"This is wrong. All wrong…" Cloktu hysterically whispered to himself in between his gasps for breath. He needed to be quiet. Could feel it.

But he also needed to run. To get out of here.

If only Cloktu knew where he was. Because he had never heard of or seen anything like this place.

A clammy mist was smeared over the ground. It was still, like the surface of the water on a breezeless night. The faint light worming its way through the twisted branches overhead lit the forest and floating water in a world of gray.

The only time the mist moved was when he ran through it, and then it would swirl around itself and his body like wisps of dancing smoke.

While the fog appeared unmoving, every step was like running into a strong wind. Not one Cloktu could feel hitting his whole body. It was only below his knees where the mist clutched at his flesh through his damp pants.

It made running strange and slowed Cloktu down as he stumbled every few steps.

His head never stopped moving as it turned left to right, up and down, though. Because he knew something was out there. Hunting him. He trusted his instincts, and the hairs on the back of his neck were standing tall as the gaze of the stalking predator never wavered.

But no matter how much he searched, he couldn't find the glowing eyes.

"Come at me!" Cloktu screamed in challenge spinning in a circle, eyes searching the darkness between the trunks. One of his hands squeezed his scabbard while the other clutched at… air.

His head snapped down, and it was like a fist slammed into his chest, stopping his heart for an instant. Where did it go? He frantically thought as he looked at the mist-covered ground as if he had somehow dropped it. I had it when I… How did I get here?

Cloktu had been running for so long. He was trying to reach someone… The Prefect! Yeah, I need to reach her.

Taking one last spinning look at the forest around him, he turned and started running again. His mind was filled with the knowledge he had to report.

Report what? The thought wormed its way into his mind like an eel, consuming his thoughts as he staggered to a stop.

What did he have to report?

He was… out on assignment. What he thought was some kind of political ass-covering move. A reason to explain why they had lost two-thirds of the Triad and a third of the legion in a single night.

Dark-skinned elves? Bahh! Who would accept that? And supposedly, they were the spies for some empire planning to attack the Republic? He didn't know many elves, but he had never seen one of the pale-skinned bastards with anything close to a light tan, or even a sunburn, for that matter.

And supposedly, some elves were skulking around the fort? No, he couldn't believe it.

When the Prefect ordered him to look around town to find any evidence, he took it as the easy assignment it was supposed to be. If there was one thing he was known for, it was tracking. He just seemed to have a knack for finding people.

Days passed as he and his partner, Tokva, wandered the slums of Southtown, the town sprawled out beyond the walls of the Southern Fort of the Triad. Eventually, they came across something… weird.

A new gang was ruling a not-insignificant corner of the slums along the Twins.

More than that, the usual constant jockeying and posturing of the street crews were absent. Oh, the urchins were still there. As that would trigger so many warning bells, no one with any sense would set foot on the street.

But their eyes constantly darted to the shadows as they tried to force their tense bodies into looking relaxed. It was like they feared a monster would dart out and grab them at any moment.

A new gang popping up and claiming territory was not strange.

A new gang that no one wanted to speak the name of, and it not causing enough trouble that it was brought to the attention of anyone in the Legion Police — who acted as the civic guard for the town — was… abnormal.

Something was going on, and his instincts were telling him the Prefect might not be looking for a political out like he first thought.

So he and his partner decided to skulk around the slums during the night to see what they could find.

And then… I found one.

His eyes widened in horror as he looked around the twisted woods.

The ramshackle half-collapsed houses of the slums could be described as twisted and creepy, but they would never be mistaken as a forest. And that was the last place Cloktu remembered being.

I'm inside a—

“Gurrp…" Cloktu gurgled as he felt something drive up from his gut into his chest. But there was nothin—

The haunted forest of nightmares around him shattered. And he was sitting on the cold stone ground of an alley, his back leaning against cold stone. To his left, he saw what looked like a pair of legion boots, the ground around them reflecting flickering torch light.

It was night, and two figures hidden by cloaks stood above him.

"They know nothing." Said a male in a harsh whisper, like he was speaking through his teeth.

