Edeva Malmert of the Leysendian Malmerts decided that maybe, just perhaps, her parents had been right.

It was just possible her attempting to infiltrate The Gray Depths on her own had been a massive mistake. Things had started off bad, as happens when one doesn't plan far enough ahead. How was she to gain access to anywhere noteworthy as a lowly Private? Not even a Private, but a Trainee Private? If she was lucky she might lose the Trainee label in another year. Last year she'd been a Cadet, and the very fact they considered Trainees to be a step above Cadets, as if the words meant different things, annoyed her to no end.

She might make Sergeant in only a few years if she 'showed initiative' and 'kept all her gulls in a row,' according to a rousing speech given by the Captain in charge of their basic cadet training as they graduated to Trainee Privates.

Yet, perhaps bringing The Gray Depths into the Empire's fold was worth a few decades of her life? Convincing herself it would all be worth it some day had become something of a morning ritual, one she couldn't crawl out of bed until completing. All she needed to do was find exactly which lever to pull, then pull it at a time when the Empire could sweep in and take over, something a certain scroll in her storage could make happen, once. Naturally, if she used the scroll prematurely, it wouldn't be just her body skewered out in the desert, but her father's too, for trusting her with the item.

She shouldn't have joined the Guard. It was a stupid idea, thinking she could somehow 'wow' the leadership during her basic training and get posted straight to the palace. Only once basic training started did her parents' arguments sink in. If she showed off her years of training, setting herself apart from the eager, enthusiastic, clumsy cadets, it would only lead to her facing more scrutiny, not less.

Devils below, once she realized her plan was flawed she tried to wash out, but her friends kept picking up her slack, dragging her out of bed, seeing her duties done, and in general making a nuisance of themselves no matter where she turned. She was too good at establishing positive rapport.

Some part of her wouldn't just quit, though. The Malmerts weren't quitters.

No, they were spies, assassins, and saboteurs, for the Glory of the Empire!

She should have left the city when she got word of not one but two Heroes, and the plague of rats one of them conjured up. Now she was going to die, torn to pieces by teeth and tentacles.

"Keep movin' Ed!" shouted Red, slapping her on the back.

Names more than a syllable long were too difficult for the fine folk of the Gray Guard to comprehend, Edeva had quickly learned during her time as a cadet at their listless excuse for a boot camp.

She hefted her sack of mana crystals and followed her squad to the wall. Mages were running dry, that's what happens when everyone starts throwing around magic at once, so the city opened up on its emergency stock, condensed by formations surrounding the dungeon since the city's founding, most likely. Now they would do the opposite, sending all these crystals back into manapshere. No reason to hold anything back in the face of utter destruction. Edeva wouldn't dare try to sabotage these efforts, despite the obvious opportunity this scenario presented.

Her momma didn't raise no martyr. Dying was for the enemy, not Malmerts. Malmerts don't suffer fools, they make fools suffer.

…The Malmerts had a lot of sayings, and her mother loved to repeat them at every opportunity. She had a whole notebook full of them hidden away somewhere, Edeva just knew.

She ran towards her death, not knowing what else she might do. She couldn't run, Jo had tried that and got a bolt in the back of her head.

Captain Sky didn't joke around.

Edeva passed Jo's corpse just beside the stairs headed up to the top of the city's wall, a reminder to others with ideas of putting their own lives above their sworn Duty to the city.

Edeva's Bond, well, her mother always told her there was no such thing as a useless Bond, but that was the kind of thing mothers with kids who had useless Bonds had to say. Edeva's Bond was useless.

She'd Bonded with a shadow panther, not an uncommon choice for her family, yet how did her Bond manifest?

Aside from some minor physical manifestations, again common within her family, all her Bond did was give her the ability to communicate with animals, as if they ever had anything interesting to say.

'Feed me.' 'Don't look at me when I poop.' 'Kill kill kill!' 'Rub my belly. Fool! Now I shall scratch your hand to ribbons.' 'Be still. I can't sleep on top of you if you keep turning over.'

Fluffy, her family cat, had been such a little tripper. She rarely even acknowledged understanding Edeva, and she certainly never did anything asked of her.

There had been discussions about Edeva getting a job, working with animals, like some laborer, and that's when she knew her life needed a drastic change. She was a Malmert, and no worthless Bond was going to change that fact.

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So, she bought a ticket and made some plans, which her parents had tried to talk her out of, yet even they had to acknowledge she was an adult, and if this task was how she chose to glorify the Empire, then so be it.

Father gave her a set of sleeve daggers and a small storage ring full of useful items, worn on her left foot's middle toe, while Mother convinced Grandmother to help etch the family's various infiltration runes onto Edeva's bones. It was thanks to one of these enchantments she was able to pass the standard truth stone screening given to all cadet applicants.

