We make it, just. The sun has already disappeared below the horizon by the time the familiar landmarks start hoving into view. I find I need to drop into Fade so that I can benefit from my more accurate night vision before we make it to the foot of the hill. Aingeal lights our passage up the slope itself, its brightness carefully dimmed to the point where it won’t disrupt our dark-adjusted eyes. While we should be safe in this area, I’ve learned that it’s better not to make assumptions about that.

I rather hope that the welcome back this time is less dramatic than the last two times. Lathani is practically vibrating by my side, running forwards a few steps and then waiting impatiently for the rest of us to catch up with her.

“Just go on ahead,” I tell her with a hint of amusement. She doesn’t need to be told twice, disappearing up the slope like a streak of lightning. Bastet eyes me hopefully. “Go on,” I sigh, a grin tugging at the corner of my mouth. Using her wings to help her, the raptorcat also rapidly vanishes.

The rest of us continue at a more sedate pace – after the gruelling trek we’ve had up the mountain side to get here, we’re all feeling in need of a good rest. Fortunately, we’ve only had a couple of fights, and with the number of fighters all travelling together, they were over quickly. Having seven Tier twos is rather overkill for the enemies we usually face up-mountain of the village – and that’s without counting me. I suspect that it will be a different story when we travel down-mountain to the samuran meet-up. But hopefully by that point we’ll have a few more Tier twos in our ranks. Maybe even a Tier three or two…. But those are later concerns.

For now, I feel a sense of nervousness mixed with excitement as we approach the plateau at the top of the slope. As we do so, I feel pleasure pouring down the Bonds from Lathani and Bastet. As soon as the plateau comes into view, I see why.

Bastet is surrounded by three fluffy raptorcat cubs – well, juveniles. In fact, they’re looking far more like adolescents than cubs now. Though they still have some down among their feather-fur, most of it looks like Bastet’s coat. They’re still only half her size, but half her size is significantly bigger than the tiny cubs they used to be. Heck, I reckon that they’ve grown just in the time we’ve been away! They’re all crowded so closely together that it’s hard to tell where one raptorcat begins and the other ends.

Lathani is pressed tightly against her mother too, almost buried in the massive nunda’s fur. The young nunda’s increase in size is obvious from how she is still visible, even pressed as firmly against Kalanthia as she is. As I pause at the top of the slope, satisfaction filling me at the sight, Kalanthia lifts her head and opens her golden eyes.

Welcome back, Markus Wolfe, she says calmly. You have brought my cub back to me, and I thank you for it.

Relief fills me – I was half-expecting her to immediately tear into me about the damage to Lathani’s Energy channels. However, as she continues speaking, it becomes obvious that I might have relaxed too soon.

However, I can see that she has been in some serious battles – and has taken serious wounds. I hope that you have a solution in mind for the further damage that she’s received in your service, she warns, her eyes becoming far more intent and predatory. I swallow dryly, my pleasure at seeing her well overshadowed by fear. But I try to push past that – I do have a solution in mind. Kind of.

Walking towards her, I indicate to the rest of my Bound to go and get themselves settled and to have a break. I also make a quick detour to dump a few carcasses on the ground for the carnivores to consume – the herbivores have been snatching food en route. I take a moment to send a brief message of greeting to all the Bound nearby who I’d left here.

Then I’m only a body length away from Kalanthia and need to focus my attention on her.

“We did have a rather difficult fight,” I admit. “It was with a Tier three with an attack which damaged the Energy channels of any who came into contact with it.”

And you took my cub into such a fight? Kalanthia asks, deceptively calmly, though I see the way her claws scythe out of her paws and dig into the earth below. I almost wince at the sight of those sword-like weapons only a foot away from me.

“As I took all those I thought would be good fighters,” I answer levelly. “I will admit that I underestimated the opponent that we would face. But I have managed to heal the injuries of almost all those who joined us in the fight and survived – both physical wounds and those to their Energy channels. That some have not yet been healed is either because of the type of Bond we have in Thorn’s and Honey’s case, or the fact that I don’t want to risk making Lathani’s existing damage worse in her case. I wanted to get whatever guidance I could from you before risking causing Lathani further injury.”

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Kalanthia eyes me for a long moment, but I just meet her gaze levelly. I was pretty sure she would challenge me on this, and actually she’s been far more reasonable so far than I was expecting.

Are you telling me that you are somehow able to affect the Energy channels of others? Even those not directly connected to you? Her tone is unreadable.

