Zalia and Ember stood before the cube that contained Hidey, silent. Hidey did not speak either, Advisor Ryn waiting off to the side politely.

“It is good to see you once more.”

Zalia chewed on her lip, thinking.

“And it is good to… hear you again Hidey. I've discovered… something recently that I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Is that so? I'm always open to talk to you Zalia, though I do suggest that you always be careful to whom you speak.”

Zalia tapped her foot on the ground, considering her words carefully. She would have to make sure she didn't give away anything important to Hidey. Especially about Ro.

“The Astar, what do you know about them?”

“Hmm, the Astar, a curious subject. Not many people know of them, with even fewer ever having met them. Why do you ask?”

Ember gave her a warning look but Zalia took her hand and gave it a squeeze, comforting her.

If it was the Astar who were controlling Hidey, then they would already know of her escape considering it was from them that she had escaped.

“I was recently captured by the Astar and there was a demon with them, who tortured me. They are working together. I think it is the Astar who are behind the ritual that brought the demons here in the first place.”

There was a long period of silence and for a moment, Zalia thought Hidey wouldn't respond.

“It has been noted by one of the few people who have met the Astar that they appeared to be good at spatial magic.”

It wasn't a confirmation, she knew he couldn't give her that. It was as close as he could get though, the words a mimicry to the thoughts she'd had not so long ago when learning about the Astar’s involvement in the first place.

“I understand.”

She considered her next words carefully. It would be great to get confirmation of it being the Astar who otherwise controlled Hidey, but inquiring about that would reveal that she even knew he was being controlled in the first place.

They stood in silence, the only sound the tapping of her boots on the cold, stone floor.

“You’re a good friend Hidey. I only wish that Juniper hadn’t made you do the things you did. We’re going to help you somehow, hang in there.”

A whispered, “thank you,” followed her out of the room.

She walked briskly up the stairs, hearing Advisor Ryn lock up the door behind her as Ember strode to catch up.

“You alright?”

Zalia gave a small quick nod, wiping a single tear from her cheek. It wasn’t fair, what Hidey had been through.

“We should help the army get ready to leave,” she murmured.

She could feel Ember’s concern pulsing through their bond.

“Are you sure?”

Zalia hesitated only a moment before taking a deep, stabilising breath and nodding again.

“Yes. I’m sure. There’s something I want to talk to you about though.”

They emerged from the stairs and Zalia took them into a side room, the same one that Indis had gone off at her in some months ago.

“Alright, what is it?”

Zalia fiddled a little bit, then started speaking.

“Obviously Aylie can't come on this assault. It wouldn't be fair on her to take her, nor would it be safe.”

Ember nodded slowly, as if trying to figure out where this was going.

“She should stay in the Grove, it's probably the safest place for her. I assume some of the soldiers will stay behind at the camp to protect the remaining refugees.”

Ember nodded again.

“I agree, where are you going with this?”

Zalia swallowed, anxiety battling her will to continue the conversation.

“And, I think you should stay with her.”

She felt the anger and shock that Ember experienced at the words, yet her beautiful, wonderful partner held it back before replying.

“I don't like it but I'm willing to hear you out. Why?”

She started with the obvious, which she was sure Ember had already thought of.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“One of us should stay with Aylie, to get her out of here if things go wrong. After what she’s been through with her family… I couldn’t leave her alone again. I have the ability that holds back the corruption for the army and so… well, it makes sense that you stay behind.”

What she didn’t say was that she didn’t want Ember to be part of the assault because she didn’t want anything to happen to her. She wanted Ember to be safe and out of harm's way. She wanted Ember to live her life without experiencing the horror that was a thousand-eyed one. It was most likely selfish and definitely bad of her to let those fears control her actions, but it was how she felt all the same.

Ember pursed her lips and tapped her finger to them a few times in thought before replying.

“I see. And did you consider that Ro could protect the army with his aura all the way into the capital by himself? That it isn’t necessary for you to go either?”

Zalia opened her mouth to answer but Ember wasn’t done, obviously having heard the unspoken part despite her silence.

“And, did you consider how worried and scared we would all be waiting for you to come home? I won’t be there to have your back. You’ll be going into a city with who knows how many strong enemies, of which we know one is a gods damned ascendant being!?”

Everything Ember said was true. She knew. Zalia knew it. There was no point in arguing those facts. They both knew that keeping Ro a secret longer might help their chances as well, however. Faian had just said it some minutes earlier.

