Preparations to temporarily leave Chairo started early the following day. Aleph and I were up before the sun, and I had to suppress that tiny selfish voice inside me that kept whining about not getting enough sleep throughout the ordeal.

“Potable water… a few sacks of soybeans… salted beef…” Aleph sighed. “Even some aging vegetables would be welcome.”

“I’ll see what I can do, Grandmaster Aleph,” the wimple-clad girl from the kitchen replied dubiously, turning her stern gaze to me.

I winced. “I’m really, really sorry…”

Her look said much more than just ‘no more cookies for you,’ and honestly, I couldn’t blame her. While no official sanctions had been raised against the kitchen for my unannounced exodus, a slew of new processes designed to keep troublemakers like me out had been enacted. That meant more rigmarole for the staff coming and going as well.

I probably shouldn’t tell her this morning’s bread rolls were a little hard.

After watching her head back into the kitchen, Aleph advised, “That is why you never upset those in charge of feeding you… or cleaning up after you.”

“Ahaha…” I replied awkwardly.

Maybe I can make it up to her somehow.

“Must we leave so early?” Prince Mito moaned. “It’s not like this encampment is going anywhere.”

“I wish to report back to the council today,” Aleph explained. “Before they come up with a way to silence me.”

“You think they’ll do that?” I asked, sensing there was more to the story. “Didn’t they approve your visit?”

“That’s as far as they felt the need to go,” Tetora grumbled. “Just enough to look like they’re doing something.”

I would have to confront them sometime soon, wouldn’t I?

Relias probably had good reasons not to put us all in the same room together at first, but things were inevitably coming to a head. “Do you think… I’ll be allowed to report back too?”

Aleph and Tetora exchanged a glance before Aleph turned back to me. “Is that what you wish to do?”

“Of course!” I exclaimed, pushing back a twinge of nervousness. “What’s the point of going if I can’t say anything about it?”

Aleph smiled encouragingly. “Then who are they to stop you?”

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Prince Mito, Father Titus, and Captain Corwin joined us just before leaving the Main Temple. We loaded a cart with a few of the requested kitchen offerings. A few temple servants also handed out similarly fashioned dark cloaks with oversized hoods. I was also given another wimple, but this one was thankfully wingless, though it still adequately hid the color of my hair. It was still well before daybreak, but with everything ready, we filed out of the Temple with little resistance. Well aware of our approach, the dark mages translocated us into the Periphery without fuss.

“Seems you have the Midas touch, Father Titus,” I remarked. “Not one priest has questioned our destination, thanks to your help.” They didn’t even try to charge us, either.

He grinned, his eyes shining. “Thank you, Chosen One. But… what or who is Midas?”

“Oh. Uh, it just means we’re having easy success.”

“I’ve been bringing more and more Brothers with me on my daily trek,” he explained. “Knights too, since we’ve had um… some very aggressive inquiries from the general public.”

“Ah. About my whereabouts, I take it?”

He nodded. “However, adding a few more people to our retinue routinely and keeping the same schedule as always has allowed us to remain unaccosted during our movements today.”

Captain Corwin leaned in. “If you follow proper protocols and collaborate with your colleagues, it makes your tasks much easier,” he murmured pointedly.

“You’re still salty about yesterday, huh?” I yawned.

He glowered at me. “I’ll forgive you once my paperwork about it is complete.”

“Who reads it after you file it?” Prince Mito asked curiously.

Captain Corwin paused, scratching his head. “Someone in the temple, I believe.”

“So just write down that it was the Chosen One’s fault and be done with it,” I shrugged sleepily. “What are they gonna do, spank me?”

In my defense, I was trying to make it easy on him by shifting the blame back to its source—me, who had intentionally broken the rules. However, Captain Corwin took great offense to my crass comment, turning red and storming to the front of the line. “Just you wait,” he shouted from ahead. “I’ll do exactly that!”

“You may wish to try a more tactful approach next time,” Prince Mito murmured.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

“Maybe…” I conceded sheepishly, realizing I hadn’t yet turned on my professional filters for the day.

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“We’ll wait for their leader to meet us here on neutral ground,” Aleph advised once we cleared Chairo’s shimmering barrier. “We don’t want this to look like a show of force.”

I glanced at Captain Corwin, trying to gauge his current level of displeasure with me. “Is Dame Fianna anywhere nearby? I think she should come too.”

Showing that the Order of Silver supports hybrids might make discussions easier.

After a moment of consideration, he nodded and gestured to one of his subordinates. Within minutes, he sent him on a mini-mission to find and return with the hybrid knight I had bonded with previously. “It may take her a little while to join us, but it’s actually a good idea,” he finally admitted aloud.

“Well… I was probably due?”

He sighed heavily. “Captain, when you say things like that, you make it hard to hold a grudge.”

“Well, that’s the whole point. We’re going to be working together for a bit, so…”

“Our relationship is not so damaged that you should feel the need to self-deprecate,” he advised crisply. “Remember, you outrank me, so you could just order me to get over it.”

“We’re both Captains,” I reminded him.

He shook his head. “Chosen One is exactly that—its own unique rank.”

“Ah…” I acknowledged, feeling once again like a bully who had thrown their weight around.

He cleared his throat. “If we were on equal standing, however…” he paused, a slight grin spreading across his face.

