Vitmori POV

Zasutir seemed to be relieved by my intentions after I explained the circumstances of the letter; in fact, he seemed to take the task even more seriously than before. I dictated the letter to him, sounding firm but apologetic as I explained the fake circumstances I'd thought up for the knights and acolytes, mixing in truth with fantasy as I told a story of being ambushed by bandits with half of our forces being injured. How we're currently holed up in a cave with the 'product' as well as several bandits that were taken alive. Hopefully, the slavers will be impatient and come and meet us on my turf, between the chance to get even more 'merchandise' than initially planned and attempt to extort their prospective business partners considering the piss poor situation they expect to come in on.

After I said all I needed to say, Zasutir couldn't help but flash a vindictive smile as he looked over his handiwork; gingerly, he rolled up the scroll and looked to my core before lowering his head. "Vitmori, your wisdom and intelligence know no bounds; I daresay I have never participated in an act of roguery and deception quite like this. I await to see the fruit of our efforts." He enthused, soon chuckling heartily and mischievously before laying the scroll before my pedestal. "If you'll excuse me, I must at least inform the others of what shall transpire soon." He said, still rather cheerful, before bowing again and heading out of the cavern.

Alright, now then, let's get this message out and the ball rolling. I look around for a moment and soon track down where Jack had gone off to and from what I can tell, he's managed to make fast friends with the hawk, the messenger bird chowing down on some squirrel meat as it squaws happily in delight. It appears Jack has an excellent handle on the stick and carrot method, managing to make friends out of enemies. 'Jack, bring our guest back over here. It's time to get going.'

Jack perks up at my call and tweets out eagerly before looking at the hawk. "Come along you; mealtime is over." He mused as he began making his way toward my chamber. The messenger squaws with dismay, taking a few more scoops of squirrel meat in his beak before hurrying after Jack. Before long they're in my chamber once more, the hawk looking in better shape than before and decidedly dryer than the last time I saw it.

'Alright Jack, I want you to follow after this messenger with a squadron of birds. Your task is to personally get eyes on his handlers before returning to me. You must also leave a daisy chain of birds between here and there to monitor the road so we can plan for their arrival.' I explain before looking over to the messenger. 'You'll be returning soon enough, so don't do anything stupid, and I think we'll get along just fine, got it?'

The messenger hawk appeared to flutter his wings almost anxiously before splaying its wings out and bowing lowly before sitting upright again.

Jack nodded intently as well, and I could feel the thoughts in his mind start going through which of his birds to call on for this expedition. "Aye, Vitmori, will do." He stated in a surprisingly dutiful tone before collecting the scroll Zasutir left behind and tucking it away in the messenger's harness.

The hawk stood stiffly, almost on instinct as it took on its new package and relaxed once Jack had finished stowing the scroll.

'I look forward to hearing your report; stay safe out there.' For some reason, I feel the tingling of memories of my past, watching the youths and young adults who knew nothing of life before the fall of society, watching them getting geared up for the first time. The twisting gut feeling of watching them go off and leave the safety of the havens to face the unflinching cruelty of the undead, just knowing that I probably wouldn't see most of them again. I've sent Jack out far from my territory before, but it feels different this time; he's more of a person to me now rather than an animal I just brought back.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

For some reason, Jack seems to tilt his head thoughtfully before offering a small beaky smile. "Will do Vitmori; I'll be careful." With that, he nudges the messenger hawk and turns toward the entrance of my chamber as they both take to the wing and head out to do as I instructed.

I couldn't help but stare after them for a moment before I noticed Basti staring up at me, her ears flicking a little. 'Oh, don't give me that. I'm not sad, maybe anxious, though it's only old memories for me now. Anyways, there is much work to be done, and my focus will be elsewhere... So feel free to roam as you like for now.'

Basti rumbled a low murr in response, slowly getting to her paws before slinking out from my chamber and making her way down the mountain to find something to do to pass the time.

Now, I have yet another checklist to tend to before our new friends arrive. I decide to go ahead and dip into my iron reserves, forming and shaping simple yet thick iron bars for my future jail cells. I don't bother with trying to make any sort of gate for the doorway, since I figured I could just pull the bars into my storage if I needed to move them for any sort of reason. I don't think I'll need to go out of my way to separate or isolate my future guests, at least not right away, so maybe one or two big cells should suffice for now. It doesn't take much to install the bars, opting to take one of my pre-carved rooms and block the narrow entryway with the iron bars. This would mean that they would have plenty of room to move around and stretch their legs, but if I were to fill the room with all six of them, it would no doubt help with making the room at least feel cramped and get tensions to rise all on their own.

Ultimately it didn't take too long to set up that prison cell. I'll probably have to have the wolves or someone hunt some game for me, maybe even have that rat cook to prepare some food for me so I at least have something to feed my future guests since it wouldn't be right to let them starve, even if they are slavers.

Next, I ought to give a heads-up to the sinners, maybe even dole out the armor their bodies came with in order to complete the act I intend to have them perform. I first look for them in their training room, the sinners having isolated themselves there for some rather intense training for the last several days. From what I could tell, their expectations about their own strength had been shattered after their encounter with the ooze. They took the loss hard and appeared appropriately humbled after charging in the way they did. It wasn't really their fault, it was a lousy match-up outright, and from what I could tell, only Envy and Sloth even had a chance to do anything against that ooze.

Regardless, they weren't in their training room, surprisingly enough. Instead, I ended up finding them in the medbay, sitting around the still-wounded Gluttony. From what I could tell, all six of the sins, including the recently awoken Dread, were meditating around Gluttony. Taking a closer look, I realized all of them were mimicking the technique I had learned from that lizard healer, slowly reaching out with their mana and swirling it around within Gluttony. It was a truly impressive display of synchronicity as they did their level best to stabilize her; from what I could tell, it was working. In fact, I decided to hijack this meditation session and brought out the bear corpse, laying it beside Gluttony as I threw in my mana in the mix and began to fuse the two bodies together. The bear shrinks and disintegrates as Gluttony begins to be fused with the parts and materials coming from the bear. Once more, the process took quite some time, but not nearly as long as it had with Dread despite Gluttony needing much more extensive repairs. Before long, the bear is nothing but a pile of fur and bone scraps, and in its place is a petite yet beefy look bearkin woman. She looked more like a bear than a human or rather a dwarf. They were looking more along the lines of a beastkin like the majority of the other beastkin in the haven. She admittedly looked rather cute at a glance, looking like some sort of oversized bear cub, but I have no doubt that image will change once she wakes up.

The Sinners and Dread finally stirred out of their deep meditative states and collectively looked surprised by the new state Gluttony was in, though I could feel their minds collectively realize what happened as they stood. "Creator Vitmori, thank you for your aid in repairing Gluttony; we truly appreciate your generosity and care." Dread stated for the group, lowering his head as he bowed in the direction of my core.

'No need to thank me guys, you're my people, of course I'm going to help. But in any case, I have a task for you all. Specifically, I'm calling upon Envy, Wrath, and Greed; I've got a job for you three in particular.' I explain gently before calling on those three, the sinners and Dread exchanging glances before the trio steps forward. 'Come to my chamber, and I'll explain there.'

With that, the trio saluted before making their way out and up the mountain, the rest sitting back around Gluttony to meditate some more and gather mana from the air.