"They know we are here." Said a feminine voice in annoyance. Her voice was musical and lilting. And in other circumstances, it would have been pleasant to listen to.

"They suspect without any belief. By the time they know, it will be too late."

"That's why I told you not to kill him!" The female said in exasperation, throwing up her arms, "When he disappears, they are going to know they are right! I told you to en—

"What is one soldier? There are plenty to replace him. A marshal would never notice a single pawn."

"I told you, they don't view their people like that. The Olimpains will notice."

"A weakne—

Releasing his psy, Cloktu tried to send out an emergency pulse. One calling for support and contact. If someone could feel it, the Prefect should be able to intuit what he meant in his last moments.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

But his psy never left his body, rebounding around a shell covering his mind. His psy almost broke through, as the shield was not expecting an attack, but neither was he expecting a shield.

Backlash filling his mind, he saw a blur as one of the figures moved as the other clutched their head. He felt nothing for a second, then a line of pain on his neck joined the other pains wracking his body.

"I told you not to underestimate—

He didn't care about the rest, as it was so cold. And he was so… tired.

**********

Derg licked his lips, picking up the blood of the boar leg he was eating, then ripped off another piece of raw meat with his teeth. While many within his clan like their meat cooked, he like the old ways.

He liked his meat raw, preferably right after he ripped the chunk off the still-living creature.

All around him, fires burned with every manor of game cooking as the Kin of the Crescent Moon… celebrated. The mood was far from joyful, though.

Because there was little to celebrate, and he refused to act like there was.

While he sent a portion of his force to man the fort they took from the Olimpians, he would not make his hall in a structure given to him by that… fox.

The craftsmen were already busy clearing the ground for his great hall on the same ground that Jolten was betrayed.

She didn't even try to hide her trickery. Her betrayal.

Jolten and all his mages died while the Olimpans escaped, and she slipped away after trying to save them but was forced back? Bah, no one believed those lies. She didn't even bother to tell them convincingly.

There was no sign of magic besides the spell Jolten was trying to cast, but that meant little. Fox magic was known for being hard to detect, even standing next to it, and her magic was harder than usual.

Despite having no proof, he was willing to bet his life she never lifted a claw to help the elder and other mages.

His faction's losses from pressing on the wall and the debacle on the river were… far worse than the Red Tails. Conveniently, few from the Red Tail faction were on their side of the barge bridge, letting the newly Enlightened of his faction lead the charge. And those of their faction on the barges all seemed to be at the back, ready to get to safety.

"They knew the Olimpians knew," Derg growled to himself, voice filled with rage. Or she told them… but he couldn't say the last part out loud, not even in a whisper.

Not without any proof.

The Temptress and her faction told the Conclave of the soul harvest spell, but that was fine. Expected.

If she accepted Jolten's offer, taking her rightful place at his side and beneath the rule of the Crescent Moon, then everything would have turned out perfectly, with the Kin well on their way to conquering the Olimpians.

That outcome was worth the risk of showing her the soul harvest spell. With their two factions united, none of the others could challenge them.

Kanieta turning on his offered hand of peace and slapping him in the face while taking knowledge of the forbidden spell to the Conclave was also within his plans.

Not to mention her clever manipulations, which ended up showing him up during the little battle, wouldn't matter in the long run… No matter how irksome it currently was.

Besides, even with his faction's losses, they still had thousands of newly enlightened. And while replacing the dead was a little annoying, there were always more where they came from.

And one of the reasons Derg had Jolten approach her was because he was getting a little too hard to handle recently, so her getting rid of him could almost be seen as a favor. Like it was supposed to be. He thought, his lips curling in a smile behind his shank of meat.

As for the Conclave and their annoying prattling, he would let them think they were in control for now. Their investigators would find nothing, and any pressure that was put on him wouldn't last long.

It couldn't. Because while the other factions might not like it, the Crescent Moon had the largest number of warriors within their ranks.

When the battles started, and they will start soon, he thought with a further amused curl of his lips, everyone would change their tone. Until there, all he had to do was sit back and wait.

Mood significantly lifted compared to a few moments before Derg decided to make this a night to remember. It wasn't every day one had such a good excuse for a feast.

