***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Magnus***

-

I felt like a chastised child once I finally stepped out of Etan's office. My respect for the man had grown, even if I wasn't totally on board with some of his ideas. For one, he was too law-abiding for my tastes. The mere suggestion to do something unconventional gave him a fit halfway through our discussion.

“You can't publicly whip someone who offended you!” I mouthed his objection to a social dilemma he had given me, a test of character, so to speak. The scenario involved being insulted by a member of another family behind my back and learning of the fact later on.

If possible, I would have ignored such a thing, but Etan specifically stated for the incident to have spread from mouth to mouth beyond being a mere rumour.

Admittedly, I wasn't a fan of violence, but people had to adhere to a given social structure or suffer the consequences. My suggestion hadn't been driven by sadism, but by the need to set a precedence to what was essentially insubordination. If a prominent member of a group such as clan Aerie was insulted, one couldn't show weakness.

Back on Earth, a civilian who insulted a politician to his face would likely be dragged away by bodyguards and thrown out of the building. If it happened in a public enough manner or on social media, a criminal charge might follow.

But this wasn't Earth. This world's societies were much closer to Earth's militaristic organisations. It was a necessity for survival, born from a harsh environment. And, oh boy, I didn't know in which of Earth's militaries it would be acceptable for a soldier of any rank to insult another.

That meant weeks of latrine duties during peace times and worse when it was war.

And clan Aerie was at permanent war with Tirnanog's nature.

Given that we supposedly didn't have the resources for prison sentences, public humiliation was the only other solution I could come up with.

I figured a penalty in resources would be easily paid by any of the other large families and wouldn't mean much.

Etan had some strange boundaries I had to get familiar with. How could it be okay to react violently to an insult if retaliatory action was taken immediately, but not to demand a measured punishment in hindsight?

Hadn't he suggested to react to any perceived slight against his family or my person with force?

At least we finished our time together with the mutual understanding that I would have to prove my worth in the coming weeks. Otherwise, he wouldn't trust me with anything related to the clan.

I didn't find his approach objectionable as long as he was willing to cooperate, though my timetable was a little tighter than I liked.

The winter had set in fully and Mount Aerie would be covered in a few metres of snow for the next three to five months. Fortunately, the conditions on the surface were something that wasn't noticeable at all down here in the mountain.

A few months. I sighed inwardly at the task which lay ahead of me.

It sounded like a lot of time, but it wasn't, considering I had to somehow rescue Evanne, my remaining little sister. Astra's idea of visiting the other clans as diplomats was still an option, but I was no longer certain that we had much time left.

Evanne was one year younger than Ivonne, which meant she should be going on recruitment duties next year. What would the Thich do once they learned of their last recruits' disappearance? Would they even send Evanne?

I had to find at least one second approach.

For example, setting clan Aerie on a confrontational warpath with the Thich sounded like a nice idea. Though, according to Etan, that was supposed to happen anyway.

A third idea would be to organize a group of people with infiltration skills and to have them abduct Evanne. Given this would likely require the least amount of people, I heavily leaned towards this solution. The fewer people were involved, the less potential for failure.

I was never a person who was fine with just a single plan to achieve a goal. In my experience, something would only reliably get done if there were also a plan B, C, and preferably D executed at the same time.

My idle thoughts were interrupted when my gaze drifted down the hallway and I found Astra approaching me with Ivona and Thalia in tow.

Today, she wore a shimmering one-piece design that flowed like silk around her legs. Somehow, she managed to give her filaments a metallic look. Contrary to her lower half, the top showed no skin, but hugged her upper body tightly and left little to the imagination of her athletic figure.

“How is my man?” Astra asked with a smile on her lips while she stepped into my embrace. “You snuck away this morning and then Mary told me you were in an important meeting with Dad. Is there anything relevant I have to know about?”

“No,” I coughed, remembering the incident with the priestess. I had a bad conscience about it, no matter that I felt I was in the right. “I just went to see the central cavern. But no worries, Mary arranged a guide for me. And then your father got a hold of me and started an inquisition to make sure I am the right man for his precious.”

“He is very protective,” Astra acknowledged while she separated from me. “Though, I know his way of protecting the family is often misguided. Should I talk to him? You have to tell me if he makes too much trouble.”

“No!” I quickly waved her off, not wanting to compromise my strained relationship with Etan further. His daughter interfering would hardly endear me to him. “Don't do that. I slipped up just once... or twice. In any case, it wasn't a big deal.”

