I leaned against a large rock in the gorge, watching the two groups interact. It was quite the spectacle. But not because the situation was anything special.

Sure, the roughly squad of legionaries were cautious with the Kin, but they weren't overly aggressive. It was actually surprising the legionarys weren't more antagonistic to Kanieta and the others.

They were stationed at one of the bloodiest sections on the Northern Line, with what was said even nowadays to be near constant attacks. Serving in the legion around Basetown for over a month meant you had been in a conflict with at least one warband.

A prejudice would not be wholly out of the question. And that was ignoring the loss of half their century to a beastwave before all of this craziness began… No, I guess it wasn't before all this started, was it? If anything, it would be right at the beginning, if the dark elves really are controlling the beastkins.

Then again, there was a stark difference between the Beastkins and the Kins. Beastkin were more animal than elvan, while the Kin were more elvan than animal.

It might not sound like much, but seeing a Kin next to a Beastkin would throw off a legionary for a moment. Not enough to stop them from dropping a hand to their sword and drawing the first few inches, but if they had someone vouching that these beastkin were different, they would take a moment to stop and think.

So, while I didn't expect things to go this smoothly, I'm not that surprised either.

What was surprising was the mask Kanieta was wearing. Just watching her talk to these men was making a series of shivers run down my spine. It wasn't natural.

She was fluttering her eyelashes at them. Her voice became so sweet and soothing that honey should be dripping out of her mouth with every word. And it seemed like every other time Kanieta opened her mouth, she was releasing a ringing bell-like laugh that tugged at my heart by the pure joy filling it.

It reminded me of my mother coming up behind me as a child and wrapping a blanket around me while we sat around a fire on a cold night.

If I didn't see the necessity for her to make a good impression, I would be calling her out. Instead, I would just have to live with my body being covered with gooseflesh until she stopped the act.

However, it was almost too much for my willpower when she feigned a bashful personality by blushing slightly when they complimented her. I couldn't spot from opening my mouth a few times to call out the kawrashit that was happening before me. But every time, I clicked it shut after a second when I reminded myself that I wanted these two groups to get along. And she was taking giant leaps in that direction. I was half convinced that most of these men already had a crush on Kanieta.

Not that she was helping me control those impulses. Kanieta knew precisely what she was doing and what was going through my mind. I knew that because she would occasionally turn half her face to me and then wink at me with a smirk.

It was impressive that she could twist a portion of her face without altering her other side.

When the conversation was finally turned toward their flight from the Twins and the battle between the Crescent Moon and Letairry, Kanieta's real personality shone through momentarily.

A vicious smile distorted Kanieta's face like she just caught the smell of blood from her prey. Leeroy and the others lead back when her canines appeared, some of them even taking a step back and their hands falling onto the hilts of their weapons.

"Sorry," Kanieta said, her face becoming an apologetic mask. "Derg — the one leading the Crescent Moon Faction — he hurt and killed many of my friends. Hearing of him stepping into a hornet's nest and helping me… it couldn't happen to anybody better."

“…It's fine, Chieftain Kanieta," Opito Lun said, waving off her apology with a dismissive wave of his hand. However, I could not help but detect a hint of cautiousness in his voice as his eyes flicked to Leeroy and then to me, searching for our reactions.

More so Leeroy than me, as I was more of an afterthought. And it wasn't just Opito Lun. Everyone threw a glance at Leeroy at some point during the exchange. Some looked conscious of the actions, but most just shited to have him in the corner of their eye. Optio Lun is quite perceptive. And they all seem to want to know Leeroy's reaction…

As for Leeroy himself, he was staring off to the northeast while throwing the occasional look past us to the south. It was like what we were talking about didn't matter.

And to him, as a legion grunt, it really didn't. But his dismissive attitude to everything seemed to reassure the rest of his group. And they all threw searching glances off in the directions he was looking.

"While Scout Green told me that he was up here searching for refuges of the Cradle, I have to think that there is more to the story with all of you traveling with him." Opito Lun said cautiously.

