Aranea came to her senses on a stone floor. Her head was spinning, and she felt a throbbing pain in the back of her head as if someone was hammering upon her skull from inside. She tried to stand, but her legs gave out.

  “She is waking up,” a familiar voice said nearby.

  “Finally. Tilden, it was too dangerous. How did she end up with him in the first pce? Can you even imagine what would have happened if he…”

  “Rex, Elder. Despite the unexpectedness, everything is proceeding according to my calcutions. Our fool acts as we need him to. You just sing the song I wrote for you, and the old farts will behave like the senile idiots they are, eagerly swallowing any shit to solve at least one problem. Thanks to Academician, they are in a panic now, and panic makes people do stupid things,” Tilden said smugly. “Don’t worry, Elder. Take a deep breath. Our cause is just, and your contribution to returning us to the proper path shall be remembered for eternity. Stand proud!” Aranea heard fading footsteps.

  The pain and dizziness subsided. The girl blinked twice, wrestling the crity of vision back, and raised her head to the iron bars blocking the way out. She was in a tight cell; a loaf of bread and a bowl of water stood on her side of the bars. And the smiling Tilden stood outside of the cell.

  “Wakey, wakey, moron,” the knight ughed, baring his white fangs. “Your bastard of a father sure gave me a lot of trouble. I even regret saving him that day.”

  “You… you saved my dad?” Aranea asked barely above a whisper. It took quite an effort just to speak. Her whole throat turned into a dried and sticky desert, as if she had drunk a bottle of glue.

  “Yep. But don’t bme me; I was young and idealistic back then. Now, however, it’s time to rectify the folly of my youth. And to do so, I’m forced to sacrifice my dear friends,” Tilden said, wiping a fake tear from his crimson eye. “A tragedy, really. But it is all his fault. If he’d just stopped meddling in my affairs, none of this would have happened.”

  “Sacrifice your friends? But… this is insanity!” Aranea finally regained control over her voice and screamed at the man, “And what will you do to Dad!? And… Spirits! What did you do to the poor cubs! They have parents who will be worried! Give them back!”

  “To answer your questions in order,” Tilden leaned on the bars of a cell behind him and gained a bored expression. “To obtain power, true power, I mean, you have to sacrifice someone from time to time. Sad, true, but for me, it is the only way to rise in the ranks. And rise I must, for I have a great many things that I want to change in our order. And for that, I need authority. I am not strong enough to be promoted naturally, so I need to ‘grease’ things up. For this, I needed funds, which my friends have been willing to provide me in exchange for my favor in turning away from their joy trade. This is the monetary component of my appeasement.

  “But as I have learned, you can’t solve everything with tokens. There are seniors longing for the glorious past. Bah. A simple assurance, a few gifts, and their lot has thrown their support with yours truly. Wealth, influence—I had it all, until your pappy put me at risk by daring to stop my ascension. As for your second question." He smiled wickedly. “The next time we meet, your daddy will be dead and dishonored, because my new allies will wipe out someone, and he will be made to take the fall. Can you guess what happens next?” He stepped away from the cell, chuckling, and stopped. “Oh, and as for the cubs… Eh, kids die all the time. This time, their lives are the coin that will ensure your pappy’s demise.” Tilden left, filling the narrow hallway with his maniacal ughter.

  “You lie! Liar!” Aranea smmed her whole body into the iron bars but could not even move them. Panicking, she stepped back and searched the cell for anything useful. Nothing. Smooth stone walls, the ordinary floor, and not a single window.

  The light in the corridor went out, trapping the cub in total darkness. In a second, her amber eye adjusted, and she recognized her trembling paws.

  “He is lying,” Aranea said to herself. Dad wasn’t foolish. He was not! She licked her lips. “Mom!” That person also spoke about dealing with Mom. What did he mean by that? Oh Spirits, what if she woke up and found out that Aranea was gone? She would be terribly worried! What if Keyl tried to find Aranea and couldn’t find her?

  She clutched her head in horror and fear. She had really ruined everything this time. Aranea waited and waited, unsure of what exactly. A miracle, a hero, a sword saint, Ravager, Dad, Mom, anyone! But no one came. She began tapping with a cw upon a steel bar, counting seconds flowing into hours.

