Nel slipped from my arms without complaint. Her red eyes flicked across the room as she took in the damage. Stuffing and wood splinters littered every available surface and some surfaces that weren’t so available. Books were piled amongst the mess, some open, some closed, and some were dismantled, their pages covering the ground like a carpet.

“What happened here?” She asked, but the way she was looking at me said she could already guess.

I briefly considered blaming Trinadelle and I even looked at him. He was deep in conversation with the pile of hair - I mean healer - but I caught his eyes darting to Nel more than once. There wasn’t any hostility in his gaze though so I decided to cut the man some slack.

“Well, you see, none of this is my fault.” I started to tell Nel before explaining as best I could what had gone down. She began a little disinterested, probably thinking It was just a simple case of me being a caveman, but as I got to the part about Smith and what he had said her attention became a laser-focused dot that burned through me. I kid you not, she was staring at me so hard I half expected one of her blood vessels to pop and for her to just keel over.

“To think, someone could be so cold and have so much disregard for the lives of others that they are willing to turn them against each other just because it is easier,” She shook her head sadly. “I do not think I would like your world, Alexander.”

“Yeah, I don’t think we much like our world either,” I said with a small laugh. “But this is your world and I won’t let them fuck it up like they did mine. I have a plan.”

Nel’s eyes went wide as she took a step back, one of her arms covering her heart. “Your last plan destroyed a man's library...Though I guess we should be glad the house still stands.”

“Oh shut up,” I said, pushing passed her gently and heading towards Trinadelle and Nuala.

I don’t think I would want Nuala as my healer. Her table manners seemed to leave a lot to be desired. Or she didn’t like the mayor any more than I did.

“Concussed.” She grunted, poking the unconscious man's side with the tip of her shoe.

“Do you think he will be alright?” Trinadelle asked her, his eyes looking at her disapprovingly.

“Hard to say.”

“Don’t you wish to examine him?”

Nuala let out a huff and turned towards Trinadelle, her hair shook in indignation. “You want me to get down on that floor and shuffle about? You may still be remarkably spry for your age, De’Vraga, but my back isn’t what it used to be and if you get me down on that floor…I won’t be getting back up.”

“Can we move the body?” he asked.

“If you want.”

Trinadelle looked at the unconscious mayor than up at me. I let out a sigh but didn’t object. I took two quick steps forward and reached down to scoop the man up. His limp form draped over my arms, his long legs almost dragging along the floor.

“If he wakes up or so much as murmurs, I’m dropping him.” I turned towards the door then looked back at the old couple. “Where should I be putting him.”

“Of course, follow me.”

Trinadelle led the way out of the room. Nuala fell back to talk with Nel and I guess they had bonded quickly over their shared interest in…well, everything. Twix brought up the rear, a silent shadow as always.

The room we stopped in was just off the main hallway and through the dining room. It was smaller than the library but had a table large enough (and sturdy enough) to deposit the body on. Something I did with a certain amount of haste. I kept expecting him to wake up with that creepy smile on his face and stab me.

“Private dining room,” Trinadelle explained. “Nuala, are you able to examine him now?”

Mumbling and groaning the old mop of hair that was the healer pushed him aside and took a place at the head of the table. Literally, in this case, since the mayors head faced that side. Nel drifted closer to watch and I moved around to Trinadelle.

Keeping my voice low so as not to disturb the others I asked him: “Where the hell are the staff? You’d think they’d have come running with all the noise from the scuffle.”

The old man's cold blue eyes turned to regard me as he whispered “I had the same concern. Twix is looking into it.”

I looked around the room and sure enough, the woman was gone. I hadn’t even noticed him say anything to her and I sure as hell hadn’t seen her leave.

“I also instructed her to find a map. You said you would need one earlier, for your plan, and the one I carry is very basic, with only the landmarks shown. I am sure the Mayor would have a much more detailed one laying around somewhere.”

“Efficient aren’t you?”

“Time is not on our side right now,” he looked at Nuala twist the mayors head this way and that before prodding the man's cheek. Shaking his head he continued “The longer Smith has to prepare, the worse our situation. It is already concerning that he is confident enough to warn us of his attack.”

“I think that was crazy talking, not confidence.”

He hummed in agreement before changing the topic.

“I presume she is the one from your story?” He nodded towards Nel who was leaning over Nuala’s shoulder and poking the man where the old lady told her. “She is off the Brood I take it?

I nodded and filled him in on parts of the story I had kept to myself simply because they weren't relevant to what I told the mayor. Like traveling with Rima and Tima and how they had gone back after the massacre of the Pack to report to the Brood Mother. I even explained my gift of Unity.

“They will come for her, you know?” He saw the questioning look in my eyes and continued. “I have a similar gift to yours. It allows me to keep track of my companions and relate information to them. It also tells me when they are in danger. Her brother may have felt her emotions when you fought and killed those men inside the wall. There is a chance the Brood will come to get her or avenge her. The Brood guards their own.”

“So now we have to look for an army of spider people as well?”

Trinadelle’s lip twitched in what could have been a smile. “No. Expect a small elite team of warriors. No less than eight, no more than fifteen. Do not worry overmuch, Champion. She is fine and they will see that.”

“It would have helped if she had told me about that sooner?” I growled.

“Did she not? It could be that she assumed you knew and took it for granted. A cultural misunderstanding as it were.”

I thought back to what I had figured out about the Brood. I remembered how Rima had attacked me and how it was seen as an assault on the entire Brood when I defended myself. Nel had said something about all of them being from the same strand or their webs connecting or something.

