B'arthon sat down at the table in his tent with a sigh. He had another clue, but the puzzle was still maddeningly incomplete.

A soft voice spoke up from the odd device he insisted travel with him wherever he went. "Did the negotiations go well?"

The noble nodded, forgetting for a moment that his guest couldn't see him, before answering. "Yeah, they went fine. But, more importantly, I might have another lead on the location of Jack and S'haar."

The young-sounding voice brightened. "Well, that's great news! But then... why do you sound so frustrated?"

He leaned back and sighed again before answering. "Because now I only have more questions. This is a village they helped before the fall of the outpost, and as I suspected, they passed through here on their way to wherever they are now."

The young voice sounded more confused. "Ok, I don't see the problem yet..."

Pinching his nose as if fighting off a headache, B'arthon answered. "Well, remember I said this village gave in too quickly?"

The voice sounded hesitant. "Yes... Did that change?"

B'arthon shook his head. "No, but apparently, they gave in quickly because Jack and S'haar told them we were coming and that it would be in their best interest to work with us rather than fight us. Furthermore, they even said the village leader should answer any questions I might have about them, though he didn't know much about that."

The voice on the table hesitated for a moment. "Well, if they are friends with the people of this village, perhaps they wanted to save them any misfortune by fighting you?"

Nodding reluctantly, the noble answered. "Perhaps, but that doesn't explain why they'd want him to answer all my questions. It's almost like they're daring me to find them, and I don't like that."

The tent was quiet for a moment before the voice spoke up. "But you're thinking about going anyway, aren't you?"

B'arthon looked annoyed. "Yeah... because when will I get another opportunity like this again? And more importantly because..."

As the noble trailed off, the voice finished his thought for him. "Because of me. I might not have much time left, and you're hoping they can fix that."

B'arthon didn't like that she could already read him better than most, so he tried to change the direction of the conversation. "Have you thought of a name for yourself yet? I can't keep calling you 'the voice' forever."

The voice wouldn't be dissuaded. "No, you don't get to try and distract me like that! You can't endanger yourself like that for me! These people are your enemies!"

The noble stood up and paced. "That may be, but while they're disturbingly clever, they're also unbelievably naive. They won't kill me so long as I'm not an active threat."

He looked over at the device, expecting another retort, but he could see the small blinking red light that meant she'd fallen asleep again. That had been happening more and more as the winter dragged on into spring, and he didn't like it...

-

Em'brel was looking around at the rest of the camp's leadership. They were about ready to move, but now they needed to decide what direction to take. Angela sacrificed a small amount of her power for the day to create a three-dimensional map of the region on a table while everyone looked it over.

Finally, Ger'ron sighed. "Well, I hate to say it, but with A'ngles to our southeast and the hills to the north, there's only one direction we can move in. We have to go west until we hit the sea. Only then can we turn northward if we haven't already been caught by then..."

Pretty much everyone was nodding in agreement. Everyone except Jack. Once the noise of agreement settled, Jack raised his voice, attracting everyone's attention. "Ok, but why can't we go north?"

Everyone was looking back and forth, wondering if Jack had finally lost the rest of his sanity. Then, finally, it was Lady Fae'en who answered. "You of all people should know the answer to that. The hills are the home to the hill people, the raiders. After the events of a year ago, I doubt they have much love for you and S'haar. That route would be incredibly dangerous for our camp to take!"

Jack nodded but didn't relent. "You may very well be correct, but there's a couple of factors to consider. First, I doubt the hill tribes are any more united than the villages. You all behave as if they were a single unified tribe, but in reality, they're probably small independent groups and families, as distinct from each other as the villages in the valleys. So while some tribes may very well bear grudges, most are probably too concerned with their own survival to waste time and resources going after such a large and well-defended group as ours. In fact, we may even be able to make new friends and allies among some tribes, though that may be a bit optimistic."

S'haar looked like she was going to interject, but Jack held up a hand, indicating he still had another point. Instead, she nodded, allowing him to continue. "Second, Since A'ngles is going to be chasing us down, his armies will probably be restricted to the bare essentials and won't be self-sufficient like our camp is. That means he'll have to establish supply lines to keep the troops functioning. Those supply lines will be much more vulnerable to raiders than our camp, forcing him to re-assign some of the soldiers meant for us to protect supplies instead."

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The expressions of everyone in the room were torn between thoughtfulness and confusion. Em'brel could understand why. Even with her lessons in human history, the concepts Jack was speaking of were challenging for her to grasp. It was one thing to listen to tales of humans fighting in wars in their distant past, but it was something else to apply the abstract concepts learned from those stories and apply them to the world she knew. It was making her head spin. To most of the people in this room, these ideas were probably even more foreign than they were to her. It must sound to some of them like he was talking in a foreign language again.

Jack's voice softened as if apologetic for creating such confusion. "This is nothing like villages fighting amongst each other. There are all sorts of new logistical and morale issues that are entirely new to this kind of combat. While I am certain A'ngles and B'arthon will learn their lessons far too quickly, humanity's already learned them, giving us an essential advantage at this early stage of the conflict."

S'haar looked at the map with a frown. "You might be right. We may very well be less vulnerable than these 'supply lines,' but there's still some risk. So if we do this, we'll need to take some precautions. All hunters and guards will work in pairs while we are in the hill people's territory, no workers will be allowed away from the camp without an escort, and we'll need to keep most of our supplies stored in the center of camp at night."

