"No," Shilloh said," I think I'd remember a name as dramatic as 'Thresher.'"

  "I mean, as far as code names go, it's still better than Blightbane."

  "That's a low bar."

  "True, but have you considered: shut up. Anyway, like I was saying, Thresher is a heavyweight. And I really mean that. He's a slaughter artist on a scale that people don't even like to think about. But, he's also got this tricky, slippery mind. Obviously, he can stand fast and deliver without flinching. But I always think about a different time. See, there was a possible leviathan incursion."

  "A proper Leviathan?" she said, eyebrows raising.

  "No, more of a leviathan class threat. So just something in that weight class."

  "Still…" she said, letting the word trail off meaningfully. A leviathan was, well, hell, it was hard to put into words. A leviathan was game over for a town. Even a city with a decent armory would count it a win to run one off and only lose a few hundred people. In her Other Life, they were the sort of inexorable legend that made fanatics sacrifice people and appeal to gods for aid.

  "Exactly. The only good news was that they had advance notice. The threat was non-native to North American shores, but one group of these creatures had been displaced by a bigger Nasty. They followed a weird path and ended up laying one of their broods of eggs close enough that things were going to get bad when they hatched.

  So, Thresher was part of a task force set up to handle the angry adolescent sea monster, and the wave of displaced cryptos that would be fleeing in front of it."

  She winced, remembering what Wade had said about any crypto they passed being a potential risk at their back if they got into a fight.

  "How do you handle that?" she said, stopping to sit on a fallen tree." Do you have to call the president and get Godkiller involved?"

  "Good guess," he said, pulling out a granola bar and meticulously peeling it out and folding the wrapper into a perfect, tiny little square that went into his pocket. "Even in that situation, Thresher could have stood his ground and done his part. Depending on how grown the crypto was, he would have been enough on his own or held on long enough for backup. Knowing that, he could have let a more traditional battle plan form. But, our boy has an idea."

  "Running away and hiding?"

  "You jest, but some of us fight off that idea before every single engagement. Still, to answer your question, no. He reached out to a group of magic users who were good at communicating with animals, a Navy contact, and a friend with a fishing business that would have to evacuate if the attack ever happened."

  Scotty beamed at her and theatrically took a bite of his bar, letting the tension stretch as she tried to put it together in her head.

  "Alright, I give up. What did he do?"

  "That crazy mother fucker got a boat full of fish guts, and used the animal communicators to talk a pod of Orcas into finding the eggs for them."

  "Oh, shit, "she gasped, remembering how intelligent and low-key terrifying orcas were. "That's brilliant."

  "That's not even the good part. Once the eggs are located, they can figure out if they need to hire professionals, get water mages, or just drop some big ass bombs. Finding them is harder than it sounds, though. Luckily, these Orcas agree to find the eggs in exchange for food. They do it more out of boredom than anything, really. They proceed, just for shits and nibbles, to dive into an area no human submersible would feel safe going. We're tracking them with some tags, and all of a sudden, there's a flurry of movement. But, no sudden crypto attack. So we have to assume everything is going okay. The orcas eventually come back later than they should have, and look distinctly embarrassed."

  Scotty mimed handing her something big, like a serving tray. "They present a massive piece of shell to the animal communicators and ask if they still get food. Because, as it turns out, the eggs crack real good and they got carried away competing to see who could smash the most."

  Shilloh laughed. She could absolutely see that. Killer whales were known to get bored, play games, and pass them on to their kids in addition to unique pod-hunting tactics.

  "Oh wow, that's great."

  "It is. And that's why, to this day. The Blightbanes still have an operation collaborating with and training sealife to do aquatic missions. That same pod helps us with all sorts of things and clears out the eggs in that area each mating season. It's been so effective that we've even developed a way for them to contact us, and we've dispatched healers to them in emergencies. All because Thresher didn't want to have to go in guns blazing, even though he was absolutely capable of it."

  "And that's okay?"

  "Not okay. It's wildly encouraged."

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Shilloh's smile brightened then dimmed. "Good," she dropped her eyes, not wanting to see his face when she said this. "Because I'm not sure how well I'd do needing to hunt down and kill something just because it has the potential for things to go wrong. I don't think that would sit right with me."

  Knowing she had probably just insulted the lifestyle of Scotty and several of his friends, she kept her eyes down.

  If that bomb had dropped and silenced her friend, then she would not have been surprised. What shocked her was when Scotty blew a raspberry and waved her point away.

  "Whatever. Who cares. You are amazing. You can help plenty without fighting. Maybe you'll only do support work, or have to handle unambiguously awful threats. Or, and this is the one I'm betting on, I think you will end up surprising yourself with the difference between what you are currently comfortable with doing and what you are capable of."

