I strode through the tall grass that had started to yellow and catch on my clothes. It would be annoying when I had to pick out all the organic spear tips from my breaches later, and I knew I wouldn't find the one poking the side of my left knee every few steps, but it was better than eating a never-ending stream of dust.

  To my right was Franklin, and to my left was Kanieta and her entourage, which was the fancy way to say Hurring and Nereta, as Kanieta informed me. A quarter mile to either side were rows of uneasy soldiers from different armies eyeing each other with suspicion as they had been for most of our three weeks of travel.

  The Kin Warband from the Redtail Faction and the 14th Legion started out similar to this when the march began, but now there was definitely more of an edge to the glances. I wasn't sure if the suspicion was more from the fact we were so close to our destination, meaning the building tension would break soon one way or another, or if the two weeks of suspicious and frosty relations before marching was like planting yeast into dough, and now it had grown to the point it could no longer be contained.

  The two weeks weren't entirely, or even mostly, filled with the negotiations between the Kin and 14th Legion. In fact, much to my annoyance, the events played out basically as Kanieta predicted over three days, at least so far as negotiations went.

  She did not expect, and thus vehemently rejected my cop-out, that the legion pursuing and partially succeeding in recruiting the inhabitants of the nearby holds meant her prediction was wrong. Her terse response was that the actions of the legion against internal factions had nothing to do with negotiations between the Kin and the legion. Which made sense… But the conversation happened under the tent, if after the meeting, so it wasn't like my argument was ungrounded.

  Anyway, while the legion sent out the word they were recruiting, they couldn't outright start conscripting as I'm sure they wanted. The Holders weren't technically part of the Republic, and once they went to the first hold intent on conscription and supply gathering, they would find all the doors closed to them soon after with the desertion of those they did convince to join. Not that the holds were welcoming to their measured advance.

  The vast majority of the mini fortresses had more in common with a decrepit cabin in the middle of winter that hadn't seen a fire in its hearth in decades than anything else to the 14th's emissaries. What surprised everyone was the response to their declaration as word began to spread. While most doors remained shut, recruits began showing up by the hundreds or even thousands every day, with the condition that their families be escorted to the Triad.

  Turned out that the southern holds had experienced too much, even for their hardy and stubborn dispositions. It was shocking that they bent enough to flee, if understandable. With generations of preparation, the holds could hold out against the beastkins or a legion for years.

  The blood golems were another matter entirely. Ridiculous amounts of mental energy were needed to destroy them, while every death made them stronger. Those who experienced the nightmare of facing the creatures and lived wanted out, and those who heard stories were leery enough to consider options.

  If the legatus stayed there longer, there was a decent chance of him having enough recruits to form another legion. But I could tell from watching him that he was uncomfortable remaining in place for the two weeks they had stayed to gather supplies and rest.

  It didn't get any better once he found out that Kanieta and I originally came out here in part to hunt down a warband of seventy thousand wolfkins supposedly moving south that was nowhere to be seen. That wasn't a minor issue, but we would have to put it on the back burner.

  Once we got started, the long train of refugees and legionaries stretched for miles, and there were bands of Kin to either side mirroring the legionary's path. Quite a few of them were putting on a show with their magic, making it clear that they could decimate the host if they wanted to. Or that was the implicit threat.

  It wasn't until the third day that people began to calm down and accept they wouldn't be attacked as they settled into the monotony of tearing down camp, marching, and setting up camp again. Mind-numbing as it was, the legionaries did seem to be in better spirits than when I first saw them, as I would guess they at least had full pots of food every night. In such a manner, time quickly passed until we approached the end of our journey.

  My only real spark of entertainment during most of the traveling was performing experiments with Kanieta, which quickly became tedious if still rewarding. However, the day when Nareta suddenly popped up, looking haggard and reminding me I hadn't seen her in a while, was memorable.

  Apparently, Kanieta tasked her cousin with forming a relationship with at least one hold right after their first meeting with the 14th Legion, and it took her three weeks to find one and another to catch up to us. From what she said, most Holders refused to acknowledge her existence even while she shouted outside their walls or decided to attack her.

  She had to go to a dozen holds to simply have a conversation about the possibility of working together to fight the Crescent Moon. And then Nareta went through tens of more holds that were willing to talk before she found one that would hesitantly agree to more talking on cooperation. Sounding like a headache farm to me.

  When Nareta left, it was only one hold, but she had confidence that the number would grow as a man named Arkulto was put in charge of getting more to agree. Because, as Nareta put it, "The bear was the only reason they agreed at all. Holding up in caves most of their lives must form a connection between them."

  That seemed… kind of prejudiced to me. Then again, prejudice exists for a reason. Bears did hibernate through the winter, and the Holders did seem to be intent on doing the same through this metaphorical snowstorm.

  Not to mention that I couldn't see a legion marching out there anytime soon. Once the holds started falling and with only one source offering any kind of assistance, whatever terms the Kin offered would begin to look pretty good.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  I respected the Holders, but from what I saw, they were foolish in refusing to adapt. Not that I saw much of another option for them. It wasn't like they could all pack up and move to the Triad. The area the Holds took up made it impractical as the easternmost holders would have to travel months under the threat of the wolves, and then there was feeding them during the journey.

  No, there would be no mass migration.

  At the end of the day, I, and ultimately the holders, would have to trust the Kin to do their best to ally with the holds and save as many as possible, which was easy for me at this point. That same level of trust was not as simple for the 14th Legion, as the number of Kin shadowing their movement drastically increased the closer we came to the Triad.