"Indeed," Kanieta responded, "in fact, searching for refugees is more of a side track our mission has taken on. We were mainly following the destruction and blood golems Crescent Moon left in their wake, attempting to figure out their plans. We were going to start searching for the main camp they must have in his region, but Green over there felt a— what was it again? Ahh, a psy casting origination from your group, and he wanted to discover what it was."

As Kanieta's face turned to me, it shifted from one of attentive speculation to a mocking smile. Her eyes sparkled with the knowledge that I had a spike of irritation when she used the word psy. I knew she did it just to get under my skin, but every time I heard it from her, I couldn't help a spike of irritation. Though, from most people, it was nothing but a breath of air brushing past me.

"What is a blood golem?" Opito Lun asked uncertainly before it filled with confusion. "And you felt a casting from us?"

"Ahh, I believe you have seen them from afar in the battle. The hidden faction the Crescent Moon allied themselves with can create spel…Hmm. Think of an elemental, just with blood and flesh, not fire or stone. They are semi-autonomous abominations that grow stronger as they kill."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

As she talked, those listening had the blood drained from their faces, and looks of horror came over them as they shuffled in place. "And you followed them up here."

"Yes," Franklin said, cutting in, his voice solemn, "We tried to exterminate the corrupted casters in the past, as they nearly destroyed us, but they are apparently more tenacious than we thought. It is to our shame that we let our blight loose on your people."

An uneasy silence settled over us, and I studied my fingernails as I trimmed them with a knife, pointedly ignoring everyone. I didn't mention the golems when I first told them our story, speaking in broad terms. I didn't want to relive those moments more than I did in my sleep, and they didn't need to know all the details. However, I was just glad that this didn't outright end our discussion.

Not that they appeared all that surprised by Kanieta's description. They must have seen some things of their own.

Finally, Lun cleared his throat and hesitantly asked again, "You felt a casting from us."

“…Yes and no," I answered slowly, gathering my thoughts on the subject. "It wasn't really a casting. I'm pretty sure he's some kind of idiot savant with pulses." As I spoke, I gestured to Leeroy, who was looking off to the side again.

"But I haven't felt him perform a casting in days." Opito Lun said, though there was no conviction behind the words. It was more like he felt obliged to say something because he hadn't fully convinced himself Leeroy was doing anything special, but he knew something weird was happening.

I opened my mouth to give an answer to their question but decided to change what I was going to say. My instinct was to go into detail about everything that was going on with me and what I was discovering I could do, but that would open up a whole lot of problems for me. If what I said traveled to the wrong ears, I would end up disappearing. There was a reason the same noble houses have been in power for hundreds of years. I decided to be more vague with my answer.

"I was able to use a special technique I'm developing and felt a ripple from him," I said, gesturing to Leeroy. "I don't know how he does it, but it travels for at least ten miles and is extremely hard to detect. He probably doesn't know how he is doing it, but you should have noticed him reacting to situations before he had any right to do so."

The squad turned to look at each other, their eyes flicking around, with no one saying anything. They were all looking to the others to say something. To poke some hole in the claim so they could all laugh it off at my expense.

And yet, the longer they looked at each other, the more their faces settled into grim masks. They thought back on their journey, and one strange occasional after another must have popped into their minds.

I already had first-hand experience of what Leeroy could do, and given where we are, they must have had many close encounters. And now they were facing them instead of brushing them off and accepting them because they were still alive. Really, why would a legionary question the reasons for living another day?

“Can…" Lun spoke with a dry throat, then halted and swallowed before speaking again, "Can others detect it."

I had to respect him for being able to immediately jump to the heart of the issue. "No," I said, shaking my head, "You have seen the Kin's abilities," they all nodded, some of them even shivering at the memory, "Kanieta here is one of their best, and she couldn't even feel a thing, and few if any Olimpians have the skill to perform the casting."

In the middle of my words, I had already turned to look at Kanieta, and I saw her scowl at me when I mentioned her lack of skill. But the scowl turned into a disgruntled frown and flush of her cheeks as the rest turned to face her. I had to admit she made quite the figure, "I must admit that my knowledge of the intricacies of psy castings are lacking."

