“Sword Sairuda insists oing with you,” Marnounced, stepping into Jaent.

  Ja the terminal aside a out a slow breath. Her wounds had long since healed, but Maxence had twisted the and’s arm to give her a full five-day leave to recover. Her! As if she were a cub! And now she had MP soldiers stationed outside her tent, esc her everywhere, including to feast or take a leak. Captain Cristobo personally grilled her over the duel against the damned Sword Saint, warning that he would tolerate aliation.

  It infuriated her, and she plunged into duties to relieve this anger. She checked up on Marty to cheer her up and ended up giving her a little talk that ended up being way more awkward because of these MP bastards present. She wao find Ashbringer and try her luck against the woman, but with her ‘nannies’ around, it was impossible.

  She fined herself to the tent, readis, approving requests, scheduling regur trainings, and writiers to the families of her dead soldiers. Martyshkina feigned a recovery, but Janine saw through this disguise and took the load off her, inf the families of her deceased pack’s members so nothing would remind her friend about the loss of her daughter.

  After pleting this duty, she visited the wounded rades and ended up a bit disappointed Soulless One had to be pced in a medical a. Maxence scheduled han three more surgeries for her old rade to repair the damage caused by the faulty impnts.

  “She waste her time standing until a new dawn for all I care,” Janine said calmly, making a note of where she stopped reading the reports about the faulty equipment.

  Chak wasn’t lying; the pack was on its st legs in terms of gear. Even the most revered and greatest Alpha’s, Predaig’s, and Dragena’s packs struggled to maintain bat readiness despite receiving resupplies first. Welded armor ptes no longer had the usual durability, as inferior alloys repced diamodite. She poked a hole in a seam using her fingers and deemed it unfit for prolonged bat. She of grenades, shardgun ammo… What a mess. At least energy cells were in abundance.

  Swallowing her pride, Janine messaged everyone she knew, inf the Dynast, Till Ingo, Devourer, the Ice Fang Order, and Outsider of her pack’s sorry dition. The liege promised to beat some seer; Devourer and Outsider kept their silence; Ingo didn’t respond; and the Order answered at once, sharing their ons caches. Wolf hags pined about the silliness of using the peashooters and recoilless rifles provided by the army, but the warlord couldn’t care less and wrote an official gratitude letter to the Order and forced her pack to exercise in wielding the neons. Other packs followed, growling at the humiliation.

  As, there wasn’t much more she could’ve done. In a way, Chak’s wish came true. The army had stopped camping outside the fallen capital for three days, pleting the evacuation and sc the region free of raiders. Ravager and Cristobo recruited volunteers from the refugees, scripting the you criminals to bolster the Third ranks. A few Iternians showed up, people from some news agency. They crawled around the city like obnoxious spies, interviewing soldiers and rec the Teo-Queen’s crimes. The Wolf Tribe ighem, for everyone’s sake.

  “Thanks, Marco.” Jaook the reports off his paws ahem briefly. Food supplies were dwindling, but Chak and the former rebel leaders had solved the problem. “Wait.” She stopped her son before he could sneak out. “Sit with me.”

  Janine reached int of things, found a chocote bar and threw it to Marco to lighten the mood. Chocote was something of a ret rediscovery from the Old World. It never really disappeared from Iterna, but both the Recimers and the Oathtakers had their share of problems before rest the old treats, and it cost a lot ier Lands. But by the Spirits, the joyful look on Marco’s snout as he closed his fangs on the chocote bar was well worth the price. Ravager is right. The Old World may have destroyed itself, but its wonders must be rediscovered, and the remnants of its culture and history will serve as the foundation for a better tomorrow.

  No longer did the Recimers have to ration food, keeping half of their popution living off of nutrient paste or mushrooms. The news reported the creation of vast farmnds, where thousands upon thousands of cusacks—more than she had ever imagied in the wrazed peacefully on grass, providing milk a for the state. ozem was created, spawniire industries that grew bread aables in abundance. And if the propaganda spoke true, this was only the beginning. More jobs opened by the day; the state bought geically enhanced cows from Iterna, reintrodug white milk to the nation; and nature experts worked overtime, repnting forests in the wake of spreading terraformation.

