They needed some time to recover before they could move on. Rory wasn’t the only one whose arms were shaking. Arie had taken one look at the destroyed bodies of the killed kobolds, at their entrails that had spilled out at Arelland’s vicious attack and had emptied her stomach on one side.

Trish was standing nearby, providing a comforting rub on her back while trying to hide her own look of disgust. Rory figured it was more at the gruesome condition of the corpses than at the contents of Arie’s guts.

Rory himself was leaning against the truck’s front. Ned and Viv were checking the jeep to the left, trying to determine if it was still safe to drive.

“I’m glad you all are unharmed,” Arelland said. He was standing off to a side, keeping his distance from the rest of them.

Rory could still smell the acrid scent of blood and other fluids on him. He tried not to let it show on his face. “Thanks to you, of course. We’re grateful you got here in time. Things were would have gone a lot worse if you hadn’t arrived in time.”

“Don’t thank me. I would say to thank Talvic, but he wouldn’t have contacted me in the first place if you hadn’t informed him about your situation. So truly, you are your own true saviour.”

Rory smiled. “Why, aren’t you modest.”

There was no answering smile on Arelland’s face. Behind his mask, his eyes were as grim as ever, dark and deep and not fully present in his current circumstances. Rory did his best not to show any reaction, but he couldn’t help thinking back on how easily—and ruthlessly—he had taken out half of the rebels and the Homeworlders.

“I can’t believe they actually tricked us to this extent,” Allen said. “Not only keeping you locked up, but using the help of monsters and then going on to blame you for doing the same! There’s nothing I hate more than hypocrites.”

He had clearly noticed the uncomfortable silence and was trying to change the tack of the conversation. Rory appreciated the attempt.

“They were desperate,” he said. “Rally desperate. Almost makes me think they were actually losing the war instead of winning it.”

Arelland hummed through his mask. “It is a given that they will lose.”

Allen’s eyes seemed to turn to the massacre around them on their own. “Considering what I just saw… I’m surprised they haven’t been losing for a while now. How have you guys been pushed back when you can do things like this?”

“There are a lot more elements at play than one fighter’s expertise,” the elf said. “Here, I could take advantage of the enemy’s unpreparedness and the element of surprise to use my abilities to their greatest effect. An opponent who knows me, however, would have been warier and far more difficult to defeat.”

Rory recalled how all the elves had stayed far away from Arelland. The Homeworlders had charged in and attacked recklessly, which Arelland had taken full advantage of. But things really might have been different if they’d known what the elf was capable of, even if they couldn’t match his pure strength.

“But you’re strong, though,” Allen said. “The way you tore through them like that… if the rest of your side is anywhere near that powerful, I can see how you’re confident you’ll win.”

The gears in Arelland’s mask whirred as he shook his head. “You misinterpret. It isn’t about power or being better or anything of the sort. There are Sigil users among the Homeworlders who far outstrip me in terms of pure power, as there are Otherworlders who make me look like little more than a pygmy. But no matter how the odds stack up, even if they are ultimately against us, we must win. There is no other option.”

Rory didn’t like the sounds of that, personally. It reeked of desperation to him. How long would it be before someone in the Otherworlder camp decided that Rory should no longer have a powerful Sigil like Weaving? With the way Arelland had torn through his opponents with such ease, Rory was pretty sure they’d be summarily annihilated if they tried to stop Otherworlders.

He didn’t mention any of that though. Now wasn’t the time. Arelland wasn’t in the right mood to deal with nuanced discussion, so Rory would leave it for later.

“I wonder how the Djinn can turn into Wraiths, though,” Rory said.

He looked around until his eyes landed on the Wraith Lord. The monster was haunting the area where his subordinates had fallen, looking a little morose. Rory’s heart panged in sympathy. He was starting to care about the Wraiths and Ghouls under the Wraith Lord’s care, and their deaths felt needless to him. Sacrifices he would be forever grateful for, but ones he wished they hadn’t had to make.

“They made contact with them, I imagine,” Arelland said. Unlike Rory, his eyes were cold.

“Made contact?” Allen asked.

“The Djinn cannot transform into anything unless they have permission from the original holders of the form they take. They have strange powers bound by strange rules.”

Rory felt cold. Arelland was suggesting that the Djinn and the Wraith Lord’s subjects had colluded together. But no, that couldn’t be it. Even the two Djinn had basically admitted it had been a trick.

“How exactly did that happen?” Rory asked, this time directing his question at the Wraith Lord. “If you even know, that is.”

The Wraith Lord finally straightened from where he was hunched over one of the Wraith corpses. He looked back, his eyes sunken and his face sombre. The crown on his head was a little lopsided.

“They tricked us,” he said. “From what little I have been able to piece together, the Djinn approached and made contact with some of my scouts, who neglected to inform me of the contact at the Djinn’s behest.”

“They disobeyed you?” Trish asked. There was a growling undertone on her words. Rory ignored it and gave Arie a welcoming smile, though she looked far too tired to return it. “How is that even possible? I thought you had them all under your control?”

The Wraith Lord’s face seemed to grow even thinner. “It seems their capabilities are… evolving, thanks to their new Sigils.”

“New Sigils?” Arelland asked, frowning between the Wraith Lord and Rory.

Rory quickly explained that he had granted the Wraiths some new Sigils to help them grow mentally, and his reasoning behind why. Or rather, the Wraith Lord’s reasoning of elevating his subjects’ general level of intelligence. That warmed Arelland up to the Wraith Lord a bit. Rory was just glad he was a little less frosty.