Another enchantment ensured people who didn't recognize Edeva wouldn't overthink her presence, while those who did recognize her would feel slightly more favorable towards her, both done so subtly as to avoid the notice of those sensitive to such tricks, as long as she didn't try to make too obvious a use of the advantages granted her, as such enchantments always had their limits.

She couldn't walk past guards set to keep people away from an area, but if they were told to let in officers and she wore an officer's uniform, she could pull it off, maybe, depending how attentive they were and on other factors, too many to risk except in an emergency, and Malmerts never took risks, only lives.

If the guards kept an eye out for anyone suspicious in a crowd she could probably limp past, bleeding and bruised, holding a broken arm and a sack of loot, though of course she'd never risk doing something so stupid. The enchantments only worked against those with weaker mental defenses, after all. One person pointing out her oddness planted the flag for others to notice as well.

Another explosion sent her stumbling as she hurried up the stairs with her burden. Artillery mages proved their worth today. Blasts of fire, clouds of poison, fields of jagged ice, walls of magma, tornadoes of air, chains of lightning, and more lit up the field of death beyond the walls. Not just the Guard, but delvers, mercenaries, hunters, students, merchants, and more stood on the walls, given the emergency. Edeva felt thankful she wasn't in charge of such a logistical nightmare, but whoever ran that side of things seemed to have everything well in hand.

Screams came from her left as she topped the stairs. She turned in time to see the tentacle wrapped around a mage in Academy blue pull him back towards the massive monstrosity's maw. The thing was taller than the wall! How had they let it come so close? Some fool in full plate and an oversized sword decided to die too, leaping heroically to his death as he sliced the tentacle from the main body. He plummeted down to the swarming hordes below, as did the mage whose death was delayed for entire seconds.

Ah. A wind mage spent his mana to save the falling duo, while a haggard man with flaming hair arrived to lazily gesture at the tentacled creature, the resulting flash of flames hot enough to dry the sweat from Edeva's brow.

The creature's flaming limbs fell into the horde below, its center reduced to a hill of ash.

Someone handed the fire mage a glowing blue potion, liquified mana essence, a more potent, expedient form of mana recovery than mana crystal formations, and a hundred times more expensive. She made a mental note of the man, to find out who he was if they both survived this mess. He was someone to avoid.

She dropped her load into the designated magic circle before hurrying back down the stairs.

Down in the city, on her way back to the warehouse, people started running out an entrance to one of the designated shelters, shielded bunkers every few blocks intended for such an emergency as this.

"Underground! They're underground!" one old man screamed, holding a nasty gash on his arm closed.

"Guard!" another man yelled, looking right at Edeva. "The grabbers are comin' from below!"

She hadn't heard them called that one before.

And what was she supposed to do about it? If the crawlers were underground, inside the walls, the city was properly tripped into a dark, deep hole now.

Before she made it two steps—either for the Captain, or to try and hide it out in the dungeon, she hadn't quite decided which—a flood of dog-sized rats spilled out of a nearby warehouse. She was doomed. They were all going to die.

The rats flowed around her, part of the horde streaming into the shelter to feed on all the helpless people within. Maybe they'd fight the creepers for feeding rights, over the bodies of the dead.

She…was still fine. "What's going on?" She asked, not expecting an answer.

"""For cheese!""" half the horde squeaked back.

""Too long!"" squeaked others.

""Grabby grabbers keeping us from our cheese!"" shouted a few. Was that the name catching on? With rats???

"The Hero has been delayed long enough," rumbled a deep basso voice within the warehouse. "We rats must help shoulder this burden, for the cheese. For acceptance, for the cheese. For unity…"

"""""For the cheese!""""" shouted the horde in unison.

Edeva's skin crawled as her eyes found the massive rat—if it could even be called a rat anymore, it being the size of an adult mukupi[a], one bred to pull carts. The rat pushed at the warehouse door frame, stone crumbling away until the beast broke through.

"You speak our tongue, guardswoman?" rumbled her latest nightmare fuel.

"Uh. All animals. Bond manifestation."

"Good. Take me to your leader. There is much we must discuss. My children will see to protecting this city from below, so those on the wall might focus on the larger threats."

'Her leader.' Edeva swallowed. If she brought this rat to her Captain, doubtless he would pass it up the chain of command. Word would make it all the way up, until this creature met with the King—no one would dare kill it under these circumstances. They didn't need a second battle in the streets, against the grabbers and rats both. She might fear getting sidelined along the way, yet…

Who else could talk to rats?

Inside Edeva jumped for joy, not letting it show on her face. Finally, a turn of luck. This might be just the thing she needed to bring this city to its knees, for the Glory of the Empire!