“Alpha, what’s happening? What are they saying” Sybil’s voice was tight with concern and displeasure, and what little was left of the swarm began to circle protectively, attempting to find a weak point to break out of.

The people all around us began to bristle at our threatening stance, but I quickly gestured for my swarm to stand down before stepping forward out of the cover of my allies.

“Please, Bloodpriestess Ana, give me a moment to communicate with my swarm here before we continue our conversation?”

She nodded her head in allowance, but I couldn’t help but feel like there was something patronizing in the way she did so.

“Listen. If we try to fight these people around us, we will be slaughtered to the last. I can communicate with them–give me time and space to do so, and we might get safe passage out of it.”

Alaster, now First, I supposed, approached and nodded severely. “I will see to it.”

I nodded back and walked forward to close the distance to the Bloodpriestess. A couple of her guards made a strange birdlike call in warning, but I took two additional steps before I began to speak, lowering my head in deference, “Thank you for your patience, Lady Bloodpriestess. I am the one called Ashlani, Alpha of this swarm… if we still merit to be called as such. We owe our continued existence to you and yours, and thank you for it.”

Ana’s too-large eyes narrowed slightly in what seemed to be amusement before inclining her head back to my own. “I have Looked on you, Ashlani, and I call you Saharliard, a scaly friend.” The way she said Looked communicated a depth I didn’t understand, so I simply nodded in response. The Bloodpriestess continued, “I stand by my declaration, yet I hesitate to call your companions such.”

The way the Bloodpriestess spoke to me was subtly different from how she had spoken with the captain of the humans, marked especially by her deliberate pauses and searching looks. Her looks into my eyes lacked the absolute magnetism of before, but still commanded my attention. I’d thought her about to continue her thought, but instead the conversation had stagnated as she looked at me expectantly.

“... I must ask that you forgive my unfamiliarity with the rites and customs of your people. My own are a more direct lot. My–”

“You say my people are not direct? You reveal to us your unfamiliarity in calling us profaners of the truth.” Bloodpriestess Ana’s eyes literally glittered, a starry light gleaming from within them, and her previous subtle smile was replaced by the beginnings of her baring her teeth. I was struck, for the first time, that she and her squad would leave us all as corpses upon the ground with the smallest provocation. I swallowed dryly.

“I meant no offense. I simply meant that my people do not assume intelligence among others. We are, unfortunately, as a whole, a somewhat dim-witted people.”

Ana’s eyes ceased their glittering and her smile returned as if she’d never threatened my extinction. She twirled her index finger, gesturing for me to continue my thoughts.

“What would qualify my companions to be called Sa… Sahaliad?”

“Saharliard, Ashlani. You could vouch for them, if you proved yourself fahvalo, an honorable foe.”

“But I’m already a Saharliard, a scaly friend. Isn’t an honorable foe lesser than a friend?”

Not only Ana, but for the first time, all around me came vocalizations. And not speaking, but sounds of amusement. The warriors all around me made the same “Hoop” sounding laugh, but just for a brief moment. The swarm behind me started and bristled at the sudden, unnerving sound. I gestured for them to calm and gather themselves back together as Bloodpriestess Ana began to explain.

“Ah, Ashlani, that isn’t so. A friend is one who occasionally does good things for you. Perhaps they will give you some of their meat, will give a gift when your children are birthed. An honorable foe, however… will hone you. They will shape you. They will change you to your best form. They will pit their strengths against your weaknesses while you put your strengths to their weaknesses. You both glory in it as the struggle will draw from you depths of self-understanding and desperation and growth that a friend can never offer. A friend is one you share meals with. An honorable foe is one you share scars with.”

I nodded slowly, understanding her point. “Then… to prove I am fahvalo… I must show that I am a suitable stone upon which to sharpen yourselves?”

“You prove yourself a capable learner, Saharliard Ashlani. Do you wish to prove yourself fahvalo?”

“And the other option is to pass through your lands and leave my swarm here to be slaughtered at your hands?”

“I would offer them death at the fifth finger, an honorable shedding of their blood for the Mother. But yes, their ends would be as sacrifice.”

“Ok, then I guess I need to prove myself to you. How?”

The grin that crossed Bloodpriestess Ana’s face was positively vulpine as she lurched into her unnerving rushing gait forward and entered my personal space.

“Oh, I am glad that you have chosen the path of honor. You could not have remained Saharliard if you were to have abandoned your swarm to the Bloodsoaked Mother Narsha’at.”

With that, I had passed the first of the Moonchildren’s tests.