Leah held a single hand to Asle’s head, eyes closed in concentration as the camp bustled around them.

For the past few days, Asle had watched as once broken families were made whole in short order. She’d ferried most of the samr over from her world, something that had taken a significant amount of effort, but she didn’t complain. For some, it had been a happy reunion. For others, it only seemed to highlight what was still missing.

Despite that, there was a sense of relief among those in the camp. The news of surrender had gone over surprisingly well, and as much of a lie as Asle and many of the others knew it was, their former enemy hadn’t been anything but cooperative since.

As if to punctuate the thought, Leah removed her hand.

“There, your mind shouldn’t be affected any more than it already is, though I’m not sure why you wanted me to return your sense of pain.”

“Pain is important,” Asle said.

They’d left this part, pacifying the hamr, until after the samr had finished migrating over. She suspected that was insurance until they’d come into the obsidian world completely, but it didn’t matter.

Roan stood nearby, watching the two. He was playing the part of the guard dog while Summers coordinated with Elias, eyeing Leah skeptically.

“You can’t get rid of it?”

“I can, but if I did, I’d be compromising her ability to command the anchor. We can’t afford to do that quite yet.”

“It’s okay,” Asle said, “thanks.”

“I’m only honoring our agreement.”

Asle considered Leah, she’d gone without her mask since their ‘surrender’, and while Summers claimed she didn’t have emotions, it was clear there was still something there. If only just beneath the surface.

Leah must have noticed her scrutiny, she turned fully towards Asle.

“What is it?”

“You don’t talk like the others. Why?”

Asle had noticed that Leah, despite being one of the samr like Elias or Wendel, didn’t have the odd speech patterns she’d come to associate with them.

“No, I don’t,” The masked woman somehow managed to look haughty at the comment. “Both Wendel and Elias were converted against their hosts’ will, as such that ego is still present. My host had the good sense to come along willingly in exchange for a deal, thus, my mind is less fractured.”

“Will you keep it?”

“I’m sorry?” Leah asked.

“Will you keep the deal?”

“…When we take over a body, we’re subjected to the thoughts, memories, emotions, everything that makes our host who they are. I know her better than most know their own families. Yes, I will keep the deal. Logic aside, emotion aside, I still remember what it is to be human. I’d have to be an absolute monster not to.”

Asle gauged Leah’s face for a long moment before nodding.

“Good.”

“Why would someone be okay with dying?” Roan asked.

Leah turned towards Roan.

“Perhaps the same reason one would bleed themselves dry for the sake of others. We were quite surprised to find out your. . . effect on us.”

Asle narrowed her eyes.

“He’s my friend.” Asle said, in an almost warning tone.

“Yes, yes, he’s safe.” she paused. “Although, I would the opportunity to properly study. . .”

After a moment Leah leaned towards him.

Asle frowned as she pressed a finger to his head.

“What are you-”

Before she could really object, Leah pulled back as though Roan had bit her.

“Gah!”

In a show of emotion that was both alien and amusing to the two elves, Leah took a step back before catching herself, and clearing her throat.

“He’s cancer,” she concluded. “He’s a giant, walking tumor.”

“I don’t know what that is,” Asle replied.

“Me either,” Roan supplied. “Sounds cool.”

“Of course, you don’t,” Leah wiped at her face. “He’s a thing that kills people.”

“A bandit?” Roan asked.

“. . .You would not believe my frustration at the moment.”

“I like him the way he is,” Asle said.

“. . .Good for you.” Leah sighed. “Fine,” she turned back to Asle. “One more thing before we’re done here, I wanted to give you an apology.”

She beckoned Asle closer, something in her arm squirming, as a round object appeared in her hand. Asle took a step as Leah leaned in and gently removed her bandage. Almost immediately Asle felt something inside her squirm. She reeled back, out of reach, only to see the woman looking down at her, a complicated expression on her face.

“A small token, as thanks. Your discovery here might save my people as well as yours. You have my, and my people’s eternal gratitude,” she paused, considering. “I want you to understand that we didn’t want to do this. None of us wanted to do this. We were forced for our own survival-”

“I don’t care,” Asle interrupted, her expression hardened. “I don’t care how sorry you are. Everyone I loved is gone because of you. Worse, you took the part of me that cared. If you want forgiveness, you won’t get it from me.”

Leah held her gaze.

“I know.”

Asle rubbed at her head as Leah moved off. After a moment, she froze. Since she’d been shot, her vision had been marred by one giant, black spot. A hollow, dry feeling in her skull. That was gone now.

“Oh,” Asle said, tenderly feeling at the edges of the new eye, as it opened, her vision cleared. Whole once again.

Roan looked at her, curious.

“Neat.”

Summers and Synel stood alongside Elias, planning. Most of the samr’s forces had been repurposed to spread across the surface of the obsidian world, scouring it for any signs of whatever device Elias seemed sure was here. Summers honestly couldn’t make heads or tails of the details. Synel, though, seemed to be keeping up.

