In the Fen village, Beserkers were screaming at each other, but that was apparently normal. In the healer’s house, Kaden searched for answers to Basu’s question, a reason she should help instead of calling her kin.

[Negotiation] attempted to take over, but Kaden pushed it aside. These people lived by passion, by emotion, and though he felt little right now, it was the way forward. “My name—”

“Unlike most Fen, I have [Identify],” Basu said. “Never met a [Beast Master], but if it’s like any of the [Tamers] I know enough. You were convincing me not to have you captured and killed.”

“Can I sit?” Kaden waited for her to point with the mace at one of the stone tables, which, due to his height, wasn’t quite a chair, but he could make it work. “So, I’m an Adventurer assigned to the Resyr clan. We had a bad encounter with some domain beasts and wound up with [Frost]. I heard your clan has [Fire Soul] potions and decided to pay a visit.”

Basu almost laughed. “Start over. You’re wearing the Kai Fen’s brother. He’d been hunting successfully for weeks, when he didn’t come back, we assumed the ice dragon found him. Do you have any idea how offensive that is?”

“His brother had very nice fur that’s given my armor a bunch of great properties. See the boots? They don’t slip on snow at all!” Kaden held up a boot to illustrate. “Does Kai Fen have any more brothers? I have friends who could use this kind of armor.”

“Kai will kill you,” Basu said. “What madness drives you to this extreme? No one walks into the wolf’s den on a whim.”

Kaden really liked wolves and would be happy to meet them but that wasn’t the point right now. “My friend caught [Frost]. It’s bad for me, but it’s slower. She tried to leave by FarPortal. So I came for her.” [Read Emotion] said Basu wasn’t filled with hatred, almost sympathetic. “If you give me a [Fire Soul] potion for her, I’ll disappear. You won’t see me again unless Kai does something dumb like attack the Resyr.”

“He means to re-unite the clans in accord. The Resyr are weak, even weaker than the Skan or Tun. He will come to you, in time,” Basu said with a sorrow Kaden recognized.

“Then you’ll see me again either way. But this way, my friend isn’t freezing. Also, what’s with the line of corpses I collected from the edges of the village?”

The look of shock on her pleased Kaden. “You took them?”

He nodded. “We’ve got a healer who can resurrect. Seriously, what’s the point?”

“If any clan dared attack, Kai hung their warriors as warnings. What is your goal? Do you want to rule the clans? We will never have that, not even one like you.” Basu’s tone had shifted to one [Negotiation] recognized. She didn’t approve of Kai’s brutality. This was opportunity.

“I don’t want to rule anyone. I’ve got a town I’m resettling, ‘Eville,’ and I’m not even going to rule that. It’s just my way of defying the demons and I just can’t let go of it. Your clans need to work this discord out on your own,” Kaden said. “Please. One potion, for Sara.”

“And one for you?”

He shook his head. “I’ve got a different plan for me. Frost dulls everything and I’m supposed to find my passions to fight it, but it’s growing slowly. I’ll fight off the Frost. One potion, for a woman working toward peace.”

“Why would I do this?” Basu asked. “I’m taking a huge risk by not having you killed. If Kai knew? He might kill me. Or my sister, who raises the child I bore by him.”

Kaden sat up, momentarily curious despite frost. “What’s with that? What’s the whole ‘by’ and sister-child? How the hell do your men abandon their children?”

The healer studied him for a moment. “You really aren’t one of us, no matter what my eyes say. No child is ever abandoned. The mother is the one whose body makes the child. The mother is the one whose pain births the child. How much of the child is the fathers? How many months did he contribute? What pain did he endure to bring it forth?”

“But his responsibility—”

“Is to all the children. If Rachir wants his child to live in safety from the [Razor Geese] then he will harrass the flock so it moves, and make it safe for all the clan’s children. If Yusif fears an ice drake will take one of his, he will stand watch guarding for everyone. It is not right for the children of some to feast and sleep peacefully and others starve in fear.” Basu spoke gently, as though to a young boy.

“You’re not raising your child.”

“My sister could not have her own but has wisdom and love for many. My son by Kai will need that love to temper his father’s nature. Why would I risk him for your friend?”

Kade fell silent as he mulled the many uncompelling reasons. And settled for the riskiest good one. “I don’t think you want Kai to be the leader of all the clans. I doubt the Resyr are going to rise up and conquer everyone, but some other tribe must be the Fen’s equal. I think the line of corpses says men like Kai aren’t making it safer for any children. Not that he should have any.”

“When you were young, did you have lovers?” Basu asked.

He nodded. “One in particular, but a few who wanted pleasure, not love.”

“Would they know you now? Not just your face, but your deeds?” She motioned, from the bottom of his Ulfen boots to the top of the beast head cloak.

“No. Probably not. I was cautious. Careful. Afraid.”

“We choose men of power to bear a child by, and if fate agrees, so it is. Kai Fen was not the man then that he is now. His ambition was strong, his battle prowess, stronger, his anger tempered. He may yet be that man again.” She was meandering and [Read Emotion] said she was sad.

[Negotiation] said to press his ask.

