I’ve always had a curious fascination with infrastructure.

So when I found out my power was modular in nature, I saw an opportunity to utilize my knowledge in a way no one before me ever had. I built the foundation of my power from the ground up like I would a computer network or a city power grid, ensuring efficiency and redundancy at every turn.

I could never match the endurance of a necromancer or the pure explosive power of a caster, but I didn’t have to. My fight would always be one of attrition, of petty tactics, guerilla warfare and spreadsheets.

I felt Arkos approach through the smog, with both Natasha and Sophia following closely.

“No survivors yet. I have constructs combing the area looking, though.” I called out, but before I could utter another word, Natasha appeared in front of me, planting a solid blow to my stomach, instantly bringing me to my knees.

This highlighted a very large weakness of mine. Without actively channeling power through my body and various runes, I was weak, pathetically so. The energy other supernatural beings were saturated in simply fell through my hands as if it wasn’t even there.

“That’s for ditching me.” Natasha said coldly, walking past me, Arkos following close behind her, giving me what I could swear was a pitying look as he passed.

“You really blew that one. She frantically circled your entire perimeter before Arkos came out to get us.” Sophia said, crouching down in front of me. “What were you thinking, locking her out like that? It’s one thing worrying whether you were okay, but locking her away from a convoy of heirs under attack was just stupid.” Sophia admonished.

“I’m starting to see that now.” I croaked out.

After waiting for me to catch my breath again, Sophia and I joined Natasha and Arkos inside the tunnel.

“Is this one of his?” Natasha asked Arkos, pointing at a large bloody paw-print while also clearly ignoring me.

Arkos shook his head and pointed towards a headless corpse further inside. Natasha stood and walked ahead while carefully scanning the surroundings.

“It looks like they were ambushed, clearly taken by surprise, but also very much overpowered. Only one reason to do that.” Natasha stated grimly.

“They wanted them to watch.” Sophia said in a bleak tone, as if she was gonna be sick.

“But they didn’t get the chance. See this? Smaller caliber than the marks on the walls, point blank judging from the powder burns. They were executed, and in a hurry.” Natasha explained, crouching down before turning over one of the Sentire corpses, shocked when she recognized his face. What was left of it at least.

“His name was Matthias… I trained him.” Natasha whispered soberly before closing his remaining eye.

“H’Raak Tral Mo’Rel Akra,” a shadow near me whispered, eliciting a wince from Sophia.

“They’ve found tracks leading out of the tunnel, ten to fifteen people, most of which seem to be kids.” I translated quickly. Natasha nodded, getting to her feet.

“Lead the way.”

***

“They’ve settled for now, but they still haven’t spoken a word. Many of them are still in shock from what they’ve seen.” Nala said, walking up to John and Lydia sitting by the fire.

“Understandable, considering. I’ll contact Rainie tomorrow and figure out which clan they belong to.” Lydia replied.

“We should also get ready to pack up at dawn. We’re still pretty close to where we picked them up.” John added.

“Got that right, almost close enough to track!” A voice called out from behind them, startling all three as they got ready for an attack, but they stopped as the unnaturally thick shadows by the trees parted, revealing a familiar face and scent.

“Aleks? What the hell are you doing all the way out here?” John said, relaxing, but not completely as he also picked up the scent of two vampires.

“I could ask you the same, pretty far from home, aren’t you? Taking a motorway holiday?”

“Not exactly.” John grimaced.

“Hmm, well, sounds like we have a lot to catch up on, but first I’d like to introduce my friends here, Sophia Jensen and Natasha Nikoleve.”

“Nikoleve… as in Clan Eve?” Nala asked

“Yes, we were hoping you might have about a dozen children with the same last name stowed away somewhere around here.”

***

“Huginn and Muninn, huh?” Katya said, looking up from the letter at the two birds.

“Your master seems to think you’re very capable. Of what, I am unsure. Is there any way for you to demonstrate your abilities?” Katya asked, painfully aware of how absurd it must look for her to have a conversation with a pair of ravens.

Their eyes turned crimson and red runes lit up across their backs and wings. The runes on one were the inverse of the other. Some invisible force flipped open the latch and swung open the window, as the preening one moved towards it. The air stilled, lines of energy manifested midair drawing two concentric circles connected by twelve segments each holding a runic symbol, once fully drawn a rune appeared in the middle and the raven spread out it’s wings and shrieked as a bolt of red lightning pierced the air and streaked across the cloudy skies outside.

Katya’s ears were ringing, and her vision blurred from the sudden light and sound. When it settled, she saw the other raven wing-slapping and pecking the preening one while letting out scolding sounds.