  Eventually she ate the food when hunger overcame her. Then she sat on the floor, despair washing over her. Her paws trembled; she felt that an irreversible thing was about to happen. She cared not for herself, but what if this Tilden hurt her family? He knew her father, and the vilin wore military armor. Did that mean that he was a part of the Order? But the Ice Fangs were the heroes! How could any of them stoop so low as to kidnap children? Eventually, the girl fell asleep, and when she woke up, there was new food in her cell.

  She kept knocking on her cell, counting the hours and ter the days, but no one was visiting her anymore. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t spot when the food appeared. When she slept, the refilled bowl and a fresh loaf of bread awaited her upon awakening. Her pn to surprise the kidnappers during the food delivery and escape was in vain.

  Then, one day, her wait was over. She heard loud footsteps and cheerful whistling. Tilden returned, carrying a sizeable jingling bag on his belt. He walked up to the cell and snapped his fingers, causing the steel bars to retract into the floor. As before, he was wearing full armor and no helmet.

  “Hello there, little murderer!” He smiled, showing his fangs. “Your daddy’s gone. Time to meet your mommy and finish it.”

  “You lie!” Aranea shouted, backing up against the walls as Tilden entered. But despite her words, she felt a gaping emptiness in her chest. As if something important, irrepceable, had been ripped out. An icy emptiness began to gnaw at her soul. He called her a murderer... Did that mean that if she hadn’t been caught, her father would... No, it made no sense, none at all. Dad was alive! He must be fine!

  “Why would I? I am actually quite happy and honest right now. But anyway, believe whatever delusions you want; half of your family is gone. Because of you.” His smile widened. “About time we deal with the other half.” He grabbed Aranea by the throat, dragging her out.

  She tried to scream for help, but the iron fingers tightened, nearly suffocating her. She let out her cws, but they scratched helplessly at his armor. Tilden dragged her through corridors, up and down stairs with no clear pattern. Finally, they arrived at a rge steel door. Aranea felt Tilden jab her in the back with a syringe, and then he dropped her. This was a brightly lit pce; the walls, ceiling, and floor were all steel, and the gates bore the noble symbols of each house, including the Wintersong family.

  “What…” Aranea asked with difficulty, her thoughts clouded. She wanted to giggle, and the legs refused to hold the crazed girl. “What did you do…”

  “Kids should behave like kids. We don’t want you to complicate the message, right? Worry not, it is only temporary. I’ll let you be fully conscious when the end comes. Miss Kaisa!” Tilden said, raising his voice slightly. “I have a thing of yours! Come out and py!”

  A loud noise came from the ceiling, as if a person was running on all fours. The movement was now accompanied by the loud tearing of metal; the unknown newcomer was getting closer by the second. Then it stopped. Tilden took the bag from his waist in his left paw, and his smirking face changed to a mask of concentration. A crack appeared in the metal ceiling further down the corridor. Tilden licked his lips, and the ceiling shattered. The bck figure crashed through the opening, nding on two feet. Kaisa Wintersong stood calmly in the corridor, her amber eyes fixed on Tilden. Her lips parted, fangs fshing in the electric light. Then her expression softened when she saw Aranea.

  “Give her back,” Kaisa silently said. “I will not seek revenge; I will not hunt you. You can just leave and run wherever you want. Give her back, and this will be the end of it.” She took a step forward, sending tremors through the corridor and leaving a footprint on its smooth surface. Aranea looked at Mom in numb surprise. Before, she had been the gentlest being. Now, however, Kaisa became a force of terror and might.

  “Take her then,” Tilden grinned and charged at Kaisa. The autocannon slipped from his vambrace, and he leveled his aim at the standing, motionless woman, filling Aranea with dread…

  Kaisa vanished, and Tilden flew backward, the weapon disappearing from his wrist, torn away by a casual cw swipe. A huge gash, exposing wet bone, covered the Wolfkin’s right shoulder; the blow passed effortlessly through the ptes of his suit. Tilden tried to hit Kaisa in the snout with the bag, but she tore through the fabric with her cws, sending golden tokens tumbling to the floor. Tilden screamed, smmed into the doors behind him, and colpsed on the floor, whimpering in fear.