“So, you’re saying they made a wrong decision independently?” Trish asked. “They gave the Djinn what they asked and didn’t inform you about it. How’d you figure it all out then?”

The Wraith lord shrugged. “I have scouts scouting my scouts.”

Rory blinked. “That’s… excessive, but smart.”

“I hope you’re going to make sure to tell them not to trust strange Djinn they meet on the roadside or something,” Allen said.

“Oh, I will.” The Wraith Lord smiled for the first time. “We will be having many interesting conversations once I return.”

Rory nodded in acceptance. The Wraiths’ growing intelligence might be a liability in some ways, but as a former parent, he understood it was mostly a matter of educating them correctly. He was just going to have to trust that the Wraith Lord would deliver the proper instructions.

Viv and Ned came over then, looking more tired than the rest of them. That was to be expected. They had been tinkering with the jeep instead of resting like everyone else.

“It should be good to go,” she said. “Ned and I checked and made sure the worst of the damage isn’t going to hurt us yet. Would be good to check it once we’ve reached the palace, though.”

Rory nodded. “Then let’s get going.”

“I must return to my camp,” Arelland said. “But rest assured, this event will be investigated. We will not stand Homeworlders threatening to upend the very balance the system wishes to create.”

“What do you mean?”

“You are a prospective, system-approved merchant, Rory. If others continue to threaten you, the system itself will intervene.”

“That doesn’t make sense. The system doesn’t even like my unauthorized Safe Zone.”

“They are separate complaints but related in the sense that the subject of both is the same. It may be the reason why you haven’t been investigated yet. The system recognizes that your Safe Zone is a temporary stop gap to allow your survival until the time you have established yourself as a system-approved merchant.

“Huh.” Rory rubbed his chin. “That’s convenient.”

“It is. But things will become complicated if the system decides to send an Invigilator. Their investigation will draw everyone into a messy swirl, and it would be in all our best interests to prevent such a case from arising. As such, the Coalition itself will likely take action against the rebels.”

“So, you’ve been manipulating things, I see,” the Wraith Lord said. All eyes turned to him, but he seemed to relish the attention, straightening to stand at his full height. He wasn’t that much shorter than Arelland’s eight-plus feet. “Letting the rebels get involved before making your move.”

That was the worst thing the Wraith Lord could have said. Rory’s heartrate spiked in alarm as the monster’s words left his mouth, but before he could tell the Wraith Lord to shut up, Arelland reacted. With a hydraulic swish too fast for Rory to see, the elf had slammed himself into the Wraith Lord, sending him crashing into the wall of a nearby building.

“That is all the warning you will receive, monster,” Arelland said, voice colder than a blizzard. “One more insult out of your mouth, and I will sever your putrid skin off your maggoty flesh.”

If the Wraith Lord replied, none of them heard it through the rubble and debris that had buried him. Arelland gave a last, farewell nod at Rory, then quickly left.

“That was…” Viv shook her head.

Rory was about to go over and check up on the Wraith Lord, but then the rubble started shifting. His monstrous ally climbed out and started dusting himself off rather stiffly. Rory wondered if he was annoyed and upset over the encounter, but when he turned to face them all, there was a grin on his face. His teeth were a rotten, dirty brown.

“As you say,” he said. “All is well that ends well, yes?”

Rory looked around. “I’m not sure what ended well, here.”

The Wraith Lord laughed. Then his expression sobered into something more serious. “Regardless. I do remind you that you owe me a Sigil of Obfuscation.”

“Obfuscation?”

“Well, that, or something else that can help hide me. If the Homeworlders hadn’t intended to strike at me before, just hoping to use our relationship to get to you, they will certainly target me directly now. I need something to evade them.”

“Are you afraid they’ll find your bunker?” Trish asked. “No one who doesn’t know about it is ever going to find it.”

“Regardless of what you think, I would feel much safer, both for myself and my Wraiths and my Ghouls, if I had a Sigil to prevent the Homeworlders from finding me or mine.”

Rory nodded. “I’ll get to it as soon as I’ve rested up a bit for the day.”

After exchanging their goodbyes with the Wraith Lord, who promised he’d carry out his own investigation on how the Wraiths and Ghouls had given such vital information to the Djinn, they all headed out.

Rory was happy to be assigned the pickup. The jeep’s engine shot out sparks and gave off a frightening screeching sound whenever they stopped accelerating, so he was glad not to be anxious about exploding. Of course, that meant he was anxious about Viv, Ned, and Arie on the other vehicle. But there wasn’t much anyone could do other than hoping they reached the palace before anything untoward occurred.

Thankfully, the path ahead was devoid of trouble. Rory was once more surprised at the way no monsters attacked them on route to Belcourt. Maybe they had been scared off by the vicious battle and the presence of too many people using too powerful Sigils.

Or maybe there was something more nefarious going on. The way they had seemingly coordinated together on the night Rory’s group had gone out to rescue the trapped Otherworlders—even the different kinds of monsters—had been very interesting in its capabilities.

Nevertheless, Rory decided to divest himself of all worries when he finally reached the palace. He did take some time to give a broad update to Evelyn and everyone else who had remained behind regarding what had happened in the big battle and what new things they had to look out for and worry about for the near future. But mostly he reassured them that things would ultimately work out. Rory would make sure of it.

As for the specific details, he left that to the others. Rory himself took some time to freshen himself up, get some food, and then get some rest. It had been a long, long day, and he needed his old, old spirit to recover. After that, there was always more work to be done.