Ingrasia might not have railing she could perch on, but she still managed to settle on the highest point in our quarters. There were three pairs of shelves slightly larger than a standard bedroll grown out of the walls of our sleeping quarters and she sat with her feet dangling off one of the top bunks. If the ceiling had been tall enough she’d likely be standing right on the edge, but the tribesfolk here conserved space where they could as they couldn’t spread outside the confines of the wall protecting Bramble Watch.

The thought sent a shiver of panic down my spine but I ignored it as best as I could. I wasn’t trapped here, and I had better things to think about.

Ziek leaned against the ladder leading up to a separate bunk, arms lightly crossed. Not so much that she was judging me, but waiting for me to speak. Before I could, Ana sauntered into the room from the doorway behind me before claiming the bottom shelf of the last remaining pair.

She grinned and leaned forward. “I’m glad I made it in time.” Amusement flashed over both Ziek and Ingrasia’s faces as she continued, “Ziek said something about you leading us against impossible odds?”

“Unlikely odds,” Ziek huffed out.

Ana waved a dismissive hand. “That’s not nearly as impressive. I think she can handle impossible odds. She has before.”

I wanted to ask exactly what she was referring to, as several different possibilities came to mind—though most I had only survived due to my blessing—but Ingrasia took control of the conversation before I could push the point.

She gestured to me. “You know about the proxy war. We know about the proxy war. There’s no need for pretext here. You want to save Juniper from the consequences of awakening the Water Frond Snake and stop the horde. Possibly catch the goddess’s eye so you can become one of the Chosen. Is that correct?”

I nodded.

Ingrasia nodded back. “It’s good to have goals but you’ll need to prioritize. Decide what objective is most important and go from there or you’ll run out of the time or resources you need to accomplish any of it. Is Juniper’s potential safety or driving off the horde more important? Are you willing to do something that jeopardizes or reveals your standing in the proxy war, or are you willing to risk that to accomplish your other goals?”

I wasn’t willing to give up on any of it and I said so.

She smiled. “That’s good, but you still need to prioritize or you’ll waffle between options when you don’t have time to spare. What’s your most important objective? The second most? Third?”

The answer didn’t come as easily as I thought it would. Stopping Juniper was wrapped up in the other things I needed to do and it was the most time sensitive objective, as Ingrasia put it, but stopping the horde could also save Juniper and it would protect us all from the goddess’s wrath if the fighting here spread all the way to Her home.

There was also a small part of me that whispered that I shouldn’t be trying to stop Juniper. That by trying to save the delta before her rituals were over I was repeating my mistake with Fellen. It wasn’t guaranteed that her mind would be stuck in the Water Frond Snake and she seemed more centered than she had in long time. The rest of me told that whispering voice to shut up. I’d talk to her and she’d understand. She had to.

Nor did I want to admit that saving her from the Water Frond Snake had suddenly become the most pressing thing I could think about. Stopping the horde and becoming one of the Chosen were important, yes, but they didn’t seem as immediate as saving Juniper—even if I had no idea how to stop her without removing the fish from the delta.

Unless I stole the pearl or crushed it. Or kept her tied up until the threat was over, but all that definitely fueled the whispering voice that said I was making a choice that wasn’t mine to make. That I wasn’t going to be forgiven for making it for her.

But I couldn’t allow her to throw away her mind, especially when she was just being used in someone else’s scheme that she didn’t know about. The chance that she could be forced to turn on her people that she was determined to protect…I couldn’t just stand to the side and do nothing.

I knew what my top priority was, but I still told Ingrasia something different. “Stopping the horde. Preferably within three days.”

Some emotion flickered across her face, but she didn’t call me out on the lie like I thought she might. Ana looked like she wanted to and Ziek studied me like she was wondering why I changed my answer from my ranting earlier, but they both followed our mentor’s lead.

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Instead, Ingrasia said, “Then we focus on that. Impossible odds, indeed. To start, think of this as if you are in enemy territory. No one to turn to but your team. A different culture, a different understanding of common sense. No one will listen to you just because you say so, so how do you still accomplish your goals? Just gathering information isn’t enough, not if you want to make a difference.”

So that was her angle. Training really wasn’t going to be interrupted despite the situation we had been dropped into. In fact, this training was more focused on what both she and the Sect Leader wanted me to learn than the lessons I had so far in the Seedling Palace.

Small team management. Information gathering and synthesis. Influence. How to bring about positive results on a dangerous, impossible mission.

