The Asutnahem shield. That’s where he’s seen that symbol before. That’s why the etherium running through this place felt so familiar.

  “Who are you?” He heard someone say, and he turned back to see all the survivors standing behind a man dressed in robes. He had long white dreadlocks framing a face which, if it belonged to a human who wasn’t at the peak of Foundation Establishment, might signify that he was approaching his mid-life. The man held his hand out, palm facing Hunter. Hunter felt an etheric charge building up and he held his hands up higher.

  “I come in peace!” he yelled.

  “Peace?” the man said, scrutinizing Hunter, eyeing him up and down. “What happened to you? Why do you look like you’ve been crawling through a desert for the last few days? You don’t look like a ravager.”

  “Who said the ravagers ought to look civilized? I heard what they do to—” said the older woman he’d noticed before, but his translator was having some trouble with whatever she was saying “—we must kill him. We can’t risk out secrets falling into their hands.”

  Hunter didn’t want to fight these people. A group of peak Foundation Establishment cultivators would be too much for him.

  “Look, I promise not to tell anyone about you if you let me go.”

  The woman shot him a withering look, lips pursed and eyes narrowed. “We can’t trust him,” she siad.

  The etheric energy in the priest’s hand was still building. He could stand out around and wait to see what happened, but for obvious reasons it seemed more prudent to run in the opposite direction, but then the priest spoke.

  “We may not be able to trust him, but something tells me he’s not who we think he is.”

  A slower, more naive Hunter might have decided to stick around and see if they’ll spare him. The temptation was strong, but he had too much to lose. People were counting on him. He spun and launched himself down the hallway.

  “Too late, I’m afraid.”

  A bright green glow emerged from behind him, casting a long shadow down the hallway ahead of him. Hunter pushed himself as hard as he could go but he felt himself slowing, as if the air was growing thicker. He cycled his etherium faster, which only provided a miniscule boost but the turn in the hallways was just ahead of him. If he could get out of their line of sight, maybe their etheric technique wouldn’t work on him anymore.

  But the priest’s words were true. With more than a dozen feet to go, he was completely frozen. It reminded him of the formation that the peacekeepers used to capture him and the others. His heartbeat quickened. He couldn’t let himself panic, not now. It wouldn’t help.

  If the Seedhans could capture him like this, then he had no trouble believe that could have killed him as well. The thought would have made him chuckle if he wasn’t feeling so vulnerable. It looked like he’d have an opportunity to satisfy his curiosity after all. But he’d have to convince them he was trusthworthy.

  But he could sympathize with them. Their world was attacked, destroyed, and their people were almost completely eradicated. He suddenly remembered Mouse’s parting words to him when they’d met at the market.

  All he’d said was that he shouldn’t ask about survivors. He didn’t say that there weren’t any.

  The situation was finally starting to sink in, and Hunter didn’t like it.

  Even if there were other survivors, these ones might be among the last of their species.

  He wanted to curse.

  Why couldn’t someone else have found this place? But then again, would he have wanted anyone else to find it?

  Hunter knew what he was feeling. Underneath the fear and panic, there was a sense of guilt and compassion. He couldn’t hide from it, but he wished he could. Jaspen and the others were his people. He owed them everything he could give them to ensure their liberation.

  I don’t owe the Seedhans anything, he thought to himself. Hunter wasn’t the one who activated a superweapon on their world. He wasn’t the one who stormed their cities and killed their people. Yet he felt a connection to the Seedhans.

  Why?

  A quiet voice in his mind whispered to him that liberation wasn’t his only goal.

  Right, he thought. He wanted more than just to avoid the Peacekeepers. He wanted them to hurt. What were the odds that the Seedhans might feel something similar?

  “What are we going to do with you?” asked the priest as he neared Hunters frozen form. The others were there too, at least some of them. Hunters eyes were free, and he watched the man as he walked around to speak with his captive, face to face. As tense as the situation was, Hunter found himself captivated by how the man still held the spell active in his hand. A green etheric sphere was suspended on his fingertips. Where his fingers contacted the shere, it was a little bit brighter. With his free hand, he tapped the top of the sphere and then dragged his finger down across the sphere’s edge.

  But then he hesitated.

  “Let’s bring him back to the chamber,” the priest said.

  The group picked Hunter up. He couldn’t feel where their hands grabbed him. The group of peak Foundation Establishment cultivators didn’t have much trouble carrying him. They set him down just within the boundary of the doorway. He felt the wall activate once more, and wished he could see it form. He tried to pay as much attention to it as he could to how it felt, to see if he could discern any insights from the process, but it completed itself too quickly. He’d sigh in disappointment, if he could. As it was, all he could do was silently exhale.

  The priest motioned for most of the group to stay near the rear wall of the chamber. He himself stood a couple of meters away from Hunter.

  “I’m going to ask you a series of questions. You must answer honestly. I will know if you are lying. This will allow us to establish your identity, your motives, and then we can discuss what you know and how we will proceed. Blink twice if you agree.”

  Hunter felt that he had no choice. If he didn’t agree, he knew he was as good as dead. These people clearly had no sympathy for ravagers— and he deduced that was their word for the Peacekeepers. He’d try to keep that fact in mind, but as obvious as the connection seemed, it wouldn’t be the first time that Hunter would have been wrong about something simple. First he needed to verify that it was true.

