***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Magnus***

“I am not some kind of game to be carried back to your hunting lodge,” Ginevra complained. Probably more to herself than to us. She had turned whinier the further her healing process advanced. Maybe because she was now awake for longer, which gave her more time to think and get bored.

We had her strapped to a sturdy pole, using as much of our spare fabric as possible. The poor woman looked like a cocoon made out of rags.

Maybe a beautiful butterfly would hatch from it in the future?

I chuckled at the thought.

“This is so undignified,” Ginevra continued. “Why not a normal stretcher?”

“Because you could fall off if we have to run. We encountered a ghostleech on our way down here. No matter your worth, I wouldn’t fight one for you,” Astra shot back. “And now be silent, or I may let you slip!”

I silently pursed my lips when I noticed the annoyed tone in Astra’s voice.

It was the first time I had seen someone get on Astra’s nerves enough to make her lose her calm. Maybe it was the whiny, somewhat shrill way in which Ginevra was speaking – now that her throat was healed.

I could perfectly imagine her as one of those politicians back from earth. Those who always complained about God and the world as long as it wasn’t them who were the problem. ‘It’s the others’ fault!’ seemed to be their motto.

“Why should I be silent?” Ginevra huffed. “I will be in deep shit once we return. If I make a deal with you guys and implicate the Patels, the Patels will make the rest of my life a living nightmare. Assuming they don’t have me assassinated. And if I keep my mouth shut, you will lock me up. Or worse.”

“Or worse,” Astra confirmed and nodded to herself. It looked like she had given up on niceties. “But not because of your poaching. If what we deduced is true, then you are just a small fish. If I were you, I would sing like a bird and hope the Patels will have too many other problems than to harbour a grudge. Think about how many stratas aside from the Frosts would be interested in learning about the existence of a large scale Patel operation. If the Patels dared to pull one over on a family like ours, the ones in charge of the twelfth strata, then who else are they daring to fuck around with? People will start looking beneath their carpets when they hear about this.”

Ginevra whined but didn't have a direct retort for once. “I hope that shiny armour of yours means you have the resources to protect me because my contacts will send everything they have after me if they find out I am alive.”

“Metal would be shinier,” I mumbled, unconvinced that a beetle’s carapace could be called shiny. My armour was polished, for sure, but didn’t reflect the light. Come to think of it, having shiny armour for wilderness exploration would be a stupid idea because of visibility. Everyone knew as much nowadays.

“Are you joking?” Ginevra huffed. “Anyone can buy metal armour with a month’s wage. Buying a full iobeetle armour set like yours would take me two years of poaching. Maybe three! And only on the black market, because full sets normally aren’t sold and instead handed down as family heirlooms!”

I reached up and corrected the fit of my helmet, suddenly uncomfortable with what I was wearing. Had Astra put me into Tirnanog’s equivalent of a spacesuit?

Astra pointedly didn’t look back. She had both hands firmly on our carrying pole and was leading the way with confident steps.

“You said our armour costs only a few months of income,” I stated, implying a question for Astra.

“Then you haven’t paid enough attention,” Astra commented flippantly. “I said it takes a few months to ‘make’ the armour. Which is true. Just don’t give me some shit about freeloading on me. If we are freeloading, then it’s on my parents, because I requisitioned the gear from the family’s armoury.”

I raised an eyebrow but decided to just go with it. “As you say.”

Complaining about having the best protection possible would be stupid.

We carried our trophy as fast as Astra dared to lead us through the Belly and then back up the Throat. It was an arduous task and we had to rely on Astra’s filaments more than once.

Pretty much all of the vertical ascends had to be tackled by Astra alone because it would have been impossible for me to carry Ginevra while climbing the steeper parts of the cave. At least not without injuring her by reopening the wounds. Or Wound? Did having your entire skin dissolved by stomach acid count as a single wound? Anyway...

Meanwhile, Astra simply had to hook her filaments into the ceiling and pull herself and our charge up a few metres at a time.

There was one dicey situation when we encountered what was essentially an oversized earthworm blocking our path. The shaft we had taken up the Throat suddenly ended in a pulsating wall of flesh. It moved in waves from left to right and was hot enough to force us to retreat a few metres back down the tunnel.

I learned that the creature was simply called ‘worm’ and was slowly digging itself a path through the mountain, forcing us to either wait or turn around.

Astra decided to wait, since poking the creature in the side could reportedly cause a violent reaction we wouldn’t survive. When something so large turned to scratch an itch, a cave-in was the likely consequence.

Sadly, I never got to see the whole beast. Once it had passed, we had to wait for two hours until the stone cooled off from the worm’s passage and then we got to skip a newly created tunnel, roughly twenty metres in diameter. Astra couldn’t answer my question of where the thing had put the mass it had scraped out of the mountain.

