So began the chronicles of Grey, the Horse-shoed. While Grey recovered from his ordeal, things were moving in a direction contrary to what the minotaur major, Ushi, had expected. The Herbalist had given his public confession by noon, but instead of an immediate execution as was customary, his execution had been forestalled to a time yet to be specified. In exchange for that stay of execution, he would be required to offer his services to the Red Grove military chapter as penance for his ‘alleged’ duplicity.

The wording alone should have been sign enough for Ushi to be weary, add to that the breaking from customs; and he had indeed had questions on the deviation, but seeing as the stay was granted in exchange for service, he chose not to dwell on the matter, figuring the chapter had been more in need of an herbalist than an example at that time. He couldn’t have been any further from the truth if he’d tried, but that would only come to light in time, to his detriment.

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With his services purchased at the cost of his and his family’s lives, the Herbalist had no choice but to comply. He gave himself wholly into the service, trekking by day to gather rare materials, and mixing by night to create portions for military use.

Although the work was grueling, and he got fewer and fewer hours with his family as the Red Grove chapter’s military campaigns intensified, the efforts weren’t without their merits. His family got formal living quarters in the red groves, as well as a stipend to improve their quality of life. The biggest pay-off was for the Herbalist though, who got to venture deeper and deeper into the dark forests. Due to the strain of the journey, he also received formal training that saw to the improvement of his durability and survivability.

With her husband away for most of the time, the Needle-maiden was left to tending to her and her son’s life for the most part. She busied herself with caring for her son till his eventual recovery. He, like his father before him, took to the way of herbs fast upon his recovery, joining the new crop of herbal hopefuls apprenticed to his father. In efforts to remain proximal to her son and husband, the Needle-maiden took up her craft again, enlisting as cook and repair-lady for the wools and carry-bags the military used; and just like that, the family was travelling together again.

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Months passed and that period found the former nomadic trio well placed in the red groves. Without need for further threats to retain the Herbalist’s services, Ushi’s bill came due, and he finally found out why he should’ve held onto his suspicions of the sentencing.

After a successful campaign in the northern lands, the Red Grove tribunal had called for a meeting. The contents would remain unknown to most, save for the top ranked officials, till the time of the meeting. All individuals from the chapter who held positions of major and above were to attend, and surprisingly, so were the Herbalist and his family. Ushi had thrown the Herbalist a knowing smile, which he’d answered with a crest-fallen frown, having arrived at the same answer to what the invitation might entail.

The Herbalist passed the message on to his wife and son, who took the news with more trepidation than he had. They all dreaded reprisals for the alleged crime of spying on the Red Grove, but the Herbalist took comfort in knowing his efforts would likely spare his wife and child from a fate similar to his. The Red Grove had gained a new crop of herbalists to field a medical team, and most gifted among them was his son. With this in mind, he chose to approach his death with dignity, knowing his sacrifice would spare his family.

They said their goodbyes as if his death was a foregone conclusion. Once they were done preparing, they made their way to the gathering space well in advance. No conversations were had as they waited for the inevitable to occur.

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Unironically, the next to arrive was Ushi, the minotaur major. He wore his customary smug expression as always, which tickled Grey the wrong way. Ushi seemed to find even more pleasure in this reaction, and even made to taunt the juvenile ram even more, but something in Grey’s aura told him to think twice and he obliged his instincts. He would just have to deal with the errant ram after this.

The rest of the participants trickled in, all managing to fully assemble ten minutes before the official starting time. Red the Fierce arrived a few minutes into the scheduled time, prompting Hochi the Fertile, the colonel presiding over the meeting, to give the floor to him.

The beloved General was an imposing minotaur with fur so brown it was almost red. He accepted the cheers with a raised fist and a loud roar before dropping his arm. The cheers died with it, plunging the area into a brief silence that was promptly ended by Red’s words.

