“Is something wrong, Warlord?” Impatient One asked when Janine asked her to stay.

  Janine did little to ge the pce; she just carefully gathered up the carpets and pced them in the er. It felt wrong to stain the geous cloths or ruin the exquisite tapestries with the blood that seeped from under her bandages as she scratched furiously in her sleep. With the Taleteller in paw, she slept and woke up reinvigorated and ready for anything.

  Immediately after waking, she checked her pad was slightly disappoio learn that Anissa had already visited both the armory and the wounded, pleting both their duties. After eating and talking to Alpha, Janine had summoned Impatient One, who arrived with letters to be sent directly to the families of the deceased Wolfkins in each pack. Janihe dolences, added her own toud st, and sighem, grieving for the lost.

  “Just Jaween us. Sit with me, Yennifer.” Janine poio the floor.

  The eruption of aggression didn’t e a sed too te. A kick that aimed fully released cws at the warlord’s eyes was stopped by a paw that grabbed the shaman’s ankle. Janine pulled her daughter closer, knog her off band pinning the smaller woman to the ground, biting at her neck.

  “You dare? You dare use that name?” Impatient One roared, trying to elbow the oppo.

  Ign the pointless struggle, Janine sank her fangs deeper, f the shaman to relearn a very important lesson. Skills, knowledge, aermination—all these factors pyed important roles in war. A fight could be won by blinding the enemy. The correct usage of every pack member’s talents iably led to victories, despite differences in numbers. And a stubborn refusal to die could lead to a survival against all odds.

  But all this was useless in the face of overwhelming power. The Wolfkins sought pure, primal might. For without power, it wasn’t possible to do or ge anything. Janine held Impatient One in the hold, blooding her netil the fierce girl submitted, accepting the victor.

  “What do you want, Mom?” Yennifer asked, and the jaws released her. She accepted a cloth to her ned exhaled as if a weight dropped from her shoulders and her posture shifted. She straightened her shoulders, croug no loossed her hair back, and grinned mischievously, shedding the readiness and seriousness of her position.

  “You mentiohat you did your part.” Janine furrowed her brows. “Eborate.”

  Yennifer rolled her eyes, sighing, her fiwitg, and cracked her neck. A loser obeys the winner. Shaman or wolf hag, every Wolfkin respected that sacred te, never disputing it and uanding the strength of the bond fed by shared brawls. They learheir p a pad in the world, stantly self-improving to avoid letting the ruling structure grow stale.

  “Have you ever wondered why there are so many motherless curs living in our vilges?” Yennifer asked, looking at Jah warmth in her amber eyes. Her elbow touched the floor, and she rested her head on the fist. “Shamans cut their ties with their families and surreheir o asd above petty notions of personal glory and focus on what is truly important. That is the said-out-loud part, which leaves us with the fact that it is uo remove fertile females if we truly care for the future,” she chuckled, pressing a paw to her mouth. “I’m surprised no oiced it earlier.”

  “How many?” Janine demao know.

  “ting the stillborn and those who died? Ten,” Yennifer answered. “Two litters. The first was... difficult. Six still live to this day.”

  “gratutions, Yenni!” Janine leaned bad hugged her daughter, and Yennifer returhe hug. “Where are they?” Grandchildren! Six of them! Boys irls, who cared? Marco, Anissa and Ignacy will be so happy to meet their cousins! “Are they healthy? What are their names? Do they need any help? How soon we meet them?”

  “Never.” Yennifer flipped her off, stopping Janine’s lunge. “You kill me, Mom, but I’ll ell you or anyone. Upon birth, our cubs are taken away before we evehem. I they are delivered to a vilge chosen at random a in the care of their parent. Don’t worry, they are certainly happy with my mate.” She smiled, more shyly this time, and quickly ba in favor of the previous smug grin.

  “But… why?” Janine asked, stunned. “These are cubs! Family! Pack!”

  “You dare ask why?” Impatient One rose, looming over the warlord. “Are you truly this oblivious? My callous ism caused Marco to grow disobedient, and he was hurt.” She paced bad forth, sniffing and growling. “Think it was easy for me to give them up? No, it wasn’t. There is not a day when I don’t think of them, but not knowing their muzzles, I learn to think of you all as my cubs. The shamans must be beyond reproach, pure, and dedicated. If not, well, you know what happens. If I it faults now, imagine what disaster I would’ve caused over my cubs if they were nearby?”