  “I surrender!” Tilden shouted, half with panic, half with barely contained glee. Kaisa stopped just as she was about to pick up Aranea. The girl looked at Mom and saw fear—a tide of pure animal horror that filled Mom’s eyes.

  “No… no…Nghrh…” Kaisa whispered, suddenly breathing heavily. Drool poured from her mouth, and her arms shook. A movement rippled under her skin, bulging the fur and frightening the girl.

  “No, really, I’m at a loss.” Tilden smiled confidently, rising and holding the left paw over his injury. “You won, fair and square. You… dominated me,” The Ice Fang taunted his opponent, unconcerned by the cws. “Enjoy your just reward; it should hit you soon if I understand right. Girl,” he addressed Aranea with fake concern, “now you’ve really caused us a camity. Your whole family is gone. Why did you do it? Why did you have to sneak in here? For what reason did you drive your mother to such despair?” He shook his head in mock perplexity. “GUARDS! INTRUDERS ARE IN THE VAULT!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing through the corridor. In response, the red light fshed and loud sirens wailed an arm.

  Kaisa tried to pick up Aranea, but she suddenly stumbled, falling on her knees. A low, guttural growl came from her mouth as the Wolfkin tried desperately to hold something back. Aranea thought Mom had increased in size rapidly, yet a second ter she was the same size as before. Mom’s pupils were diting and shrinking; her eyes darted left and right without rest. The corners of her lips curled up to her ears.

  “Jackpot,” she uttered a single word in an alien voice, teeming with malice, watching Aranea and licking her fangs. Mom smmed her fists into her head, closing the mouth.

  The rge doors opened, and a group of armored Wolfkins stepped in, their capes rustling on the floor. Aranea blinked, fainting from the stress.

  She awoke in the wide hall, sitting near Mom. The interior was brightly lit; yellow light soothed the strained eyes, and rich paintings decorated the walls. A rge circur table surrounded Kaisa and Aranea; several venerable Wolfkins sat behind it. These were the elders, Ice Fangs, in charge of the Order’s civilian activities. In all, forty elders governed the noble families, but only eight of them were present.

  Aranea’s eyes widened as she understood who else was present. A sword saint! His armor featured the same heraldry as Tilden’s, but unlike the vilin’s, the battle suit covered its user like a second skin; segmented golden pieces overpping each other formed the sleeves of his arms and legs. A regal orange cape flowed from his shoulders, secured with rubies on the exquisitely crafted pauldrons. Twin ser pistols, encrusted with a yer of precious gems, were on his belt, and in the golden scabbard at his back was a curved sword.

  “And that concludes my report.” Tilden, dressed in formal attire and without armor, stood before the elders. One side of his doublet was lowered, revealing his bandaged wound. “While it is true that Kaisa attacked me without provocation, and it is also true that Aranea sneaked into the vault without reason, I request the honorable court to bestow mercy. After what happened to my best friend Gregor…” His voice cracked, as if in pain, and he went silent.

  “Gregor Wintersong was a traitor, and he died like one!” One of the elders in the Wintersong colors shouted. Aranea recognized the voice; the speaker was the person speaking near her cell. The woman jumped to her feet in anger and threw her arms at the ceiling, which was painted with the image of Grandmaster First Sunbde, the greatest of their kind. “The monster that he turned out to be is responsible for the massacre! He refused to obey the command to stand down, daring to disobey the honorable sword saint and insisting on his delusions! He was mad, and you have nothing to bme yourself for, Knight-Captain!”

  “Still, this warrants further investigation,” said another elder, a sleazy-looking old Wolfkin of the Summerspring House. “How did a little girl sneak to our treasury? Have our personnel gone blind? A punishment is in order, true, but I doubt that we need to turn our ire toward the opportunists. Rather, we should thank them for pointing out a glorious fw in our security. A fw that you, Knight-Captain, had missed, I dare add.”

  “Why were there skips in the video footage?” grumbled a bulky elder of the Dewglitter house. “I don’t buy the story about faulty equipment. Almost as if we watched what you…”

  “These baseless accusations are unworthy of our Order!” barked the Wintersong elder. “Retract them this instant…”

  “You need at least ten elders to mark a person for death,” the sword saint said in a clear voice. “You only had three.”

