***Tirnanog, Hochberg***

***Magnus***

It was the second time a creature of unknown origin had sought out our delegation. This wasn’t normal behaviour for a predator – leading to the obvious questions.

News of the thing’s all-too-human disguise made the rounds before anyone could stop it. All thanks to two Caravaners who happened to be in the corridor when the incident took place.

The next morning, seekers Holly and Luka visited us with Linda and Elijah to investigate what had disrupted day-to-day life on their saherna. The incident had been severe enough to gather the attention of all our acquaintances among the Caravaners.

The pungent smell had forced a temporary evacuation and consequently an inquiry from the dock's administration about what manner of vile experiments the Caravaners were up to. Yes, the stench had been strong enough to be noticed by the Hochberg.

It had to be said that the seekers weren't pleased to be accused of researching a new bio-weapon.

Thankfully, the monster’s remains had been doused with alcohol the night prior, to dampen the brutal attack on everyone’s olfactories.

Until the stench could dissipate, the training yard had remained vacant.

“There are only bits and pieces left thanks to your mount trampling the creature to mush. As I see it, this monster was related to the one which attacked us on the way here,” Holly stated with a slightly grumpy tone while pointing out a tentacle which had somehow survived the drake’s wrath.

Reconstructing our attacker’s appearance based on a smear on the floor and a single appendage seemed... unprofessional to me. So I decided to point this out, hoping, but not believing we might be able to dodge some uncomfortable questions.

“Excuse me, but making a connection merely based on both creatures having tentacles... isn't that a little far-fetched?” I asked. “The second monster was smaller than the first. So they can't be the same.”

Her partner Luka also wasn’t inclined to listen and ignored the admittedly bad attempt at deflection. “Whether it is the same monster or another doesn't matter. The two attacks are related. Twice, the creatures specifically sought out your delegation. Do you have any explanation for this? Are our people in danger? We have the right to know if you are attracting these beasts for some reason. Shielding you from the Forgotten is one thing, but being hunted by the beasts of the wild is a wholly different matter. How are we supposed to protect you people when we don’t know the enemy?”

I had to admit, he had a point.

“Hey, now!” Astra interjected. “We lost people too! And it's exactly because we were targeted that we are here and talking. We have to work together and figure this out.”

I pondered the question, wondering how to handle the situation. On one hand, telling them the absolute truth would be met with a considerable amount of scepticism, likely costing us some credibility. On the other, we had to come up with some explanation or the Caravaners might decide that having us around wasn’t in their best interests.

“We know just as much as you do,” Astra offered sincerely while waving a hand at the smudge on the training yard’s ground. “But we have a few suspicions, given the latest developments with the Thich.”

“Those are?” Elijah asked.

“An assassination attempt,” I suggested. “Like you said: ‘If’ it is indeed the same type of creature, then it came for us twice. Once trying to kill anything standing in its way. The second time they chose to try a subtler approach.”

“How did you identify its true nature while so many others failed?” Linda asked. “The report we received stated you attacked it on sight.”

I pointed at my eyes. “We have the nightstalker mutation. When I saw the thing’s creature cores throughout its flesh, I chose to stab first and ask questions later.”

Luka raised a doubtful eyebrow. “Assuming it could've answered questions.” He turned to address Linda. “We have to increase the number of sensory types who can identify creatures such as these reliably.”

She sighed. “It will cost our caravan capabilities in other areas. But survival is always an act of balance. We will adapt and overcome this new predator too. As we did those who came before.”

Elijah shook his head at me. “I get what you are implying in regards to the Thich and their control over these monsters. But even if they attacked you twice I still have my doubts. Do you have any idea how hard it would be to tame an apex predator of this calibre? Such monsters and worse are the reason why we go on lockdown every night. They are unthinking death machines which cannot be understood or reasoned with. They attack on sight and seldom stop before every human within their reach is dead.”

I scoffed. “The Aerie tamed the drakes and other creatures they use as draft animals. Your people are riding on saherna and the Hochberg have their mounts. I don’t see the problem with taming something smart enough to imitate a human. It should be quite obvious that Thich wants us dead, though I admittedly don’t see how they could have known about us before we arrived at Hochberg.”

“The Forgotten,” Astra suggested, supporting my narrative. “They are connected to Earth and Earth is connected to Thich. It is quite possible that Earth’s kill order against us didn’t go out just to the Forgotten cell in Mount Aerie, but to every group, they could reach. Maybe some of them are with the Thich and decided to dispatch this thing because they didn’t know about the others. We already know there must be some form of exchange between those groups. One party learning of us through the other isn’t an impossibility.”

I nodded, even though I didn’t like to work with a mere hypothesis.

Astra’s story was likely closer to the truth than we wanted it to be. At worst, our enemies already knew what I had started in Aerie and were preparing for an all-out war.

“I still would be careful about such an accusation. Collaboration with intelligent species could rile up all the groups living on Tirnanog. Not just the larger clans. The smaller communities might take offence too.” Luka raised a warning finger. “The point of ‘smart enough’ is the worrying factor in this scenario. The clans have a history of striking unfavourable deals with ‘smart’ inhabitants of this world. A history which is better not to be repeated! We purge those things! We do not cooperate!”

