José had been waiting for them in the next closest town with supplies and new directions for the prisoners they'd liberated. Traveling across the province for any real length of time with a group of people that big would have gotten them all found and recaptured, so the outsiders had brought them here, where Jose could get them set up and sent on their way, scattered across the province.

Some, to get back to work causing trouble for the Chosen. Others were just getting out. They were fugitives now, but as natives, they weren't nearly so distinct as Valerie and the others had been when they were on the run. They could keep their heads down, blend in, and wait for it all to be over.

If everything went to plan, they would only have to hold out for a few more months. But today had been a lesson in counting on things going perfectly to plan.

Hence why List was currently furiously shouting in Jose's face.

"What the hells was that?!"

If Jose found having a hellborn with solid red eyes that sparked with crimson lightning intimidating, he didn't show it. "Could you be more specific?"

"You said it would be a squad of elites with some urks," List said. "They had a giant wolf demon!"

"I am certain I mentioned they would have warbeasts as well," José said.

"You said drakes. Or something else to pull the carriage," List said. "That wasn't a 'warbeast.' That was a fucking monster. It almost gutted Kaleb."

"I'm okay," Kaleb said sheepishly. He was ignored.

"The Chosen has used leashed monsters from time to time, but Kiva tells me you're all experienced monster hunters."

"You knew?!"

José shrugged. "Your holy man could defeat Slaughter. I was confident you could handle anything else they might have in their stables. And I was right, and now all of the prisoners are free. Everything turned out quite nice, no?"

List kept shouting at José for a bit, about how that monster was stronger than Slaughter, how José was supposed to be a spy, and how if they'd gotten killed, it would have been because of his shit intelligence. José let the tantrum roll off him, offering platitudes and smiles, which was only sending List into a further rage.

Eventually, Valerie had to step in and tell List to take a walk.

In truth, Valerie could see both side of the argument. José was right. They'd won, accomplishing their mission with no losses or even serious injuries. List was making a fuss about Kaleb, but in truth, she'd been hurt worse in her exchanges with the captain, and both of them were already healed as good as new thanks to Arden.

But it had been close. The dreadwolf had been a dangerous surprise. If they hadn't adapted as quickly as they had, if any of them had been just a little slower or off target, things could have gone much worse. Valerie had been in life threatening fights plenty of times now. Darshan and Agnizzar both sprang to mind. But this might have been the first time she'd actively sought one out, and had it come to such a razor's edge.

She'd felt every risk that much stronger in the fight, knowing that they'd willingly put themselves in that kind of danger. That they could have kept their heads down, and stayed safe.

Valerie caught José when he was in between chats with the newly liberated.

"She's not wrong, you know," Valerie said. "You should have warned us about the monsters."

Valerie expected a shrug and another platitude, but José surprised her by dropping his usual aloof expression.

"If I had told you there were incredibly deadly beasts made of nightmares guarding the prisoners, you would have either thought I was exaggerating, or said no to the mission," José said.

Valerie felt a spike of cold anger pierce her chest. "Maybe we should have."

"You were the only ones who had a chance of pulling this off," José said. "Samira has been very careful for the last year. Careful can be useful. It has kept this rebellion alive for all that time. But careful will not unseat Zaman. To do that, we have to be bold. We have to take risks. Only then will we find fortune on our side."

"I don't know if I like feeling like you gambled with our lives," Valerie said.

"I am Iandran. Gambling is what we do," José said. He lit his obnoxiously long pipe, and took a short drag. "Besides. I think it's safe to say that this one paid off."

Valerie caught sight of one of the escaped prisoners embracing a woman who had come to meet them. She watched them both shudder in relief, saw tears running down the woman's face. Elsewhere, she saw a man furiously shaking Kaleb's hand, thanking him profusely in a language Valerie didn't understand. Another freed prisoner was just sitting on a bench, staring at their hands and flexing them. He was shaking off the lingering stiffness of having been turned to stone.

There were dozens of people breathing free because of what they'd done today. Maybe not much, in the grand scheme of things. Not compared to the rows on rows of people trapped in the House of Bells, or to the whole population of Lochmire. But it was still something. For this small handful of lives, they had made a difference.

A memory sparked up in Valerie's heart then. Of a wish, made over a trio of candles, on her first birthday in Xykesh.

"I came to this place when I was very young," José said. "My father was a sailor. As was his father, and his father before him. The voyage I took on Calavera Esposa was to be my first of many. But Lady Fortuna had other plans for me."

He spoke without looking at her, watching the people they'd freed today instead. "Three storms we hit, each one taking us straight into the path of the next. By the time we came out the other side, our masts were broken, our food was gone, and our hull was leaking. We limped to this place, sank in the harbor, and had to swim the rest of the way. A crowd had gathered to watch us come in, but nobody helped us out of the water. Nobody but a group of guards sent by the Chosen."

"Zaman?" Valerie asked, but José shook his head.

"Xiran Song."

That was the Chosen who had ruled before Emir Zaman. The outsider appointed to the role of Chosen, who'd ruled for twelve years, and never once used the King's authority in all that time. Valerie had done her research.

"The people do not trust outsiders here, as a rule. But Song was determined to make Lochmire the exception. He had his people fish us out of the harbor. Put us up in a place on the water. Built us home. Found us jobs. Since we could never go home, he wanted us to belong. Most of us found work in the capital, as it was friendlier there to outsiders than most. About a year after we arrived, Zaman made his move."

José's expression grew darker then. "I was a courier. Usually inside the city, but that day, I was running a message to Shadefall. So I wasn't around when the rest of the men and women I came to this place with took up arms to defend the Songs. I was spared from the slaughter."

Now he looked at Valerie. "It is by a twist of fortune that I stand before you now. I cannot afford to waste such a gift on caution. I hope you can understand."

Despite her lingering anger, Valerie thought she could.

"Just, next time, tell us what we're getting into," she said.

José smiled around his pipe, and shrugged. "No promises."