“You said these scars indicate a direction?” Synel said. “Then why not simply send birds to check the countryside?”

“While we can influence animals, their ability to understand concepts even as simple as ‘big hole’ is limited. Besides, we know where the device is.”

“What?”

“The planet’s core. . . underground. It must be massive, but what the holes tell us is how the. . . energy was distributed on its way out.”

“What of a smarter species then? You may not be aware but many of my kind train such flying creatures. Even some of the larger, more aggressive beasts have shown some promise and cunning.”

Summers was tuning the conversation out at this point, there wasn’t much he could help with. In the distance, he watched as Asmund worked with a group of children to set up a living space. Asmund had taken it upon himself to help the newly returned elves get adjusted. They’d originally assumed they could leave most of the new arrivals to their families. However, they’d underestimated just how many even the samr would want to return with this new plan in place. Particularly, the very young. Leah had mentioned she’d lost several lieutenants to suicide, despite the hamr’s numbing effects on the mind and body. Summers wasn’t sure how to feel about his former enemy ‘feeling bad’ about what essentially amounted to a war crime. But it wasn’t a feeling he could address right now. If he wanted these people to survive, they needed to play nice.

He heard yelling from nearby, he’d had Pat give them a small security team to make sure none of their people bothered the samr while they worked, and it looked like that was being put to the test.

As he turned to look at the commotion, a pair of arms wrapped around Summers, squeezing him so hard he nearly had the wind knocked out of him.

“Wha-” Summers managed as Ayra finished hugging him.

“You brought back my boys,” Ayra said. “I didn’t think I’d see ‘em ever again. Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Summers was about to respond when he saw Ayra was crying. He paused. That was a lot of emotion for an elf to be showing, even Ayra.

He softened his voice.

“Not like you weren’t fighting with us.”

The samr were still being sorted, judging by the wild looks in the eyes of the small group following along with her, she might have just found the lion’s share of where her people had gone.

“No, we’re blood now.” Ayra said. “You need anything, you ask.”

“That’s-” Summers was interrupted as Ayra hugged him again. Both Synel and Elias looked at him, the former with a haughty expression.

“Perhaps this could-” Synel began, only to stop as Ayra pulled her into the hug as well.

“This was more than I could have ever hoped for, thank you. . .” Ayra said.

Synel looked taken aback, but a hand moved to pat Ayra’s back.

“You’re. . . very welcome.”

“Ah, miss Ayra. Good timing, we were just about to discuss tactics.” Elias gestured for Ayra to approach.

Ayra, thankfully, broke off the hug, wiping at her face and gesturing to the men that had been following her.

“Go see to the others, we have work.”

They nodded, moving to follow her instructions.

Synel cleared her throat.

“As we were just saying, this progenitor. How does it fight?”

“It doesn’t,” Elias responded. “It simply appears, then reality begins to discorporate. We do think stronger wills can affect it, last a few seconds longer”

“I don’t know what any of that means,” Ayra said after a moment.

“Neither do I,” Synel added. “I believe it comes down to our enemy killing us if it gets close, correct?”

“Death would be preferable, but essentially, yes. It gets close, it wins.”

“Wonderful, then, let’s work quickly,” Synel clapped her hands together.

“Then let-” Elias paused, turning his head slightly before his voice dipped low. “We’ve found something.”

“I thought we were looking for holes,” Summers yelled over the sound of, what was essentially every vehicle they had running at once. “That’s a cave.”

“A cave is a hole, dear,” Synel responded.

“It’s the most promising path we’ve found nearby,” Elias said. “If we’re right, the machine should be nearly the size of this planet’s core. Which is good, since it will have several access points that approach the surface. I have people scouting the area now for a path, but it looks like this might have been used for maintenance at one point.”

Summers looked at the cave.

“What makes you think that?”

“It’s powered by the planet’s core. Will probably destroy it too, eventually.”

Summers stared blankly at the man.

“Okay. . . doesn’t answer my question.”

“The core gives off. . . again let’s just call it radiation, well, also radiation but. . .” Elias gave a frustrated grunt. “Energy that’s stronger here.”

“Okay, but you said you think it was for maintenance, why?”

“We sent a few tunneling creatures beneath the surface to check for the kind of infrastructure you’d need for a device this big. They found several paths leading this way.”

“Tunneling creatures? Lizards?” Synel asked.

“Yes.”

“Those are supposed to be extinct.”

“They are, now.”

Synel made a thoughtful noise but didn’t respond.

Elias’ head snapped towards the cave in an instant, clear alarm on his face.

“What is it?” Summers asked.

“I just lost a few of the men I sent inside.”

“Uh. . .” Summers trailed off. “What’s that mean?”

“. . .That something killed them.”