I opened my mouth to ask the question which had been bugging me for months. Finally, someone who seemed like he wasn’t dead set on ignoring the topic like some great taboo.

But Astra touched the back of my hand and shook her head. ‘We will talk about this later!’

Later? I finally found someone willing to talk! Why was everyone in Aerie trying to deny the drakes’ obvious intelligence?

Oh, wait. Purge?

I stopped myself.

Maybe this was exactly why the Aerie were trying to deny even the possibility of the drakes’ sapience. They were trying to keep the drakes’ intelligence a secret from the other clans!

But why?

I kept my mouth shut while Astra kept answering the seekers’ questions. Sadly, not to their complete satisfaction, but there was little we could do at this point. Maybe we could be more open with our secrets in the future.

Afterwards, we retreated to our quarters where I confronted Astra about the whole drake-thing. “I get that you people are secretive about the drakes, but this is getting ridiculous,” I began as soon as the door was closed. “If there is something the clans aren’t allowed to know you have to tell me!”

Astra looked at the door and grasped my hand, initiating our secret communication method.

‘I thought Mary already told you about the sapience issue during your lessons?’

‘Mary told me shit about sapience! Everyone I asked so far was quick to switch the topic! I swear, you guys are like a cult when it comes to this and it is getting annoying by this point. Lukas at least seemed like he was willing to talk about the matter.’

The corner of Astra’s left eye twitched in annoyance. ‘I will have a talk with Mary as soon as I see her again. She should have told you once it became clear you would be in close contact with the drakes.’

I gestured for her to get it on, eager to finally learn about this taboo topic.

Astra sighed and rubbed her temple. ‘Where to begin? I guess you don’t need the whole gruesome details of the story, but believe me, there is good reason for prejudice against sapient monsters. This dates back to the time before the great war. The Old Camp wasn’t the first to unite the clans against a common foe. Though the resulting conflict was much shorter, it wasn’t less bloody. Maybe I shouldn’t call it a war. According to the records I was allowed access to, it was more like a cleansing. All the powerhouses got involved to shut down what was happening before it could grow beyond control.’

She thought about her narrative for a moment before she continued. ‘There was a big clan who made the Mycelium their home, called the Seafarers. They also stemmed from one of Earth’s colonies.’

I stopped her to ask a question. ‘You mean the mushroom jungle I heard so many horror stories about? The one with the spores infecting people? We had a colony there? What the fuck did Earth’s authorities think?’

She nodded.

I shook my head at the insanity. ‘Guess humans do try their luck in any environment if it doesn’t kill them immediately.’

And it’s not like the ones who chose a settlement’s location were the ones going to live there.

‘Go on.’

‘The Seafarer clan thrived in the Mycelium. They found a symbiont which allowed them to live there. The symbiont didn’t even take up a mutation, which is why everyone had one. At least this was the accepted explanation at the time. Little did they know that this symbiont was intelligent and capable of taking over the host’s mind.’

‘Wow! There are actual body snatchers in this world?’ Now I was sure I had seen everything. Wanna see all the horrors the human mind could come up with? Just book a holiday on Tirnanog!

‘I don’t know what body snatchers are, but it’s a fitting description for what the so-called symbionts did. It was only when they spread to the other colonies that Clan Jeng discovered them. I won’t go into the details, but purging those creatures from our midst was a bloody nightmare nobody wants to repeat.

‘Grandma Mary told me horror stories which had the teenage me check under her bed for weeks after. Sadly, removing the parasites was almost impossible unless the host had extremely good healing mutations. The clans put the Seafarers to the torch and eradicated every parasite they could find.

‘Even today, the large clans send regular expeditions to the settlements in and around the Mycelium. Just to make sure we got them all. The whole incident is the reason why there is a ban on cooperation between humans and any sapient life in this world. The average population might have forgotten, but I can assure you the older generation has not. If word of the drakes being sapient gets out…’

She blew out a breath. ‘There is a real possibility of the clans uniting against us instead of the Thich.’

‘But the elders know about the drakes,’ I pointed out.

‘Our cooperation with the drakes goes back to the earliest days of Aerie’s rise from the ashes,’ Astra explained. ‘It’s only thanks to the isolationist behaviour of the clans that their capabilities never became general knowledge. The elders also began a campaign to actively suppress the knowledge once the incident with the parasites was over and the other clans’ attitude became obvious.’

I hummed. ‘Hmm. Don’t get me wrong. But I don’t see some of the elders risking their necks for the drakes.’

‘It’s a matter of pragmatism and the protection of the twelfth. Do you see anyone standing up to the twelfth’s strata’s influence?’ She shrugged. ‘And you have talked to Loop a lot. Do you see the drakes harming us? The elders decided to hide certain facts about the drakes because other clans wouldn’t see it the same way. And unless we coerce them into it, the drakes never showed any intention to spread beyond their colonies in the mountains.’

I didn’t even have to think about my answer. Despite their imposing appearance, the drakes I had gotten to know were all very passive and simplistic characters. As long as they had plants to eat and a nest to sleep in they seemed happy enough.