It finally stopped as they hopped over in front of her, the scolding one pushing the preening one’s head down with a wing and bowing in clear apology.

Katya smiled at the antics of the two birds.

“It’s fine, but do be more careful in the future. We wouldn’t want to alarm people.” Katya said with a kind smile as she placed her hands in front of the two birds, both carefully stepping onto a hand each. She noted how they felt almost weightless.

“Now which one of you is Huginn?” The preening and reckless one lit up. “That must mean you’re Muninn.” The more measured and polite one lit up as well at the mention of its name.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, you might already know who I am, but just in case. My name is Katya Romanov Nikoleve and I am in your care.” Both birds bowed respectfully towards Katya.

Just then, angry yelling could be heard outside the door to Katya’s office. Huginn and Muninn turned to a dark smokey mist traveling weightlessly up Katya’s arms, materializing and settling on her shoulders.

Katya was shocked for a moment but decided to just go with it as one of the branch elders stormed into her office with an angry but conflicted Silas quickly following behind her.

“Katya, is it tru-“ Leyla yelled, but stopped dead in her march towards Katya’s desk on the other side of the room.

Leyla’s next words got caught in her throat as her vision was twisted and the inconspicuous image of Katya sitting behind her desk with two ravens on her shoulders was distorted and overlapped with the image of two hellish beaked creatures glaring at her from behind Katya.

One was eyeless and merely gazing upon it caused Leyla an immense headache, and her powers seemed to fade from her, leaving her feeling weak and insignificant.

The other was covered in eyes. Its gaze caused Leyla anxiety and discomfort, the likes of which she’d not even experienced being interrogated by an elder as a young Sentire.

Leyla’s body was quivering as she struggled to breathe. Her salvation came in two words uttered by Katya.

“It’s fine.” Katya said, instantly releasing Leyla from her silent suffering.

Leyla gasped for air and fell to her knees, not daring to look up.

“It’s Matriarch or Ma’am, and I have told you time and time again not to barge into my office. Now granted, whatever these two just did to you wasn’t entirely warranted, but neither was it completely unwarranted.” Katya lectured.

Both Huginn and Muninn lowered their heads, Muninn letting out a low apologetic squawk rising in pitch.

“And yes, one of your convoys was hit. A team traveling nearby is on the scene, sadly no personnel survived the attack.” Katya said in a solemn voice.

“I hope moving here will finally put an end to this needless loss of life.” She thought to herself, behind several barriers.

“What of my heirs?” Leyla asked with dread, already expecting the worst.

“They’re fine. Some are a little scraped up, but nothing serious.” Katya replied.

“Yes, I figured as much. Hopefully, some of them can still pass through the… What?” Leyla stopped and looked up at Katya. “They’re alive?! We have to send out recovery teams immediately, before they’re attacked again!” Leyla exclaimed, looking up, only for her to quickly avert her eyes again.

“They’re being escorted here by a Noble-Pack and a Titan. I doubt they could be safer than they are now.”

***

Sophia and Natasha had both been on edge even after I’d vouched for the pack, but that all stopped the moment Nala stepped out of a nearby camper.

You could practically see the disbelief in their expressions as they stared at her, seeing and feeling something beyond my senses, but I could guess what it was. If she had such pure energy, her mind must be an oasis of calm and kindness.

Their attitude changed after that. They weren’t as guarded and happily followed along as Nala invited them to go see the heirs.

Leaving me with Lydia and John by the campfire.

“You okay? That looks serious.” I said, pointing at the five nasty looking bullet holes in Lydia’s thigh. It had obviously been cleaned, but it wasn’t bandaged at all.

“Yeah, the bone just needs to heal up so I can walk on it again, but the bleeding’s already stopped.” Lydia said dismissively

“You won’t be walking at all for the next couple of days, even if I have to tie you to a cot.” John quickly scolded, but just got a defiant snort in return.

“Not to pry, but what are you all doing out here? I can understand it wasn’t exactly a planned outing?” I carefully broached the subject, Lydia’s expression turning dark as she stared at the ground, but John was the one to respond first.

“The surrounding packs finally made their move. They snuck in downwind, and we didn’t hear them until we already smelled the smoke.” John explained, pausing for a moment. “Honestly, tensions have been high for a while, so it wasn’t completely unexpected, but I guess I just still held out hope that they’d come around.” He continued, almost as if he was talking more to himself than to me.

“Shit, man, I’m sorry.”

“I appreciate it, but honestly, I’m just happy no one got seriously hurt.” John replied, putting a hand on Lydia’s shoulder, both their expressions brightening. “A pack is its people, not the land we reside on.” He recited and Lydia nodded in silent agreement.