He was my father in law. I wouldn't care much about us getting along if Astra disliked him, but she had a good relationship with her adoptive parents.

“What did you say?” Thalia asked.

“Ah, he gave me some hypothetical scenario where someone from another family insulted me behind my back,” I explained. “I suggested demanding satisfaction via public whipping. A punishment which I distinctly remember Astra mentioned to be used often for the action of slander.”

Thalia winced. “But not between strata officials! Such a thing probably won't go over well with the elders. Though, it was a trick question for someone new to the clan. While the families are bickering with each other, we have to present a united front to the other clans. If someone offended another family's honour in a public manner, their own family would likely set actions to prevent it from happening again. Clan Aerie has its internal struggles, but we have to put unity before our wishes. The regular citizens can't get the impression that their leadership is infighting.”

I shrugged. “But it's still my reputation which has been damaged. How can I settle for something that will be likely done behind closed curtains and quickly forgotten? As far as I understand it, the families and their stratas are setting the political course of the clan. Such a thing can't stand if I want the Frost's name untarnished.”

“There are other solutions. First, I would have requested for the offender's family to permanently remove him from the public eye. People will come to their conclusions once they realize that someone who badmouthed another strata is suddenly under house arrest,” Astra said.

“But wouldn't giving in mean the end of the perpetrator's political career?” I frowned. “How is this better than a public whipping – as decreed by law?”

She shrugged and continued her explanation. “That's only the first step. If my request was refused, I would have publicly challenged the instigator as an ordinary test of power.” Astra smiled deviously. “Such things happen often between the strata. If the party in question repeats the insult, I am perfectly within my rights to defend the family's honour in a manner that will be remembered. If they refuse and run away, everyone will know them for what they are.”

“But what if you aren't certain you can win a violent conflict?” I asked.

“Then it means I need more power, dear,” Astra stated in a chipper tone. “The families like to pretend otherwise within the secure environment of the central cavern, but this is still a world where power means everything.” She clapped her hands together. “Speaking of power. It's why we came to extract you from my father's clutches.”

“A little late for that.” I chuckled jovially. “He threw me out five minutes before you came.”

“Aw, it wasn't that bad, was it?” Astra turned me to face down the hallway and patted me on the shoulder. “We came to get you for a visit to the armoury! That should cheer you up.”

“You have an armoury!?” I asked, surprised.

“Of course!” Astra replied with a smirk. “We are the Frosts. The family is renowned for hunting down wild beasts that no other dares to touch. How could we do so without weapons?”

Astra guided the group back to the main hallway and then down an inconspicuous looking corridor which I had ignored during my explorations earlier this morning. Mainly because the corridor was being watched by four of Teresa's guards.

My wife's presence allowed us to pass the security measures without being challenged. A heavy blast door later, one which didn't fit with the rest of the estate's luxurious décor, we found ourselves in a hall that had rows upon rows of shelves. All packed to the brim with different sorts of weapons.

“Do you employ a small army of your own?” I asked upon stepping into the hall.

“Sort of,” Astra admitted. “There are about two thousand people in our strata. I am not aware of the exact numbers, but in case of an attack, almost half of them could be supplied by this stash alone. And we have several.”

A tired-looking man who had his desk next to the entrance waved us closer.

He also had the filament mutation, but his were a deep midnight black, fitting his equally dark skin. The only thing which confused me was that while his skin colour hinted at African descent, I found his facial features to be distinctly European.

Additionally, a white scar split his face from his forehead down between the eyes and then continued from his nose to the right cheek.

I briefly wondered whether it was possible to get so gravely injured that even a starfish mutation couldn't fix it completely. Or had he simply received the injury before his mutation?

I forcibly stopped this train of thought.

By now, I should know better than to try analyzing people by their looks. There were frigging bug-people out there and fuckers who had gone Wendigo. Compared to them, Astra and I pulled off a lottery win looks-wise.

“I am in charge of the storehouse. Please tell me what equipment you need and I will get it for you. I hate it when people pick through the supply and I have to inventory everything afterwards just to find out what they took.”

“But isn't that what you are being paid for, uncle Sullivan?” Astra sweet-talked the guy while she pulled me up to his desk. “Tulkas, this is Sullivan, weapon master extraordinaire. He is in the family's service and he taught me everything I know about combat. So I call him uncle, even if he isn't my real uncle. Uncle, this is my partner!”