“Yes, I’m able to help others become aware of their Energy channels and heal them,” I confirm. “But they must be connected to me through Dominate or a variation of that Bond. That’s why I can’t help Honey or Thorn – they have Tame Bonds,” I explain.

Hm, Kalanthia rumbles, looking down and stroking her cheek against her cub. How long are you staying here this time, Markus Wolfe?

“About that…” I say hesitantly. I’ve thought about how to phrase the invitation several times since departing from the samuran village. “How do you feel about leaving this place and making a new home further down into the valley?”

The massive nunda eyes me carefully.

I would need more information to give any sort of answer, she responds warily.

“Well, as Lathani will probably tell you, I succeeded in gaining leadership over the village. I will say now that I do not intend to Bind every single member of it to me directly, but I have Bound the Tier twos, who make up its leadership, and beat all of them in single combat, making me the top ‘villager’. I am now in a position to pretty much guarantee Lathani’s safety and to bring the resources of the village to bear to help her. I’ve already got their herbalist working on ways to help her.” Among other tasks.

Then you are in a position to discuss reparations that they owe my cub for the damage they did? Kalanthia asks pointedly. And to give me her principal torturers.

“Yes to the reparations, if you feel them necessary,” I agree carefully, “but the instigator of the conflict in the first place – the shaman – is now dead. She’s the one who conceived of the plan to kidnap Lathani in the first place, and then ordered the party to come here.”

You have robbed me of my chance for revenge then, Kalanthia growls slightly, narrowing her eyes. Lathani makes a few disgruntled noises into her mother’s chest and the massive nunda calms a little. I sense that I need to be very careful here and take a couple of moments to marshal my thoughts.

“I spoke to Lathani after the shaman’s death to find out how she felt about it coming at the hand of someone else. She was conflicted at the time, but ultimately concluded that the shaman being dead was the most important thing. She requested that, if any of the others were to be killed, that she might be allowed to do the deed, but she left it up to me to choose. As it happens, I was able to convince everyone else to submit to a Bond instead of death.”

Kalanthia snorts softly, though I can’t tell whether it’s contempt for them making such a choice, disagreement that this is sufficient retribution to what they did, or allowed to be done, to Lathani, or something else.

“I know you wanted to rip through the samuran village in revenge for what they put Lathani through, but in my world there is a saying: the best revenge is a life lived well. Is it not better that they – we – help Lathani become fully healed and advance with a powerful Evolution than that you bathe in blood?”

I wait, barely daring to breathe as she considers my words.

Although I was angry too at how Lathani had been treated by the samurans, and had been willing to kill anyone connected to the event…my feelings have changed. In learning more about the samurans, about their society and their motivations, after facing each of the Pathwalkers in a Battle of Wills… I have a different perspective than I used to on the situation.

They were wrong to kidnap Lathani, and wrong to essentially torture her into becoming a spirit guardian. But, as I said to Kalanthia, the main instigator for both those events is gone, and they’ve suffered as a village with the loss of their hatchlings. While I am totally in agreement with the idea of the village pulling together to offer Lathani resources and aid which will help her in compensation for the pain and anguish they put her through, even if I can heal her fully, I don’t want Kalanthia claiming a tithe of blood. However, she’s Lathani’s mother so is no doubt infinitely more outraged at her cub’s treatment than I was.

I will consider it, she answers noncommittally after a moment of thought. Well, at least it wasn’t an immediate ‘no’, nor has she become furious at my words which, frankly, is far more reasonable than I was expecting. Is this the only reason for your invitation?

“Oh, no,” I quickly answer, realising that I’ve forgotten to talk about the thing which I had intended to make my primary point. “Right, you remember we talked about Pure Energy after the last time I came back?”

Of course. The fact that you were able to heal your own Energy channels afterwards is no doubt the only reason you have been able to do the same with your Bound.

“Pretty much,” I agree, before moving back to my point. “How would you feel about making a den near a Pure Energy stream, benefiting from the heightened Energy in the air around it?”

Kalanthia goes very still, her eyes even more intent than they had been before.

Are you being completely serious here, Markus Wolfe? Do you have ongoing, unchallenged access to the same undiluted Pure Energy which you encountered last time?

I smile a little smugly.

“Completely, and yes, I do.”

Then you do not know the disaster you court, she warns, her eyes larger and more alarmed than I’ve ever seen them.