  What will I do in a time of peace? Perhaps I bee a trainer of young cubs? She bahese pointless dreams. There was no ce for her to see that day, not wheer and stronger people had fallen. But someone else .

  “How are things between you and your sisters? Everything is okay? No one is hurting you?” Janine inquired, unsure of how to ask him properly.

  “Better than okay!” Marco replied, taking his time to enjoy the sweetness of the milk elting in his mouth. “Impatient Oaught me how to make a o haul crates. Bogdan and I polished the ptes crystal using sand. Nissi gave me pointers on how to assemble a shardgun. I warenades, but she ughed and said it was too early for that kind of fun. And no girl has kicked me in months! The army is great, Mom! Much better thas; everyone here is helpful and so respectful!”

  “If only.” Janine smiled sadly, remembering friends and rades lost to wars. “No, Marco, an army usually means a war at some point. And wars are nothing but mindless pain, hate, rage, ah.”

  “Why are we fighting, then? ’t we live in our vilges?” His ears flicked.

  “We , but then war will e to us. We fight to end the need for war. To liberate those who ’t save themselves,” Janine said, leaning ba her chair. “I remember my first mission well. It was a simple mop-up operation; a group of svers had taken over a settlement near our border. We so its edge and spotted a group of people demanding the freedom of their little ones, children, as Normies call them. A shot in the knee was their answer, and then the leader of the svers gave the order t the wounded man for everyoo see what happens to those who incur her wrath. We struck at this very moment.” Janine closed her eyes, slipping bato the day when she had lost herself in rage. “We lost a brother and a sister on this night, and by the end of it, I tore the pleading sver in half aed on her remains. The liberated settlement was well outside our borders. Had we not attacked, our kin would still be alive, Marco.”

  “But the settlers would suffer.” He nodded, uanding what she meant.

  “It’s more than this.” She released a d made a circle. “One of these saved settlers also ter fouhe rgest medical i the entire Recmation Army. Some medics who are responsible for saving our lives studied in that very id had we left the svers alohey would’ve e to our nds, eventually. So you see. What goes around es around. Our sacrifices are not in vain.”

  “Got it.” The odded eagerly. “Kill the bad people. Save the good ones.”

  “Wrong again!” Janine ughed, reached across the table, took Marder her arms, and sat him on her p. “Marco, the world is not bd white. Imagine a settlement, a nation, even. Not ruled by a tyrant, but by a cil, a group of people, and they refused to join us. Are they good or bad?”

  “Dunno,” Marco stated. “By refusing the Dynast’s offer, they deny their people prosperity. But… Do they do anything bad?”

  “Nope.” She patted him on the head. “Sure, some of their ws might be cruel, but who’s to say we’re perfect, eh? The state tries to persuade them or buy their leadership off, yet often we quer such stubborn neighbors, enf the on nguage and our culture upon them.”

  “But why?” her son asked. “If they don’t oppress their people…”

  “A host of reasons. The world is cruel. The few nations that the Dynast has tried to leave alone have experienced age at the hands of more violent groups. Cubs in their hundreds, butchered to the st.” She closed her eyes, and the image of broken, bleached bones impaled on stakes fshed before her eyes. The retribution Terrific had wrought for it ectacur. “Or they find a dangerous teology in the ruins and unleash another cataclysm, simir to the ohat forced the Recmation Army to abandon the Desotion. We quer them for their own good, and as such, we must do everything to preserve their lives. For owerful and they are not. question. Children raised under Malformed’s rule… who are they?”

  “Spawns of evil.” Marodded seriously. “They eat prisoners alive, torture is. ’t get any eviler.”

  “A, Chak...” Who your sister is probably fug right now. Janine wao say and only smiled, uanding how much this bothered her. She had always sidered herself as quite open-minded, but here she was, grumbling to herself like a shaman. “...came to us from their ranks, and the chocote you ate came from his shop. If the soldiers who quered his tribe had killed him, we would be robbed of the masterful handling of logistics that saved the lives of our kin. Marco, you o uand why we, despite our wild nature, obey the military ws and take prisoners. Children who grew up in darkness, never seeing light... Are we really so much better thao o extin just because they had the unfortue of being born uhe rule of insane scum? Do we hold a moral superiority to decide if they should perish to the st just because the Spirits graced us with the Blessed Mother? No. I’ll kill aepping up to me in battle, true, but I believe that mercy is never wasted. If we give in to bloodlust, what kind of world will we build? Certainly not the one worth living in.”

