“Ah, this reminds me of that time we were on that world, uh, what was it? The one with the pretty blue butterflies?” Hunter kicked her feet playfully in a carefree manner over the edge of the roof she was sitting on and turned to her husband, Forsythe.

Forsythe was crouched nearby as he watched Raven running madly through the streets below them. She was singing something about cockroaches and rebels but couldn’t manage any rhymes. It was terrible. Simply awful, and his face expressed that mood.

“The pretty blue butterflies that tried to eat people?” Forsythe paused for a moment as he considered. “Or the pretty glass razor fields that were actually just butterfly shaped?”

“Oh, it must have been the razors,” Hunter admitted solemnly. “They were very pretty though. Even if it was a weirdo death trap. The flowers were so pretty, and it was autumn on that world.”

“Beta Sigma Phi Phil Collins,” Forsythe stared off in the distance after he uttered the string of words.

“That was the last time we ever let Raven name a new world,” Hunter tilted her head slightly and beamed happily at him, kicking her feet a bit more energetically in a childish sort of way. “Which was, really, for the best.”

Forsythe nodded and flashed her a rare full smile. "I'm sure whatever the locals called it was actually much nicer."

The explosions and the screams seemed to fade into the background. Forsythe casually sheathed his sword and walked over to her, bending over as she tilted her head back. He was about to brush his lips across hers when they both cringed at the shrill scream from the streets below.

“Hello!? The mice have entered the trap! The canary is in the mine! The chips are soggy! The ayes have it! Really? What are you two doing up there?” Raven screamed at the top of her lungs. The sounds of heavy sword blows increased on the street below them.

Forsythe sighed and gave Hunter a long suffering look, “to be continued.”

“Will you still take me to ambushes when we’re old?”

Forsythe grinned and stepped off the roof.

Hunter grumbled and slowly got to her feet, watching the shadows as they fought back and forth below.

Fighting the Rebels thus far had taught her some strange facts. Fact number one being that Hunter, Raven, and Forsythe outleveled and outclassed your average rebel opponent and could be dispatched as a strike force. Fact two, even though fact one was true, there were still plenty of people Hunter had never even heard of before that were more than happy to pop out of crowds and give them trouble. It was troublesome because it was difficult to tell which were which. Sometimes she would watch Forsythe and Raven grimly focus themselves, anticipating from the way an opponent looked or handled themselves for a tough fight… only to find that the opponent folded quickly or just wasn’t high enough level to be a threat. The reverse was also true. Raven had been struck pretty heavily earlier on in the night by a guy wearing a dusty old monk habit that was belted at the waist with, get this, braided cattails.

“At least it was the plant,” Hunter frowned, suddenly envisioning someone actually cutting the tails off cute little kitties.

Hunter nocked an arrow to bow and quickly rose up from her crouching position. It was barely any effort at this range. A cry range out below as the arrow took someone in the shoulder. She quickly restrung, feathering him with three arrows before he finally burst into shards.

There were some shouts below at this point, mainly a bunch of rebel mages in the back of the group that had been lured into the alley by Raven suggesting that someone ‘take care of that archer’ without ever really deciding who would do that. All it took was Hunter crouching down out of sight for a few breaths before they all seemed to collectively forget she existed.

Well.

“Agggh! Wait! Wait!”

“No! No waiting! [Oversoul Cloudkill - Final Form]!”

“I thought you said she looked weak!”

“I thought you wanted a challenge?”

“You suck!”

Hunter rolled her eyes and stood up, quickly finding one of the guys that was talking. A quick check, a release, and then an arrow sticking out from his face. It hadn’t actually done enough damage to kill him outright, but the discomfiture level and the shock of having an arrow suddenly sticking out of your eye socket must have been too much because he collapsed onto the ground. Moments later he disappeared.

Hunter frowned. It was likely that he had logged out because he was panicking. That happened sometimes, but Hunter wished they would not freak out because she was missing out on the contribution points.

“Elisha, thanks for telling us about the name thing. It’s a lot easier to pick out strong people now!” Hunter took a moment as she ducked away from the edge of the roof(because some mages were now shooting fire at her) to contact her daughter.

“Yeah, it’s kind of nice, huh?”

“Your dad said to tell you not to overwork yourself!”

“That sounds like dad! Having fun mom?”

“I am having an alright time, but I think you should re-allocate Raven.”

“What? Is it too easy there, or are she and dad fighting?”

