Len had the Goblins and Keseryn start the journey home with the promise that she’d catch up, then went over to check on Tess. Blood loss had done it’s work on her, the rage had faded from her eyes and all that was left was an exhausted woman on the brink of death. She would’ve pitied her if not for the fact that she was a murderous assassin.

“You know,” said Len conversationally. “None of it had to be like this. I get that I got off to a rocky start and all, but you had choices. You didn’t need to throw away everything on some stupid statement. Hell, horrible though it would’ve been, you could’ve just killed the kid. I’d have never known, or it would’ve taken me a lot longer to figure out. Was it really just a joke?”

Tess gritted her teeth and said nothing.

“Doesn’t matter, I suppose. We both know what has to happen now. The thing is, Tess. I’ve been through a lot in my short time in this world. I roll with the punches as much as I can, turn the other cheek when possible, let things slide that I probably shouldn’t have. I’ve seen death, and even made choices that have probably led to deaths. Comes with the territory.”

She took a heavy breath and glanced towards the treeline to be sure that the others were out of site.

“There are times where I really feel like I’m losing myself. Like this world is eating me up inside. Like I really should just give in to it, you know? I’ve got some sort of shadow demon clinging to me, infecting me in some way that I really don’t quite understand, and there are moments where it’d be so much easier to just give it what it wants. Dance to its tune and sow some chaos for the joy of it.”

Tess stared at her, bewildered. Then her eyes widened as Len began the work of tending to her wounds.

“I want you to understand something here. I could kill you without a second’s thought. I wouldn’t regret it, I probably wouldn’t even remember it. You’re the kind of scum that the world would be better off being rid of. It’d give Kes some peace of mind. Hell, it’d give ME some peace of mind. But I also get the feeling that it’d be entertaining to exactly the wrong things as well and, for tonight at least, my need to spite them outshines my need to kill you.”

She worked in silence for a while, bandaging the cuts, salving the deeper ones, then carried the bulky Orc to a bed inside. She made sure that food and water was within reach, then turned to speak to the woman one final time.

“You have the winter. Heal, recover as best you can, use this place as you need to. After that? Leave. And pray that you never see me again. Pray that you never see that girl again. Pray that you're never ANYWHERE within my reach again, because if that happens? You don’t even want to imagine the suffering that I will inflict on you, regardless of what impulses I’ll be feeding. Be grateful that you caught me on a day I felt like listening to my better angels. Don’t risk running into me on another.”

She turned and strode out of the cabin, closing the door behind her. In truth, the odds weren’t that great of Tess surviving the winter. Her legs might heal, but they almost certainly needed more expert work than she had to offer. It was possible the orc would never leave that bed again. She’d send someone towards the end of the winter to bury her if necessary. Probably Weaver if he decided to act up again. For now, she needed to catch up with the others.

* * * * *

It was a dreary return trip. Nothing that had transpired had been terribly satisfying to anyone involved. Valkar would probably survive, but he was in bad shape. The journey took three full days, rather than the bare day and a half that it had taken them before. They took frequent rests, talked about things that didn’t really matter, and generally just took their time. Len was starting to get worried about the Hovel towards the end of it, nearly five days away was the sort of thing that could cause a lot of damage given the tendencies of her troops.

Those fears proved to be unfounded. Curly greeted them cheerily at the gate, happy to see their return. He ushered them in pleasantly to quite the shocking sight. The greenhouse that she’d done mockups of had been completed in her absence. It wasn’t the sort of thing that would normally bring a tear to her eyes, but after recent events, she did feel a bit misty at the view of the seven-foot tall building made of glass. Ramus must’ve nearly killed himself getting that much glass blown that quickly. The house wasn’t massive, not more than sixteen square feet, but it had a proper entrance and Marble was already making great use of it to tend to several crops that Len hadn’t seen her working with before. It wasn’t a complete solution to their feeding issues, but it was a strong step towards that solution (provided that it didn’t suffer the same fate as the original one).

“Holy hell, guys. This is impressive.”

“Well,” said Ramus with a grin. “We figured that while you were out, we might as well make ourselves useful. By the way, that Balar fellow stopped by. We told him you were out, but he insisted on sticking around until you got back.”