  “So keep the good people safe, strike down evildoers wherever you , and show mercy when possible,” Marco said.

  “Not when possible. When the ws require it, when it does not go against the mission, and when it is reasonable,” Janine corrected him, allowing an amber fme to burst anew in her eyes. “Sparing a soldier is proper. Sparing a civilian is a must. And I’ll butcher any soul who dares to harm a Normie cub. But what is the point of showing mercy to a sver, a serial killer, or a traitor? Trial, execution… Such a waste of everyoime. Never be stingy about passion, but don’t be a fool either. Use on sense.”

  “Correct, Warlord. We are monsters and nothing more. Mercy is not ours to give, but we may as well try. A monster quers everything in its path, including its own nature.” A pleasant voice spoke behind her, and Janine froze for a sed, stunned by the fact that someone had sneaked up on her in her ow.

  Long, elongated fingers appeared from the er of her vision, encirg her like spider legs. For a moment, Jahought that Terrific had crawled from the afterlife and arrived to wreak vengean her for being an unworthy heir. Why else would her ghost have appeared so often i times? However, when an unnatural light illumihe ten, Janine exhaled. She turned around, c Marco, a Ravager’s stare.

  “Blessed Mother,” she and Marco said in unison, admitting her superiority. Janine had put a paw over Marouth to keep him safe. “Why are you here?”

  “The Dynast woke me.” Ravager removed her paws. The warlord’s tent acious enough for her to pce a rack of her power armor ihe Blessed Mother’s bulk devoured most of the free space. “I heard you asked for help from the Order.”

  “As was my duty before the pack,” she said sternly. Spirits take all; mortifying or not, she’ll grovel as much as o maintain the packs in peak dition.

  “Such a good girl. First told me something iing, Janine.” Ravager leaned over and sniffed, her eyes almost bigger than Marco’s entire body. And she still grew! Everyone saw it; after killing the Teo-Queen, the Blessed Mother had grown a tiny bit. Jaruggled to imagine what her peak even was. “You held back against the sword saint. Willingly. My aoward you… was mispced. And for this, I wish to offer repense.”

  “Do you think I’m weak?” Janine growled, jumping off the chair and hiding Marco behind herself. “Blessed Mother or not, I refuse! I am Janine! My fws are my own, and I need no curse to asd! I will never, ever bee a skinwalker!”

  She expected a cw to split her from head to waist for such impertinence, leaving two halves of her body struggling to stand up, the ruptured brain trying to retain thought, healing processes overwhelmed, and then Ravager’s jaws would close on the remains, dev…

  The Blessed Mhed, shattering the illusion. It was not a mad ugh, aher was this a mockery. Ravager sounded like a high-society dy who had just heard a fantastic joke from her cavalier.

  “No, this path is not for you, Warlord. Ah, I remember you at st, Warlord Janine,” Ravager said. “Four times you have made the right decisions in my presence. You resisted the urge to strike the angel. Fave your mother. Stopped my madness and saved lives. And showed enough wisdom to go easy on our future.” Ravager exhaled a cloud of steam a a smelly mark on Janine’s cheek. “Wele to the inner circle, warlord. Devourer will e in the m, and we are to meet him. Are you free now?”

  “I still o teach my son,” Janine replied stubbornly, cursing that the ander had ruined a moment to speak with Marco heart-to-heart.

  “Do so then; we have time aplenty.” Ravager pushed herself to the side of the tent and y on the ground, closing her eyes.

  Janine had quite several things ient, including a leather jacket left by Terrifiow serving as a reliind her of Mom. A chest of gsses manufactured in the Old World, gifted to her by the National Museum as a souvenir for saving valuable artifacts from raiders. Janine had no actual use for them and was afraid of breaking the beautiful things. So she never drank from them, only occasionally taking them out to polish them, training her fio be careful with things.

