The sky-blue vathon woman bore down on Kaldalis with a scowl on her face so severe he was convinced it was going to stick that way forever.

Or, at least, it would in his nightmares.

“You reckless fool!” she screamed almost directly into his face. Onirioago kept advancing as she yelled, and Kaldalis was forced to retreat before her. Unless he wanted her to body slam into the front of him on her advance, that was. “What were you thinking?”

Kaldalis was pretty confused about the demand. He honestly wasn’t sure what she was talking about. A very small voice within himself asked if maybe she was concerned for his well-being and was upset about him throwing himself selflessly at the boss in order to save everyone else.

The voice was very small, and, he determined, stupid. It was clear on her face that she had no intent of breaking into a big friendly grin and giving him a playful punch in the arm. If anything, it made clear that any punches would be less than playful, and aimed somewhere much more unfriendly.

Instead, he said nothing, returning his glaive to his inventory and holding his hands up protectively. He hoped that if she jumped to violence, that she would punch for his face instead of anywhere more fragile.

“You must be some kind of lunatic,” she continued, still stomping forward even as he retreated. “Did you think we were all so stupid we wouldn’t notice you vanishing like a ghost? Or did you believe there was nothing wrong with… with whatever that was?”

Ah. She was talking about the Flicker.

His mind raced thinking of a way to bullshit his way out of trouble on this. She was just on the outside of what he imagined his personal space bubble to be, and he had a mad thought to just stop walking and let her slam into him.

Her figure was much more typical for a vathon than his barrel chest. Mass was on his side. Perhaps he could rebuff her scolding by turning it around on her. Classic misdirection.

Unfortunately, nothing came to mind to pin on her. The attack itself? Whatever was taking so long in turning the encampment into a real town? He had no information and so no leverage.

“I don’t understand,” Kaldalis said quickly before she could start screaming again. “I did what was necessary to survive. To protect everyone. How could that be wrong?”

Onirioago sputtered for a moment, looking shocked and affronted that he had managed to muster a response. “You dare?” she managed before her speech devolved into sputtering again. After a moment, she only said again, louder and more indignantly: “You dare?!”

“I really don’t understand,” he said, trying to put as much apology into his tone as possible. “What did I do that was wrong?” If he wanted to come out of this intact, he needed to not antagonize her. If he made an enemy of the expedition leader, she wouldn’t allow him to continue as a threat to her position. She might not just strike him dead right here and now, but she probably had the power to make his time on the island a living hell. He needed to submit to her authority. “Please help me understand.”

“What don’t you understand?” she yelled, finally stopping her advance. It didn’t escape his notice that she gave a surreptitious glance around. She hadn’t expected that response. Her trust towards him extended no further than his trust for her did. She anticipated a trick. “You can’t possibly mean that you’re so dim-witted as to be unaware that people do not simply stop existing at a whim.”

“I was hoping to discuss this with you privately,” Kaldalis lied. “Before it was made public in front of the entire camp, of course. But necessity and survival demanded its use. I can’t apologize enough for my impulsiveness, but I didn’t anticipate it having this effect on your reaction.”

Onirioago hesitated. He could almost hear the wheels turning in her head from here. She didn’t have all the information, but she realized that he was handing her the win.

Kaldalis could only hope that she would take it graciously instead of grabbing the ball and spiking it.

“You will come with me, then,” she snarled, raising her voice loud enough so that the ‘audience’ of adventurers gathered in the courtyard could hear. “You have a lot of explaining to do, and I would have it done before deciding an appropriate punishment for your actions.”

“Of course,” Kaldalis said, also speaking loudly to let her save enough face here that he might be able to get out of it with a symbolic punishment rather than a severe one. “I’ll answer whatever questions you have about our new discovery.”

“Damned right you will,” Onirioago muttered, grabbing him by the elbow and dragging him towards her tent. “About that and more, I assure-”

A cry went up from the gate, interrupting her and demanding the attention of the encampment. One of the archers turned and yelled something into the encampment, but it was inaudible at this distance. A figure broke away from the group at the gate, pushing their way through the crowd to run towards the courtyard.

“What happened?” Onirioago demanded, letting go for Kaldalis to march towards the front gate. “What’s happening?”

Garyung finally broke through the crowd and scrambled for a moment, before orienting on the expedition leader and resuming his run.

“They’re back,” he yelled as he approached. “They all retreated, but the orange ones came back! We need to hold the walls!”

Despite knowing he was in trouble, and knowing that the expedition leader would take it out on him later, he broke away from her and took off towards the gate.

“With me! Balrim, Myrin, Haldir - let’s go!”

“You realize how fucked you are?” Myrin said from his elbow, seeming to have found her way to his side impossibly fast. “She’s going to beat you black and blue as soon as she has you behind closed doors.”

“Yeah,” Kaldalis said. “I know.”

“Maybe he’s into that,” Balrim said from over his other shoulder. “I don’t judge if you are.”

“You realize this is serious, don’t you?” Kaldalis said, pushing into the crowd towards the gate. “This attack is a threat to our lives and the lives of everyone here. You know that, right?”

“And we’re running towards the danger,” Haldir observed, bringing up the rear of the quartet.

“Who better?” Myrin said cheerfully. “The fearless heroes, conquerors of the dungeon, wielders of Kaia’s power, hurling themselves into danger without hesitation!”

“Just another day for this guy,” Balrim said, smacking Kaldalis’s shoulder.

“You know what they say,” Kaldalis muttered with a grimace. “There’s no rest for the wicked.”

“Money don’t grow on trees!” Myrin added in a sing-song tone.

Kaldalis stifled a snort. This was serious. The encampment would never become a town if a bunch of malum got in and destroyed everything they’d built. As much as he appreciated Myrin bringing some much-needed humor to the table, they had work to do.

“Open the gate!” Kaldalis yelled as they approached. “We’re going in! Er, out!”

The gate opened a crack, and Kaldalis saw how much work had been done so far on the town’s defenses. A killbox had been erected; beyond the gate there was a smaller courtyard with a second gate beyond. Or, at least, there had been. The outer gates had been broken in in the previous attack. Through the opening, he could see the oncoming charge of dozens of malum, and the two malum captains as well.

“We hold here!” Kaldalis yelled, leading his team through the narrow gap in the gates. “Archers and healers support from above!”

“Why you?” someone yelled. “What makes you think you should go out here while the rest of us huddle behind the doors? Who do you think you are?”

“Big damn heroes!”

“Ain’t we just,” Balrim muttered, although loud enough for their group to hear. The talsar’s ruddy scales looked a little pale now that he was staring down the Infernal Horde’s charge.

“Watch and learn!” Myrin shouted with a twirl of her sword. “We’ve got some tricks up our sleeves that’ll prove we belong here!”

“You think this will work?” Haldir asked, much quieter than the rest. “We handled it fine outside the gates because we had control over the size of our fight. They’re all coming right to us this time. We might be in over our heads.”

“Don’t worry, I have a plan,” Kaldalis lied.