“That could’ve gone better,” Len sighed.

“Could’ve gone worse, too,” said Kila with a shrug. “You didn’t earn any points with him, but I don’t think you forever burned that bridge. He was pissed, sure, but I’d guess that he understood why you had to ask. Still, guys can be funny with their feelings. Wouldn’t hurt to watch out for a while.”

“So, you think he did it?”

“Nah. I mean, it’s possible that he’s just a damn good liar, but I’d say he had just the right amount of offended going on. Not too much, not too little. Just pissed enough at being called into the boss’ office that I’d put my money on him being innocent. Wouldn’t swear by it, but I’d still take the bet.”

“As ever, Kila, your willingness to commit to an answer is my rock.”

“Oh please, like you’re any better. Look, there’s no way to be certain on this. If he DID do it, you can expect more to happen soon, and probably worse besides. You can stress over possibilities, or you can get on with your day. Now, show me to the forge so I can see what I’m working with.

What she was working with, was little more than a firepit at this point. A dilapidated chunk of iron that might once have been an anvil had long since rusted away, and the pile of coals had long since been cannibalized for basic fueling of the furnaces. Kila was clearly underwhelmed.

“You couldn’t have spruced it up a little bit by the time I got here?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of setting up your workspace for you. Besides, we were pretty busy with other things. Tell Larry what you need done and he’ll have his crew take care of it. Frankly, I’d probably move it inside the mine with the rest of the stuff. We’re starting to carve out some proper rooms in there and might as well have that secured with the rest of it.”

“I mean… you’re not wrong, but the idea of having all that rock that could fall on top of me isn’t something I love.”

“Oh, relax. The miners promise me that there’s no more of a 50/50 chance of that happening on any given day.”

Kila did not look amused by Len’s jest.

“Relax. We’re taking the necessary time to do reinforcements. It’s slow going with the number of people and the equipment we’ve got, but it’s safe. More than that, it’s a hell of a lot more secure than some little camp up top. In a perfect world, I’d move our entire operations underground. That way if anyone picks a fight with us, they have to dig us out bit by bit. And it’s a good place to fall back to if the winter gets too harsh. Don’t know how we’ll handle the food situation, though.”

“Dunno, not really my area of expertise. My job is to get a proper forge up an running and that’s gonna be enough of a pain in the ass. I brought some supplies with me, but this is still less than I was hoping for. Send that Malar guy my way and I’ll talk to him about things. In the meantime, shoo. I’ve got work to do.”

Len pouted slightly but acknowledged the dismissal and went off to find something else to be doing with herself.

* * * * *

After sending Malar to Kila, Len found herself with very little to actually be doing. The operations had all returned to normal. Ramus was particularly annoyed with the situation but, after spending a bit of time gathering up the broken glass, he had little trouble getting back to work. He’d been getting lots of practice with this particular glassblowing task and even though he didn’t seem to relish the extra work, he was more or less prepared to do it.

Marble was, unsurprisingly, distressed at the loss of the small hothouse. It had been quite a relief on her efforts to have it available. Still, with Len’s promise that they’d build a bigger and better one soon, she was comfortable enough to get back to work. She’d shown quite a lot of interest in some of the designs that Len had been drawing up, and the concept of raised beds that would require less bending over from her was particularly appealing. Len promised to have work started on that as soon as Kila’s forge was up and running and Larry’s crew was available to get to work at it. She’d already set some of them to work gathering up wood to turn into planks for the beds, but the serious construction was dependent on some materials Kila would need to make and the hauling would require manpower.

Len was coming to grips with the fact that she needed more workers. When she’d gotten here, the idea of even keeping this lot in line was more than she could handle. Now, just by virtue of the expanding duties, she didn’t have enough to get everything she wanted done. She was tempted to ask Astrid for more, but given the hiring process for this particular outpost, she doubted she’d like anyone that got sent her way. For the time being, this was what she had to work with, and that made the prospect that at least one of them might be actively sabotaging their efforts all the worse.

Still, she couldn’t dwell on that because there was little more she could do about it at present. Kila was right: if someone was working against them, they’d strike again soon enough, and that’d mean more information to work with, more opportunities for them to get caught, and more chances to find out why they were doing it. Was it petty rebellion over being forced to actually work or was it something more sinister? Lord knew that she’d already made enough enemies in this world that it was a possibility. And what if it wasn’t any of that? What if Valkar was right and the humans really were looking to kill them off before they could get anywhere with their improvements?

Len doubted that, but couldn’t rule it out either. She’d have Curly keep an eye out. Now that he was back, she didn’t have to rely completely on Valkar’s word when it came to camp security, and even though she didn’t want to directly undermine the Orc’s responsibilities in that respect just yet, she was glad to have a second opinion. What remained to be seen was whether that extra observer would be enough.

Grumbling at her thoughts, Len wandered out of the Hovel, nodding at a grumpy Valkar as she passed him. Clearly, he wasn’t over that traitor accusation just yet. Too bad for him.

It was midday and most of the morning chill was gone from the air. It was still cold as hell, of course, but the particularly nasty bite was gone and she could enjoy a bit of the sun’s warmth on her exposed skin (what little she dared have in this climate). More than that, she could see some remnants of the racks from Fenris’ last visit. She wasn’t entirely sure how far he traveled to get too and from, but he seemed to have little trouble making weekly visits so it couldn’t be TOO far away. She figured that one of these days she really ought to send a scout to either track his camp down, or just follow him outright. Maybe use the guise of providing a double shipment of goods, something to think on later.

At present, she just wanted to clear her head and get away from it all for a bit. She saw Pitch hovering at the edge of her perception, clinging to the shadows, and opted to ignore it entirely. Other than that, there wasn’t a whole lot going on. Occasional cries from birds, but there was a general stillness to the air that continued to unnerve her.

She felt it more than she saw it coming. A flash of danger that barely registered in time before it was upon her. Throwing herself to the ground, she barely avoided the arrow as it sliced through the space she’d been occupying. From the tree line she saw a figure retreating out of sight. Rolling back to her feet, Len kept her eyes scanning all around her. No guarantee that that was her only assailant and even if it was, no way to be sure that they were done after just one shot.

For several minutes, she just held her position, desperately alert and searching for any more threat, but no second attack came. She didn’t relax her attention but did allow it to take into account other things, like the location where the arrow meant for her had landed. It wasn’t far away, so she slowly began making her way to it. Retrieving it, she saw familiar markings on the fletching. This was one of the arrows that her hunters used. Why did one of them want her dead?

Taking her time, Len made her way back to the Hovel. This didn’t answer any questions and didn’t even necessarily point the way TOWARDS those answers, but it was definitely something to wait to ponder on until she was back with some of her allies. It was a nerve-wracking experience, wondering if any tree or shadow might be hiding a sniper waiting to take their shot, but she got back no worse for wear and was able to breathe a sigh of relief once she finally made it inside her tent.