“We are gathered here today to address the issue of betrayal and duplicity in our ranks!”, Red started. Many eyes turned to face the Herbalist and his family at this, and Ushi even threw a triumphant glare their way. The General didn’t stop there though. “Many may think this matter a foregone conclusion, but we will be dissecting this matter further here,” he continued.

This gave Ushi pause, not a foregone conclusion? he questioned mentally, as doubt finally crept in. Red went on about the value of decisiveness in battle, stressing how only the certain could weather the consequences of their decisions. He informed the congregation that they were there for reprisals to ensure nothing of the sort ever happened again.

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Zhou the Listener, the elephantaur Major, took the floor at this time. He gave an account of his own investigation into the likely traitor behind the disastrous campaign. He’d already been on his own trail for the traitor when his peer in rank, Ushi the Hard-headed, had approached him for assistance in his own investigation. He’d obliged him, only taking part in the surveillance part of the investigation.

He’d wanted to voice his doubts in the choice of suspects, given the merchant and his family had only made contact with the Red Grove residents recently, so recent in fact it was almost impossible for them to be involved; but Ushi had reminded him of the limits to his participation, claiming point on the investigation.

Zhou chose to temporarily retract his advice, hoping to head-off any blow-back from this avenue of the investigation when heads were cooler, but he’d been too late in his intervention. Ushi had already trussed up and paraded the innocent family, and a public denouncement of his acts would’ve presented a divided front in front of the Red Grove citizens.

He took the matter to one of the seniors in command, Hochi the Fertile, who told him to play-along as retracting Ushi’s claims would likely spook the real culprit. They would use Ushi’s claim to lull the real culprit into a false assurance that the investigation had stopped.

At this point, Zhou asked for leave from the General to pass on the buck to Hochi the Fertile for the rest of the accounting. Given leave, he vacated the circle, allowing Hochi to continue.

Hochi confirmed the accuracy of Zhou’s accounting in a few words before picking up where he’d left off. After the issue was brought to him, the Colonel had instructed major Zhou to continue chasing his other lead. He meant to impress on Ushi how important it was to continue the ruse, without hinting at Zhou’s investigation, but his words seemed to have fallen on deaf ears.

Instead of treating the wrongfully accused with dignity while drawing out the investigation, he chose to coerce a confession out of the man by harming his son. Seeing as things had gone this far, he’d had no choice now but to leave Ushi out of the loop completely, lest he muddle things further. As a way of recompense, they afforded the Herbalist a place in Red Grove, staying the execution to an unknown date whilst working under the ruse of using him for their own gains.

Zhou had eventually caught the culprit lacking, having believed the ruse. Strangely enough, the culprit, be it out of guilt or thankfulness, had approached the Herbalist to welcome him to the Red Grove. They’d fast become friends, and he’d dropped hints here and there as to his real involvement with the bloody campaign.

Taken out of context, the words meant nothing to the Herbalist, but Zhou had found all the clues he’d need to plot a proper line of questioning in order to get to the truth. Hochi had listened to Zhou’s report, and upon review and due diligence, he’d approved the apprehension of the actual culprit.

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Ushi listened to both accountings with a mixture of disbelief, anger, and dread. Disbelief at the Major and Colonel’s duplicity, anger at how everything had been twisted to his detriment, and dread at the consequences to follow in the accounting’s stead. Each word seemed to hammer a nail to the coffin of his competency, bringing a question to his honor as well.

Though the Taurs wouldn’t bat an eye at the violent acts he’d performed, the fact that the Herbalist and his family now formed an integral part of their nation’s chapter meant he’d done such things to one of their own. As if that wasn’t enough, he’d coerced a confession out of an innocent man, and the real perpetrator had now been caught. Things went looking good at all…

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The real culprit was eventually brought for questioning. Though he’d said he would confess in hopes of a quick death, Hochi had insisted on getting one of the oracles to do the questioning. They asked the questions he’d tailored for the inquiry, eventually establishing what exactly had gone wrong.

The horny goat in charge of supply chains had indulged in the local pleasures, and when his bedmate had expressed fears for her family’s wellbeing, he’d given up information on when and where the Red Grove chapter would pass.