“Huh, he’s here. Not his son? Didn’t see that coming. Ah well, guess I’ll go see him.”

“Sure thing, he’s in the mess hall.”

The burly form of Balar was an interesting sight to behold when staged beside the much lankier Cookie. Len hid a smirk as she joined them. Cookie excused himself quickly, and went back to working on some sort of soup that he was preparing.

“Figured that you were done with personal visits, since you’ve only been sending your son our way,” she grinned, extending a hand.

“I’d been planning on leaving the work to him,” he said with his own grin, taking the offered limb and shaking it firmly. “But he’s got other duties to attend to, and it seemed like a good opportunity to talk.”

“What about?” she asked cautiously.

“It seems that our time for pleasant relations are coming to a close rapidly, I’m afraid. I don’t believe you’re personally responsible, but large troop movements isn’t really the sort of thing we can ignore.”

“Wait, what?” she asked, stunned.

The way he’d been talking, she’d begun to worry that this was about her rogue hunters. Or maybe some sort of taboo with the banished girl, but troop movements? What the hell was Astrid thinking? Had she just decided to go ahead and invade for the fun of it? No. She didn’t have a full read on the Demon Lord just yet, but she’d seemed earnest enough in their conversations. This had to be something else.

“Listen, I don’t know what’s going on here, but I promise you it’s not my doing. We’ve got the beginnings of a good thing here, we shouldn’t just throw it away. Let me talk to the Demon Lord and see what I can find out.”

“I like you, Lenore. There’s something refreshing about you that makes for good conversations and good trade. That doesn’t mean that there’s much that I can do here. I mostly came as a matter of respect and warning. If war has come to us, my clan will wage it. If you end up on the side of our enemies, we’ll cut you down as mercilessly as the rest.”

“Well, that’s encouraging. Look, like I said: I don’t know what’s going on here. I promise you I’ll find out and do what I can to stop it. Is there any chance your leader would be willing to join up now, before any violence happens?”

“No chance whatsoever. Please, Lenore, you can’t expect that to work. At best it’d look like we were forced to submit before a single blow was struck. We don’t seek conflict, but we don’t hide from it either. We will kill the invaders or we will be killed. At least we’ve been able to build up our arms thanks to the ore you’ve been supplying us.”

Len made a note not to mention that little detail to Astrid when she talked to her as soon as Balar left.

“Glad to have helped on that front, I suppose. I don’t want war, I’ll do what I can to stave it off. I think I’ve earned at least a little consideration by now. I’ve dealt straight with you and your people every time, even accepted some pretty mediocre trades, I should add. I’ll find a way to make this work.”

“I hope you do,” he said. “Lenore, I pray that when next we meet, it’s not on the battleground. Regretfully, I must also inform you that we won’t be able to send any traders your way while this is straightened out. We just can’t trust that they’d be safe.”

Len wanted to object, those traders were a key component in her survival strategy at the moment, but could see in his eyes that it was pointless. Sighing, she offered her hand and shook his once more.

“Same, Balar. Without mincing words: you saved our asses here. Kept us afloat when I’m not sure that we’d have lasted much longer. I’m sorry that this happened, and I’ll do what I can to straighten it out. Really.”

He nodded, then left without saying more. Cookie came out, a tad sheepish.

“I’m not sure I should’ve stuck around to hear that,” he said.

“Nah, it’s all good. Everyone’s gonna need to know about this soon enough anyway. How’s the soup today?”

“Better. Mr. Balar did bring us one last batch of supplies. Didn’t even take anything in return. Just gave it to us for free.”

“Damn, I need to find out what’s going on here… after some soup.”

She returned to her tent to find an awkward-looking Keseryn waiting for her.

“I… don’t know where I should go,” the girl said blandly.

“Eh, stay here,” said Len. “This place is too big for me, truth be told. Sharing it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the area. I’ll have Larry get his crew to drag a cot in for you tonight, we’ll get you a proper bed tomorrow. After the news I just got, I’m pretty much ready to call it a night. Just got one more thing to do first.”

She opened her desk drawer, drew out the letter from Astrid, and cracked the seal once more.