Your psi is now at 100%. Your meditation has reached rank 23.

Five minutes on, I was still at the river. The entire time, the void tree’s assault did not abate. It struck me with lash after lash, and repeated salvos of thorns. The thorn attacks were further spread apart, though, which allowed me to restore my lost psi between salvos.

The other stygians, meanwhile, did nothing.

None of the hydras braved the water. No flying serpents swooped down. No spores crept up on me. And no overlords nether-bombed the region.

It defied expectations.

I’d anticipated the Game pinging me with failed detection messages as the odd spore snuck closer, or a flight of serpents dove down, what I had not expected—was nothing.

Tiring of the lesser stygians’ inaction, I launched a series of my own attacks between bouts of meditation.

You have cast mass puppet.

You have cast slaysight.

You have cast sentient shurikens.

Much to my disgust, all my telepathic abilities failed bar one—sentient shurikens.

It was proof, if I needed it, that the void tree’s protective aura encompassed the river. It was possible, though, that it did not extend beyond—which would be as good an explanation as any for why the stygians were not attempting to cross over onto the west riverbank.

And while my shurikens claimed more than one stygian scalp, the damage they inflicted was not enough. Far from it. There were just too many of the nether creatures and killing them one by one was not going to make any difference in the long run.

Eventually, I swapped over to mana spells.

You have cast fireball.

You have cast fireball.

…

This, at least, drew a response from the stygians. But again, it was not the one I expected. Instead of advancing, the nether creatures retreated and… dispersed.

I sighed, finally accepting the truth—my tactics were proving ineffective. “This is not working,” I told Ghost.

“Why not?”

“The void appears willing to accept the losses I’m inflicting. And to be honest, there’s little reason for it not to, especially not with the rift close by to provide reinforcements.”

A pause. “Elise and Lucius are asking if you want us to join in on the attack.”

I hesitated, then shook my head. “No. Let’s not reveal more of our hand just yet.”

I had been circumspect in the use of my own abilities too. I’d not used blood puppet for instance. I was fairly certain the blood memory would work despite the tree’s protective aura—it being a blood-blinding and not a mental domination spell, after all—but like I’d told Ghost, I didn’t want to tip our hand too much.

“So, what’s next?” the pyre wolf prompted after the prolonged silence.

Drawing the shadows about me, I vanished from sight, causing the void tree’s attacks to cut off abruptly. “We go home.”

✵ ✵ ✵

The cave was much quieter on our return. With Shael, Anriq, and Safyre gone, Adriel busy with the rehoming rituals, and many of the Pack elders exhausted from the same, it fell to Lucius to take charge of the camp.

After supper and a mostly monosyllabic conversation with Adriel, Ghost and I truth-tested the new nagians—all fifteen of them.

You have accepted 15 non-players into the Forerunners faction.

“How many does that make now?” I asked Lucius after I was done accepting the nagians’ oaths.

“Twenty-five,” he said softly.

I grunted. “Adriel has done better today.” The lich, bone-tired, had gone to her bed. Ghost, too, was asleep, and at the moment it was just the nagian captain and me sitting around the campfire.

“She has,” Lucius agreed. “No doubt, you’ll have your hundred bodies in time for the big finale.”

I eyed him from across the fire. Was that a note of bitterness I detected in his tone? “Is there something you want to say to me, Lucius?”

He met my gaze squarely. “Trust us.”

I blinked. “By ‘us’ I take it you mean the former possessed?”

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He nodded.

“What makes you think I don’t?”

“Today does. You held us back, sidelining us when we could have helped.”

“That’s not what I was doing,” I objected.

“No?”

“No,” I said firmly, then grimaced. “At least not deliberately. I’ll admit to having a certain tendency to want to do things on my own.”

Unexpectedly, Lucius laughed. “You’re definitely too much of a lone wolf.”

My lips turned down. “That’s not what I said.”

“But it’s true, nevertheless,” he countered.

I opened my mouth to retort, then closed it with a sigh. “You’re right.” I sipped from my cup, then scrutinized the nagian again. “So, what is it that you think I did wrong today?”

“I didn’t say you did.”

“But you thought it,” I accused.

Lucius chuckled. “Fair enough.” He met my gaze again. “You really want to know?”

“I do.”

Lucius raised his index finger. “You left everyone in the dark about your plans right up until the end. If something went awry, we would not have been in a position to help until too late.” Another finger went up. “You focused only on your own strengths, ignoring what we could do.” A third finger. “And lastly, your approach to the problem has been too… direct.”

My eyebrows rose. “No one has ever accused me of taking the direct approach before,” I remarked.

The nagian shrugged indifferently.