They’d been ambushed a few days later, resulting in the highest casualties the chapter had ever faced. After capturing and questioning a few of their attackers, they’d eventually confessed about having an informant in the Red Grove.

The horny goat hadn’t thought much about this, seeing as his bedmate had been a fellow Taur, but when they were ambushed again at an inconvenient place he’d directed the lady to, he began having doubts. Those doubts were confirmed when the next attack force included Taurs garbed in human livery. They’d eventually prevailed over that force as well, and the goat had run into her corpse in the same livery on the trek back to the Red Grove. He’d thought his reaction to the corpse schooled well-enough, but Zhou had begun suspecting him that day.

The horny goat had thought the issue over, seeing as they’d prevailed, but a day after their return a family of Satyrs had been caught for the crime, his crime. Too cowardly to admit to it, he’d felt comfort in another being blamed for his mess, followed by guilt. He’d approached the Herbalist in efforts of salving his conscience, but that had ultimately led to his downfall.

⯁⯁⯁

After the horny goat’s account, he was summarily executed. Red gave Colonel Hochi leave to preside over the matter of Ushi’s incompetence, and he bowed his ascent to the task.

“So, you saw it fit to ascend the ranks on the back of a cowardly lie?” the Colonel said to Ushi, addressing the Major directly for the first time. Ushi shook his head to deny, and even tried to speak against the claims but before he could do so, Grey spoke up, “Is it not you who coerced a confession out of my father after remolding my hooves?” he questioned, getting only a blank stare in response.

“Confirm or deny,” the Colonel ordered, forgiving Grey his interference for the moment. “It is me,” Ushi finally answered, looking down in resignation. The Colonel turned back to Grey, chastising him on breaking protocol, and stressing the point of only speaking when asked to, and only to say something on topic at that.

Though it seemed as if the Colonel was disappointed in his rebuke, he was jubilant in actuality. Grey had helped forestall any wiggling the Major might try in future, and should he disregard the warning and try to correct some of the discrepancies in their accounting, he would be free to execute him for disobeying.

“You can play fast-and-loose anywhere else, but the chapter calls for either at their correct time and place. In your attempt to arrive at higher ranks faster, you’ve played loose with the truth,” the Colonel admonished, before giving him a way out.

“Though your life is already forfeit, you may do it with honor, so that you carry with you all the blame. We will take care of the rest,” the Colonel said, with a hint of finality.

He presented the minotaur with a long, metallic spike meant to pierce his chest, gauging his own life on the tip. The Major looked around a number of times before finding the courage to face the Colonel again. When he did, a burning resolve shone in his eyes, and it seemed he would take the punishment with dignity.

⯁⯁⯁

Ushi had eventually come to grips with the hopelessness of his situation. Without a correctional course in sight, he chose to at least take the reason of his downfall down with him. Logically speaking, this had all been his own fault. Although Zhou and the Colonel used his faulty assumptions to carry out their own agendas, he’d been the one to provide the exploit.

When the Colonel had presented the spike, Ushi had looked around, searching for a face he wouldn’t mind falling while facing, as was expected in their customs. There was no honor in suicide for the Taurs, being a war-loving bunch who didn’t abide cowardice and giving up. No, when one disgraced their people like he had, they would be offered a way to preserve their honor in their dying moments.

The weapon was only meant as a threat to invoke the congregations defense of whoever he chose to attack. This way, the accused would die in a battle, somewhat, whilst his executioners could choke up slaying one of their own to protecting another. Though knowing the logic behind the culture served counter to its mind-soothing purpose, it was culture all the same, and they followed it to this day.

Ushi took a deep breath, preparing to end it all. He walked calmly towards the east, where Zhou’s battalion were. This included the Herbalist and his family since they’d absorbed the main medical team. Many expected him to go for Zhou, given his role in exposing his faults, but he’d gone for the Herbalist instead. He managed to stab him in the chest once before making to give the wife the same treatment, but the second stab never arrived.