“You get our party working toward peace. You get me removing all those corpses. You get more sunrises for other voices to speak to each other, then as one to the Fen. For a single potion, it seems like the best way you could make all your children safer.”

Basu crossed her arms. “You have a [Letydir] tongue. No matter what, it wraps around your foes and warms them.”

“I smash things pretty well, too,” Kaden said. “Now, about that potion?”

“Patience. You ask me to betray my clan. You ask for what could save a brother. You wear kin-skin and believe a smile and soft words are enough.” Basu’s words were harsh, but the emotion behind them was anything but.

“I have gold,” he said.

“I do not want it.”

Kaden had expected that. “I have good reasons.”

“And yet, not reason enough.”

There were so many ways this could go wrong, but Kaden wasn’t a boy of seventeen, and his mistakes with Ashi had been something he didn’t want to repeat. He stood, looking down at her, though not moving closer. “How would you want to be convinced?”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Thoroughly. Now is not the ideal week for a child. Next week would be when the fertile moon shines, and the clan would benefit from strength and the words you spin. My child would be Fen in their soul, because their soul comes from the mother.” Basu spoke plainly, simply. “If you want to take from the clan, you must give something of value. I do not usually need to convince men to convince me.”

Kaden shrugged. Sex was enjoyable in most cases, and not a matter of contention. In Verona the child was the property of the father, the father’s responsiblity. Basu spoke about it as if there were no relationship between them in the clans. But even orphans in the Saint’s Hall knew of fertile days, in order to avoid them. “If all you want is sex, get the potion. I’ll make it worth your while.”

“Confidence,” she answered. “The Resyr are a rotten log. The Skan not much better. Do you truly believe you can hold them up long enough for others to decide?”

“Yes. But if the others decide the Fen are right, the Resyr won’t matter,” Kaden said.

“I like this confidence,” she said. “I like it very much. But confidence is often unfounded.”

Kaden flinched as she touched his chest. Her hand felt like fire. “It’s called experience.”

###

The Fen village was alive with cries and the stampede of feet. Kaden’s theft had been found. He lay beside Basu, conflicted. He’d used her for a potion. A potion he wanted a great deal, at the cost of almost no blood, if you disregarded the scrapes on his back and the way she’d bitten his shoulder. “What are you doing?”

“Praying to the goddess that I may have a child. She does not answer with words, but I will know, in time, her answer.” Basu pushed him away. “You should leave before dawn. Do not pretend this was a heart-connection, and I will not be forced to make up lies for you to leave. You were thorough.”

That was…possibly a compliment? Kaden dressed quickly, pulling on his armor and boots and cloak.

“The potion. Our stores are above the right hand, third bed,” Basu said. She kept her gaze on him as he approached.

Inside sat twenty green healing potions, a few that looked like status cleanses—and three that glowed with the brilliant red of a thousand suns. His sluggish heart thrilled, and Kaden had to use all his willpower to avoid chugging. Instead, he put it in Inventory. “Thank you.”

“You did not take more?”

“We said one potion.” Kaden wouldn’t let desire compromise his word. “Will you be safe?”

“If you are gone, yes. Buy us many sunrises for anger to cool and calm hearts to speak louder.” She hadn’t moved, nor did she show any sign of it. “When you leave, cry out to the sky and run toward the towers. The Rage would drive others to do so, none will question. Make it safer for all children, even if one is not yours.”

Kaden left, shutting the door behind him. A line of Beserkers waited and whistled and cheered as he walked away, raising fists and claiming the Fen would be the strongest. Three buildings away, Kaden kicked on [Stealth Aura] and began to run, faster and faster. [Ulfen] stood guard at each line of ice pillars.

After studying how they moved, Kaden chose a pace and pattern to let him skirt the guards and then sprint away, moving faster and faster into the night. At the outer line, [Ulfen] wolves and men gathered, watching a Domain Gate that had opened and belched out a swarm of moving trees that dropped blue leaves in some form of attack.

One of them, Kaden recognized. Kai Fen.

Preparation was key.

This might be a chance to negotiate peace. Then again, Kaden was wearing armor crafted from Kai’s brother’s hide, and telling Kai that he’d personally killed the [Ulfen] and then harvested him was probably not the best introduction.

“Brother!” Kai screamed out. “I smell you there. You ran off to another clan, but it was always your way, to skulk in the darkness. Hiding won’t save you. Running won’t save you. Only submitting will do that.”

Kaden’s [Identify] had always been a weakness. It misbehaved, causing people to know when he used it on them, but now, Kaden had to know. And he dropped stealth completely. “You’re only ten levels higher than me!”

Kai whipped around to snarl at Kaden as he dropped stealth, and all four of his men drew weapons—until their leader held up his hand. “Who are you?”

“Kaden Birch. I came looking for an Alchemist, because I heard you had one. Turns out, you don’t, and now we can’t get any [Fire Soul] potions. I need one myself.” Kaden approached without fear. Level forty could be deadly but he’d faced worse.

What remained after was how cautious and calculating Kai Fen was. “My Brother?”