“No, nothing like that.” Hunter hesitated. “Why don’t you just send her somewhere else.”

There was a pause on the other end, and Hunter smiled this time. Elisha might be finally taking her meaning, so she added on, “anywhere else.”

“Oh. OH. Yeah, I can do that. Right now?”

“Oh, in about five minutes. We’re mopping up about fifteen… thirteen… okay, about a dozen guys now.”

“You know how scary it sounds when you’re talking and the number decreases like that in the same sentence right?”

“You’re a peach. Mom loves you,” Hunter chuckled and stood up, falling into a groove this time as she began firing arrow after arrow. Now, when the mages began targeting her from below she just moved back and forth across the roof dodging their spells and firing back.

There was a certain urgency in her actions that made her seem all the more ferocious. The enemies in the alley below were falling at an even faster pace and a few were casting nervous glances between Raven at the dead end, Forsythe blocking the exit, and Hunter on top of the roof shooting them everytime they weren’t paying attention.

Hunter chuckled again seeing that the numbers were decreasing even faster. She gave a cunning smile in the direction of Forsythe who was stoically slicing a brawler and then a slight grimace to Raven who was swinging her sword with wild abandon and shrieking at the top of her lungs, trash talking anyone and everyone.

*******************

Elisha had paused for a moment before healing the last of the people who had been hurt in the assassination infiltration. A rare look of concentration and concern was on her face, like she was listening to something unexpected and dangerous.

Schulia waited patiently for Elisha to finish before asking her, “what’s up?”

“Do you get along with your mom?” Elisha asked, surprising the wood carver.

“Yeah, I guess. We play bingo sometimes. We used to joke about how we’d only do that together when we got old, but it is kind of fun.” Schulia answered cautiously.

“Ah,” Elisha chewed her lip, thinking deep and inscrutable Elisha thoughts.

“Something… you want to ask?” Schulia asked hesitantly.

“Is it weird to think your mom is kind of scary?”

Schulia blinked and then straightened, not knowing how to answer immediately. After a moment, her mind remained truly blanked.

“Yeah? It is weird?” Elisha tried to coax Schulia into responding.

“You know I like you a lot, right Elisha?” Schulia finally wrinkled her nose.

“Oh! Thank you,” Elisha grinned. “...I feel like this is one of those moments where there’s a but coming along.”

“Right. More of a ‘however’ than a ‘but’.” Schulia enunciated slowly, obviously still gathering her thoughts.

“Hit me.”

“Your mom being scary to you is just wildly weird to me. You are somehow leading several hundred, maybe even thousand people in a chaotic night time warfare battle. You tamed the scariest rebel I’ve ever seen, no offense Khiafin, and he follows you around. You’re super nice one second and then issuing strategies that include boiling oil over walls or crushing people with rocks the next. I heard you saying earlier that you kind of wanted a hamburger while we encircled the remaining assassins and put them to the blade. So, I really don’t know what to tell you when you tell me you think your mom is scary and ask me if that is weird.”

“Oh,” Elisha scratched the back of her neck looking a little sheepish. “So I’m a little scary?”

“Little bit!”

“Mm,” Elisha blinked a few times and turned her gaze back to the darkness. A slight smirk settling across her delicate features. “I kind of like it. Thanks Schulia, I feel better.”

Schulia was once again at a loss but responded kindly, “I’m happy that was your takeaway.”

“Do you think Uncle Aidan is scary?” Elisha inquired.

“No, that guy is a buffoon,” Schulia smiled despite herself.

“Mm.”

“You disagree?”

“All those things you say I have been doing that make you afraid of me, Schulia?”

“Yeah?”

“He does it while laughing.”

“Oh,” Schulia frowned and opened her mouth, wanting to argue. She couldn’t think of anything convincing, but neither could she agree with Elisha on this one. Aidan in her mind was erratic, somewhat reliable, with a somewhat nasty sense of humor. He had his redeeming qualities, but scary?”

“Here. I’ll ask him,” Elisha suddenly broke the silence. “While we walk to the edge of the encampment and figure out why they snuck in like they did.”

