Arthur was in an ugly mood. Ken never ceased his shouting fits, and Arthur, honestly didn't understand what it was all about. He'd not lied, not even made better the absolute truth as he'd seen it, and only his Weave had got them out alive.

We don't take sides. He'd be damned if he didn't take the side of his own life. Besides all taleweavers were supposed to be sacrosanct here, and the charging horsemen had made their very best to trample two of them at once. Didn't that make them doubly damned?

Now he was on his way to force this last piece of information down Ken's soar throat. We are sacrosanct. I just saved an entire kingdom from eradication by Weaving. I took the side of as many survivors as possible. I didn't kill anyone, so get the bloody hell off my back and find someone else to pick on! That kind of conversation was what he had in mind.

Of course Ken would have none of it, or almost none. The part of sacrosanct and wiping out kingdoms from the face of the earth worked surprisingly well. So well, in fact, that it had Arthur scared for several hours. Ken must have some rather awful memories of his own from if his reaction was anything to go by.

Arthur wondered about it. If he'd got his calculations right Ken should have been here during what they called World War. Had he played some part in it? Was that the reason for his unwillingness to do right rather than some holy rules applying to all taleweavers?

Too many questions and far too few answers. Always a situation that grated on the newscaster in him, and that created personae carried over to the taleweaver as well. Arthur was aware of that, Ken's words to the opposite effect aside.

Nothing he could do about it, nothing he really wanted to do about it for that matter. He'd cleared the air, or at least emptied his lungs in Ken's face, and that would simply have to do.

Just as he'd done on the way to Braka, almost a year ago, he joined point and scouted ahead as much as he was able to to without the sensors all body walkers had feeding the TADAT. He still beat them here. This was forest landscape, and none of the three survivors seemed used to it.

Point, he had to remember that. He was alone. This was no armed vanguard. They were pitiful refugees on the run. So, they were heavily armed refugees on the run, but he suspected the three had far less ammunition than they admitted. The walkers didn't look too healthy neither. That scraping sound hadn't been part of the background noise when they left Verd.

He clung to the trees, quickly dashing from one to another after he'd made certain none had seen him. Some equipment he'd coerced Granita into giving him helped of course, and this was as close to the stalk outs during the perpetual Chinese civil wars he'd covered in his youth as he was ever going to come. At least so he hoped.

Fifty meters, fifteen seconds scanning, clear, another fifty meters and repeat. This was the deadening repetition needed for anyone who skulked among the trees. On Earth, without the scanners, it would have taken him longer, much, much longer. The human senses were only so good.

This way he was almost certain he outclassed anyone in a deadly game of hide and seek, but he couldn't be sure. Gring would have made short work of his attempts, as would Neritan. Did the unseen enemy use mindwalkers as scouts? Did that enemy even exist?

He stalked through the forest for the remainder of the night and relayed his all clear messages over the silent link he'd appropriated together with the scanner. Panopilis could probably have done it almost as well, without tiring, but Arthur had a need to be alone. The daily quarrels with Ken had taken their toll, as had the deaths, and the fear, and the not knowing what the hell was really going on. It all ate on them.

So it was that morning found him hidden in that thin border between forest and fields, uncertain about what to do. He stared into a foggy nothingness even his portable scanner refused to see through, and with little else to do than to wait for Panopilis and the military grade equipment he had Arthur did the second best. He fell asleep.

***

Damn! Damn, damn, damn, damn! Now what?

Heinrich stared into the holo. It didn't lie. No, that wasn't entirely true. Unless someone waited on them, someone with those brain twisting powers he'd been forced to accept as true, his readings told the truth. He didn't care for those readings. More cavalry and therefore more problems.

The strange thing was that they seemed to be heading in a south westerly direction. That didn't make much sense. A patrol, yes, but a patrol with hundreds of riders?

He turned to Arthur. "What do you think?"

Arthur relayed the question to Ken who stared into Heinrich's helmet for a few moments. A long tirade of words later and Arthur translated back.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Possibly De Vhatic. That means ours. He doesn't know why though." Arthur smirked. "I'm just the tourist here. You decide," he added for his own benefit.

There it was. From creepy and barely something to believe he had to upgrade magic to a measurable military threat. The problem was that he had to make all the estimates himself. The link back to Verd provided some help, but by now he accepted that Verd was hardly the centre of expertise on the subject. Well, apart from killing any practitioner they could lay their hands on.

He juggled the possibilities. Effectively out of ammo, body walkers in immediate need of repair and only three survivors out of what had been one of the best trained TADAT units in the entire solar system. He couldn't go on alone any longer. Just getting food each day proved an unacceptable risk.

If he chose wrong they'd be dead in less than half an hour.

He exchanged looks with Arthur who nodded in response. It was decided then.

"We go out in the open. Make sure they see us!"

Hesitantly, more like a scared flock of birds than members of the Federation Finest three body walkers buzzed into motion and entered the fields.

Heinrich took point with Panopilis guarding their left flank. Chang held the right, where they knew soldiers to be. If he could trust the information Ken had given, and Arthur had confirmed, the fog should be gone like magic in minutes.

As it was he could.

They had covered less than a third of a field in what looked like a pastoral idyll when they were apprehended by several riders. Ken was right again. Yellow and brown. Cloth rather than leather. And most important of all, they all carried the crossbow he'd grown to expect was part of every rider's armament on Otherworld. He'd been wrong, but that hardly mattered now.

He met the commander's gaze with what he hoped was a level look. Then he remembered he was still visored. Heinrich grinned at himself and mentally wiped the expression of consternation from his face before sliding the visor back into his helmet.

They stared at each other. For once Heinrich only felt gratitude at meeting the eyes of a fellow professional. The officer represented what the federation army ought to have been.

He received a question in the language he started to regret he had never learned well enough to use. Answering was out of the question so he waved to the other to wait until Arthur could catch up with them.

The surprised and angry shout caught him off guard and he had his weapons ready to fire just as Arthur roared at him to hold his fire. That didn't prevent the soldiers he faced to lose three quarrels squarely in his face. The only thing that saved his life was his body walker automatically shutting his visor when he went into full combat stance.

Arthur shouted something in the Otherworld language and all riders immediately relaxed. Heinrich dared opening his visor once again.

"What the hell was that all about?"

"Idiot!" Arthur barked. "Think first! Everyone tells me to think before I act."

Heinrich understood nothing, and it must have shown in his face.

"Bloody hell, I wasn't close enough to hear what he said, but that wave of yours was a flat denial from your side. Damn, you must have seen the people here wave their hands the way we shake our heads."

What? Oh shit, how incredibly stupid! "Yes, yes I have. Never gave it much thought."

"If you're going to tell armed people no in their faces with no way to explain yourself you'd better stay in that moving cage of yours," Arthur grumbled and turned to the officer who'd started to make impatient sounds.

Heinrich waited for the two men to finish their conversation, and when they were finally done Arthur was laughing loud with a mixture of relief and mirth. He sat down and clearly waited for the others to gather before he told them what he'd learned. One by one they arrived. Panopilis and Chang first, and then Granita with her surviving crew members on their dirty and buckled hover. Last Ken arrived on horseback.

"We're welcome to join them," Arthur began. "In fact we have an invitation to dine with a General de Markand," he pointed due west to show them where the dinner was supposed to take place, "and lastly the gentleman here wondered what the bleeding hell took us so damn long," he said and laughed again.