Pure exhaustion forced the group to stop at an old campsite that barely met the requirements for safety and defense since everyone, including the kids, was flagging. The Envoy dropped where she was, curled into a ball, and fell asleep. Tenthé hadn’t had the enthusiasm to check, but he suspected that mostly everyone had slept while riding.

He and the Magister fed and watered the mounts, then he stood first watch. Mostly by being the last one awake.

After setting his version of the wards, he walked the perimeter. Far away across the plain were flying things that might or might not be a problem, in another direction were some lizard-like beasts that also might or might not be a problem. Over there were a few slowly migrating bushes that might or might not be a problem. A quick and careful check of the mental realm showed even more things that might or might not be a problem.

Dang it! Trying to suppress the dominator self wasn’t working out so well. To distract himself, he began juggling a fireball, a jewel, and a rock, as well as keeping a lookout as he circled the camp.

All around were signs of previous travelers: burro poo and the bits and pieces that seemed to get left behind. As expected, none of it was fresh. He kept walking.

No-one had set out their tents, mostly they’d wrapped themselves in a blanket and dropped. After the night of baking, everybody had a really nice tan, even the ones with dark skin.

Up in the air, he spotted some distorted blobs. After firing a few water-balls, they squawked and sped away.

And so the morning went. When the sun was overhead, he roused the sleepers. Everyone ate without a lot of discussion, then hit the trail again. It was a quiet group that marched through the afternoon until early in the evening.

They stopped at another campground and Leo set out his wardstones while the others erected their shelters, then pulled out food. After eating, everyone huddled together.

“So, who’s going to talk about it?” the Envoy opened. “Nobody? Okay, I’ll start. It’s been months. We can’t have been the only ones sent out by the City. Where are the others? There hasn’t been anyone along here for quite a while. No new tracks, droppings, garbage, or anything! Maybe the Magister can give us some insight into this unusual state of affairs.”

Everyone turned to Magister Grenville, who was holding out a plate of cookies.

“Well, I do say that this is a bit of an embarrassment,” she began after everyone had grabbed a cookie. “You’re putting me under a bit of pressure here, but things are becoming clearer.”

Then she paused. The silence dragged on.

“Um, is that it?” Leo asked.

“I’m thinking,” she responded, curtly.

“Does anyone else… get the feeling we’ve been led on a merry little trip through the flowers?” the Envoy speculated into the quiet.

This phrase wasn’t common in the City, but it was obvious what she meant.

She continued. “We are given information that sounds too good to be true and then shoved out to go on this ‘quest’. When we get to Angel City, they know we’re coming and are all bundle buddies with the evil Horde. Now, I’m wondering what we’ll find when we return to the City Proper. Will they even let us in? Are we going to be labeled criminals, or what? There’s something padfoot underway here.”

The Magister added, “That, I can verify.”

Elishua spoke up, “When… I mean, just before we left, there was something strange going on. I normally attend regular meetings between the families and the Lord Mayor. Usually, Tomas is present too. But there were a lot fewer get-togethers than usual, or, at least, a lot fewer that I knew about. I was beginning to question if there was something happening behind the scenes, but then we left. Now I’m wondering… well, maybe I should have dug into it a bit more.”

Leo chimed in, “Uh, I heard something like that, too. One of my brothers was saying that a bunch of meetings between our family and others had been postponed, and that was kind of strange. We are the top House. That means that almost everything that goes on in the City involves us.”

“Hmmm, so, about that? What do you know about that little house war a few weeks ago? The one that fizzled out.” Elishua asked.

“Hmph. Honestly, I was surprised as anyone. Even after, no one said much,” Leo answered, fidgeting a little. It was pretty obvious he knew more than he was letting on, but probably nothing to do with what really happened.

“Yeah, and another thing,” Tenthé added. “Isabell told me about a meeting she dropped into with gods and stuff. The Turtle was there and a bunch of other things: gods and godlets.”

He looked at Magister Grenville and went on. “She said that you were there, too. It sounded as if they were talking about that little war. Like it was something they all knew about. Isabell didn’t get much else. Her powers kind of got away from her and she left.”

“Turtle?” Elishua exclaimed. “He’s all about keeping things stable and making money. Why would he have anything to do with something like that? That wouldn’t be right.”

She looked at Leo, “Isn’t he your god? For your family? I would think that you would have some idea what he was up to.”