Giving her a not-so-amused smile, I turned to look at Leeroy. "We need to find the Crescent Moon's camp and maybe a convenient way to talk to the forts. Do you have any suggestions?"

Leeroy's brow wrinkled in thought and concentration.

I tried to form an antenna to detect if he released a ripple, but my rushing made the casting collapse before it fully formed. All I had left to go on was the same information as everyone else's, which was Leeroy's head turning toward the line of smoke in the sky, then to the south.

He paused for a second, then shook his head and shrugged. "I don't know if you're right or not… but I want to go that way." He said, then gave a half-heartedly pointing to the northeast.

If you went north in any direction, you would hit the forts, so maybe it was the safety? However, I doubted an army would camp much closer to the forts than we currently were. It can't be for that, right?

"Well, this ended far better than I thought Green's little excursion would be. But," Kanieta said, breaking the silence. Her voice wasn't as sickly sweet as before, but it still wasn't quite back to normal. "And no offense, gentlemen, but we have to find an army before mine arrives, and you aren't really going help with that. And I have some messages to send."

No one seemed to take her words to heart, and it looked like, with the mystery of the ripple settled, we were about to go our separate ways.

But I hardly noticed that as my eyes were locked on Kanieta. She appeared and sounded basically the same, but there was something different about her now. A coldness around her, like she had to do… Oh, fuck me. Thought as it came to me.

I had missed it, but Kaneita hadn't. She was raised to be a leader, and from everything I had seen, she was a good one. She put her people first.

"What are the odds of you finding the Crescent Moon camp in time?" I asked her in a neutral tone.

“…Not great," Kanieta responded after a moment and a sigh, her eyes narrowing at me in suspicion. "They would have a concealment formation set up. It won't be so great that I would have to be right on top of it to detect it, but I would still have to get close. And there is a lot of area to cover."

Opito Lun's report changed everything. The dark elves were already attacking the Republic, and we didn't even know. If they were confident enough to cut off an entire legion and occupy a city, they would act soon. Meandering around up in the north without my legion should have been a waste of my time.

But now it looked like I was exactly where I needed to be.

Kanieta wasn't going to warn the 15th of the incoming Letairry attack. The Kin had taken a massive hit with the desertion of one of their factions, and now they were stretched thin. To thin. They needed a win, no doubt, for internal political reasons but also to consolidate their position.

With it looking unlikely that they would find a win up here in the north, they could get it when an army came out of nowhere and smashed into the Triad. With the Kin able to prepare for the Letairry, there was no way for the dark elves to land the devastating blow they were searching for and smash the 15th and Senatorial Guard.

But they would still land a blow. One that would weaken the Republic and, as a result, strengthen the Kin's position, even if they were in the middle of a civil war. Cold as it was,

I could appreciate the pure calculation and commitment to one's people to make such a decision. It could not have been easy, as Kanieta didn't strike me as someone who reveled in death. But she was also someone who would still deal it out should it be necessary.

And now I had to make a choice... Who was I kidding? I had already made a decision because it really wasn't a choice. If there was a legion I belonged in, it was the 15th, as it was a gathering of outcasts. At the vary least, It had been my home for years. And I would not be the cause of their deaths while all I had to do was my job.

Taking a breath to brace myself, I asked, ”If I can find the camp, will you send a message to your people about the Letairry actions and have them give it to the 15th?"

She looked at me, her eyes squinted in suspicion, "If you can do this, why didn't you mention it before?"

"Because I don't know what will happen to me if I do it."

"Meaning?"

"That there is a certain amount of danger involved for me, and it wasn't worth the risk before," I said.

"If you can do it," Kanieta said slowly in thought, "I will send the message."

With a nod, I accepted the deal at her word, then sat down where I was, my legs crossed, and began to focus my mind.

"What are you going to do?" Kanieta asked, curiosity filling her voice.

"I'm going to release an Earth Pulse," I answered.