Either Ingrasia really was as adaptable with her training as she claimed or they had know I’d get pulled into this mess, one way or another. Perhaps both, though part of me wished I could started my training with a situation that was less dire and the stakes weren’t so high.

Where to start?

The first step to healing any injury was learning all I could about the injury itself: how severe the damage was, how long it’d been since the injury occurred, any other health concerns. I knew all I could at the moment about the situation in the delta without doing further research into how it all started in the first place, and every healer learned to recognize when the moment when it was time to act rather than gather information.

The second step was knowing your resources: what herbs and other ingredients you had your disposal, what tools were in your bag, what combination would be best to use for your patient.

The last step was to act and treat the injury. Depending on the length of recovery the steps could be repeated as necessary.

I might not be able to heal, but I could pick apart a problem until I got a solution that worked. Right now, looking at the three whisper women in front me, I realized I didn’t know my resources. Not fully.

“What your blessings? What are you best at?” I didn’t want to ask my last question because I preferred to figure it out myself, but I asked it anyway. “Do you have any ideas on how we can push back the horde? I don’t time to observe and learn like I normally would.”

Ziek smiled. “Thought you’d never ask. The others have nicknamed me the Hound. Give me a scent and I can follow it anywhere. Through water, wind as swift as a spirit’s storm, you name and my blessing will still allow me track the smell to its source.”

“Can you track old scents?”

She nodded. “Anything up to year in the past. Even if the scent technically isn’t there any more but was in the past year I can tell you how old it is and follow that old trail.” She glanced sidelong at Ingrasia. “She used to make me find and follow her travels through the Seedling Palace. In the beginning I’d get the old and new trails confused when they overlapped, but that hasn’t been an issue in a long time.”

“What about through the shadow paths?”

Ziek shook her head. “Those aren’t really spaces, so there’s nothing to track, but if I know where to look I can pick up the trail again from where the target exited the shadow paths.”

That…was impressive. She could track down nearly anything or anyone she wanted to as long as she knew what to sniff. I wasn’t sure how her blessing could help with the current situation but it was still helpful to know.

“My blessing is a little different,” Ana said. “I can…make suggestions. Most of the time I don’t need it since everyone loves a little bit of gossip, but if someone is being difficult, I can strongly suggest they tell me what they know or do something. It doesn’t always work, especially if the other person has a strong will or I’m tired, and if I put to much into it they’ll remember being coerced, so I tend to rely on my personal charm.”

My eyes narrowed. “Have you used it on me?”

“Never.”

I wasn’t sure whether to believe her, but I resolved to keep an eye out when I interacted with her in the future. All in all, they had been more forthright with the information than I expected. Ana could have easily been vaguer about her abilities to keep me from being suspicious, but I was glad they weren’t as secretive as I imagined Hundred Eyes whisper women would be. He blessing could certainly be helpful, but, like she said, it was something that was likely best used sparingly.

Ziek answered my second question I had asked. “I’m best with weapons work, fighting, tracking, that sort of thing.” Which again made me wonder why she had joined this sect, but I kept that to myself. She added, “Ana’s best with others. Getting them to talk, organizing, identifying strengths and weaknesses and what they might be hiding.”

Ziek looked to Ingrasia who took the cue to talk. “You already know my blessing. I’ve been the game so long I can do a bit of everything. Talking, spying, fighting. Just let me know what needs doing I’ll do it—as long as I’m not doing your training for you.”

I nodded. I knew better than to ask Ingrasia to do every little thing. They might say that I was leading the team for my training, but she was still our mentor. There’d be no point to the training if she solved every problem and question for me, nor would I want her to, but there was still my last question I had asked.

I swept my gaze over all three of them. “And do you have any ideas on how we can stop the horde in three days? My top ideas are letting Juniper give her mind to the Water Frond Snake, poisoning all the waterways, figuring out what started the surge this year in the first place so we can reverse it, but I don’t like any of them. They’re either too risky or could take too long.”

Ingrasia leaned forward. “A good start. Let’s see if we can work out the kinks.”

We talked for hours then, debating ideas, building off each other’s suggestions. It took far longer than I wanted and by the end of it I wasn’t sure we even had a plan that could realistically work, but it was the best that we had come up with. It was also split into two different versions: one in which Juniper became the Water Frond Snake and one where she did the sensible thing and kept her mind to herself. The second variation was even more tenuous than the first but it was a contingency I wouldn’t budge on.

Juniper had finally responded to my whispers on the wind. I would have my chance to convince her of the best thing to do after her first ritual was complete that night.