“So, what are you gonna do now?” I asked. “I mean, are you gonna settle somewhere else?”

John rubbed his neck awkwardly as Lydia’s smile disappeared and she started glaring at him.

***

The barracks had been unusually quiet today. A low professional buzz of preparation for the upcoming expedition hung in the air. Ma’do honestly found it eerie. Huntsmen weren’t the quiet type. Something had to be wrong somewhere. No way, none of these degenerates wouldn’t cause some kind of trouble before they left the city. And just on queue a young initiate stormed through the doors out of breath.

“Sarge! It’s bad. You gotta come quick!” The boy heaved wide-eyed, trying to catch his breath.

***

Ma’do didn't known what to expect when he heard one of his huntsmen had stormed the summoners’ guild. It had honestly seemed ridiculous, that was, until he heard who’d done it. Then it all made sense.

“I knew it wouldn’t be the end of this madness. I’m gonna break that insubordinate son of a bitch in half when I find him.” Ma’do muttered as he walked through the city streets with the speed most people would run.

Being eccentric was common among huntsmen. They were, after all, the ones no one else wanted, no matter how competent or powerful they were. They had irredeemable flaws that just wasn’t worth having them around, but idle hands do a devil’s work, and the Legion quickly found out that it was better to keep these people busy and leashed, than to let them run wild or try to kill them.

But purposefully summoning higher chaotic beings with a faulty containment circle to trick them into bringing energy with them instead of supplying it yourself, and then trying to steal said energy. That wasn’t eccentric, that was insane. Ma’do had caught Aleks doing this while in the field once before, apparently the beings inhabiting the plane opposite theirs had smartened up and rejected any summon performed by him, leading him to walk around camp like some sort of Bright-Blood dealer, trying to convince people to just give it a try.

Ma’do burst through the doors to the large warded chambers to find several younger apprentices sprawled on the floor, exhausted and passed out, further inside he saw what appeared to be an intermediate rank summoner breathing heavily, obviously under an enormous amount of strain as he steadied the patchwork circle in front of him.

The circle had deep claw marks in several places leading towards the back of the giant chamber. Someone had disabled the dispersive light fixtures designed to isolate energy to the center of the room, leaving the back of the chamber in total darkness.

“Please sir, I don’t know how many more I can summon before I collapse,” the intermediate summoner pleaded towards the dark, as a familiar person walked out of it, smiling from ear to ear.

“Just one more will do. The fun-police have arrived, anyway.” Aleks replied. And the summoner let out a sigh of relief, activating the circle before Ma’do could intervene.

Flames erupted through the massive chamber as a pillar of dense fire rose thirty feet high and ten feet wide. Four clawed hands ripped through the fiery veil, revealing a monstrous creature of bone and sinew. The energy it was throwing off was magnitudes higher than what the summoner had released, proving that the creature had brought enough energy with it to last a while.

its taloned feet cracked the patched and mended circle underneath it as it stepped forward, sneering at the people gathered around it with disdain and derision until It’s eight beady pitch black eyes landed on the rear of the chamber shrouded in darkness, it paused to peer at the shroud of shadow as if it could see past it and grew increasingly alarmed before looking down at Aleks in recognition It let out an ear rending scream and charged towards the large double doors…. Behind Ma’do.

Ma’do wondered idly what sort of penalty would be befitting for the coercive summoning and Devil calling by proxy. It didn’t really matter. He’d strike down the beast and drag his huntsman back to the barracks and just let his imagination take it from there.

Who knows, maybe he could come up with a new form of punishment for the reckless huntsman. Preferably something painful and tedious.

Ma’do was brought out of his ruminations by the hellish creature charging him grinding to a halt before falling down on all fours or rather six limbs and trying to claw its way forward only to be dragged further back, chains as thick as a man’s thigh creeping along the Devils body before tightening and pulling it back with additional strength.

It didn’t take long for it to loose its grip on the chamber floor and get dragged back towards the dark.

Ma’do felt a sliver of pity for it as he saw it look back over its shoulder in fear, he didn’t know why, but seeing something used to being at the apex of its food chain, reduced to a shivering mass of terror had always rubbed him the wrong way.

A few moments after the Devil had disappeared into the shadows, Aleks walked forward, retracting his domain behind him.

“I hope this was worth it for you.” Ma’do called out, his tone as sickly sweet as his smile. “Because this will probably be the last time you see a city for at least a year. You just earned yourself sentry duty and whatever else shit jobs I can think up in the meantime. You’re on my shitlist now, huntsman, and it’s gonna be a while before you leave it.” Ma’do yelled, his voice steadily increasing in volume until the even the stone pillars holding up the ceiling shook.