  "I'm capable of tons," she shook her head. "That's a given. Anybody who can press a button is capable of launching a nuke. Still, we both know how many people don't have the disposition to fire a gun, let alone a nuke, even in an emergency."

  "That's true, but it's equally true that you have already fired a gun. I wasn't there, but Wade saw you kill a threat. He's also seen you run towards a crowd of people getting attacked so you could lend aid. Shit, didn't you agree to jump out of a perfectly operational car while serving as bait for several cryptos hunting you? Then end up trying to save Wade from monsters by literally fighting so you could carry him to safety?"

  "Yes. But that was before I knew how terrifying it would feel. In that situation, I just reacted. But now, I know what that feels like, and I know what the consequences will be if I do it again. Scotty, it was awful. All of it hit me once I was safe. I almost puked so many times, and I don't know if I could make myself do it again."

  "You sure about that? Because you just asked me to walk into danger—"

  "But I'm a forest-focused dryad in the fucking woods! That's not the same."

  "We can argue that all day and get nowhere. The point I'm trying to make is that you have chosen to engage with danger several times already. Some of them within he last few hours. If you had been trained and informed, like a bane would be, then it would have been less scary. And even when you had to handle the mortal peril unprepared, even when the threat was terrifying, surprising, and writhing," he winked at her, "I saw you hold that little vulnerable creature in your arms. You never thought about letting go once things got bad. And that, my dear, is really the core of what being a blight bane is. Not killing. That," he pointed in the direction the purple crypto had stumbled off to.

  Shilloh had to admit that was a good point. A cogent and emotionally resonant one. The sort of thing only a friend who knew you, genuinely respected you, and who had no small amount of love would be willing to say.

  It would suck if someone with a stunted emotional lexicon felt awkward in that emotional moment and was to, oh, I don't know, fuck it all up.

  Shilloh made a farting noise with her mouth.

  "Bane kill. Bane use big guns that make everyone question how big their willies are. That's the real core of it."

  Scottie laughed and threw a pinecone, which got tangled in her hair. "Whatever. Either way, you've still got an interview to prepare for. Tell me what you would do if you had a weak pyrokinetic, access to high-caliber but non-automatic firearms, and anything else in your house, plus a pack of Katzerhoondes coming towards a town."

  "One's that had tasted human?"

  "Of course!"

  "How much warning?"

  "One week."

  "Season?"

  "Is that relevant?"

  "Yes."

  "Fine, it's spring."

  "Easy," she said, slipping her thumbs into the shoulder straps of her backpack. "Sell a few of your guns and use the money to buy a metric fuck ton of mature lilies. Then I'd make a pollen bomb, or a special sort of treatment if we had the right ingredients in season. If we got a bunch of them, then you can ring a town with pollen bombs, wreaths, or the stronger distilled stuff and they'll pass by like streams around a boulder."

  It took her a few steps to realize that Scotty was looking at her funny.

  "What?"

  "I don't understand what the lilies would do."

  "The pollen."

  "What about it?"

  "Katzerhoondes are like cats, but a million times worse, right?"

  "Right."

  "Lily pollen is toxic to cats. So, as you would expect, it's a million times worse for Katzerhoondes. They avoid them like the plague. You can make pollen bombs and burn out a whole pack's livers over the course of an evening if you have to."

  "Really?"

  "Yeah, my village in the old world used to sell the bombs sometimes."

  "Damn," the fussy bane whistled," Katzerhoondes are the worst. Wish I had known that two years ago. Alright! Mew game. I offer a problem, and you think up a non-violent or dryad-themed solution. I then tell you how it might be handled in an orthodox way. Once we decide which is better, we'll pick out all the things you can do that no one else can. Tomorrow we'll practice you steering interview questions towards all those things. Then they'll hire you on to make us a new standard operating procedure if nothing else."

  "Will that pay a lot?"

  "Dunno. Let's find out."

  A weight lifted from her stomach, and Shilloh, for the first time in a long time, felt the grim resolution to do whatever it took to achieve her goals replaced by something else. Something that felt small, and bright, and ready to grow.

  Something that had direction.

  "Hell yeah," she said, extra energy leaking into her steps." And to sweeten the pot, if we can find five good ones before we get back, then I'll get you a jacuzzi once I'm rich."

  "Make it a soaking tub and you have yourself a deal," he said, giving her a conspiratorial smile.

  Shilloh turned around, returned his grin with her own, and shook his hands. "Deal. Now let's get after it." Rather than frowning or tensing up as she imagined a bloody future with the banes, she felt a familiar smile come to her face. A razor-edged one that she had last directed at Sam. Shilloh would charge into a burning building if it were a necessary sacrifice, but she wouldn't burn down the world for a goal." Whatever poor schlubs are interviewing me don't know what's about to hit them."

  Scotty laughed, and she did too.

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