this world and in mine, so many things I couldn't dwell on. I was powerless.

Terrible as it was, that was something I couldn't do anything about.

Paper crumpled in my hand…

Not yet.

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I can't believe I'm doing this, Dinah thought to herself as paper crumpled in her hands. But I have to do what's right. “I have to do better.”

The human, Celia had accepted the invitation to join her retinue with her herald duties in Anagen. It was an opportunity to both buy more time from her mission, and a way to… better understand how she's been lied to her whole life.

My heart hurts…

But Dinah had to do this, she had to make an effort if she wanted to understand the why of things. So she was out in the forest, waiting for a humble werewolf to join her in the clearing.

Althea had raised both questions and concerns, Dinah had been shocked but… not surprised at the bigotry against the beastfolk. It had been a growing trend in the last few decades, the Chantry had inoculated people with a prejudice towards more ‘bestial’ folk. It was one of the reasons Danab as a whole was more distant from the core in terms of conversion.

Shifters had it the worst, being able to shift between forms was barely within the bounds of approved magic. But they were at least alive unlike the vampires, their practice of blood magics had been their extinction.

She had accepted it without question, blood magic was dangerous, evil, they were the ways of Wildfolk. Their destruction was the will of Calafia, the death of a people was regrettable but needed.

Dinah felt disgusted with herself, even as her nerves ran high as she waited for the witch. Still, something was off, and she couldn't put her finger on it. But she doesn't have to wait long. Nature seems to announce the arrival of Althea. Dinah’s blood simmers with fire, as her senses scream.

The summer breeze hitches… then whistles with a haunting melody, and brambles and branches move of their own accord, while stones and pebbles tumble and rumble like crying crystals. The sun itself shines just a notch brighter, and Dinah swears she's seeing things.

Her breath hitches with phantom pain in her chest, echoing with her grandmother’s voice. ‘Don't you DARE remember child, this is my Gift alone. So Forget.’

Dinah holds her breath.

Althea’s footsteps are eerily silent, unfazed by how the world itself walked with her. Strange, utterly terrifying, and glorious.

Beautiful.

This isn't a side she's ever seen of the witch, it was wild and untamed. Honey gold curls and rolls bounced with the sweet kiss of the wind. A tattered bright orange blazer wicked away forest mist, complementing an earth-brown top laced with chainmail. A sky-blue skirt shifted with the song of the forest, flames gently sparking from within spring sunlight beams.

Dinah swallowed. Oh.

She remembered the old stories, the wild witches who danced with the first children of the Others, the spirits, the denizens of the otherworlds. Long ago it was said the Others roamed in the Nothingness, before time and space had meaning.

First, they created the spirit world, populating it with creatures of pure energy and spirit. Then they created the world of matter, to free themselves from a fleeting, ever-changing existence, housing themselves within the hot dense matter of stars and planets, the worlds of light. As well as within the worlds of darkness, dark stars and shadow worlds dancing within the halos which adorn every galaxy in existence.

They would eventually create a force greater than the sum of its parts, the soul. And with it they created their second children, the mortal races who were creative, flexible fonts of power, bearing bodies of material flesh instead of immaterial spirit.

Spirits were wild, the jealous skinless children of the Others. Shamans were those foolish witches who let themselves be controlled by the capricious whims of the Spirit.

Althea didn't resemble any of the stories she knew, wild, terrifying, chaotic yes.

But her mind and will was her own, the chaos of nature around her was… like a garden, cultivated, guided, working with her and not against her.

The shade of her eyes was paler than her own, an eyebrow lifted with a look of indifference. “So… Why has the princess-heir of Caudalann decided to call for the help of a lowly werewolf commoner?”

Dinah’s claws pinched into her skin as she clenched her fists. “You are not lowly, you’re one of our people. It… it isn't right that we've treated you like this.” There was shame in her voice.

A lord, a chief, a king looks after their own. She had been voted in as the heir by her people, tasked with the duty of leading their taifa. To help the tribe prosper and grow. It was why part of the job of the clans was to ensure proper food and bed rights, if their people needed extra hands they would give it.

Their duty was to their people… so why was one of her own people being hurt under her watch?

Althea snorted. “No. No, it isn't. I wasn't good enough for the tribe, I was a werewolf, a beastly shifter, and a lawless witch in the making. Here you are, the heir to the taifa, but you didn't see me.” There was a bitter twist to her lips.

Dinah sagged. “I… never wanted this. I wanted to help people, and I still do. But how can I do that, when I can't even help someone in our own damn town!” She was so angry, but even as an heir, there was only so much she could do.

Althea shook her head. “You're not a bad person Dinah, let me get that out of the way first. It's not your fault your clan has issues, ones you can't even see yet.”

I don't understand.

The werewolf offered a hand. “You want to do right by all of us little folk right? Then change things, I don't hate the clans… we’re not like some of the bigger taifa yet where free folk can never join or form a clan.”

Dinah grimaced, understanding where she was coming from. Caudalann’s traditions were different in some ways. The Families could either marry in, be adopted into a clan or rewarded with a clan of their own as a reward and responsibility. The Mau had been one such clan a century back, having saved all their lives from their most ancient enemy.

It was a necessity for how they lived, with how death hunted their people. Her clan had once numbered a hundred fifty in her father’s youth.

Now there were only thirty.

“But we can still do better, I don't want to become that kind of leader, that kind of Lord. But I can't do this on my own. I…”

Althea snorted. “So you're wanting a truce then, a contract between two members of the same tribe?”

Dinah beamed and took her offered hand.

“Yes. Yes I would.”