“Nice to meet the man who sufficed my trainee's requirements.” Sullivan rose from his chair and shook my hand with a strong grip which hinted at a strength mutation. “Every time she returned from her recruitment trip I told her that her standards were impossible to meet. Glad I was wrong. There are quite a few people within clan Aerie who wouldn't have liked to lose our princess to the Mora.”

So not everyone would have been happy with Astra's arranged marriage. That was nice to know.

“The honour is mine,” I greeted. “I wondered who taught Astra hand to hand combat.”

“Which reminds me...” Sullivan narrowed his eyes at Astra. “I've heard that with partnering up, your ability-set changed drastically. We will have to remedy any old reflexes which no longer fit your new style.”

Astra paled and maneuvred me forward to use me as a shield. “I am already working on it with him. We are doing daily training sessions together.”

Sullivan's hawkish eyes fixated on me, reminding me of some of the military drillmasters in the organisation's employ.

“Did you just throw me under the bus?” I asked.

“It's, 'Did you just rub firehorn yolk over me?' There are no buses here on Tirnanog,” Ivona corrected and then addressed my partner. “Did you just rub firehorn yolk over my brother?”

“She did,” Thalia confirmed. “She has a history of having people being chased by firehorns.”

“Hey,” Astra pretended to be outraged. “I did it only once!”

“Enough of the banter.” Sullivan brought the women back to earth. “I doubt you came here to share stories. We are close, but not that close.”

“Yes.” Astra gave up her hiding spot behind me. “We need two full sets of standard equipment for a deep exploration expedition into the natural caverns. Mission time is between one to two weeks.”

“Three sets,” Ivona corrected. “I want to go too!”

“But that's supposed to be our honeymoon!” Astra complained and gave Ivona a meaningful look. “The hunting shelters we have in the caverns are very small.”

“Yourrgh...” The intelligible tone which escaped Ivona at the thought showed my sister's quickly diminishing eagerness to join us as a tag-along. She deflated the further she thought about the implications. “But what am I to do alone for two weeks? I hoped Magnus and I could have some time to reconnect.”

“Am I suddenly forgotten?” Thalia asked. “I will visit you of course.”

“You don't count,” Ivona shot back, causing Thalia to pout.

“I think my mother will gladly take care of you,” Astra pointed out. “She already mentioned she wanted to spend some time with her newest daughter. And I will make sure you get your chance with Magnus. I planned to show him around the other families once we returned. You could join.”

“Teresa?” Ivona frowned. “What would she want with me?”

I coughed, trying to inject some common sense into the stream of female communication. “She adopted you. Like, you becoming her daughter?”

“Oh.” To my astonishment, Ivona deflated even further. “I guess I hoped her to be the uncaring stepmother type. Not sure whether I want the attention.”

Astra shook her head. “Believe me. Teresa is anything but uncaring. But you will have to put up with a little bonding. The adoption papers you and Magnus signed aren't a joke. You are a part of the family now as far as clan Aerie is concerned.”

Sullivan cleared his throat to get our attention and the two of us shared a glance of manly camaraderie.

“Right!” Astra swivelled back to him. “Weapons! Did you fix my partner's spetum? And I need something to deliver a charge.” She sparked her fingers to give Sullivan an idea of what was needed.

“Okay.” Sullivan frowned. “Let me think while I gather your gear. You can have a look around in the meantime. Just in case you find something fitting on your own.”

Ivona used the chance to launch into a questioning tirade of what Teresa would want with her, but I tuned her out and allowed Astra and Thalia to deal with it.

Instead, I silently followed Sullivan past the racks of weapons while I left the women to... be women.

“Nice armoury,” I complimented.

Sullivan got himself a trolley and pushed it down a corridor between two racks. The armoury didn't have just weapons, but also other supplies.

“Yeah, it's the best the strata has,” he commented while he threw two large backpacks into the trolley. “You are directly from Earth?”

“Yes, though it's already been more than two months since I arrived,” I answered. “Anything I know should be outdated by now.”

“Less outdated than most other information sources. How are the assholes doing?” Sullivan asked. “I was 'exiled' about fifty years ago, but I like keeping up to date with the latest news and the last exile I met came here five years ago.”