Ger'ron nodded. "That's fine, but what do we do when we stumble across a tribe that bears a grudge against Jack and S'haar? We won't be able to make peace with everyone."

S'haar sighed. "You're not wrong, but no matter what we do, there'll be some risk. Though I'd say between having a tame wolgen and Angela, most tribes will steer clear of us unless we go looking for trouble. And if they don't, we'll answer their hostilities with bolts and steel. I doubt any group up there can handle all we can bring to bear."

Jack interjected. "Though diplomacy will be our first and best recourse. Any battle we can win without fighting means preserving valuable time and resources."

S'haar smiled and nodded. "Yes, yes. We'll do things your way whenever possible. Just remember, I'm the one that decides if it's viable or not. We may not always have the time to hold a debate out there, so I expect everyone to respect my decisions in this matter."

Jack held up his hands in surrender. "Hey, we've been over this. My days as a hero are behind me. I'm content to remain in an advisory role from here on out!"

Angela and S'haar replied at the same time with an unconvinced, "Uh-huh."

When Jack directed an expression of betrayal at his sister, she merely shook her head. "Sorry, bro, you aren't fooling anyone!"

Jack looked as if he was going to argue the point when Em'brel interrupted everyone by clapping her hands. "Alright! Now that we've got the broad strokes worked out, can we clear the table so we can eat while we finish planning? I don't know about the rest of you, but I suspect Lon'thul is about to collapse if we don't feed him something soon!"

The hunter looked longingly at the younger female. "Have I ever told you how beautiful you are when you feed me?"

Em'brel sighed and shook her head patiently. "Yes, dozens of times, maybe hundreds..."

Angela laughed. "Humans have a saying, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach!"

Ger'ron looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, there are many bony plates there, but I suppose it's possible with a lucky strike and a long enough blade..."

-

Jack was leaning back in his folding chair, enjoying the last relaxing night they'd have for a while. Tomorrow, they'd be moving again, which meant walking until they were exhausted, then making camp just long enough to recover for the next day. The winter hadn't been what he'd call relaxing, but it had at least been a slower pace of work.

Then again, if he was feeling exhausted, the argu'n all had to be pushing their limits. So that was another reason for them to go into the hills rather than rush to the west. With some luck, they could take advantage of the unfamiliar territory to slacken the pace a little, and catch their breath, metaphorically speaking. He didn't want to think about a pitched battle at the end of that kind of forced march. Even if the enemy was just as exhausted, it would be a brutal bloodbath ending with both forces getting demolished. If they were to stand and fight, he'd make sure they'd have an ace up their sleeve. Looking at S'haar, he grinned. Ok, more aces up their sleeves.

Sensing his attention, S'haar looked up from whatever she'd been discussing with Ger'ron, who gave a light-hearted salute as he left to put whatever last-minute plans they'd made into motion. With the old guard gone, that left just the two of them. "What are you grinning about over there?"

Jack shifted his position with a chuckle. "Just admiring the greatest warrior in the land as she prepares to lead her people into a bright new tomorrow!"

S'haar raised an eye ridge. "What, does Angela have her weather prediction back up and running?"

Jack rolled his eyes. He knew she was playing with him but decided to play along. "Yeah, didn't you know? She's even got the ship up and running. So she'll be flying us out of here, shortly. Gonna be a bit cramped, though."

At that, S'haar's expression fell a few degrees, all humor left as she shifted to a more serious demeanor. "I know we haven't talked about it much, but I'm sorry you had to give so much up back there. I wish there'd been another way."

With a bittersweet smile, Jack shook his head. "What I gained on this planet is worth far more than what I lost. I'm not saying that makes it easy, but it does make things bearable. Besides, I'm not the only one who gave up a life to go on this venture. Pretty much everyone with us did. So now we just have to try and do right by all of them.

At that, S'haar's countenance fell a little further. "You make it sound so easy. I don't even know what I'm doing right now. What's our end goal? Where are we hoping this will lead?"

Jack sighed and smiled in an attempt to comfort his partner. "I don't think anyone expects you to have all the answers right now. The end goal is a bit far over the horizon. Right now, we're just working on keeping hope for a better future alive. People saw what we started in the outpost and believed in it enough to follow us on this insane journey. Just keeping that spark alive for another year, another month, or another day is enough of a goal for now. Besides, the more intricate and detailed a plan you weave, the quicker it unravels. You're doing great so far, and if all you've been doing is making it up as you go, then keep on doing that!"

S'haar sat next to Jack on an improvised seat they'd made from a log. "When'd you go and start offering such sage advice?"

Jack shook his head. "Isn't that in the job description of a wizard advisor? Be all mysterious and offer sage advice? Besides, haven't I always offered great advice?"

S'haar grinned mischievously. "Yes, but now it sounds wise. Before, it just sounded insane."

Jack was going to say something about upgrading from hermit to sage but was interrupted by Lon'thul shouting from outside the tent. "Lady S'haar, Lord Jack, we have a visitor who'd like a word with you!"

S'haar looked at Jack. "You don't think?"

Jack looked back, equally unsure. "That was such a long shot. What are the odds?"

Walking outside, they could see B'arthon, flanked by Lon'thul on one side and Orth'kun on the other. Jack blinked in surprise. "Huh, I didn't really expect him to accept our invitation like that. That was surprisingly easy!"