  Other than that, she had ay harness, a ons rack, her other trophies, and a family stone listing her direct retives and their desdants. Theoretically, Ravager should have smashed them all with her bulk. In theory, Ravager should’ve smashed them all with her bulk. But somehow, almost supernaturally, the woman fit ihe tent, taking up just enough space without destroying anything or sending Janine and Marco flying.

  Jaook a book from her backpad started asking Marco questions about the tribe’s history, inquiring about the date their name was officially added to the nation and about the founders. Shamans performed this duty is, teag cubs how to t, about the ws of physics, and expining the nation’s ws. Since she had ended her son’s education uhe shaman’s tutege, it was now her duty to ensure Marco’s development.

  Ravager kept quiet. Her heartbeat sounded like a drum, beating slowly but steadily, and Janine wondered how the Blessed Mother could sneak up on ah this bombastic sound in her chest. The breath ing out of her mouth resembled the heat from a furnace, reminding Janine of the pleasa around their vilge.

  “Very good, Marco.” Jaurned a page. “Here is a hard one….”

  “You have a question!” Ravager snapped, catg Marco’s gnce. “Ask away already. Youth should not hold back curiosity; remember it ond for all.”

  “Sorry.” Marco tried to bow, but a tap of a gigantiger rocketed the tent, prompting the MPs to step inside and inquire if everything was fine. Ravager ighem. “Your fur,” Marco has finally found the ce to ask. “Is it true that it bise arm?”

  Ravager blinked, and the aggression vanished from her face. What came into her eyes instead looked like cheeky fun. Ravager held out her arm toward Marco.

  “Touch it, cub,” she anded, and Marco obeyed, first pressing one finger and then his full palm.

  “Soft. Smooth. Like silk,” he whispered in surprise, and Ravager ughed.

  “Sharp fur! Divine heir! Blessed Mother!” Ravager shook her head and pced it ba her paws. “Seriously, who is spreading these rumors about me? No, cub. I am her divine nor a mother, aainly not a hedgehog. I am Ravager, a monster, and nothing more.”

  “The me talk with my son in peace,” Janine barked, waving the MPs away. They couldn’t hope to ster if the ander had lost it, but she still appreciated their dedication and willio help. Perhaps she was being unfair to them.

  The look on Marty’s face when she had to kill her daughter. Her owiful cubs, either stillborn or murdered is, haunted her. Death in battle, death from malfun, death from rivalry, death during a dominatioh from old age, death from culling… death, death, death. She got fed up with death.

  “Marco. Do your kill hurt?” Janine softly asked her son.

  “Huh? No! Well, they bother me a little, but I am on my feet all day!” Marped off the chair and did a few squats to show that he was okay. But she saw. A minor tremble occurred when his knees bent. Just a minor fw, but it was there. All because she couldn’t bear him in peace like a proper mother.

  “Marco,” Janine forced herself to sound kind and warm, unwilling to scare her son. “How would you like to bee an exile?”

  “Mom? Warlord?” Marco stumbled, fiddling with his beret in his paws. “Have I done something bad? If so, I will fix it! Please don’t throw me out; I’ll…”

  “I will hrow you out, Marco. You are forever my son.” I love you. She wao say it but stopped herself. No sign of weakness in front of the family. “I wasn’t a perfect mother. I hadn’t given you enough vitality; I could not give you sisters to keep you safe is…”

  “But you took me out there! You saved me, mom!” She raised a paw, stopping his outburst.

  “But I give you a life worth living,” Janine tinued, as if nothing had happened. “Marco, Dad, and I have saved up some tokens. I’m ly poor, you know. I ask for help and buy you a house in the Core Lands. You go into an actual school and live a normal, peaceful life, a life that romised to us by the Dynast.” She quickly pressed on at a hesitation in his eyes. “You won’t be alohe has greatly expanded in our day and age. My rank allows for certain liberties, so eak daily! And there are plenty of chocote treats in the Core Lands. Think about it: no girl would dare to hit you; you’ll see the wonders of the world firsthand…”

  “And leave you to fight for my safety alone?” Marco asked bluntly.