“Yeah, probably nothing new then. The global government is still in power, though there is some resistance to their policies, like turning the Sahara into a giant solar power array. As if similar projects hadn't been attempted a dozen times before. The people living there don't like it, but it's 'for the best of humanity'.” I quoted the last part with my fingers.

Sullivan frowned. “The entire desert? But... aren't there no people living there anyway? Who cares?”

“Not the entire desert of course. Just the economically viable parts. Planting some facility directly in the desert's heart would be a stretch. How would you transport the energy out without massive maintenance costs? Of course, the zones which are viable from a technical point of view happen to be the very few zones close to population centres at the edges,” I explained.

“Ah, and those have people living there, naturally,” Sullivan concluded after adding several cans of food to his trolley.

We reached the end of the corridor and made a 'U' turn to enter another. Sullivan kept adding items, showing he had a list of the required necessities in his head.

I had to fight the instinct to hug him when he added four rolls of what looked like a homemade version of toilet paper to me. Bless the man!

Then I saw the items which the new corridor offered.

“Now we are talking!” I rubbed my hands together. Unlike the first corridor which offered mainly camping gear, this one held a wide array of weapons and other odds and ends required for trapmaking.

Sullivan pointed out a few and explained them. “This web is used for hunting cliffgliders. And these crossbows have extra draw weight to fire grappling hooks. You have any idea what you are going to hunt?”

“Well, not certain, but we might be trying to catch a living bloodmantle or a slei. But according to the literature, they aren't easily caught. So I guess the plan is to traverse the cave system with a lexicon in hand and to catch anything that might seem usable,” I explained.

“A hunt of opportunity.” Sullivan inclined his head while he considered what we would need. “Some traps to catch living critters of medium size. Tranquillizer arrows if you intend to try your luck with some symbiont.”

He grabbed something that looked like a bear trap and a quiver with short arrows. The arrows had no arrowheads, but my confusion was solved when he added a box that held some syringe-like arrowheads.

Sullivan showed me how easily they could be screwed onto the arrow shafts. “You can fill them with tranquillizers or venom. A good choice to bring down even the largest of prey.”

“I hope Astra can shoot because I am an absolute embarrassment with a bow,” I admitted.

“I can give you a fitting crossbow instead. Anyone can shoot a crossbow if he knows how a gun works. But you should learn at least one ranged weapon,” Sullivan chastised.

“Thanks to my mutation I can throw things really well,” I pointed out. “Better than any arrow or crossbow bolt.”

Sullivan frowned with a dark expression, but then his face lit up. “You are the one who brought in the ballista bolts. I wondered why someone would carry them around for fun. There aren't many mutations out there which can make use of them without the ballista itself.”

“Yeah, about that, where's my stuff?” I asked. “I noticed too late that someone removed it from my quarters this morning.”

“I got it for maintenance from one of the maids. The spetum was pretty banged up. We will get to it,” Sullivan assured me.

“Can you top off my supply?” I asked. “I started the journey with ten bolts, but two went off the mountainside and four stayed stuck in some flying monsters which flew off with them. I was getting low by the end.”

“I have similar ones, but not the same,” Sullivan replied. “You will have to get used to the new ones. Though I suggest replacing all of them instead of having two differently weighted projectiles.”

“Sure.” I would need an hour at a training range to get used to the new ones. It wouldn't be an issue. “Hey, Sullivan, do you have something more suitable against humans than my spetum?”

He frowned. “Isn't your spetum plenty usable? I haven't seen any problems with it. It isn't the prettiest weapon, but it's high-quality steel. It's clear it's a tool meant to be used.”

“Yeah, maybe I didn't explain myself correctly.” I thought about how to word my request and settled on explaining the problem.

“I've come to like the spetum. I can't imagine anything better to impale a monster, but it's unwieldy. The one time I was caught off guard, I didn't have it ready to hand. And ever since coming down here, I keep thinking of what to do in confined spaces. All I would be able to do in this narrow corridor would be to stab. And once the enemy gets past the tip I have a real problem.” I bit my lower lip. “My secondary weapon has been one of the standard short swords and I already used one to great effectiveness, but I just can't get warm with the thing. And, well, it's short. It doesn't combine with my electric power.”

Sullivan pondered my problem. “How strong is it? Astra showed just a few sparks.”

“Lightning bolts,” I stated. “It's really useful. Especially when you have something conductive to stick your enemy with.”

“So you want something long that can be easily carried on your person. Like a metal whip?”

