In the time since I’d blasted the effects of the ritual into oblivion and stalking the estate looking for Orleander and the Baron, the whole place had snapped back to life. I couldn’t imagine how I’d missed how subdued everyone had been, now that I’d freed us all from the smothering shroud of magic.

The conference room didn’t yield me any results in my search for Orleander, so I started searching door by door, barging in without knocking in my haste. Most rooms on this level showed no signs of habitation, but I figured it was only a matter of time before I found him.

‘You always find it in the last place you look’ was such a dumb turn of phrase, because you stop looking when you find what you’re looking for… of course, it’s the last place. But it felt like the last door I barged through was the last place I could have looked, and I barged into an unexpected scene.

Orleander lounged in a recliner, looking over a stack of paperwork, while Ms. Black stood in the middle of the room, head uncovered, with a shocked look on her face. I stumbled a little, my shock turning my legs into noodles, before recovering. Her uncovered features were shockingly familiar. Shock all around.

In her features, deep chocolate brown eyes and lustrous long brown hair, I saw the resemblance to my best friend and marshal of my army, all whose death I caused all those years ago. There could be no mistake. My best friend’s daughter, who should have been dead for twenty years, stood in front of me.

“Oh, shit.”

“Yeah, oh shit is right.” She rasped out, then stormed out of the room, wrapping up her head in her customary black covering on the way out.

I watched her leave, then turned back to Orleander. He hadn’t even bothered to put down his paperwork, and showed me a lazy, unconcerned smile.

“Deep Gods, why didn’t you tell me? You had to have known.”

“It was none of your business, nor my place, to tell you.”

“You don’t think a vengeful daughter of my former best friend and commander of my army, who all died horrible deaths because of my actions, wasn’t my business?”

Orleander paused, then said, “Well, since you put it that way, there may have been a reason to tell you after all.”

I paced, pondering the ways this fresh development could turn around to bite me, before remembering why I found the Count.

“She is not out for vengeance, by the way,” Orleander said, interrupting my attempt to start the conversation I wanted to have.

“I can worry about long-lost daughters seeking retribution for their father’s death later. Right now, we need to talk about what the Inculid are up to. Did you feel anything in the last thirty minutes? Did you feel any change? Anything out of the ordinary?”

“Now that you mention it, I was preparing to retire for the night when I found myself needing to work off some energy. I was speaking to… well, you know who she is now. I spoke to Kayla about it and we both had similar bursts of energy, so I decided to get some work done. Kaya decided to take a walk, and you found her preparing to go out.”

“It’s just as I thought then. They’re suppressing us. They’re making us tired, squashing our minds into lethargy. I’m not sure what it is, but I tore it up, ripped it right out of their ugly little chitinous hands. At least temporarily. They’ve got a ritual going that’s reaching us all the way out here. We were already being attacked, and we didn’t even know it.”

“What did you do?”

“No point in me explaining it. It would be like trying to explain colors to a blind person. The thing is, I can’t cover everyone at once, and it’s not permanent. It’s creeping back in, but I can’t cover the whole town at once. I need you to help me figure out how to get me the greatest coverage by visiting the fewest locations so I can squash this little trick of theirs. You’re good at that sort of thing.”

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“Ah, you want to maximize your efficiency, then.” Orleander said it in a half-joking manner, but I spotted a genuine smile creep up onto his face.

“Correct.”

“Let us fetch the Baron then, and some maps and a drawing compass.” Orleander lifted himself out of his lounge chair, composed himself and his clothing, and we left the room in search of the Baron.

Unlike me, Orleander seemed to have a handle on who was where, so it didn’t take us long to round up Baron Palambre and some equipment. We sequestered ourselves in the conference room.

I estimated the effective range of my own abilities, but that didn’t account for the resonant effect I’d felt. There was no telling how far that reached without some extensive experimentation.

Using the drawing compass, Orleander mapped out three places on the map of the town that, between them, would encompass the entire town.

