Their course decided, the five left the Hovel without preamble. It wasn’t a pleasant adventure to be engaging in, but it was a necessary one and the less dawdling, the better. Len’s head was a mess. She hadn’t actually killed anyone since getting here. She’d caused some serious injury, sure, but taking a life? Not once. Sure, she’d had deaths happen around her and it had been properly traumatic, the sort of stuff that she’d likely spend years unpacking in conversations with a shrink if she ever made it back home, but this was different. This was explicitly heading out with a force of warriors with the intent to take a life.

Heck, she couldn’t even be completely confident in the team she had with her. Moe and Larry? Solid. They could be relied on for whatever she needed. Valkar? Untested and not at all proven to be loyal. He’d voiced objections to her behavior, generally questioned her leadership, and really just seemed to be running out the clock until she failed. There wasn’t much reason to be confident that he wouldn’t look to speed up that failure if the opportunity presented itself. Sure, he said he was content, but there wasn’t any particular reason to trust that.

Then there was Keseryn. The girl wasn’t an exemplar of trustworthiness either. She had open hatred on her face for Valkar, since he looked like the ones who had killed her parents. More than that, she was every bit as unpredictable as he was with even less total time interacting with the group. She was generally willing to listen to basic instructions at the moment. Sulking a bit as she performed the tasks, but still performing them. That was entirely likely to change once the real objects of her hatred were at hand. Len wasn’t confident that SHE would be able to keep her head in that situation, let alone a child of murdered parents. It was difficult to game out events, and Len hated it.

One of the things that she’d rapidly been becoming fond of at the Hovel was the routine. She had specific supervisory tasks to engage in, they ate up a certain amount of her day. Making sure that everything was running smoothly enough was really satisfying in its own way and she supposed that was a part of what had hit her so hard about the discovery that she might have monsters working for her. Now she was out on a march into unknown territory with fully half the people with her in the question mark category of reliability. She hated it.

“So, Kes, how far is it to your house?”

“A day and a half, give or take,” the girl replied coldly. Any initial warmth that Len had bought herself with the feeding and providing of shelter had been abandoned.

“Great. We’ll probably want to be sure to make camp earlier rather than later. I don’t want those two catching us with our pants down and killing us in our sleep.”

“You think there’s much chance of that?” asked Moe.

“I don’t know what to think, man. It could be easy enough to get close to them, but who knows what’s going through their heads right now. Maybe they really thought the kid would pull it off and are laughing their asses off, maybe they assumed she’d die out here. We’ll have to get close to them to find out.”

“I still think that killing them is extreme,” said Valkar. “Even if they did send the kid to kill you, so what? It’s not like she had any chance of pulling it off. At most they deserve some time working in the mines.”

Keseryn looked like she was about to say something, but Len spoke first.

“Not a chance in hell. You don’t get it, do you? ‘Even if they sent her to kill me’ isn’t actually the issue here. It’s fucked up, but it’s not the goddamn point!”

“Oh, right, of course. The ‘point’ is that two soldiers dared to kill a couple of humans. Humans, who I shouldn’t have to remind you, WE ARE AT WAR WITH!.”

“Don’t you fucking dare raise your voice with me, Valkar,” she said, mustering as much coolness as she could manage in her voice. “We are doing this, and you will obey. Later you can tell yourself that you had no choice but to follow orders if that makes you feel better, but I need to be crystal clear on this. No one under my command gets a pass at killing civilians. Ever.”

He opened his mouth to say something but she cut him off.

“I have no intention of spending the rest of my life at this outpost. I have no intention of remaining just a small little commander of a meaningless trash heap of a posting. I will be climbing the ranks. Anyone close to me right now is likely to climb those ranks as well. Anyone who doesn’t live up to the standards I set will be either cast aside or ground into dust and I really don’t care which at this point in time. I have only a few hard rules, I’m happy to go with the flow as soon as things are going our way, but if a course needs correcting, you can bet your ass that I’ll correct it. I don’t care what your orders were before, I don’t care what your personal politics on the issue are. YOU WILL OBEY ME WHEN I TELL YOU HOW A THING IS GOING TO BE!”

She paused just long enough to see the words hit home in his mind.

“Is that clear?”

He mumbled something in response.

“I didn’t hear that, Valkar. I asked if I was clear on the chain of command and my expectations therein. Answer me.”

“Yes, commander,” he said stiffly.

“Excellent. Now, how about you go apologize to the girl whose parents murders you just made light of.”

Almost woodenly, Valkar turned to the startled girl.

“As the commander says, I made light of the fact that your parents were killed. I apologize for that.”

Keseryn’s eyes went wide at the display, but quickly narrowed.

“If you think I’m going to accept your-”

Len silenced her with a glare.

“And, just on the off chance you’re full of shit with all this, don’t think you’ll be getting off with a slap on the wrist,” Len’s patience had been tested already today, and she did not need more bickering. Best to throw Valkar a bone here as well. “Just because I’m more inclined to believe your side of things right now doesn’t mean that I’m not capable of reassessing if the situation changes. Behave and don’t cause trouble. And, most importantly, do as you’re told. I think you’ve got a right to be a part of this. Don’t make me regret that decision.”

The girl actually winced at Len’s words. Maybe she’d been planning something, or maybe she’d just assumed that Len was entirely on her side in things, but the dressing down hadn’t been expected. Basically, Len was making no friends with her actions today and she was frankly okay with that. It was possible, she allowed, that she should have had another cup of the coffee before setting out, she was downright grumpy.

For their parts, Moe and Larry seemed content to not be a part of the conversation, sticking to the sides of the party and doing their level best not to notice what was going on. Len hid a smile at that and worked on keeping her face stern for a while. Wouldn’t do to have a big meaningful leadership moment, only to let the mask slip immediately. The whole thing was a tad ridiculous, she had to admit, but that was no reason to screw it up.

Feeling strangely accomplished for her moment of dominance, Len enjoyed the relative quiet as they continued on their way. There really wasn’t a whole lot to observe in the wilderness. Not much game, no other humans, just a pleasant-ish stroll on the way to engage in bloody justice. A part of Len really hoped that this was all just an elaborate stunt. That she’d discover that the girl had been playing with them the whole time and she’d be able to send the girl back home with a tanned hide and some moderately terrified adults. She didn’t actually believe it, and was generally convinced that regardless of what she might say to soothe Valkar’s issues, there was only one way this would all resolve itself. She still tried her best to keep an open mind.

She caught sight of Pitch lurking in the shadows nearby, clearly interested in engaging her in another round of pointless chatter meant to weaken her will or confuse her, or maybe just entertain it. She pushed the thing out of her mind and resolutely ignored its attempts to catch her eye. She had a growing suspicion that it could only actually talk to her directly when she was open to it, and this was an excellent opportunity to test that theory. After a few tense moments, the thing faded from her view and she was left with just her normal companions again.

Little more of note happened during the day’s travels. There was some conversation about the overall state of the house. The hut that Keseryn described didn’t sound particularly large, they had a small field, some animals to tend to, and a bit of a clearing between them and the tree line. It wasn’t an ideal setup if the hunters decided to shoot first and ask questions later, but there wasn’t much working around that outside of waiting for an ambush. Heck, they couldn’t be certain that Tess and Venar would even be there, but at the very least they’d be confirming the girl’s story. Len really hoped they’d be able to get this all taken care of, though. She did not love the idea of a pair of hunters out for revenge just hanging out on the outskirts of her territory. It was a frustrating thought to consider as they made camp for the night, but Len was getting used to having those.