"Chieftain," said the seductively husky voice of his currently favorite mate. Derg turned to rake his eyes over her body, to her pleasure, if her further sticking out her chest was anything to go by. Once he had his fill of inspecting her assets, he raised an eyebrow in a silent question.

She didn't answer immediately as she looked around, which sent a pulse of annoyance through him. Before he could speak and put her in her place, she spoke almost too softly for him to hear, "She is here."

Derg's back stiffened, and the relaxed smile that was forming on his lips turned stiff as he looked at who around him was paying attention.

Ripping off one more mouthful of meat before dropping the mostly eaten haunch to the ground, he stood and walked to his mate with a lecherous smile.

Sliding up next to her, he wrapped his right arm around her and fondled her breast as he leaned in and whispered in her ear like he was saying something seductive. "How do you know about her," he growled, his tone filled with an unvoiced threat.

Playing her part perfectly as she started to lead him away, she looked away and blushed as if any part of her was still demure or embarrassed about such simple things.

Hand circling his wrist, feeling up her chest, she bashfully got up on her toes and whispered, "I received a message, Chieftain." A shiver ran threw him as her breath and words caressed his cheek and ears.

The lesser chieftains around him cheered and called out to him, believing he was about to get laid.

Derg only smiled and grunted, waving them off as he let her lead him away. She must want a sacrifice, he thought. She knows which mate I prefer her to contact. While he was loath to throw her away, it was not past him to keep the relationship good.

Once they were out of sight of the crowd, his smile vanished. As he distanced himself emotionally from the soon-to-be dead.

She was prattling a little too loudly as they walked. Mainly because he was not who she was talking to. The woman was saying something about the flowers in a clearing she wanted to visit, with him occasionally throwing in a few grunts to make it look like he was paying attention.

They made their way to the edge of their camp as Valtury slipped out from his arms and jumped forward into a run. Derg surged after her, letting himself enjoy the chase as he didn't close the distance. Watching her from behind was a pleasant distraction.

It wasn't long until they came to a clearing, at which point her flirty demeanor dropped away like the flip of a lever.

"Elder," she said, bowing to a figure in the center of the clearing.

Derg was no stranger to carnage. When he fought, he often reveled in the blood that splashed onto his body, but the sight in the clearing made his stomach flip.

What was left of four bodies — three deer and one black bear — lay on their sides in the center of the clearing filled with colorful flowers. The fur and skin of the creatures looked so brittle that a soft breath would cause them to brake into a thousand pieces and blow away.

Blood was in a pulsing ring connecting the bodies before leading to the figure in the display's center. Lines of blood wrapped around the arms and crossed the legs of the figure, disappearing to nothing after traveling up her forearms.

It was a wolf kin who looked like she was in the prime of her life. But if the legends were to be believed, she had looked the same for the last five hundred years.

"Blood Witch," Derg said, bowing his head in a show of respect.

"Ahh," she sighed in pleasure as, in the span of a second, the blood of the animals flowed across the ground and disappeared into her body. As she breathed out, the smell of blood and lilacs filled the clearing, "It seems my granddaughter has taken a liking to you, Little Chief,"

Derg's eyes flicked to… Valaska? — he thought that was her name. But she preferred to be called… Val. She was looking him in the eyes with a pleased expression. The previous cowering and submissive posturing were gone. Not that she needed to act that way anymore, as her eyes burned red with an inner power that was causing the air to shimmer around her.

A message, hun? I always knew she was hiding her intelligence, but to have such strength. Derg thought as he felt her potent mana, even putting the fox to shame. His desire for Val only grew. We'll have to make sure we stick to our claim for coming out here. He thought, his gaze turning lustful.

Turning back to The Blood Witch, he was shocked to find her inches from his face.

The oppressive smell of lilacs mixed with blood washed over him. "So I have decided to help you with the Conclave," a smile spread across his face at the words, "but I am going to need some, fuel."

The way she said fuel was like a caress of a lover, and it sent a shiver down his spine as he knew she was referring to blood, but he didn't care. "I know just the place," He said, his smile turning vicious.