“I’ll allow you the first two points,” I said when he didn’t seem inclined to go on, “but what do you mean by the third?”

“The river,” he said succinctly.

I frowned. “What about it? I’ve already factored it into our plans. Given the stygians’ hesitancy to cross the water, we can array our forces on the western shore and attack—”

I broke off, noticing Lucius was shaking his head. “You disagree?”

Instead of replying, the nagian pulled a piece of char from the fire and began drawing on the ground.

Patiently, I waited for him to finish.

“You said the terrain looks like this?” he asked when he was done.

I glanced down at the crude map Lucius had drawn. It showed the nest in the middle, the hills to the east, and the river enclosing the valley on the other three sides.

“That looks about right,” I agreed.

Picking up the charcoal stick again, Lucius made another mark. “Then all we need to do is this.”

My frown deepened. Lucius had drawn a line that ran from north to south along the hills. “I'm not sure I understand. You want to divert the river and trap the stygians in a circle of water? How will that help us defeat them?”

The nagian shook his head. “That's not what I'm saying, no.” He drew a big ‘X’ across the nest. “We should flood the valley."

My eyes widened. “Flood the valley? You can do that?”

The nagian laughed. “I can't, but there are more than a few water magic specialists amongst our number. They should be able to do it.” He paused. “We’ll have to wait for them to be rehomed, though.”

“Flood the valley,” I repeated—and by implication the nest—“that's ingenious.” Pursing my lips, I thought through Lucius’ suggestion.

“We still don't know what effect the water will have on the stygians,” I pointed out after a moment. “For all we know, they just don't like to get their feet wet.”

Lucius inclined his head. “There is that. It is something we will have to figure out beforehand.”

I nodded absently. “And flooding the valley won't help with the overlords. They will simply go airborne.”

“Hmm.” Lucius stroked his chin. “Not if we cause a flash flood and freeze the water soon after.”

“Freeze—” I broke off again. “Of course. Can it be done, though? Can we flood the valley and freeze a body of water that large?”

Lucius shrugged. “The only way we’ll know for certain is if we ask the water mages.”

I didn’t fail to mark the subtle emphasis he placed on the word ‘ask.’ My gaze flitted back to him, my expression somber. “You were right to… chastise me. I should have consulted more widely before running my tests.”

“I will not belabor the point except to add one last thing.” Lucius leaned forward, his gaze intent. “We possessed are more than simple armsmen. Between us we have hundreds of years of experience in combat and war. Use it. Use us.”

It was another valid point. I’d been thinking of the nagians as a force multiplier only and had not considered deeply enough what their many years of experience meant. “You have further suggestions?” I asked gravely.

Lucius did not hesitate. “I do. Let us handle the problem of how to deal with the nest. Grant me and the others permission to scout its environs more fully, and after a few days I’ll be able to give you a more definitive answer about our ability to flood the valley and how to go about it.”

I pursed my lips, pondering his words. It was a bold request. I, myself, only planned on spending a single day more scouting the nest. There was just too much else to do. But the nagians lacked nethersight. “How will you deal with the mists? None of you can see past your noses in the nether.”

Lucius chuckled. “There are spells for such things. Granted, none of them are anywhere near as perfect as your own ability, but we’ll figure it out.”

Frowning, I began to reply.

“Trust us,” he repeated.

I closed my mouth with a snap. “Alright. I will. You have my permission.”

“Thank you,” Lucius breathed.

“You realize, though, that flooding the river will only take care of one—maybe two—of our four problems.”

Lucius sat back. “Four problems?”

This time it was me who began ticking off points on a hand. “Nest. Fog. Tree. Rift. We’ll have to deal with all four. Flooding the river will possibly neutralize the lesser stygians, and it may even help with the overlords—and by extension the fog—but that still leaves us with the rift and tree to contend with.”

“Ah, those I will leave to you,” Lucius allowed grandly. He threw me another of his atrocious-looking smiles—someone should really tell him to stop doing that. “You can’t expect us to do all the work, after all.”

“Thanks,” I muttered sourly.

Rising to my feet, I stifled a yawn. “Well then, I guess I better go to bed. Tomorrow, I will have to see about investigating one of those problems.”

If Lucius had eyebrows, I was certain that in that moment they would’ve drawn down. “I was joking,” he protested. “I didn’t mean—”

I laughed. “I know. But I was planning on revisiting the nest tomorrow even before our little talk.” Turning about, I walked away. “Night, Lucius.”

“Which problem?” he called out suddenly.

Glancing over my shoulder, I looked at him questioningly.

“Which problem do you plan on investigating tomorrow?” he asked.

“Why, the rift, of course.”