“You made it,” I say, my arms crossed over my chest as I stand between the group of tired-looking samurans and the village. I feel a weight on my shoulder as Sirocco comes down to use me as a perch, shrinking enough that she can sit comfortably on me. Several of my villagers are behind me, their attention grabbed by my quick jog through the village to get here in time. The increasing numbers of grunts and clicks indicate that more are gathering, though I don’t turn to look.

  Instead, my focus is fully on the large group of samurans before me. I’m grimly satisfied to see that they’ve followed instructions and brought what looks like all the Unevolved of their village. Not that they probably had much option considering that I left six Warriors behind there to ensure that everything was accomplished quickly and to the letter of my instructions. In total, there’s perhaps a hundred, a hundred and fifty samurans both in and out of the tree line. Or so Sirocco’s scouting seemedto indicate.

  They’ve made good time – I honestly wasn’t expecting them for a few days yet. The reason for why is made obvious a moment later when Hades and Persephone shepherd their offspring out of the ranks to join us, sending me a quick update while they do so. Though the two Evolved kiinas weren’t willing to let the Pathwalkers on their backs, their young offspring were a different matter. Even if Persephone did have to step in when it appeared that Beast-tamer was planning on trying to Bind her mount. And when Beast-tamer wouldn’t listen to Persephone, she had to get one of the Warriors to back her up too.

  I frown as I look at the group. Where is Beast-tamer? I would have thought she’d be up front and centre along with Earth-former. Is she bringing up the rear guard for some reason?

  Earth-former steps forwards.

  We are here as you commanded, she grinds out, her grunts and clicks particularly short and snappy. Then her gaze goes over my shoulder and her spikes blanch white in shock, then take on a yellow tinge as she returns her attention to me.

  “Surprised that we’re still alive and free?” I’m unable to stop myself sniping at her, the reminder that these two Pathwalkers were part of the whole plan making my anger rise once more.

  Earth-former looks away from me and the brief rekindling of the flame of my anger dies back into the tired embers it is now. I sigh. The past cannot be changed. Being absorbed into another village and losing their ancestral roots along with their tribe has to be punishment enough. Being angry about it won’t bring my people back to life, but it might drive away those who could potentially be productive members of my village.

  I sigh.

  “Where’s Beast-tamer?” I ask levelly, searching for her again. Earth-former hesitates, which is enough to bring my focus squarely back onto her. “Earth-former?” As I wait for her response, I wonder idly whether I should give her a nickname as I have with all of my original village’s samurans. And the same for the others I’ve recently Bound.

  I decide against it after a brief amount of thought for several reasons. I’ve got more used to the way samurans’ names work so there’s less motivation for me to give her a shorter name. Besides that, though, the nicknames have come to symbolise a certain amount of…closeness with me. I’m not sure how everyone would take me immediately giving nicknames to those who recently tried to kill them. Plus, although I’m pretty sure that giving a name does strengthen the Bond slightly, I’m not going to be here much longer. Strengthening the Bond is therefore less important. In fact, it might even be detrimental if it means leaving more soul damage behind when I break most of these Bonds.

  My sister was…killed, Earth-former answers finally, her tone reluctant. My eyebrows go up in surprise as my gaze sharpens on her.

  “Killed. By whom? Or what, perhaps? And how was she left vulnerable enough for it to occur?” Privately, I wonder whether one of the Unevolved was to blame, attempting to get revenge for the Pathwalkers’ callous attitude to them.

  She was killed by beasts, ripped apart by them, Earth-former tells me with a sigh. Based on the beasts that the Warriors identified as having done the deed – and the presence of such a variety at the same time – it seems that she was attacked by some of the beasts she had tamed. She had gone into the forest to relieve herself without telling anyone – that’s why she was unprotected at the time. I think she was just so used to having her protection at her command that she forgot things had changed.

  I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting this. I was anticipating Beast-tamer being another pain in my arse, but also rather hoping that I might be able to show her a different way of taming. Unfortunately, it seems that her previous methods have come around to bite her before I could – quite literally. It’s disappointing, but I’m honestly still a bit too wrung out of emotions to mourn someone who tried to kill me. And in some ways, I can even appreciate the poetic justice of her being surprised and killed by those she had hurt, especially after she tried to forcibly tame one of the juvenile kiinas.

  “Well, not much we can do about it now,” I say finally with a sigh. “Come on in and we’ll get the rest of you settled.” Connecting mentally to Shrieks and Tarra, I try to get an update on the situation. Annoyingly, it seems that Tarra is out of range for a mental conversation. I wonder why she’s decided to go off into the forest all of a sudden.