“Well, the only way to find out would be by jumping down a worm’s maw,” she suggested. “I don’t know anyone who was lucky enough to survive being in one of the things’ paths.”

“Has nobody ever hunted one?” I asked.

“The elders may have,” Astra replied after a moments’ thought. “Normal hunters just run when they notice the walls shaking.”

With neither Astra nor Ginevra knowing more about the creature, there was nothing else to be said about the topic. I had no choice but to leave the mystery to be uncovered another day.

After resting at a shelter between the Maw and the Throat, we made our way back through the Maw and arrived at the large metal gateway which led into the clan’s living caves. On the way there, we also greeted our old friend, the wild molerat, and it allowed us to pass once more with just a hiss as a warning.

All in all, it took us two full days of pure travel time to carry Ginevra back home.

Getting down into the Belly had also taken us roughly two days, but we didn’t hurry on the way down and spent quite a lot of time on hunting and with Astra teaching me about the environment. We certainly hadn’t been in a rush to get to a specific destination.

Before we announced our return at the gate, Astra silently addressed Ginevra, “It’s better if you let me speak, Ginevra. In fact, it would probably be best if you say nothing at all. Can you do that or do I have to shut you up?”

“I’ll pretend to be asleep,” Ginevra replied, apparently realizing it wouldn’t help if anyone recognized her.

Astra knocked on the gate and we waited until I heard the sounds of someone unlocking it from the other side.

The large woman who let us out a few days prior stepped aside when Astra and I carried Ginevra inside.

When I surveyed the area, I found fewer hunters were guarding the entry compared to when we left. It seemed like a few had left to hunt in different parts of the cave system.

“Who is that?” the woman was quick to ask questions about our unexpected cargo. “I wasn’t aware of other hunters being registered for your hunting territory.”

Curiously, the guard wasted no time on enquiring about Ginevra’s state.

Astra smiled sweetly at the gate guard. “I am sorry, but I am afraid that opportunity and circumstance had us deviate from our registered trip. The path down the throat was blocked by a ghostleech and we couldn’t find a way past it without a fight. So we decided to take a small incursion into the Maze. A worm opened up a straight path to it. It is where we found our friend here, heavily injured and about to be digested by a changeling matriarch.”

“Changelings? They are breeding so close to us!?” The gate guard looked confused but relaxed her stance.

“Yes,” Astra quickly continued before the woman could start thinking. “We stamped out a small colony, but I don’t know whether we got all of them. I highly advise giving all departing hunters a warning. The changeling colony was quite close to the Throat. There is no telling whether they might’ve expanded their activities down into the Belly. The Maw at least seems to be safe. Could you please organize a ride directly to my family’s estate? And our friend needs transport to the hospital.”

I watched with silent amusement as Astra waved a hand at the woman and allowed her filaments to flare up a little. “What are you waiting for? Chop! Chop!”

“Err, yes! Of course!” The guard was reminded of her station. She turned and quickly ran towards her office.

I was proud of my partner. Astra had twisted the truth enough so Ginevra’s identity wouldn’t be known to the general public immediately. People would know we had returned with a heavily wounded person, but nothing hinted at something illegal being afoot.

With the number of guards and hunters posted at this gate, some information being leaked couldn’t be avoided. But we could control how events would be perceived.

It took us half an hour of waiting until two carriages with the Frost’s personal house guard arrived.

We loaded Ginevra into a second carriage and Astra silently instructed the guards not to let their eyes off Ginevra. She was to be kept safe and her whereabouts accounted for at all times.

Essentially, it was the nice wording of: “Keep her alive and locked up until you are told otherwise.”

I only relaxed once we were sitting in our carriage and on the way back to the Frost’s estate.

“Soo, the Throat connects to something called the Maze?” I asked. “It was the only part of your fabricated story which I didn’t get.”

Astra shrugged. “Maybe? The Maze is a set of maze-like tunnels created by a burrower colony. The worm’s path went in the right direction and a worm tunnel can go on for kilometres without collapsing. The important point is people won’t be able to verify our story quickly. Even if someone working for the Patels gets suspicious and sends a group down there to check, they will have to find the worm’s path and follow it.”

I nodded. “And without communication, it will take them a few days to come back. Assuming they send someone right away. We might be able to check the records later on for hunting parties who suddenly changed their schedule.”

Astra grinned. “Exactly. And who is to say that Ginevra’s party will be missed at all? Hunters vanish in the depths often enough without a trace to be found. Our poaching ring might be suspicious of the identity of our returnee, but as long as we keep her identity a secret, we might be able to avoid tipping them off. The worst thing to happen would be for them to hide their tracks and set their operation on ice.”