Leo sounded pained. “Yeah, he’s our god, but more like for my dad and the more senior relatives. Mostly, it’s all about us giving them money. There are always his priests at our house, ‘My child’-ing me, all the time. They’re as greedy as anyone and want to be in on every deal. I know our family and them have had words about it.”

He paused for a moment as he thought about something, then went on, “Come to think of it, they did have a big meeting a few weeks before we left. I remember a lot of yelling and stuff. The Priests stormed past me, not looking too happy. Dad was pissed!”

Elishua turned to the Magister, “Okay, spit it out! What do you know? How are you involved in all this? If you knew what was going on, then why did you come with us?”

She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts, then continued, “If you are part of this, and, and, it turns out you held back something we had to know, then, I… I’ll sic Tenthé on you!”

A few people laughed, but then it didn’t appear that Elishua was joking.

Tenthé gave it serious thought. If the Magister had been in on it and put their lives at risk, then he would be kind of annoyed. He looked at her.

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“What do you say?” he asked. A simple question, but somehow, the way he said it, there was no doubt that she had to answer.

The Magister sat and nibbled on a cookie. Her hand shook a tiny bit. It could be age. Could be.

“I-I-I,” she started, then halted. The looks around her grew a little colder.

Elishua spoke, “That makes it obvious that she did know something. But she helped us get out of Angel City. We’re all alive and probably okay, due to her… foresight. Although, it could be an act. But, I don’t think so. Look at her. She’s scared.”

Elishua faced Tenthé, “You said Isabell saw her at the meeting of the gods. Did she tell you more about it?”

“Yeah, the other gods weren’t expecting her to be there, and acted like she was a problem.”

Elishua turned to confront the Magister. “This is one of those moments, isn’t it? What happens here, right now, has a big impact on the future! You can’t tell us for fear that it’ll affect the outcome. Right? The problem we have is that we don’t have any idea what you want. We don’t really know you at all… you might be here to make sure we can’t upset any of the gods and whatever they have planned.”

The Magister remained mute, which didn’t help her cause.

The Envoy broke in, “The Trachteur don’t like seers. They meddle. We kick them out or kill them. Good riddance!”

Leo blurted, “You know we’re not going to do any of that. Yeah, she has her own agenda, but overall, we’ve done okay with her here.”

“Well, well, look at you. Being all the voice of reason and all that,” Elishua retorted. “But, yeah, I agree. We aren’t really going to do anything to her. On the other hand, we ought to make sure she isn’t playing us, either!”

Tenthé wasn’t a bastion of patience, but he knew what it was like to be manipulated by masters. He’d had enough.

He spun to face the Magister as he unpacked his full mental powers and looked at her. Hard.

At first, her mind appeared normal. Fears, hope, and emotions, the typical things that ran a person’s life. It was when he stepped back, he saw the anomalies. The Magister’s mind was surrounded by a field of sparkles that faded off into the distance. Not like the hill creatures, but evenly, in all directions. As he watched, the field would flash from time to time, then the Magister’s thoughts would be different. Not major changes, but definitely a little. When he was sure of what he was seeing, Tenthé dove in.

At first he had a vision of the City Proper, burning and devastated, bodies of people, Horde, and a bunch of nasty-looking creatures piled everywhere. A moment later, the vision changed to show some gods he didn’t recognize controlling everybody with magical chains, and a moment later he saw himself being the one doing the controlling, with the Magister happily standing beside him, smothered in more mental chains. The visions went on and on, but in none of them was the City the way they’d left it. He extracted himself and came back to the present.

Cold as ice, he stated, “I think we have a problem.”

The Magister was outraged. As she opened her mouth, Tenthé stopped her from saying anything. She struggled, but had no training to resist. He was feeling benevolent, so he kept it light, simply keeping her silent.

“I, uh, have a very small ability to sense thoughts,” he blatantly lied to the fools around him. “What she’s not telling us is that something has happened to the City, and it’s not good. We’d better hurry. The Magister isn’t a key figure, exactly, but is involved. I think she’s primarily here to avoid whatever is taking place in the City. From what I see, we need to return as quickly as we can.”

Tenthé erased what he’d done from the Magister’s memory, then withdrew. She gasped. “It’s all changed! Now, we have to get back as fast as we can!”

