The trip from that point on was far more subdued, but still quite enjoyable as I spent time with my ribe. I thought that perhaps the clothing would tone down the lustful gnces, but something about the light fabric just draped over their curves was teasingly appealing and I had to draw my mind away from lewd thoughts more than once.

  Dekarru spent a couple of hours early on in her room and I could hear her talking, on the radio I assume. Speaking in a soft, singing nguage that was absolutely lovely to listen to. I figured maybe it was the Willow Creek on toag-something? The shaman had mentio at some point but I was drawing a bnk at that moment.

  But she eventually came down and called me and Carmil to the pit to talk. “Alright, Carmil?” my elemental tilted her head in response as she draped herself against my side. “See if you do what we talked about.”

  For once my blood bory actually seemed excited about something other than me and my sexual and romantiquests. “Oh! Lovely, I do hope you are right my dear.” She said with a small giggle of anticipation. Then she simply reached over, pressed a single fio the runes on my arm, and with a slight glht up my ditions. “You do appear to be as wise as you cim, oh great seer. I do not o return to my blood form to access the base diagnosis feature of my runes.”

  I was a bit distracted though, reading my ditions was iing, though not as surprising as I might have thought. I suppose I just got used to there being some new surprise every time I looked at my ditions or Status.

  [Soul tai – Stable D3stru in Pr0gress]

  [Mind Shatter – SS]

  [Immobilized – D (B)]

  “Hang, o me cheething” I muttered and reached down to unstrap my prosthetic. The D rating in Immobilized disappeared and the parentheses around B vanished as well. A few long moments of strapping my leg ba and the D returned. “Okay, it seems the base rating is repced temporarily by an aid that lowers the effects. Good to know”

  Dekarru stared at me. “Are the others not more w?”

  I shrugged “Mind Shatter is less severe now. I actually thought that might be the case. I’ve been having memories e back, well, pieces of them anyway. I think that my… patron might have lesse for one reason or another.”

  “A reward for your hard work?” She chuckled.

  I shrugged “Soul tai is destrug, but stable. That’s… actually I think I’m okay with that. My patron said they were responsible for it and kind of alluded to the idea that it was required for my survival or sanity or something? So maybe it’s being taken down because I handle whatever it’s stopping? I know, fully a shot in the dark but I’m trying to be optimistic.”

  The shaman chuckled and nodded. “Usually a good idea, that. If you’re not ed I won’t be either.” Weren came and handed us all drinks. More of the honey wine from the night before. “Drink, you’ll in a minute.”

  I raised a brow at her and downed my gss quickly. “Okay, so what are you going to dump on me?”

  “We found you because we were looking for you.” She said with a small apologetic smile and held up a hand to forestall aion from me. “Before you ask anythi me expin. I had a… vision is a crude word but lets go with it. I saw blood and fire ah and something being in my nds that shouldn't be. No, not you. Though if you had traveled west instead of east and entered us earlier I might have thought it was you.” She chuckled. “Luckily we found the angel and the soldiers first, celestials are not wele in Willow Creek and they fug know it. The Fae hold court in our nds and those two forces do not get along o.

  “So, we find a battlefield and realize that the soldiers are all lined up respectfully meaning that someone survived. We follow your path and find you several hours ter and you know the rest. Most of it anyway.” the old orc shrugged.

  “What’s missing from the tale?” I asked, leaning forward and trying not to look worried.

  “First off, we took the fucker’s spear. It’s bundled up ie partment underh us. Celstials don’t use normal metals so anything of theirs is valuable. That much fangel steel? Ooh, that will go for a small fortune, especially if there is any lingeriial mana trapped in it.” she snorted and smiled and waved her hand “Which means, yonna be rice we get to town. No no, don’t start. You killed the thing, we just looted it. The money is yours.”

  “And you are my tribe. What I have, we have.” I said simply and got a smile from the seer.

  “I mean, that is our way but you haven’t really been taught everythi so I wasn’t going to expect you to go that far immediately. But you keep being more one of us that I want to hope. Gods you’re a blessing, you know that?” she smiled brightly as she spoke and I could see pride in her eyes.

  “I’m just me. Now stop avoiding talking about the worse part I know you have waiting for me.”

  She sighed. “Smart little shit. Okay so, an angel in our nds is worth at least calling to let the elders know. An angel in our nds hunting the Saint of an unknown god? That requires everyoo e to the table and be grumpy at each other for a while. Sorry.”

  I hung my head a out a frustrated sigh “Fuuuuuuck. I’m the politics, again. This is a huge pain in my ass.”

  Carmil stroked my arm gently “You’re in a better position now than you were in Uvtrayl, love.”

  “Yirl is right. You’re one of us now, that gives you a lot mhts and sway than you had as a prisoner of war. You’re part of MY encve which means everyone is gonna think twice before even giving you a dirty look.”

  I stared at her. “You know, sometimes I’m really dumb?” I said with a small chuckle “I just now realized you’re probably extremely important to your-, our people.”

  She snorted “I’m an a oracle to one of h gods! Of course I’m fug important!” she yelled with a ugh. “I have the same political power as a regional elder, and slightly more social sway than most of them. I’d have even more, but being oh makes some folk look at you funny.” she shrugged.