The only cases of violence had occurred when someone or something tried to invade their nests – an understandable and quite human reaction. The first time we had been attacked, Cadence and Elegance had even fled instead of seeking a confrontation.

I sighed. ‘I understand why the Aerie are shielding the drakes. Though I wish someone could have told me about this sooner. Is there an actual treaty among the clans about cooperation with non-human sapients?’

Astra shrugged. ‘Not that I am aware of, but I trust the elders’ judgement when they believe the other clans wouldn’t react fondly. You heard Luka’s reaction to cooperation between humans and native sapients. He immediately suggested the torch. Depending on what type of cooperation it is, the clans would be up in arms at the smallest possibility of a repeat of the Seafarer incident.’

‘Then wouldn’t it be good if we could somehow prove this creature’s connection to the Thich?’ I asked. ‘It would dig their grave even deeper than it already is.’

Astra opened her mouth, blinked, and then closed it again. ‘That’s actually a brilliant idea – if there is a way to find proof.’

***Tirnanog, Hochberg***

***Dejana***

The Aerie psychic removed her palms from my temples. After hours of trying, she wore a frustrated expression on her face.

“Her mind is indeed crippled at this point. Forced into certain tracks of thought. There is little free personality left. A Forgotten’s mind is easier to navigate, and they are already twisted and conditioned beyond comprehension. I don’t know how to describe it properly. Who or what could do such a thing?”

The newly minted matriarch shrugged. “Someone who doesn’t care a lot about morals, Thalia.”

The Aerie threw me another conflicted look before she sighed. “There is nothing here for me to learn. I will leave you for now. We will see each other once the elders arrive?”

Vanya nodded and gestured for the guard to let Thalia out of the cell.

The door opened for the psychic and her guards followed before it closed again once they were outside.

I heard the key being turned.

Vanya had been watching and only returned her attention to me once she was sure the Aerie were gone.

“You can speak freely now, Dejana,” the girl commanded while meeting my eyes with her searing gaze which felt like she was looking right at my soul.

I shuddered upon feeling the familiar tingle of her power touching my mind. It wasn’t hurtful, but I felt violated nonetheless. The girl was shoving my convictions around as if they were physical objects for her to touch, prodding and poking. I felt it, though the process was slow. Like kneading dough.

The girl’s technique was much less insidious than the Aerie’s. Where Thalia had simply smothered my mind with her power, Vanya was an artist. She didn’t even have to touch me. Much more dangerous.

“What would your allies say if they knew about what you are doing to me?” I asked, already much less declined to violent outbursts than the me from before my incarceration. I knew the old me would have committed suicide rather than submit to this process.

I knew it, but I simply didn’t find it in me to care. Not anymore.

“Some would likely be horrified,” Vanya admitted.

“Then why are you doing it, child?” I asked. “Haven’t your elders taught you better?”

Vanya blinked. “I see what I am doing with a little less rigidity than others might. From my point of view, the person you were before the Thich psychic laid hands upon you is already dead. You were turned into a mere tool, unable to see the world from a different perspective than they wanted you to. They killed the personality you had before.”

She shrugged. “As you were, your only future would have been to die once things went wrong. Otherwise, you are too dangerous to be left roaming free. And even a large clan like ours wouldn’t spare the resources to lock you up for the rest of your life.”

The girl chuckled. “Especially considering that most people have a starfish mutation and don’t age. Your fate would be to either die at my command or... this. I am fixing what is wrong with you and you get another opportunity.”

“Don’t pretend you aren’t ‘fixing’ me in a way that’s desirable to you,” I spat. “What’s the difference between Thich and you.”

Vanya sighed. “If you want to see it this way, then I am guilty of this crime. I have little choice, knowing your history. It is a burden I am willing to bear in this case.”

I grinned. “It will be interesting to see whether you can keep me from talking, now that I no longer have a reason to keep quiet. You are quite obviously not on Thich’s side.” I laughed. “Though, you also might not be on the Aerie’s side at least.”

“Keep quiet?” Vanya frowned.

“About you killing your matriarch. I had my suspicions when our correspondence with matriarch Greta suddenly ceased.” I smiled when the girl’s calm facade broke for a moment.

“Do you believe we didn’t know?” I continued. “There are no Forgotten within the Hochberg. The unbroken line of matriarchs was very effective at eradicating them. The Matriarch’s mutation path is very powerful in the mental department, but it is quite weak physically. But Greta was well versed in having strong protectors around her. Only a few people could have gotten close enough to your teacher to poison her. And of all of them, there is only one person she trusted fully. One person she would have allowed close enough to do the deed. One person powerful enough to hide her murderous intent!”

I looked right into the girl’s eyes. No, my matriarch’s eyes.

“How does it feel to kill your mentor, your mother?”

Vanya’s eyes narrowed and it suddenly felt like thousands of needles were pricking me all over my body. It was a punch to the gut compared to her previous treatment, the gentle approach abandoned.

“If anything, then I am only applying my mentor’s teachings. I am doing what has to be done,” the girl whispered. “Be glad I value life over death. Even when it comes to scum like you. Greta would have disposed of you as soon as you fulfilled your purpose.”