“It’s like one big crazy-ass-overprotective family,” I muttered.

Trinadelle clapped me on the back, his hand as hard as steel, and nodded. “Yes, it is very much like that. You have much to learn about the different cultures and people of Aeris.”

“He is fine!” Nuala said, leaving the patient and coming to join us. “Your assessment was correct. A concussion from hitting his head on the chair, but there is no abnormal swelling and the bone is not fractured. I am unsure if the man had a gift of regeneration but any knock to the brain can take a while to recover from. Let him rest and hope for the best. I should be able to create a tea that will help with his headaches once he wakes along with the swelling. His memory may be fragmented though.”

Trinadelle let out a relieved sigh. I cocked an eyebrow at him and he shrugged back. “You are not the only one with plans and I will need him if mine is to succeed. Replacing a mayor is a tricky business.”

I looked at the old man with new eyes. The way he had said that was almost…casual. Too casual. Like he had needed to ‘replace’ more than a few mayors. I wondered again what his background was.

“What herbs are you using for the tea?” Nel asked the old woman even as she drifted closer to me. She was relaxed enough that her spider legs uncurled from around her and settled more comfortably on her back, the tips poking out from the bottom of her cloak.

“You may help me make it if you like?” The mass of curly white bounced as she turned to Nel. If she was shocked at the spider legs her voice didn’t betray it.

“Alexander, she is amazing!” Nel whispered to me, though it was probably loud enough for everyone to hear. “Saza has taught me the basics of brewing potions and tinctures but there are variations needed for humans that I hadn’t even considered! I wonder if Saza knows about them…oh, if I could get one over on that old lady…”

Nel looked absolutely gleeful at the prospect.

I was saved from more fangirling by Twix suddenly appearing next to Trinadelle. I didn’t jump this time, Nel did and Nuala’s nose twitched, so I felt even more like a stoic badass.

“The house staff are dead. Their bodies are piled in the cellar. There are signs that…experiments were conducted on them and they bear the same black poison you have mentioned before.” Twix reported in her usual emotionless voice, though she did stumble a little on experiments and that made me wonder how truly bad it was.

“Smith,” I said.

“Indeed. Looking for a better way to control humans perhaps.” Trinadelle concurred.

“Or he just couldn’t be bothered keeping up the act while in the house and it was too much effort to control all of them all the time. Couldn’t afford one of them getting suspicious and spreading the word.”

“I also have the map you asked for.” Twix held a large roll of faded parchment out to Trinadelle but he directed her to me instead.

I took it and unrolled it before holding it up in the air. The unsupported bottom corners curled back in and I cussed before looking around for someplace to put it down. Beggars can't be choosers and there wasn’t another table in the room so I spread the mayor's legs apart and rolled the map out between his feet. I may or may not have used his feet as paperweights to hold down the top corners of the map.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding, this really is detailed.”

The map was a breakdown of the land surrounding the town. Thin dotted lines separated the fields into segments with names and dates written in a neat script in the middle of each segment. Land rental for farming would be my guess, but I wasn’t interested in that and just ignored it. Instead, I focused on the river that curled up along the right edge of the map.

“This is the same one that runs down to the Dryad Grove, correct?”

Nel nodded, a lock of her dark hair trailing down the side of her face.

I traced the river up, passed the town, across a stretch of what looked like flat grassland to a mountain range. I didn’t need to read the thick cursive script running along its peaks saying ‘Champions Fall’ to know the place.

“The seed is here,” I said with complete certainty.

Trinadelle looked at the map for a second longer before nodding. “I believe you are right, but I wish to know why you think it is there and not further down at say, the river bend here…or here? There are no settlements between here and the Mountains to infect after all.”

“First off, its the beginning of the river and the water collected at the top of the mountains would cause a natural waterfall, you could rely on that pressure to push the contamination out further and faster. Secondly, all those mountains make it easier to hide a force of considerable size like the army that nutter was talking about.”

I looked up to see if they were following along. They were, which is understandable since it’s pretty straight forward. But it was my time to shine so they would have to put up with it.

“Also something you said,” I pointed at Trinadelle. “when we first met fits with this. Your guild had gotten reports of wild animals acting aggressively near the foothills of Champions Fall, almost as if they had been drinking infected water, but when you went there the workers in the quarry declined your help.” I stabbed the map where the stone mine was located on the left of the mountains. It looked like a concentric ring of circles on the map.

“As if they were controlled.” Twix said. I pointed at her hooded form, nodding vigorously.

“Or in fear of their life. If Smith could not control them he would have threatened them.” Trinadelle added.

"Why not just kill them?" Nel asked.

I was the one that answered. "He wouldn't want to draw attention to the area any more than was necessary. Just the animals were enough to bring this lot. If people started disappearing who knows what attention that would bring."

“So threaten them and get them to keep working. If they ran, a Forgotten Pack member could track them down with ease.” Nel supplied.

“We need to check out that quarry and those Mountains,” I said.

“You will have trouble leaving the town. It’s still on lockdown and the guardsmen know what you look like now. They are also expecting to get the privilege of hanging you soon.” Trinadelle hummed in thought. “And we need to prepare the town for a siege if you fail to kill Smith and his force arrives.”

Nuala’s nose quivered and she said “Siege? What have you gotten me into now, De’Vraga?”

“I’ll explain later. I need a moment to think, please.”

“Perhaps I could help.” The Mayor said, his voice a little thin but still with that commanding tone. “And why the devil are you all clustered around between my legs?”