  “Marco. You’ll die here. Your brothers will die. Your sisters will die. A day will e, and I myself will perish in some ditch, fotten and alone.” Jaold him the truth thten him. “There is no noble demise in battle. The songs and legends told by the shamans? They are about the dead kin who never knew pea their lives. Demise on a battlefield is either painful and ugly or instantaneous, if you are lucky. The Wolf Tribe fights so that future geions of all people live in peace. You’re part of that geion! In the Core Lands, you start a family and bee happy. Not fake happy to reassure me, don’t argue with me, Marco, I’m not blind! Actually happy. Imagine holding your cubs and having no fear of seeing them dead!”

  “This will mean leaving you and kin here alone,” Marco said sadly. There was determination in his amber eyes. “No, mother. I am a Wolfkin! It is our duty to serve as shields for the meek. I may be weak and frail, but I will never leave you and my kin to shoulder the duty alone.”

  “Right choice, Cubbie,” Ravager chuckled. “Monsters belong with monsters.”

  Would it kill you to shut up? She suppressed the urge to grab the axe and bury it in Ravager’s forehead. It was ner’s fault. It was Janine who had failed to vince her little boy to choose a happier path in life. She picked up the textbook and found a page.

  “Should you ever ge your mind, Marco, the offer is always here for as long as I live.” She flipped a page, gesturing for her son to sit. “Let us tinue, without interruptions this time. Here is a hard ohe Heatnds, the Ravaged Lands, the Wastes, and the Desotion have exceedingly high temperatures, making them often dangerous to non-New Breeds. How e?”

  “Uhm…” Marco scratched his head, and she gave him time to collect his thoughts. Normies studied this subje the eighth grade, so she wouldn’t hold it against him if he fot. The topic was of no use in their lives, and rather b to boot. “I know!” He beamed. “It’s the sun! Our p is protected by a protective yer of atmosphere, but the Extin thi out. Well, the ons were unleashed during it. The terraf process is slowly healing it, f heavy clouds over our skies, but despite the work of the Great Nations, it hasn’t recovered everywhere yet.”

  “Not wholly true,” Ravager whispered to Marco, holding a paw over her mouth. “Know about nanomaes, cubbie?” Marodded, and the ander tinued. “The madmen unleashed it during the Extin and parts of them still linger imosphere. Imagine a stant magnifying gss looming over the nds…”

  “ander!” Janine raised her voice. “No prompting!”

  “What?” The Blessed Mother perked up and tilted her head. “I’m nothing. You have no proof that I did anything, Janine.”

  “I saw you whispering to my son!”

  “No idea what you are talking about.”

  It’s like dealing with two unruly cubs whom I ’t smack!

  “Please refrain from adding anything, ander,” Janine asked, grinding her fangs. “I po educate my son about the topiight…”

  “So he doesn’t know? Great!” The bck bulk flung Janine off her feet, and Ravager took her pce. “Css, listen up. Nanotech, of whianomae onry is a part, pyed a vital role in the Old World. Imagine a ser scalpel f in the doctor’s hand, automatically ing itself, or a steel wave flowing over a person, f armor. Nanotech gave us great wonders, creating many engines capable of self-repair, but it is also a source of great peril when its programming goes awry. To uand the scope of the potential danger, you first o uand where it was used… Would you stop ag like a female i? We are leading a lesson here!” Ravager s Janine, who tried to push her away. “Where were I… Application of nanotech. Aside from serving as instruments, it was sold as a subscription to patients suffering from various ailments. Picture a situation. Your stomao longer produces juices to digest food. Nanotech fix it, five credits per month, please! Pay up, and your faulty ans will work as good as new for the duration of the subscription.”

  “Couldn’t this magic heal the sick?” Marco dared to ask.

  “It’s not magic; it’s teology, little one. And yes, it could, but it would’ve made less money for the suits, since heal a person ond…”

  “Who are these suits?”

  Janine ched her fists, but then noticed Ravager’s grin and geerest in Marco’s expression. The ander was also hungry for a life without violence, and who was she to deny her a brief touch of that? She sat by her son’s side and listeo a three-hour lecture in which Ravager expined iail the uses and applications of nanotech, what is the differeween nanomaes and self-replig swarms, how MAD ons of nanotech css had ged the climate of the regions for turies, and why the Great Nations had banned certain uses of nanote wars, marking the creation of situations where nanomaes imitated the wouo lure soldiers as a war crime.

  We are more than monsters, Blessed Mother. The warlord hugged her son. And so are you.