Shakha's heart began beating so fast that he could feel his pulse at his fingertips.

Calëb sat quietly next to him while looking him straight into his eyes.

“I… still don’t trust them.” Shakha said with a lowered head

“I know. But you must understand that it had to be done.” Calëb said as she stood up.

She then grabbed several long strips of dark leather and tightly bound her arms and legs before walking towards the room's exit.

“Come.” She said.

Shakha stood and followed Calëb out of her tent where the morning sunlight brightly illuminated the Oasis.

A few children could be seen running about while several Rendaro sat idly in front of their huts.

Shakha crossed his arms while Calëb looked around with an expression he didn’t quite recognize.

He then noticed an elderly Rendaro approaching them. Her hair was completely black and was tried in a neat bun on top of her hair. Her wrinkly, white skin contrasted quite well with her dark thick robes.

“Good morning, Calëb.” The old woman said.

“Good morning, Nanny,” Calëb said before accepting the Nanny’s trembling hands.

“There is one I really want to show you. Come.” The Nanny said before leading Shakha and Calëb towards one of the other large huts.

They entered it to find that it was dark and poorly lit.

They walked down the single path that led deeper into the tent were twelve Rendaro women, only their bellies were enlarged and around them were several platters stacked with various fruits and other foods.

The women slept on large piles of blankets and were dressed only in straps of damp cloth.

Shakha and company walked past them and entered the deeper part of the camp where four women could be seen giving birth. Surrounding each of them was a duo of Nanny’s.

He watched as thin bands of green light flowed from the nannies to the women.

He witnessed as a new generation of Foph were taken from their mothers and given to the Nannies.

Custom dictated that a Foph child should never know their parents.

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This bothered Shakha a little, but-

“Shakha,” Calëb called, snapping Shakha out of his trance.

He, Calëb and the Nanny eventually arrived at the deepest part of the tent.

Within it, they saw two Nannies watching over six women who held in their arms six children.

The Nanny who brought Calëb and Shakha to the camp pointed at the rightmost woman.

Calëb approached the sleeping woman, who gently cradled her child.

Calëb looked at the child, a little girl and saw that she was quietly suckling on her mother’s breast, her body and that of her mother buried beneath a pile of blankets.

The child must have noticed Calëb's presence because she looked right at the Arcusus for a moment.

The child then began loudly crying, waking her mother in her process.

“Oh… hello, Arcusus. What brings you here?” The woman asked.

“Your child… may I hold her briefly?”

The woman gently nodded before weakly ripping her child away from her breast.

She then lifted the child as best as she could and Calëb gently accepted her.

“Ah… I can see what you meant, although she is probably far smaller than I was.” Calëb said as she inspected the naked child who loudly wailed, much to Shakha’s annoyance.

“She’s beautiful… but she’ll probably never be a warrior,” Calëb said as she handed the child back to her mother.

“You may be right, but I think that she will be a capable woman, like you, one day.” The Nanny said with a wrinkly smile.

Calëb nodded before leading Shakha out of the tent.

She then stood still for a moment as she looked up into the clear blue sky.

Shakha opened his mouth to speak but stopped upon seeing that Gid was approaching.

The aged Rendaro stopped right in front of Calëb and looked her in the eye.

The two stood in silence for a moment.

Gid’s body swayed from side to side as he looked at Calëb with a raised head.

“Make me Arcusus.” He said.

“No.” Calëb simply said.

“Y- I-“ Gid struggled to say as he paced back and forth.

“I’ll keep a close eye on the golden-“

“You will do nothing but fulfil your duties as an Arcus.”

Gid’s eyes widened.

He then ran his hands through his long black hair and messily rubbed it as his eyes darted around.

“F-fine.” He said before walking away.

Calëb sighed while placing her hands on her hips.

“Anyway, head on over to the storage huts. Apparently, some food has gone missing. I want you to investigate that.”

“Why can’t the other Arcus’s handle it?” Shakha asked.

“Because, like you, they have lost some of their faith in me. However, unlike them, you still completely trust me, right?” Calëb asked with a raised brow.

That doesn't explain why you're making me do this menial task! Shakha thought.

“Mmm… yeah, sure. Whatever.” Shakha said before turning to leave.

He then made his way towards the storage hut, where he walked up to the two guards at its entrance.

“Ah! Good morning, Shakha. Pleasant surprise seeing you here.” One of the guards said.

“Yeah, yeah. Tell me what’s going on here. I heard some stuff’s gone missing.”

“Err... yeah. We actually aren’t sure what’s happening. It’s always a fairly unnoticeable amount and there’s no distinct pattern. Like some food was stolen yesterday, but the time between yesterday’s theft and the one before is a week and the time before that was a month. It’s really hard to predict when the thief will strike next.” The guard said.

Shakha nodded before walking into the large hut where his nose immediately perked up as the various aromas tickled his senses with every breath.

He saw countless boxes filled with dried meats, others with dried fruits, grains and other foods.

He inspected every box and noted that they were all full.

He then mentally documented where everything was before grabbing a piece of dried meat and walking out of the storage room.

“Give me a list of every guard who protects this place.”