“The problem is that I can’t keep my disruption going. If I could just keep it going, I could ride around town and bash my willpower out into the world, but I have to sit and reach a certain state of mind before I can do it, which will limit my mobility during an attack.”

“I don’t have a military mind, but I would imagine by adding the Ilfid Brutes to our forces, you should not feel compelled to take the field yourself. You should have plenty of opportunity to act as you wish,” Orleander replied.

“Almost all of my forces should have arrived by mid-morning as well,” the Baron chimed in.

“If I’m out of commission because I need to navel gaze to do what I need to do, then that leaves nobody to be in overall command.”

Kan’on had trained in leadership, just as part of the indoctrination of his militant lifestyle, but I doubted he had the experience. It still surprised me he’d volunteered to command the Brutes, but knowing him, he’d want to be out in front looking for powerful enemies to duel like an idiot.

“Kayla will be there. She is not the commanding type, but she has a knack for being where she needs to be. And despite your opinion of Clyde, he’s a capable captain. He will follow your orders and he even has a modicum of initiative about him. You should be able to rely on him to maintain the situation for the times when you must be ‘navel gazing’, as you put it,” Orleander said.

I flinched at hearing Kayla’s name, then scowled at Clyde’s. Clyde the gaudy clod. I resisted the thought of relying on the depths-taken idiot, but thinking back, I couldn’t remember a time when his actions proved him incapable.

“We’ll see. They have shown no signs of approaching the town yet. For now, let’s retire. I think we’ve figured out all we can for now.”

At their nods, I left the room and started making my way back to my lair, but stopped and sighed. I had another problem that needed to be addressed before attempting to relax.

I reached out with my new tendrils into the Flow, searching for Kayla’s familiar presence. It was easier than I thought, almost as if I’d practiced it for weeks.

Finding her, I weaved my way through the hallways to the ever-popular front courtyard, to see her posted up against the wall, staring at Kan’on as he contemplated his failures as my student. I paused beside her, unsure how to start an awkward conversation.

“You know, this is a stupid conversation to have,” she said, her raspy voice piercing the silence of the courtyard. “I did everything to avoid it. If it were up to me, you would have never known who I was.”

“Damn, you beat me to it. I thought I was finally going to have the chance to be the jaded and wise old man.” I paused for a few seconds to gather my thoughts. “Blood tells, you know. I knew who you were the instant I saw your face. When I didn’t find you among the other… children, I thought the worst..”

“I was away, at a cousin’s estate. Listen… I don’t want to do this. I hated you when I was younger, but the older I got and the more I learned about the circumstances, the less I hated you. Now, I still blame you, but I at least understand the why of it all. When Kings and Dukes get greedy, shit happens and the ones who pay are the help.” She paused, appearing to choke on her next words. “And in your case, you also paid with everything and everyone you loved. We’re never going to be best buddies, but I don’t hate you.”

I sensed venom in her voice, but it was mild. I tried to work up old feelings, old emotions attached to her father and family, but came up empty. She may as well have been a complete stranger. No, scratch that, she had only been five years old. She was a stranger.

“I’m with you. We just need to work together until this is all over, then I’ll be out of your hair,” I said.

“Agreed.”

“Good.”

“Good.”

Kayla walked off to find her own space, and I slouched my way over to Kan’on and plopped down next to him.

“You know, drama follows you around like the smell of rotten fish; it stinks and clings to everything and you can never get it out,” Kan’on said from his pretend meditative state.

“Don’t you start in on me, too. You’ve got bigger things to worry about, like stopping me from tipping you over like a newborn faun.”

He snorted, but didn’t deny it.

I leaned back, watching the horizon light up as dawn approached. I always enjoyed the sunrise in the mountains. The sky lightened more than it would have in the flatlands, then the sun burst over the horizon, piercing my eyes with spears of sunlight.

Something else came with the dawn. The ever-present thrum wasn’t such a thrum anymore. The Inculid pumped it up a few notches, and now a deep beat stabbed itself into my consciousness. If I were a betting man, and it was obvious to everyone that I was, I’d bet today was the day they would come for us.