-- Edelweiss --

I had been pleasantly surprised by how little chaos the questers were causing. In fact, I was considering doing this every eighteen years, just containing the chaos, a much better solution than the constant unpredictability of just having them loose. A few seasons ago someone had convinced the questers I was a tyrant to be overthrown, and they attacked us with the full backing of the cities underground during the migration. They failed of course as the questers were too weak to do much to us. Seriously, what did they expect from kids who have only been training for like two years? Compared to then this is a complete and utter cakewalk.

"Sir." I was interrupted of my musing by Hawthorn, and the look on his face did not bode well.

"What is it? And don't tell me we have more people petitioning for the questers." Despite the lack of chaos. There was a different kind of headache. Bureaucracy. With the party sequestered in our compound, everyone was sending over petitions to take them. I say petitions but they were more like scripts laid out precisely their plans going forward. Some of them were pretty entertaining.

Shaking his head, Hawthorn continued, "No sir much worse."

"They escaped?" That would be pretty bad, I would have to talk to the security team to figure out how they did that, and poke any security holes. I couldn't have another incident.

Hawthorn paused, "Not that bad."

"Then what Hawthorn?"

"The migration has started."

It was both too soon and too late, as I got a sinking feeling in my gut, "Are they sure?"

He pulled a folder he was holding and tossed it onto my desk, "Yes. We have reports from the closest scouts of monsters coming through."

"Shit. How many, and how fast are they moving." I picked up the folder and began looking through it.

"We don't know, they are forming ranks."

"They're fucking organized!?" I asked in disbelief. I knew this was a possibility from early reports but I thought it would just be loose groups of monsters. Not some kind of organization.

"Looks that way, though looks like its a very loose organization, more like curbing them, as they stay in loose groups."

At least that sounded better, "Do we know what's controlling them?"

"Titans."

That might be the worst case, we only ever had one case of a titan during the migration and that was nearly three hundred years ago. Even then we weren't sure, it was the size of a skyscraper, and took a hundred of us to take it down. Though that was more due to us trying to outdo each other and kill it first.

"Are you sure they're controlling them? They are massive but do they possess the ability to control monsters?" I was really hoping the answer was no.

I could see my trepidation mirrored on Hawthorn's face, "The analyst thinks one of them has some type of mental suggestion."

"Not control?" Those were two very different things.

"We've seen some escape so we believe it's a form of suggestion. We think one of the titans learned it and must have taught the others. "

"Others? How many?"

"We've seen a hundred so far?"

"Fuck!" A single titan would cause us to focus our resources, a hundred? We were going to be stretched very thin in this conflict.

"I would have to agree," Hawthorn said tiredly, pulling up a chair and falling into it.

I was rubbing my face just trying to think, "How big are they?"

"Ranging from a hundred to almost three hundred feet."

"With that height, they shouldn't be able to move." I knew they could from experience but never understood how things of that size could move without their own bodies collapsing in on themselves. Some magic bullshit.

"We don't know. By all accounts you're right. They shouldn't, but we think they have a range to control them."

"How far?"

"At least a couple miles, but it seems to vary depending on how close they are to each other."

"So they're acting like fucking relay towers?" This was getting better and better.

"Yes."

"Great, and how many little minions so far?"

"At last count a million, and increasing."

With this, there was the only thing to do right now, "Call the trainers."

"Understood." Hawthorn stood, and left as I waited and planned for what was to come.

One by one the trainers came into my office. None of them looked happy at my sudden summons in fact they began to complain almost immediately. I shut that down quickly I didn't want to go over this more than once so I refused to answer and just told them I would explain when they were all here. When they were all present I asked, "Are they ready?"

"Ready. They've barely begun, soon they will shine like the heroes they are." Poppy Violet's trainer, said haughtily.

I did not have time for this, "Drop the act there are no cameras in here."

That's when I caught Hawthorn out of the corner of my eye shaking his head. I could only balk, "Seriously? When were they put in?" This was an extremely serious security breach.

Hawthorn looked chagrined, "Long time ago, but they've been disconnected till recently."

"Who reconnected them?" And without informing me.

Hawthorn looked at me confused, "It was done automatically, as part of the contract."

"What contract?" I didn't sign any contract.

"Sir it was the standard city contract you probably signed over a century ago. If you imprison questers you have to allow filming of all top officials of the city. Setting up drama and all that."

"I fucking hate this show." My head in my hands I took a moment to breathe. "Ok fine, again are they able to stand with us, or am I just going to leave them here." This was important to know for deploying troops.

The first to speak again was Poppy, "Whilst she has yet to become a true lady, she has made remarkable strides and would not embarrass herself on the field."

"Rowan has learned control, and would be a boon to us and his team." Two positives and tomming from Salvia was even better. Maybe we could have the rangers mess with the suggestion.

Hawthorn looking smug answered, "James was ready when he got here. Now he is even more."

"And the other one....Aster?" That was the idiot who fell out of the sky.

"He is a failure and a coward." The anger in Kerria's voice took me aback, "He is purposely feigning injury to skip training."

"Are you sure he's faking it?" I couldn't help but ask. I don't see why someone would purposely do something like that.

"I've had healers go over him multiple times and found nothing wrong, and just this morning I saw him in a wheelchair." Kerria vented.

"Wheelchair? Where did he even get one?" Did we have one in the compound or something? Ki doesn't see why there's no point as people could just be healed and walk.

"I don't know! He was just in it."

"Well, I'm sorry Kerria he's going to have to stay behind, then."

"He would be a hindrance," Kerria admitted.

"The rest. Get them saddled up." They were about to pay for all this training.

-- James --

They picked us up in a jeep, outfitted with the latest protections. Fully armored, and even a stealth field that made it practically invisible, despite a slight distortion in the air. They told us the migration was coming and it was time to put our skills to use. I was still iffy on everything that was going on, but I couldn't say I wasn't excited. Though I was surprised to find Aster was to be left behind, even with his terrible performance the last few days, I thought they would use him for something.

Instead, he sat there in a wheelchair, which none of us knew where he got or why he was in it. He just kept saying he needed it for now, and that it was only temporary. I couldn't help but wonder if it was some ploy for him to get out of his beatings. I say beating as that was what they were. Aster couldn't keep up and just ended up being struck over and over.

As we all packed up Aster sat and watched, he looked like he wasn't surprised. Did he plan this? I didn't know. But we were off to a big fight and he was staying behind in safety. I couldn't help but wonder whether he wanted this or not.

"Bye Aster. We're off to fight a horde of monsters."

"And I'll be here. Doing nothing." The way Aster said that made me think he had his own plans.

"Well, we're off."

"Stay safe."

I snorted as I jumped into the jeep and we began to drive off. We're going into a monster horde what's safe about that.