"Are you sure we should leave Ny behind?" Said Eira Edursdaughter as she crawled through the ice tunnel she was making under the river, "I know he's a light-warper, but those guards are gonna be looking hard for him."

She looked back down the ice tunnel to see Kish crawling behind her, the welt on his temple had significantly reduced since she'd first seen him back in the city, though the bruising was still noticeable now that she was looking.

Kish said, "I came for you and you only. I only got Ny out of the prison so Fusil wouldn't send me back. Besides, you know 'e 'ates these tight spaces."

"Fusil should have waited until the next check in, I handled myself just fine."

"So I 'eard. But we need you out 'ere more."

"Is this magician really so important that he needs me?"

"Boss thought so. 'Oever this guy is really riled 'im up."

"And Ny didn't say anything to you?"

"Nah, 'e was gagged when 'e passed my cell, and I wasn't about to shout business down the 'all."

"*!%&."

Eira's thoughts whirled around Ny as she crawled through the frosted riverbed. She failed to notice her armor come untucked, exposing her skin to the bare frozen ground when she laid down to rest.

"&#^* that's cold!"

"Grixovite's 'er built for that sort of thing, aren't they?"

"Our fur is, but I have to shave like every other day to keep my cover."

"I thought you'd only 'ave to shave your face."

"Back in the winter yeah, but in summer clothes? Clean shave, dyed hair, it's all or nothing." She rolled onto her back to tuck her shirt back in and tightened her belt to keep it from coming loose again, "That's why I got discovered last week, I lost my only blade when I was getting that tin."

"That sounds like a 'assle."

"You have no idea. I can't wait to be gone from this pit of a city."

They continued down the riverbed, being far more mindful of the rocks and pebbles. After almost two hours of crawling she felt her powers waning, so she shaped the ice into a surface tunnel on the west side of the river, exposing them to the pale moonlight. They both dragged themselves out and Eira pulled Kish to his feet. When he was standing, Eira crushed the ice as small as she could then watched as it slowly floated downstream.

"Praise the ancestors that no guards are around this area"

"If we keep 'aving trouble, that might just change. Let's 'ope we can keep quiet-like for a bit."

Eira and Kish walked North up the riverbank, passing by the a completely devastated section of field on the east side during the first of the four hours they spent traveling. Three trees that Eira didn't recognize were present, all three of which were destroyed. It looked like one of them had been blasted from within, the second was impaled by spike of earth, and the third was folded in two at the middle. Surrounding the trees was a tumult of stone walls and dirt trenches.

"What in the ancestors name..."

"I 'ave no idea."

"Someone's got a lot of explaining to do."

During the second of the four hours walking, Eira created an icicle in the palm of her hand.

"Er... what are you doing?"

"I've had a long week and I haven't been able to practice freely in eight months, let me have this."

As they walked, Eira held the icicle at the end of her grip, then shook her hand to ensure the ice's stability. When it didn't break, she tossed it into the air and caught it in her other hand. She then threw it back into her first and repeated. After she found her rhythm, she created a second, and then a third, juggling them slowly, and speeding up once she had her confidence back. When she added a fourth however, she misjudged the thickness of it and the icicle broke in her fingers, causing her to fumble the remaining three.

"*$&@ I screwed up. *&@^ it, I used to be able to do that easily."

"You did say it's been eight months 'aven't you?"

"I did. Still, I practiced all the time before the mission, I was almost ready to try five when I got here. Now I'm back down to struggling with four. 

They made it to a pecan tree that had been blasted apart by Fusil's lightning. They turned west for another mile and a half to a cave whose entrance was covered by a tree Calix grew. Slipping under the roots with ease, they walked down the cavern until they came to a fork, lit by a single torch. When they came to the light, Eira removed the hat off of her henna-dyed hair, revealing the silvery roots that matched her fur's natural color. 

Kish said to Eira, "I'm going to check on our progress for the month's recruit quota." He made his way to the left and turned out of sight.

Eira's face soured. She hated that innocents were being taken to fight in the war against the United kingdoms of Stogh, but if the Living Ancestors willed it, then it would be done. Someone had to fight, and sadly volunteers were fewer than Eira believed there should have been. Eira made her way to the right, hoping to find Fusil in the meeting chamber before she turned in for the night. As she came to it, she began to hear shouting. At first it was hard to make out, but it came into focus.

"-abandoned more of ours!"

"Someone had to make sure he was occupied so we could escape! What were we supposed to do, get all of us killed or captured!?"

"If your plan had failed, you would have led him right to us! He would crush all of us if he knew we were here! Do you have the slightest idea what Djurle is capable of!? Do you know how many of us he's KILLED!? WE'RE HIDING IN HIS DOMAIN!!!"

"AT LEAST WE GOT OUR TARGETS!"

"AT WHAT COST!? YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE SECOND YOU SAW HIM!!!"

Eira opened the door to the meeting room, Kalam and Fusil both stopped whatever they were doing before and stared at her as she entered.

"Finally, what took you so long!?"

"Easy Fusil, I wasn't leaving Kish behind."

Fusil turned away from Eira and walked to his seat, his pegs clacking against the stone as he did. She'd never seen him this upset before.

"*%&@ Kish... he didn't happen to get Ny did he?"

"Actually, we did. What happened?"

Fusil scoffed.

"What happened... What happened is the %^@* Djurle Iranu is in Thruf and he's tracking us down!"

Who?

Kalam muttered, "And he's angry."

"BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"I ALREADY TOLD YOU WE DID WHAT WE-"

"SHUT UP! BOTH OF YOU! I've been back for less than a minute and already you morons are giving me a headache." Eira sighed. "Just CALMLY give me the rundown. What have I missed? You needed my help to capture some magician?"

"Djurle's no magician." Fusil put his hands to his face and leaned back, his chair squeaking as he did. After a short pause, his hands dropped to the armrests. "There's no easy way to say it, we tried to capture him without you. That's how Ny was captured. Calix and Nufot are dead. Arraina was badly hurt. And I just found out that Lilac, Ziza, and Yehbesh are MIA after Kalam failed to learn from my mistakes."

Calix is... and Nufot? It can't be...

"How? Who the %^#* is this guy?"

"I made a bad call. I thought we could take Djurle head on, but he's working with the city garrison, and he did something I didn't think he was physically capable of during our fight... We should have waited for you before I tried to capture him. He wondered away from the refugee camp and four people paid the price when I let my impatience get the better of me."

Tears began to fill Eria's eyes, and she tightened her shaking fists.

They knew the risks.

Blinking the tears away and looking to Fusil, she said, "I thought you learned your lesson when the Ancestor of Stone collapsed a tunnel on you. These people are supposed to be your responsibility, getting them killed and failing the mission they died for isn't going to earn you any favors with The Living Ancestors. Why did you let this guy get under your skin like that?"

He rolled his eyes at her, "don't lecture me. My grandfather and his adviser couldn't care less about what I'm doing. His capture was ordered years ago, it won't happen again."

"Is that how you know this Djurle guy?"

Fusil blinked for a second before asking, "Do you seriously NOT know-? Eira, that's the Spirit of the Earth's NAME!"

Eira's eyes became big as boulders.

"Yeah, he's the %$&@ that did this." Fusil pointed at his pegs. "Honestly with how many times it comes up, I'm surprised I never said it."

She took a minute to process what she was hearing.

%@*^! I wasn't imagining that!? I actually #&@^*$ saw him!? )@(&!

All at once fear and awe washed over her as the self-deception eroded away.

Kalam asked Fusil, "How are we going to deal with him? If we're still intent on capturing-"

Eria interjected, "You can't capture a living ancestor! They're unstoppable! Forces of nature!"

"She's right Kalam, counting Ny and Kish we're down to 11, one of whom is injured and four of which are strictly noncombatants. We can't fight him AND the garrison at the same time, we don't have the manpower. It would take my grandfather himself to stand against him, and maybe another fifty fighters to come close to balancing the scales without his help."

"Calix and I were able to restrain him."

"For how long? Two minutes?"

"More than long enough to levy a death blow."

Eira's eyes went wide. "You can't be suggesting we kill him!"

"My grandfather's adviser would lock you in the bowels of your mind for the rest of eternity if you did that. Killing him is off the table."

Eira sighed with relief.

Fusil continued, "The next pickup is two weeks away. With Djurle here, I suspect we'll be found long before then... There's no salvaging this. My mistake cost us the mission. Everything we've been doing the last eight months..."

Kalam asked, "So what do we do?"

"We get out what supplies we can."

"What about the conscripts?"

"We can get maybe a third of them out of here on our own, but they won't make it to Krundíl unless we come across the pickup caravan on the way, which I doubt."

"Can we hide in the refugee camp?"

"The conscripts know our faces, hiding would be a good suggestion if we were doing anything else. Leaving is our only chance. Kalam, get Arraina and the noncombatants out of here at first light, send them back home and make sure they don't wait for us. Tell the others we're leaving at dusk in two days."

Kalam scowled and stormed out. Fusil leaned forward in his chair, his eyes intently locked on hers.

"Eira. If he shows up before we can get packed and moving, your ability set is the closest thing to a counter we have. The lightwarpers can blind him, but if he's got contact with the ground he can fight, on top of the fact we're in a cave. I'm dead on sight. And before you say it, he's already escaped from being bound in a tree once, and chances are he's prepared to do it again. You are our last hope of stopping Djurle. I need to know RIGHT NOW if that's something you think you can handle, because if you can't we need to start begging The Maker for mercy."

Me!? Fighting a living ancestor!? No, it's- it's- I can't-

Eira swayed in place for nearly two minutes.

"... I... I think so," she lied.

"It'll have to do. We'll cut the conscripts loose before we leave, no point in leaving them to starve."

Eira lingered for a moment and watched Fusil sink hopelessly into his chair. All the time she'd known him, she'd never seen him so distraught, his face so twisted in... Fear. She raised a hand towards him, as Galilahi had for her.

He sighed, "I know what you're doing and it won't work. Leave me."

Both Eira's jaw and fist clenched. She stepped out of the meeting chamber to see Kalam standing with his arms crossed.

"Didn't Fusil tell you to-"

"I'm not about to let eight months of work go to waste, there's still a chance this can blow over."

"You can't be &@*^#% serious!"

"We have a good system Eira!"

"You heard him Kalam! The conscripts will recognize us if we stay!"

"Then we kill them."

"What the *@&^ Kalam!"

"One low return isn't the end of the world."

"Killing our (*!^$%@ kinsmen isn't what we signed up for! What happens when they find the bodies?"

"If"

"I know what I *&!%#@^ said. The Living ancestor will find this cave eventually. Fusil knows it. Anyone with sense knows it. For all we know he could have already found your (@&!%# trail and-"

"Don't start that again. We can't go back empty handed. Even if you won't keep up the operation, we still need to warn the caravan in two weeks."

Eira forced her way past Kalam, marching towards the communal bed-chamber.

"Fine. Ignore me. But I'm staying, and this would be much easier if you stayed too."