  I sighed “Why ’t they just drool over us like a normal person?” and the shaman ughed so hard she nearly spilled her wine.

  “Okay stop, there’s more and I ’t get to it if I die ughing.” she chuckled and shook her head. “So, we have a treaty with Uvtrayl and some pretty strong diplomatic ties with them. They have been absolutely bending over for us any time we ask in an attempt to be more than just good neighbors. They want to be official allies. Probably with a… the military thing?” She tapped her knee in thought.

  “Mutual defense pact?”

  “That! Yes. They want us to be war buddies so Pitrak pisses themselves and goes running rather than keep fighting them. We’ve made a few cessions that make them think we might, but we currently have no pns to.”

  “Currently?”

  “Truth be told, the refugees ing from both sides of that war alone are f us to doverype stuff than we want to, including expanding our towns and cities, and Uvtrayl makes a det point that us joining them would all but end the war and stop that. Pitrak is terrified of us and everyone knows it. Not that we will gather armies for anything but defense, but most of the world thinks that’s just us trying to sound more friendly than we are.” she sighed. “But bay point, I asked some people I trust to reach out and learn what they about you and yeneral. Subtle like of course. But it looks like they think you and the nurse are dead, and the General has taken a leave of her office. My tacts say the details on it are fishy, but they won’t know more for a few days yet.”

  Carmil reached up to turn my head to face her “Breathe, beloved.” And I let go of the breath I had been holding. “She is alive. We have to believe that.”

  “Yeah, probably. Would have been easy to list her among the dead from a celestial attack, but she’s not on the lists as far as my friends tell.”

  I rubbed my face “Okay, okay so that’s a wait and see issue, then?” the shaman nodded and I took a heavy breath, letting my body slump as I exhaled. “Alright. But you need something from me once we make it to the capital, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, yonna talk to the elder cil. Don’t worry I’m on it so I’ll have your back, but I have little idea how that will go.”

  “Okay, why?”

  “Because they teically have the right to refuse yal position as a citizen of Willow Creek, or did you not think about that part either?”

  “I figured it was another one of the simple ws to be ho. From what you’ve said it seems like most legal matters are ‘as little as we o legiste and no more’ and just let the vilges and tribes hahings internally.”

  “Yeah, but we do have a sus department, that kinda works sometimes. Frankly we know more about people who join as adults than those who were born here. That department be ordered by the elders to mark you down as a visiting fner. Which cause you and us legal problems, including potentially dep you. Which would more than likely mean being given to Uvtrayl as an enemy batant to our diplomatic allies.”

  I drew my legs up a out a soft huff. “I had been pnning on heading that way, but that was because I didn’t have a ton of options and I wao get Henna back. But I guess right now I’m safely assumed no longer a and it would be useful to remain that way.”

  “I know this isn’t easy for you Esme, but if this goes well we leverage our ties to learn more and maybe do something to help. But first, you have to vince most of the elders to let your position in my encve remain official.” Thewisted her face up in some vague disgust and worry. “Which we might be able to pull off with a certain ritual. But it is risky, for you more than for us. So the elders are likely to go for it, but only because it’ll be your corpse if it goes sideways, not ours.”

  I tilted my head “That’s ominous.” I said with a grunt.

  “We also took that angel’s heart.”

  I blinked “What the hell, why? Oh gods, please tell me I don’t have to eat it.”

  She stared at me “Fuo! What the hell, why would you think that?!”

  “You were making it all sound so horrible so onentioned a heart my mind just grabbed the worst thing it could e up with immediately, okay!”

  Weren ughed from the kit “You did make it out to be super horrible, Dekarru dear.”

  “Because it is!” the seer barked “She could die if they don’t like it, or if they just don’t like her!”

  I held up a hand “I’m sorry, but expin please?”

  The old orc huffed “So, I told you angels aren’t wele here because the Fae are, right? The two sides are plete opposites, ge versus stability for the most dumbed-down expnation. Well, an angel showed up and you killed it. We perform a ritual to get the attention of the local Fae-Lord and they send one of their Wildlings to e see what’s going on, or if we’re really lucky or unlucky depending, they might e themselves. Either way, you present the heart as a way of saying ‘hey, one of these assholes showed up in your backyard and I puhem for it’ and normally you get a small boon as thanks and are reized as a friend of the Fae-Lord and thus Willow Creek. It would be idiotic for any elder to deny you your p our nation at that point.”

  I rubbed my fad let my mind digest what I’d been told. I could see the problem right away. “But I’m a saint to an unknown god. I might be seen as a threat, or insult or something and attacked instead?”

  Carmil squeezed my arm “Death at that point might be a blessing, if you survived the enter I imagihe elders would be all but forced to either execute or exile you. I ’t imagihem wanting to risk alienating an Arch-Lord that is an at least occasional ally.”

  Dekarru nodded “Gd you’re both smart. So you see ant to keep that as a backup option rather than our first choice.”

  “So what’s our first choice?” I asked while trying, and failing, to keep the exhaustion from my voice.

  “We just try and charm the cil, which you seem capable of. Though somehow I think you’ll have an easier time with the female elders.” She gave me a wicked smirk and I rolled my eyes.