Tenthé, cold as he felt, was still surprised. Nothing he had done would have made her say that.

Elishua was suspicious. “What do you mean?” she confronted the Magister. “Up until now, you weren’t saying anything about anything at all!”

“I don’t know! That’s how it works sometimes. All I know is we have to get back to the City as quickly as possible or there will be terrible trouble!”

“As opposed to what? Good trouble?”

“No, no! I don’t know what’s happened, but if we hurry, at least something will be saved!”

“Well, that isn’t ominous, is it?” Leo quipped. “And, she’s just told us to do what we were going to do, anyway.”

“Can we trust her?” Elishua turned to Tenthé. “Can we?”

“From what I see, she’s not plotting anything big. I even think she’s trying to help. That’s all I get.” It was actually the truth.

“So. We’ve still got a long way to go and the burros only have one speed. I guess we can try to get them to move a little faster. Shave off an hour here or there, but we can’t really do much.”

“Let me run ahead,” the Envoy volunteered.

“Yeah… I suppose. But, not by yourself, here in the Wilds.” Elishua opined.

“I could go with her. Probably.” Leo said. “I can’t run like she can, but rapid deployment was part of my training. Over time, I can move faster than the burros. Maybe the kids can too, but they aren't exactly sneaky or made for running.”

“Hmm. Maybe. We’re still worn out. Let’s sleep on it and decide in the morning,” Elishua responded. After a moment, she added, “Come to think of it, how do you feel? After all that happened?”

“Pretty good. It’s weird what you told me. I think I’m missing some memories, but, as far as I can tell, I’m okay.”

Tenthé scanned Leo’s mind. He was missing a lot more than that. Whole chunks were gone. His thinking and magic control seemed normal, but he wasn’t the same. So much had changed that Tenthé didn’t know how Leo would really be. Most likely, it would become fairly obvious when he got back to a familiar place, but that wasn’t a problem for right now. He was functional, and that was good enough.

Besides, of all of them, Leo was the most expendable.

Intellectually, Tenthé knew that was not the sort of thought he would usually have about someone he had spent so much time with, but he knew why: his Dominator persona was refusing to be suppressed any longer.

He folded himself into a cross-legged sitting position and turned his thoughts inward. Surprisingly enough, this situation wasn’t entirely unexpected. Inconvenient, yes, but it was his own head, and he did have some idea what was going on inside it. The Dominator and the other him-s were a lot older than he was, and, in their own ways, although formed in some very strange places, more mature. They’d been broken by their deaths, but, in time, became , well, at least, less broken.

As usual, he didn’t really have a plan, but he did have some ideas, at least, concerning the Dominator. Eventually he’d have to come up with some way to deal with all the others, hopefully not until he had time to figure something better out.

What he wanted to do was find a way to warm his Dominator up… sort of. Make sure he felt something when he used these powers. He reached into the back of his mind and opened the remains of the box that had held the Dominator for these many years. The personality surged forth.

It was a struggle. A struggle with himself.

Literally, since the Dominator was another version of him, after all. Not fight, nor a discussion, more a shoving match with emotions and desires pushing back and forth. Things were further complicated when a number of his other buried personalities decided to become involved too. By any definition, the process was a real mess.

Tenthé wasn’t by himself, some of the other personalities supported his viewpoint, and some appeared to be watching, mostly enjoying the entertainment. Of course the Dominator was forefront in those pushing for release, but it acknowledged that it was built for a different time and place.

One thing though, was that Tenthé was used to persevering, hanging on in the face of adversity. He didn’t have control, but he wouldn’t give up. Ever.

Eventually, the tumult died away. Tenthé and the other him-s had reached… something. A kind of compromise. The Dominator was less of a separate being, but not completely in control. A merging, of sorts.

The Dominators mental abilities were right there, but without the cold disdain, or at least, nowhere near as much. The memories of his time in the cold, cold place where the Dominator ruled were part of him now, but so were his own.

It was just a start, but, at least it was something. For now. Ever pessimistic, he’d see how, or even if, he felt in the morning.

He snickered, it was a good joke. Some of the personalities even agreed before they went back to sleep, or back in their boxes, whatever they did when they weren’t bothering him. Tenthé got up and stretched, then continued his nightly vigil. He had to agree, it was easier now that he could see the minds of everything nearby without the having the urge to make them all dance to his tune.

Mostly.