  “What does it matter?!” The elder smmed her paw on the table. “He killed an entire vilge! How long did we have to wait for the rest to gather? An eternity? And don’t look at me like that, Sword Saint Osiris Summerspring, you were there! You saw what happened! Knight-Captain Tilden Summerspring was absolutely right!” She pointed her finger accusingly at the sword saint.

  “Nevertheless, I would like to ask Kaisa a few questions,” the sword saint spoke quietly. He alone carried a weapon in the room. He alone wore full armor. Tilden wanted to say something, but the leader silenced him with a gnce of his blue lenses. “My dy, can you please tell me what happened to Gregor? Could you please tell me your version of events? You need not be afraid; I will not let anyone even think of insulting you or your daughter.”

  A low snarl erupted from Kaisa’s mouth, and she unleashed her cws, biting deep into her legs, tearing through her pants, and bleeding herself. The sword saint was on her in a blink, preventing Kaisa from hurting herself any further. Aranea desperately wanted to accuse the bastard who had harmed Dad, but all her thoughts were in confusion, and she could only whimper like an infant cub.

  “Look at her. She has become deranged. All the Wolf Tribe members are nothing but insane trash,” the female elder said with disgust. Before she could continue, the sword saint appeared before her, moving too fast for Aranea’s eyes to follow. He lightly spped the venerable woman across her snout, and blood appeared on her lips, and one fang fell out.

  “One more insult, Elder, and I won’t hold back my next pat,” Osiris said steely. “You broke our ws, betrayed our traditions, and dared to deceive me by ciming that ten had decided the fate of the knight Captain Gregor. We will review your actions at a ter date. This woman,” he pointed to Kaisa, “has lost her husband. She is grieving. Send her to…”

  “To the Ice Cave for ten days.” The female elder interrupted, her red eyes burning with hatred.

  “Pardon?” The sword saint tilted his head in question.

  “This is a reasonable decision.” Tilden nodded. “They broke the w. A few days in the Ice Cave will cool their heads and let them think. Come on, Uncle, that’s hardly punishment!” He let out a good-natured ugh.

  “I heard that the Wolf Tribe suffers from cold temperatures...” said the sleazy-looking elder.

  “Just a superstition!” The elder smmed her paw into the table once more. “People! We have a crisis on our hands! Six, I repeat, six cubs are missing! From the safest possible city in the world! From our keep!” she shouted, raising her paws above her head. “And you argue about what to do about insignificant trouble such as this?! Decide already; we must act now! Look at them; they have fur just like us. What could possibly happen to them?”

  “Ice Cave,” said one of the elders, then another, and finally all of them, except for the Summerspring and two others who voted against it.

  “Ice Cave it is,” the female elder stated.

  “Not all the elders have spoken,” the sword pointed out with a threatening tone.

  “We only need two elders to subject someone to Ice Cave. Five have spoken.” The woman smiled sweetly at the sword saint.

  “Now you care about our ws? How convenient.”

  “Uncle, please, let’s not cause a scene. We have pressing matters to discuss. If Gregor was indeed responsible for the disappearances…” Tilden fell silent as the Wolfkin in gold and blue armor faced him.

  “I fail to remember when you became an elder or a sword saint. Knight-Captain Tilden, you will remember your pce and not speak out of turn. You are to keep watch over Kaisa and Aranea. If any, and I mean any, danger comes to them, you are to rescue them and report to me. If so much as a hair falls from their fur, you will lose your head, nephew. There is something fishy about this incident, and I swear I will get to the bottom of it.” The lenses of the helmet burrowed into Tilden’s snout, and the smaller Wolfkin swallowed fearfully, shouting commands to the guards.

  “Oh, and nephew,” the sword saint spoke anew.

  “Yes, Uncle?” Tilden stopped.

  “On my authority as the sword saint and the master of the Summerspring household, I have requested assistance from the Investigation Bureau. The message has been sent. The Dynast is alerted. I trust that you are overjoyed.” The sword saint stared at Tilden through the lenses of his helmet while the Wolfkin was backing out of the hall along with the guards.

  Soldiers escorted Kaisa and Aranea away, while the elders began to discuss the disappearance of the cubs. Aranea desperately wanted to scream that she knew what had happened but only produced mindless babbling while Mom kept growling.