  And then the news of a battle that took place in and around Southtown reached us. Kanieta was oddly scant on the details, but she said the Letairry came from Basetown. Other than the Olimpians winning with the Kin's help, I couldn't get anything else out of her, but I didn't care.

  While the 14th knew of the dark elves, as they had fought them while being trapped in their forts northeast of Basetown, knowing they assaulted Southtown while it was defended by three legions struck reality home, as most of those in the 14th Legion were from Basetown and its surrounding villages.

  Since they had started moving west through the northern edge of the cradle, they predictively hadn't received any news from their homes. In a way, it was good, as at least the legionaries could hope for the survival of friends and family.

  With the knowledge that the city fell to the dark elves and repeated examples of how the Crescent Moon treated Olimpians as they passed burned-out village after village, and the knowledge of blood golems… Well, emotions were running high, to say the least.

  Whether they were accurate or not, the majority of the legion resigned themselves to believing everyone they knew or loved was dead, which meant they were only living for vengeance. The obvious target for that rage was the surrounding army, which looked the same but claimed no longer to be working together with the hostile and barbaric, almost beastkin.

  Logically speaking, it made no sense. The Redtail wouldn't have helped kill the Crescent Moon and then allowed the legion to get so close to an allied city with multiple legions within its walls. Because the least they would do was to sortie from the city walls to assist the friendly legion should they learn of their presence and the Kin's hostile intentions.

  But now wasn't a time for reason.

  Along that line of thought, or lack thereof, more than one band of men had been found attempting to leave the legion camp in the dead of night recently, and several of them weren't discovered until they had already attacked one of the nearby Kin camps. Luckily, it was only the first time that the legionaries were able to injure a fox, and since then, they hadn't been able to so much as land a blow on a Kin thanks to some spell Kanieta was casting every night called a ward.

  Which was the only reason the situation hadn't devolved into active combat. Kanieta couldn't let an unprovoked attack on her people pass without enacting punishment. The saving grace was "enacting punishment" for the Kin was as simple as beating and mocking the attackers in their failed assault, even if their anger was growing.

  According to Franklin, while the Kin shared features with Olimpians, they were also part animal. The Kin were far more accepting of savagery and the dispassionate brutality nature was known for, which was something I had seen more than enough from the badger for my liking. He said that the Kin often raided each other even when supposedly on good terms, and so long as no life was taken, it was looked upon more as a high-stakes game than anything.

  The problem was that Olimpians didn't think that way, and the legionnaires were trying to kill the Kin. What made it worse was the guards weren't doing their jobs well, as at least one group found the chance to leave camp every night. And with every passing night, Kin's mild irritation grew as Kaneita didn't allow them to reciprocate the raids. This led to a weird spiral of the situation.

  The Kin would set about creating traps to humiliate the legionnaires as much as possible, and the legionnaires were taking it as a massive hit to their pride that they were so incapable. By this point, neither Kanieta nor Legatus Kellaport had control of the situation, as a feud was beginning to form between the groups.

  If there was a silver lining to the situation, it was that recent attempts for raiding didn't seem to be for killing but more for regaining the honor of the legion. But the overall ratcheting of the tension in the air wasn't great for long-term peace.

  By now, this was way above my pay grade, and I was just sitting back and hoping we made it to the Triad before someone got killed. Which should be possible as the walls of the Triad were within sight… At least for now.

  The closer we got to the Northern Fortress, the closer we got to a formidable ring of fortifications. It seemed the Kin had not taken the threat of the Letairry or the betrayal of the Crescent Moon faction lightly.

  Upstream to the east of the Triad along the Twins was a section of the river known as the Fords. It was a few miles where the river widened, becoming slow and shallow enough that it was easily passable so long as there wasn't a storm releasing sheets of water overhead.

  That section of the land now had a wall that, while it wasn't quite as tall as the Triads, was enough to give anyone pause. And if that wasn't enough, the structure shot north until it disappeared from sight toward the Northern Forest, which was at least ten miles away.

  Whether it reached there or not, I honestly didn't know and didn't care to find out, as it wouldn't matter. The sheer scale of the Kin's construction in the weeks that I had been gone was staggering, and I was sure there would be countless spells strengthening the structure.

  If the Kin had anything close to the manpower to effectively man the walls, I just couldn't see the Republic ever pushing the Kin out of their position… Then how did the Letairry do it? I suppressed the shudder of fear at the thought and turned to Kanieta.

  "I don't remember you mentioning this?" I said in a neutral voice.

  "Really? Hmm, I could have sworn I brought it up?" Kanieta said, avoiding eye contact, her tails twitching behind her.

  "Nope, I would have remembered it. What did Legatus Panta have to say about the construction?"

  "Don't know," Kanieta responded, her voice far too light for my liking. "I would guess his aides should have informed him by now, but if they haven't, you can tell him when you report the arrival of your legion waiting here as they set about throwing together a welcome party or something."

  "You haven't told the 15th of the 14th? …And you're holding a legion hostage for acceptance of the construction of your fortifications? And I thought you were offering safe passage to the 14th?"

  "What? Heavens no!" Kanieta said, a hint of amusement entering her voice. "We're allies. The proper term is reluctant guests. And the leadership of this legion has proven untrustworthy."

  "Ahh, yeah… can't argue with that. Franklin, stay with Kanieta, will yeah?" Turing and plodding to my right, I stared for the 14th Legion, giving up on asking her questions. "I'm starting to think the day I met you, a curse was placed on my life."

  "You would be so lucky!" She snapped back. "And I didn't see you complaining when I gave you the information to save your fort!”

  Grumbling under my breath, I ignored the smug fox eyes boring into my back as I mentally began preparing myself to talk to the legatus of the 14th.