  “What happened with Marco wasn’t your fault, Yennifer,” Janine said. “You are not to bme.”

  “Yeah, sure, feed me more cusackshit!” Impatient One said the words, but the intonation unmistakably beloo Yennifer. It was as if the two different personalities had overpped, and together they had dehe floor with a frustrated punch. “Don’t get me wrong, Warlord, I am not berating myself for what Brood Lord did. Not that dumb. But the fact remains. Marco disobeyed a direct order, and that is on me. Soulmates around the tribe barely have time to raise their cubs properly, and who bme you? Our wars are tless, and soulmates entrust the most precious to our care, denying themselves a ce to hold their own…”

  She stopped, grabbed her sides, and breathed hard. A shadow passed over the Impatient One’s snout, then her eyes closed, opened, and she coldly met Janine’s eyes.

  “The world is a dangerous pce. One day it won’t be so, but for now it is a fact. Even here, in the Core Lands, the little ones sometimes go missing or are kidnapped, and very few of them are ever found. Their future, their safety, is our responsibility; if they suffer, it is because we have failed them. As such, they must be taught the basics of survival. End of discussion. With your permission, Warlord? I o assist Alpha.”

  Janine nodded and closed the door behind her daughter, a silly, broad grin f on her lips. Grandchildren! Both Bogdan and Yennifer!

  Oh, how stupid, how iive she’d been when her little princess needed all the support she could muster, but that was over now. She’d find them and make sure they were okay. No st... No problem; the harder the task, the better it sharpehe mind.

  Other warlords must know. She picked up her axe ao meet Martyshkina, siwo of her own girls were serving in the far north, finding cozy and safe areas to establish vilges during the future migration into the Ravaged Lands. Her legs squeezed into pants, she put on a simple buttonless jacket with long sleeves and looked in the mirror, pnning to visit Marore time before Houstad.

  A time to fight and kill on them. She inteo ehe survival of her allies and victory.

  They had a lot to live for.

  ****

  A dim circle of light trapped her, and darkness reigned outside its yellow rim. fused and curious, she tried to remember who she was and g a limb. A hand. No. A paw. A flood of memories poured in at that realization, bursting the dam inside her brain and f Kaisa to gasp for air and g to the spot of her wound.

  Nothing. Smooth skin and fur. Even her scars, the proud medals of her existence, vanished.

  Fury. It shuddered her; the urge to maim and kill ched her fists, her lips curled, and she howled as she heard the scraping of metal, and brass gates grew from the darkness, pierg its veil as it was a water surface. They stood featureless, covered in scratches and notches. Twin braziers illumihese ugly sbs, and even with her enhanced eyesight, the wolf hag couldn’t make out anything deeper in the dark.

  A loud step came from behind the gates, and Kaisa tensed, prepared to defend herself. The first step was cautious, the toes of the foot tasting the darkness, and then a cacophony of stomping filled everything, apanied by a rabid giggling as something truly immense danced oside, bringing unholy visions.

  Kaisa saw a field covered in bodies, their limbs twisted, skin peeled away to expose o the wind, and their mouths sug air in agony, livie their ribs pried back from the chest to set wicked crests onto the poor souls’ backs. She quailed, repulsed by the disgusting sight, and tried to retreat when paws, so much rger than her own and devoid of fur, rose up of their own accord and closed in on Warlord Ashbringer’s neck.

  Ashbringer ended up being cast down, and the creature mounted her.

  Kaisa fantasized about a rematch. She dreamed of a time when she would beat Ashbringer in a single move, returning the humiliation. But the wishes that flooded her mind were something else, something she had never desired. Kaisa no longer cared about winning or losing; these cepts had lost their meaning to her. Even her anger was gone, no longer meaningful. She ughed, enjoying every act of inflig pain and living in the moment. She wao kill Ashbringer or kiss her or i her. Endless possibilities vied for the right to be realized.

  The warlord retaliated, spearing Kaisa through with a siab, and that made her ugh from joy. The mortal wound in her chest closed, trapping Ashbringer’s arm ihe regrowbone, and the cwed paw grabbed the woman by the jaws, opening them wider and wider until she heard a wonderful snap. Bliss, unrivaled by anything, set her brain on fire, and Kaisa’s fingers found eyes, her own and the gurgling warlord’s, and tore them out.