I thought about the suggestion. “Doesn't the whip have the same problem as the spetum? It won't do damage without the space to swing it. And if I run into someone who can tank a few lighting bolts I am screwed even if I hit him with it. Most people I've met on this world are hardy enough to survive a few lashes.”

The Thich leader from the ambush already taught me the hard way that lightning wasn't the solution to everything.

“You have a point.” Sullivan's eyes drifted over the racks with equipment until they landed on the utility knife on my belt. “You any good with that?” He indicated the weapon with his chin.

“Reasonably.” I pulled it out and spun it on my palm without revealing my magnetism. “I won't claim to be some knife master, but I had a few knife fighting lessons back on Earth. I would trust myself to do better with it than with a sword.”

Sullivan nodded slowly and pushed his trolley further down the racks until we found a display with knives. The weapon master selected a pair of straight blades which were about twenty centimetres in length. A second pair of blades also made the selection. They were shorter, but they had a slight curve like a karambit.

The noticeable difference to other knives was that both pairs had full metal grips with fingerguards which seemed to double as punching rings. A wise precaution in a society where bladed weapons are the preferred choice.

Once we had the knives, Sullivan backtracked until we arrived at a shelf with various ropes. He selected a sturdy, yet flexible steel chain with expertly linked segments. The required tools were lying ready to cut off four pieces. Each was three metres in length.

Thanks to the warehouse nature of Sullivan's armoury, another four metal rings were easily found and attached to the chains which then went onto the back ends of each knife. He had chosen the knives because they had an 'o' ring as a pommel.

Sullivan tested the strength of the connection before he threw out one knife like a throwing dagger and yanked on the chain, catching the knife as it returned to him.

He grunted, seemingly satisfied with his work. Then he looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “What do you think?”

I took one of the straight knives from him and tested the weight. Thanks to my improved musculature, the weight including the chain was of no concern to me. The spetum's bulk was much more of a problem compared to the relatively thin chain.

Then I tried to repeat Sullivan's throwing trick at an accelerated speed but ended up having to dodge the knife on the return trip.

Sullivan laughed. “Better train the move or you might lose an eye.”

“I am good at throwing stuff, not catching them,” I muttered. No matter that I had caught an arrow once. But compared to my movements, an arrow felt relatively slow. It would be much more convenient if I was some Jedi with telekinetic tricks. Then I wouldn't...

A light-bulb went off in my head.

“Don't worry.” Sullivan waved off my excuse. “I wouldn't have caught the blade either at the speed you just moved.”

Before I could forget the sudden inspiration, I eyed the different cables. “Could I have a few metres of the thinnest steel cable you have?”

“Of course, but what for?” Sullivan eyed me, curious what I was up to.

“It's top-secret, but I might show it to you if it works.” I winked at him. “At worst, I can use it as a climbing rope.”

He harrumphed but added an entire roll with a 3mm steel cable to his trolley.

We finished our tour with my spetum and a new set of throwing bolts, including a few steel balls to top off my ammunition.

Once we had Astra's and my serviced gear, we made our way back to the entrance.

Thalia and Ivona were gone, but Astra waited at Sullivan's desk.

I raised an eyebrow. “Where did my sister go?”

“Mom showed up to get Iv and Thalia went with her for emotional support,” Astra explained. “I am sure you will get her back in one piece.”

“Iv?” I smirked.

“Well, I thought about Ivo, but the nickname doesn't fit a girl. Ivy or Iva also don't sound right for her, so Iv it is,” Astra mused.

I was interested to see how my little sister would take to this new nickname.

Sullivan pushed his trolley past me and looked at the set of weapons that Astra had placed on his desk. “This is what you are going to take?”

“Yes, please!”

Astra had chosen a satchel with a set of throwing daggers, a long, rapier-like sword which was more like a rod of steel than a blade, and a metal whip with a wicked hook at the end.

“I am not going to train with you if you use that whip!” I quickly stated, just to make sure she knew I had boundaries.

“Aw.” Astra pouted. “And I thought it would be cool to give it a try.”

Sullivan sniffed and pulled out a ledger from beneath his desk to note down what we had checked out. “I will give it to you, but only if you come to a sparring session this evening. The last time I gave out that thing, someone lost his cheek.”

“Ouch!” I winced at the thought.

It took Sullivan a few more minutes to finalize his paperwork, which we used to pack our equipment into the backpacks.