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  The red tribe members have been generally well-behaved, Shrieks informs me. There is some evidence that the Pathwalkers attempted to escape their hut last night by creating a tunnel, but they failed to make much headway, if any. The Warriors, both Bound and not, showed no indication of doing the same. I commanded the Bound Warriors to speak truthfully to me and they informed me that they have not heard their brothers discussing escape at all.

  Good to know, I tell him, storing the information away for later. It’s not ideal, but considering everything, it’s probably the best I can hope for right now. It’s only yesterday when we were fighting each other for our lives and freedom, after all. And so far whether they were being affected by the Core is very much a theoretical possibility rather than a proven fact. Make sure the Pathwalkers are constantly under guard. They won’t be able to make serious attempts at escape thanks to the Bonds, but I don’t think that they would be stopped if unBound Warriors just picked them up and ran with them. Just because the Bound Warriors didn’t hear any plans for escape doesn’t mean there weren’t any.

  That’s true, Shrieks admits. I will ensure that they are all kept under close guard in case one of them thinks of your idea. But that is not sustainable in the long-term, he warns.

  I hope that it will become less of an issue as time goes on, I confide. One way or another. Because sure as anything, my next focus is to give myself some points in Willpower so that I can hopefully expand the Bonds I hold to all of the Evolved samurans currently in the village.

  Also, once I’ve got this group settled and know that I’m not needed for anything immediately in the village, I’m determined to go and face the next Challenge in my soul space – I’ve had the sense for a couple of weeks that it is open to me, finally. It’s been rather frustrating being denied every time I enter the soul space because I wasn’t ready for some reason, especially when I thought upon ending the last Challenge that the next one would be available immediately.

  While I do that I could multi-task and also accrue more Energy towards my next level. Maybe I can even risk Meditating next to the Pure Energy stream for a couple of hours before or after starting? Healing my Energy channels can be done with mana, not Energy, though the latter is significantly more efficient.

  But first, I have to deal with the sheer influx of a whole village’s worth of samurans, even if it is considered to be a small village. And currently more than half of my own village are standing around and watching the show instead of doing whatever they’re supposed to be doing.

  “Alright everyone,” I say loudly, clapping my hands together to get the attention of even those murmuring to each other, their eyes full of wariness or outright distaste for the samurans halted before our gate. “This is a village of samurans who, due to the choices of their leadership, will be joining ours. Permanently.” There’s more than a little murmuring at that. “Please keep in mind that the Unevolved have played no part in the recent events, and knew no more about them than any of us. I hope that you’ll make your brethren welcome. Those who did have a role in recent events will be expected to make up for them as best they can before they will be fully accepted. If you have any questions, tell your council representative. We will be holding a council meeting tonight to clear up everything and set the tone for the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, I know that you all have tasks to accomplish for the good of everyone.” I decide to sweeten the pot a little. “In thanks for your efforts, I’ll be authorising the task-givers to offer an extra Energy Heart fragment to those they feel are working hard to support our village.”

  That is met with a swell of more positive-sounding grunts and clicks, and I feel a sense of apprehension ease. I wonder whether my people were questioning if they were going to receive fewer Energy Heart fragments as a result of the newcomers. It’s a valid concern – I’ll have to up my production rate on that. At some point I'll need to bring a couple of trusted samurans into the secret – I’ll be leaving soon and if no one else knows about how to make Energy Hearts, the little economy that has sprung up over the last months will disintegrate rapidly.

  Food is another concern which may be bothering some of my people. With the destruction to our fields and the scattering of our herds, we’re going to be completely reliant on hunting for the short term. Hopefully not too long, though, as we’ve got at least half again as many mouths to feed. The forest can’t sustain that indefinitely. Getting our farming back and running is definitely a priority – it’s a pity Beast-tamer died. She could have come in useful in bringing the animals back. Then again, given how she got ripped apart soon after her Bonds were forcibly released, perhaps she wouldn’t have been the best choice despite being a Tamer.

  My audience starts disappearing, the samurans eager to get back to work now that they know there’s something in it for them beyond just the good feeling of helping each other recover. I watch as some of my Warriors chivvy away groups of red tribe Warriors, obviously hoping that they might earn something too – perhaps I’d better offer time in the den for those guarding the prisoners with such attention.

  I stroke my beard thoughtfully as I wonder whether offering den time to the invading Warriors might be a good idea. Part of me wants to automatically push that thought away – the idea of helping my enemies get stronger a day after they slaughtered some of my people rankles hugely. But the more logical part of me who is tired of anger is questioning exactly what I want to happen next. Do I want to punish the invaders, or do I want to reform them?

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