“Ask who? Figure out why who snuck in?” Schulia was lost but followed along anyway. Khiafin had reappeared behind them at some point. Schulia looked over her shoulder but didn’t see Danvers so…

“I’ll ask Uncle Aidan how he is doing. I bet he’s killed way more people over there then we have,” Elisha responded patiently. “Also, this has diversion written all over it. I’m still trying to figure out who is commanding their troops over there. Is it like us? Loose affiliations? It doesn’t feel like there’s a direct hand or anything, so that’s probably it. Or if it is a diversion, to what end? It didn’t really draw troops from anywhere? All they really got from it was…”

Schulia almost ran into her back because Elisha stopped abruptly.

Elisha turned around and walked right up to Khiafin, staring up into his face quizzically. She reached out and tugged his collar, jerking his head down so she could look him in the eyes.

“Khiafin,” she asked sweetly, “is there a command channel?”

“Sure, but they’re not directing traffic or anything. No one is ordering troops to go anywhere,” Khiafin replied, seemingly unphased by being jerked down to her eye-line. “I would have said something, as I am trying to atone for my egregious actions.”

“Can you trust him?” Schulia asked.

“He is as recalcitrant as they come. If they tried to order him to do something it’s likely he would just go do the opposite,” Elisha frowned and released Khiafin. “You’re a lot like Raven that way.”

“Thank you, I think.”

“What are they saying over the command line then?” Elisha asked.

“They’re just saying names.”

“What names?”

“Imperial names. Well, and my name. They are advising everyone to steer clear of me or kill me if they can to get me out of here. That’s so nice of them.” A look of longing appeared on his face. He could be out there now. Murdering people.

“Look around and see if you see anyone that has been mentioned,” Elisha ordered him. He rolled his eyes but cooperatively started looking around.

“Okay, I see a couple.”

“Do they have the red important names?”

“Now that you mention it, most of the names being mentioned do have higher contribution values.”

“Uh huh. Are the names being said with any other information?”

“Just the name of whoever was reporting.”

“Uh huh, why don’t you start telling me the names of all the people being mentioned” Elisha grimaced and turned around, heading back toward the command tent. “We’ll have to get as many as we can back here.”

“Why?” Schulia tilted her head.

“Because they are making a list of high priority target locations based on sightings, and that means that higher contribution kills are worth more than we thought. Those people that jumped us were just volunteers to make mischief and report high contribution names. Great if they got them, but if they didn’t they were supposed to report who they saw and where.”

“So we’re bringing them all into one area? If it is that important, wouldn’t it be better to spread us out so we don’t get wiped out at the same time?”

“Why Schulia, that is true,” Elisha tapped her lips and a dark expression started to cover her face causing Schulia and even Khiafin to miss a step. “We would be an awfully tempting target, wouldn’t we?”

***************

Hunter stood on the roof with her back against Forsythe’s chest. The cool breeze sending the scent of flowers and frost through her nostrils. She closed her eyes as she felt his arms tightening around her waist just a bit. Possessively. She liked that a lot.

“Do you think there are enough around here to round up? Should we move? The Meow Meow Cat guild said they finished up over there. They really hate it when I call them that. I think if I badger them enough they’ll probably make me the leader as long as I agree to stop calling them the Meow Meow cat guild,” Raven paced the perimeter of the roof like it was a cage and she was a tiger. All energy and no outlet.

Hunter opened her eyes and cast a tragic look upward.

Elisha! Where are you? Why have you forsaken your poor mother in her hour of need? Send Raven away!

“Raven, mom, dad,” almost as if her wish were being granted Elisha’s sweet voice came through the channel.

“Oh, Elisha, how nice to hear your voice!” Hunter began to smirk triumphantly. “I suppose we’re being re-deployed? But some of us will have to stay, right?”

“Uh. About that.”

Hunter started to squint suspiciously at the tone she detected in her daughter’s melodious and otherwise normally beautiful voice. It sounded like the time Elisha crashed the rover into the cattle fence and then tried to fix it herself. Amazingly the rover had been repaired fine, but the fence work had been incredibly shoddy. Parts of it had literally fallen off while she was watching.

“Where are we going? Are there going to be strong people?” Raven was already bouncing up and down on her toes like a boxer.

“I need you all to come back to the Palace courtyard. I’m sending some… uhh…”

“Replacements?” Forsythe finally interjected, sensing Elisha’s struggle for the right word but not necessarily understanding it.

“Less useful people,” Raven also guessed. From the way Elisha went silent for a moment, Hunter gleaned that Raven might actually have been right.

“Replacements,” Elisha said firmly.

“We’ll be there… soon…” Hunter felt dead inside. Her whole date night was ruined. Could she ground Elisha for this?