“Yeah?”

“I’d probably just write a sternly worded letter about etiquette and nothing more.”

“Let’s just pretend you did that and save your sword hand. Then we can pretend I read and acknowledged its salient points.”

He held out his hand for me to shake. “Deal.”

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As the sun rose, a lone figure approached us from the encampment, his tattered, dingy cloak snapping fitfully in the breeze. His long, loosely tied hair was two-tone, beginning as a silky white but darkening into an iridescent shadow before ending below his hips. At the crown of his head, a wide streak of bright crimson plumage blazed angrily with each step he took. Knowing I would need to authenticate myself, I pulled off my cloak and wimple in preparation for his arrival.

After strutting forward while ignoring the others, the middle-aged rooster hybrid pointed directly at me. “You’re late.”

“I am?” It wasn’t even core business hours yet.

“By a good seven years,” he snapped before giving me a look up and down. “Why is your hair pink?”

Why is he picking a fight? We’re here to help!

“Why are your feathers red on top?” I countered bluntly.

He brushed his fingers through them. “Why, to attract the perfect mate. But you’re too late for that, too, so don’t even try to sweet-talk me.”

I squinted, still trying to figure out what was going on here. “Married?”

“With six kids,” he confirmed.

“S-six?” I gasped, unable to play it cool anymore. “That’s too many!”

“Now you sound like my wife,” he crowed with laughter, relaxing his guard slightly. “I might even introduce you to her at some point, Captain.”

He should be talking with Aleph, not me.

“Um… First, I should introduce you to—”

“Captain Corwin’s reputation precedes him, and I am already well acquainted with Father Titus, who told me about Prince Mito’s recent arrival,” he said, pointing to each in turn. “And then I see you’ve brought two token hybrids, too.”

“They’re not tokens! This is Aleph and Tetora, and I’m humbled to call them my friends!”

“And just who do you think you are, anyway?” Tetora asked with a short growl.

The rooster hybrid glanced at Tetora, a slight sneer spreading across his face. “My name is Roderic. Welcome to my home, Tiger. You’ll be the first of your kind to visit, so we’ll be watching you rather closely.”

“How long have you lived here?” Aleph asked, stepping between the two of them for obvious reasons.

“Two years, ten months, and four days,” Roderic responded without hesitation.

“Third wave,” Aleph noted somewhat cryptically. “You’re a senior in charge?”

“The senior,” Roderic emphasized with a sense of pride. “No one’s above me here, so you may take my agreement to meet with you as the ultimate compliment.”

Aleph cleared his throat. “The General Assembly has charged me with summarizing the situation here. I am cautiously hopeful that they will listen closely to my words.”

“Father Titus is already well aware of what’s been happening,” Roderic said with a disdainful sniff. “If a fellow priest cannot sway them to change their ways, what hope does another hybrid or two have?”

“That is one reason why I did not come alone,” Aleph admitted. “I believe there is power in numbers.”

“Don’t discount my companion’s strength simply because he’s cordial to you, Rooster,” Tetora growled as he stepped around Aleph. “When he needs to be, he can be quite threatening.”

“A real Tiger would never be afraid of an Ox,” Roderic disagreed, his eyes narrowing.

“Only if it had no sense, like you!” Tetora flared angrily.

“Tetora…” Aleph murmured. “You realize you’re being baited, right?”

“So what?” Tetora snapped. “We’re here to help, and he’s here trying to pit us against each other! So let’s cut through his nonsense!”

Aleph rubbed his beard. “Why do you think he’s testing us?” he asked as if Roderic no longer existed.

“It’s obvious—to find a secondary reason for our visit, but I don’t have the patience for such ridiculousness,” Tetora responded. “I’m too busy thinking about how to threaten the General Assembly into taking action for once!”

Aleph smiled and then turned back to Roderic. “As you can see, Tetora is not interested in recruiting hybrids for either side of the battle in Porta.”

“Wait… that’s what you were thinking?” I asked Roderic. “That we’re looking for army recruits?” It was certainly quite the wake-up call for me.

“It wouldn’t be the first time,” he said with a stiff shrug. “And sometimes it even works. But you should know those I look after are too young or sick to serve in the Order of the White. I’ll admit that the promise of steady meals is alluring, but most wouldn’t last a week on the field.”

“None of your clan would pass basic military training,” Dame Fianna called as she strode toward our group. “I’ve already filed reports stating as much.”

Roderic relaxed visibly. “It’s been a while, Fianna.”

“I told you to behave when she came to see you, and here you are acting like an obnoxious king of the roost,” she admonished, punching him lightly in the shoulder.

He laughed, wrapping his arm around her. “Really? Roost? That was the best you could come up with?”

“It was intentionally awful to emphasize your bad behavior,” she replied as she ruffled the red feathers on the top of his head.

Roderic sighed. “If even one of them suffers more because of their visit…”

“I trust them with my life,” Fianna replied. “Give them a chance and stop being such a chicken.”

Even I groaned at that one, and Roderic gave me a rueful glance. “Alright, alright! Come along, then, everyone. Let me show you Asha’s Refuge, the last bastion of hope.”

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Post Chapter Note: Roderick's Inspiration: Black-Tailed White Japanese Bantam

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