“Attacked me. Damn near killed me, but I didn’t know how to fight Ulf then. Also, that ‘calling the ancestors’ skill was awful the first time. The second time, not as bad.” No matter what, Kaden would be ready with [Split Second] to dodge an attack he was sure would come. “I don’t suppose you’d give me a [Fire Soul] potion, would you?”

“No. My brother called the Ancestral watchers?”

“Twice, I swear before the system. He was really difficult to kill. And I specialize in killing higher-level people and monsters.”

Oath heard and verified. Bal Fen used [Ancestral Call] twice in a single combat.

Kaden had asked for a [Fire Soul] potion, been denied, and his read on Kai Fen grew with every moment. Kai wasn’t driven by hatred or blind or the kind of man who could be goaded. He might be consumed, but that didn’t make him less dangerous. “Why are you doing this? Attacking your other clan members?”

“I did not agree with sending our warriors to die in someone else’s war. If the elders were so thirsty for blood, then it should begin with theirs. If battle was their desire, then let it be on our lands. If clansmen must die let it be where our bones freeze to the ground, not on the seas.” [Read Emotion] showed nothing. This was the truth from his perspective.

And Kaden understood. “We picked up a Quest from the Mercari to recover payment. I’ll bring my Party leader. If you want to return what your clan was paid, she’ll restore your trading rights.”

“Restore. ‘Rights.’” Kai spat on the ground. “War isn’t cheap. Freedom comes at a price, a price I paid with your Mercari’s coins. If I bow, she’ll give me back what we always had. If I empty my pockets, I can crawl south to trade for what I do not need. No.”

Kaden shrugged. “I had a Quest to ask, now I’ve asked. I’ve had a long day and a long night and an even longer trip waiting to go back, so I’m leaving. How many [Fire Soul] potions do you have?”

“Enough to last years,” Kai answered.

An odd thing to lie about, and probably his one true worry.

“Sell me one for gold?”

Kai chuckled. “Gold. Look around you. What do you see, as far as you can see? Study the ground beneath your feet. Look up to the sky. Do we need your gold? Embrace the [Frost]. It will be there to claim you. I swear no oaths for my brother because you’ve already chosen how you die.”

They were done, for the most part. “One more thing. Where can I find the [Ice Dragon?]”

“I didn’t take you for a suicidal fool,” Kai said. “Is it so terrible to feel Frost grow that you’d choose to die another way?”

“No, I need him to grant me a scale so I can unlock more [Beast Form] slots. Already got a bunch from other dragons, it would be nice to add Ice to the mix. Also, can I touch one of your Ulf bosses?” Kaden had just had a magnificent idea.

The men gathered around Kai whispered in the Fen tongue of madness and how it might be in Kaden’s blood.

Kai Fen was not afraid. He wasn’t taller than Kaden or wider than Kaden, and when he moved, it gave Kaden the impression that this was a man who didn’t attack head on. A man who wore down his enemies and then struck when they were weak and tired. “Do you think we’re dogs to be petted?”

“No, the [Ulf] is welcome to bite me, if it wants. Your brother had four, I’m asking for one. A [Stalker] would be nice.” [Negotiation] told Kaden this was a reasonable offer.

“My Brother inherited the [Star Pendant] that let him call on Ancestors,” Kai said.

Kaden had a very cold feeling in the pit his stomach. He drew the [Bracers of Xorn] from Inventory.

What’s Right is Not Always What’s Easy, Final Part. Return the Bracers to the descendant or forgo your reward and claim their power for yourself.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a father who went off to run an erratic dungeon a decade or so ago, would you?” Kaden asked.

For the first time, Kai Fen showed actual emotion, his eyes growing wider. “Where did you get those?”

Kaden shrugged. “They were left at my Holding. Now the System’s given me the choice to give them to you or take them for myself. Life’s full of tough choices. I’ll think on it.”

“Give them to me. I swear I will not harm you or your party,” Kai said.

But he didn’t swear before the System.

Kaden stored the bracers. “Like I said, I need to think on it. Say, can any Beserker use these? It’s not like the reward is that great. I bet anyone challenging you would be willing to offer me more than the Quest reward. I really do have a lot to think about.”

“Kill him. Take the bracers,” Kai said, his voice colder than the [Frost] in Kaden’s heart. “Everyone! Kill him and bring me his corpse! You will be rewarded as a champion of the clans!”

The cry went up through the night, all the way back to the distant village. Kaden had considered many possibilities, the most likely being that Kai attacked him. Kai summoning everyone hadn’t been on the list. [Stealth Aura] was powerful but [Hunters] and [Huntressess] could both stalk prey inspite of stealth.

Kaden was fast on his feet but probably not faster than the [Ulf]. Faced with terrible options, another terrible option shone bright as the Domain Gate in the distance. Kaden turned and sprinted like his life depended on it. The moving forest of Domain tree-monsters didn’t have a chance to react as he sprinted through them, leaping over roots that whipped and dodging leaf-missiles they flung like throwing-knives.

His pursuers were less fortunate, as the riled monsters focused their ire on the closest target, not the first. The Domain gate glistened up ahead, a mirror of pure blue like a frozen lake of mana.

Kaden stepped through.