“I did consider all of that. I know. It sucks. I don’t want it to be this way but I think it’s for the best.”

Tears formed in the corners of Ember’s eyes.

“Oh damn it Zalia,” she whispered.

Zalia stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the slightly smaller woman

“I know.”

They stayed that way for a little while, Zalia trying to comfort Ember and being comforted in return.

After a short time, they were both settled again.

“Alright, I'll do it Zalia but… you'll take Boreal with you at least?”

She squeezed Ember's hand.

“Of course, I don't think I could get her to stay behind if I tried.”

“I hate this,” Ember murmured.

Zalia took Ember's other hand and held them both tightly.

“I do too. We are going to win this fight though. We're going to win it and I'm going to come back and you, me, Aylie, Boreal and Lumin are going to go live somewhere nice. Somewhere out of the cities, but close enough we can still go to them if we want. Somewhere with a nice big garden. Somewhere that Aylie can grow up in peace.”

Ember smiled warmly at her.

“I'd like that very much.”

Then she stood up, pulling Zalia to her feet as well.

“You ready?”

“Yeah, I'm ready. Let's get out there and get this done.”

“Kick their asses for me would you?” Ember asked.

“Of course honey, all in a good day’s work.”

⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻

After their conversation, they had gone to General Faian who had asked them to bring the Morning's Shade down to the war camp, in preparation for departure.

It seemed like the army soldiers would be first in the column, having had significantly more training than the Morning's Shade when it came to moving and fighting as a single unit.

The Morning's Shade however, were all individually stronger than most of the soldiers simply due to their class choices. Where the soldiers had classes that usually pointed towards better teamwork and fighting as a unit, simply due to their evolutions and ability upgrades moving in that direction as they ranked up, the Morning's Shade had the very opposite.

The point of the organisation was to send off small groups or individuals to take care of more complex or mysterious situations facing the kingdom, or anyone who could afford to hire the group. As such, they would be a powerful rear guard, not only due to their significant strength but their individual ability to adapt to situations better.

It was also partly to ensure their disorderly conduct didn't get in the soldier's way.

On their way back to the Grove, Ro joined back up with them.

“I have been looking around at your people, and find myself shocked at how few high ranking members of your race there are. Hildebrandt is amongst the most powerful of your race, why is this?”

Zalia frowned, stepping around a low bush.

“You know, I've asked that a few times before myself. Nobody has ever had an answer for me.”

They both turned to Ember.

“Hey, I don't know either. I always thought that the kind of people who reach those ranks are also usually the people who like to explore. At a certain point they wander outside the borders of the kingdom and never really come back. Maybe things outside the borders are much more dangerous than inside them. The north is definitely more dangerous, that's for sure.”

Zalia chewed her lip, thinking.

“Why are the Astar doing this? If they wanted to just wipe us out I'm sure they could. What if they're doing it simply to keep the human race weak?”

Ember looked at her.

“What are you saying?”

“If you were somewhat cold and calculating and had a neighbouring kingdom you wanted to keep from getting too powerful, as well as extremely well developed spatial magic powers, what would you do? Think about what the Astar just did to me. I got annoying, then they decided to take me out of the equation.”

“Zalia, are you saying you think the Astar have been kidnapping and… what, killing any high ranked humans who get too powerful?”

Zalia sighed.

“Idk Ro, it's just a thought. It's a possible explanation. It has always struck me as odd that there are no higher ranked people in this kingdom. Originally I just thought that they remained hidden most of the time but if there was a time for them to show themselves…”

Ember swore under her breath.

“Shit Zals, that's horrible to think about. Like they've been… culling us. If that were happening, how could we not have seen it? Surely the king…”

Zalia gave a grim smile.

“The king. The king who according to Indis had a very, very sudden change of personality soon after his father died. Hidey, who was in charge of the Morning’s Shade intelligence. Who knows how long this has been going on? If we're correct that is. The more I think about it the more I believe it must be the answer.”

Then she remembered Hildebrandt saying that Matthias had disappeared. She had a sinking feeling that he hadn't gone willingly.

It really brought home to her that she'd been extremely lucky that the starlight wolf was her friend. Without them, she might have ended up just another dead powerful human that got too big for their own boots.

“Fucking Astar. Maybe this is all just completely wrong but if it's right, they have a lot to answer for.”