We kept bouncing stratagems off each other until we finally arrived at home and dismounted the carriage.

Mary Frost received us in the entrance hall. The old crone wore a disapproving expression on her face as if to tell us we were stealing her time.

“You are back early,” Mary stated the obvious after we greeted her, then focused her gaze on Astra. “Your parents are waiting for you in Etan’s office.”

Having said her piece, Mary turned and stalked off in her office’s direction.

“I believe I have never seen her in any other state than ‘bad mood’,” I commented once it felt safe to do so.

“Grandma Mary is just like that,” Astra commented with a wince. “It took well over a year until I finally managed to see her having a neutral expression.”

I scoffed and followed Astra to Etan’s office, where we found both of her parents waiting. It looked like we wouldn’t get something like a bath before we had to report.

“You returned early,” Teresa opened the conversation with a tone of worry in her voice. “Did something happen that forced you to abort your trip? I heard you requested transport to the Tates’ hospital. We already thought the worst happened.”

“Oh, I apologize. I didn’t consider how it would look from your point of view. We are fine, but we picked someone up who needed transport back to the clan,” Astra replied, then continued to give her parents an abridged version of our adventure.

Their expressions turned serious as they listened. Etan asked only a few short questions during Astra’s explanations to clarify parts of the story which were unclear.

Before long, Astra’s recount came to a conclusion and her parents shared a long moment of silence with each other before Teresa gestured for Astra to follow her out of the room.

Etan frowned but didn’t say anything about it before he turned his attention to me. “So… the third strata… eh? Are you planning any more trips to catch witnesses and drag them to my doorstep so I end up cleaning up the mess?”

I shrugged and spread my hands. “Don’t blame me for Astra’s decisions. If she hadn’t stopped me, we wouldn’t have dragged the two Thich all the way to Mount Aerie.”

Etan only closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I am not looking forward to the fallout, but this may help us in the long run. The Patels are fervent supporters of the faction which is in favour of doing nothing to keep the peace.”

***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Astra***

My mother led me out of the office and into the estate’s hydroponic garden – a place where she liked to have her more serious discussions.

This gave me the first hint that there was about to be a reckoning and I didn’t look forward to it.

Once the swing door to the garden area fell shut, Teresa turned abruptly and started screaming as loud as I had ever heard her chew me out when I did something stupid.

“What the fuck went through your head to hunt down a mindflayer with just two people! Did you forget everything we taught you about survival! I can’t even blame Magnus for this because you should have been the one to know better! I know you want to prove yourself, but this is not the way to do it! Climbing to power by blindly taking every challenge in front of you is only a way to ensure one thing! And that’s death!”

I felt it before I saw it and moved without thinking. The other me, the one I had watching out for threats suddenly took over and had me bend backwards, then twist and roll over my shoulder.

There was a thin strand of scintillating light that flashed through my vision just in front of my face and I felt a sting on my cheek.

Once the other me returned control over my body, I was standing four metres further away from Teresa, crouched and ready to back away further out of her reach. A burning bush, an ornamental plant that the original settlers had brought from Earth, lost a few of its branches. All of them severed as if by a razor’s edge. It had been right next to me before I dodged my mother’s wrath.

Now the bush looked like the gardener decided to trim off everything close to the paved walking path.

I touched my cheek and my hand came away bloody. “That was uncalled for, Mom. Headwounds bleed like a bitch! I know myself it was reckless. I assure you, I have a reason for seeking power beyond power for power’s sake.”

Teresa balled her fists and visibly fought to regain her composure.

When I saw how much she actually cared, I suddenly felt bad for how I had presented the story to her and Etan. When I tried to see things from her point of view, I realized challenging the mindflayer must have looked like the pure recklessness of greed.

The type that got young fools killed.

I went down to my knees and apologized to Teresa for the first time in a long time. I hadn’t been the best daughter someone could adopt in this fucked up world. “I am sorry for worrying you like that, but I am fine. Magnus had a good plan and you can believe me when I say, I deliberated a whole night over trying it or not.”

It wasn’t right of me to cause worry for Teresa and Etan. They had taken me in and given me more than most other children could expect in this world.

“Oh, get back to your feet!” Teresa let out a defeated sigh. “I intended to take off an ear for such a stunt! So you may learn something for the future. At least it seems like the mindflayer mutation wasn’t a complete failure. You can move your whole body now?”

I grinned, not caring about the cut on my cheek, or that she had intended to take an ear for education’s sake. “Oh, that, and so much more, Mom. You have no idea!”