  More obsities came. A dream of Marco’s restored body, a feat done by her genius. She had given the boy a mio ment his dead family and swallowed him whole, hearing the boy dissolve iomach. A throne of throbbing ans, ected by veins and secured by boaken from all around her, awaited her. A seat fit for a queen, fashioned by her paws. Through these horrors, Kaisa heard it.

  A knock. The creature oher side tapped softly oe, pleading to be let out, promising the existence of a never-ending excess of fun.

  “No!” Kaisa roared, pressing her own cws to her heart. “I refuse! I will never, ever hurt my family or my pack again! Back! Away from my head, demon!”

  It giggled and then ughed, its voice eg from the very darkness, without malice er, and their sces briefly joined. How could the locked creature hate Kaisa? The oute was irrelevant; it adored every decisioupid girl made and loved her for it.

  But being imprisoned here is no fun. It spoke directly into her mind, unig with words now instead of feelings or visions. Or not. We’ll be one in time. Or not. Who cares? Get the fuck out of here and do whatever, little me. Sleep is for the weak. In time I'll be you and you'll be me and we'll be one and I'll be all and you'll be naught...

  Kaisa’s snarl made the gate disappear, crack before her eyes. They merged with the darkness, slipping to her left and right, unraveling and exposio a void filled by a softer, white light in the distance. She longed for it and lunged forward…

  Right into a stinging pain that shook her head bato the pillow. Blinking away actal tears, the wolf hag touched her nose, sensing the broken cartige. She lifted her eyes to see Anissa standing beside her, eyebrows raised and a fist prepared for arike, standing near her.

  “What was that for, douchebag?” Kaisa groaned, her poor hrobbing with heat.

  She found herself in the brightly lit room of the mobile fortress. The lighting itself was adjusted to be bright enough but not irritating to her eyes, and there were doctors treating patients nearby. A soiled a b covered Kaisa’s legs, and her chest was studded with sensors that transmitted her dition to the nearby terminal.

  “You shouted and your jaws snapped, so I thought you were having a go at me,” Anissa mumbled, rubbing the back of her head. An Ice Fang nurse shoved her aside, cheg the broken nose. “You okay?”

  “Feel like crap,” Kaisa pined. She closed her eyes in pleasure as the Ice Fa her nose back with a crad ihrough blood. “Hey, it works again! Thanks, Miss! Also…” The Ice Fang caught her paws, not lettiouch the nose or the wound as the wolf hag looked down. “I don’t think my blood is clotting.”

  “It isn’t, but it will,” the nurse promised. “Your immune system is rec. Take it easy.”

  “I am hungry. And I think I pissed and shit myself.”

  “We’ll you in a minute, don’t worry,” the Ice Fang said. “Don’t be hasty, just a few check-ups…”

  “I’ll help!” Anissa volunteered. “Kind of feel bad about the punch. My mistake.”

  “Mistake?!” The nurse exploded. “I’m calling the guards!”

  “Hey, I was helping around; cut me some sck!”

  “Yep. It happens. Fiven,” Kaisa’s vision blurred, and she tried to focus. “Argh! Like a cub! Annoying! Anyway, why are you here? I thought you despised me. Wait, how is Marco?!” She would’ve stood up if the nurse hadn’t restrained her.

  Lost to an Ice Fang. And Anissa saw it. Fantastic.

  “You assume too much,” Anissa said with a smile. “My brother will be fine. I che him from time to time, but I shooed your brother away so he would get a normal sleep.”

  “Wow,” Kaisa said gdly. “Just… Wow. You know, I think they shielded me from something. Don’t remember what… Say, what’s the best way to bee a good person?”

  “Don’t be a bitch.” Anissa replied.

  “I’m trying!” Kaisa grinned and twitched as the medic started to ge the bandage. “Also, you owe me a match, so don’t you dare die on me, Ani, got it?”

  “I’ll survive you if you keep ag like an idiot,” Anissa said. “I’ll go grab us some food. Ever tried coffee? Wao tell your family you are awake?”

  “Nah, let them rest… Wait, I thought you were going to help me up?”

  “Do you want food or not?”