  The priest tapped the top of the sphere once more, and dragged his finger all the way down the edge this time. Hunter felt the resistance loosen around his mouth.

  “You may speak, but mind your circumstance. You are no position to make demands, and I’ll have no patience for any begging for your life or your freedom. Tell me your name.”

  “Hunter,” Hunter spoke, but the word came out raspier than he’d intended. He cleared his throat and spoke louder. “My name is Hunter. Hunter Oberon.”

  The man nodded.

  “Thank you, Hunter. My name is Rue. I am a priest of the Anbroville Lodge. Are you familiar with Anbroville?”

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  “No,” Hunter said, shaking his head, “I only learned the name today after studying some of documents at the front desk.”

  Rue had no visible reaction to his statement.

  “For how long have you been on Seedha?” Rue asked. Hunter could see some of the other Seedhans growing uncomfortable.

  “Less than two weeks. 10 or 11 days, total.”

  Rue tilted his head slightly.

  “And what have you been doing, during your time here?” asked the priest.

  “Mining and scavenging, mostly. Some fighting and cultivating, too.”

  Rue’s next question came immediately after Hunter finished speaking.

  “Who have you been fighting?” Rue asked, and there was an edge to his voice. Hunter knew he should take too long to answer.

  “Other slaves” Hunter said, “and loyalists. They’re technically slaves too, but they get better treatment.”

  The Seedhans were muttering amongst themselves. That wasn’t the answer they were expecting.

  “Are there Seedhans amongst these slaves? Have you been fighting other Seedhans?”

  “No,” Hunter said. No matter how careful he tried to be, it seemed like a even the slightest misstep in how he answered would give them the wrong impression, “I didn’t even know there were any survivors after what the Peacekeepers did to this world.”

  The answer seemed to disappoint Rue.

  “You’re saying there may be no other survivors?” Rue asked.

  “I don’t know. There might be. If there are, then they’re either well hidden or kept far away from anyone who who might spread rumors about their existence.”

  Rue nodded. His frown turned more contemplative.

  “Are you a slave, yourself?”

  Hunter nodded.

  “Speak your answer, please.”

  “Yes,” Hunter said, “I’m a slave.”

  The words reignited a fury within him. He did his best to hide it, but Rue saw through his efforts.

  “Interesting. And your masters are the ravagers.”

  Masters. He hated the word.

  “Yes,” Hunter said. “The Peacekeepers took me and others from my home and brought us here. I fear its the same for everyone else. Even some of the Peacekeepers.”

  “Peacekeepers? Is that what they call themselves?” Rue asked, seeming astonished. He glanced back at the othe Seedhans who showed varying emotions from amusement, ranging through to disgust, and rage.

  “It is. They call themselves great. They say they are imposing order on the sector. But every store I hear about them involves invasion, murder, and kidnapping.”

  “And what are they doing here on Seedha? They’ve destroyed anything of value.”

  Hunter sighed.

  “I was hoping you could tell me,” Hunter said. “Their motives appear pretty shallow, but that’s on the surface. I think they’re looking for something. But that’s just based on guesswork and intuition.”

  Rue hummed for a moment as he considered Hunter’s words.

  “Thank you for being honest with us Hunter. This conversation has been illuminating. Allow me to confer with my people for a moment.”

  Before Hunter could answer, Rue flicked upwards across the sphere’s surface, and the resistance around his mouth returned. Hunter closed his eyes and tried to relax. He didn’t want to seem like he was too aggressive to risk letting free.

  This was not how he had expected his day to go, and he couldn’t help but chuckle at how strange the day had gotten.

  He wondered what time it was. By the time he got back to the camp, it might be too late to visit Os. Besides, given everything that had happened, he might feel like it was worth taking a bit more time to rest than he would normally allow himself.

  While the Seedhans conferred, Hunter took the time to examine himself. His neck was feeling a bit better. Emotionally, there was a little bit of conflict remaining about having killed two people. For the most part, it was easy to justify it to himself as self defense. But he couldn’t help but question whether it was all necessary.

  Should he try to force a negotiation if something like that were to happen again?

  Hunter reviewed the facts once more. If he had negotiated for them to let him go, they might have found the Seedhans. If not them, then someone else would have eventually. But Hunter hadn’t known that at the time.

  He played a little thought experiment in his head. He tried to imagine how he would feel if he had known of the Seedhan presence in the lodge, all along. Then he imagined himself killing Raspy and Jaw without hesitation.

  The sting of regret wasn’t as strong, in that scenario.

  Hunter couldn’t say that all’s well that ends well, at least not yet. He’d have to see how this played out. Maybe the Seedhans wouldn’t need his help. Maybe awakening the Seedhans was more dangerous to them than letting other slaves or loyalists find this place.

  He didn’t want to contemplate that line of thought futher. He already had enough to process as it was. And as he’d seen, it wasn’t as if the Seedhans were without the ability to defend themselves, at least against Foundation Establishment cultivators like himself.

  Rue broke away from the group. A few approached with him. They surrounded Hunter.

  “We believe you’re telling the truth, at least for the most part. But there are still some things we want to ask you about. I’m going to loosen your restraints a bit. You’ve earned that privilege.”

  Hunter was grateful for the ability to take full breaths once more. He slowly stretched out his limbs, and then sat down, leaning back against the etheric door.

  “I’m an open book. Ask away.”

  Over time, the interrogation started to feel more like a discussion. Hunter told them about the situation he was in, his motivations, why he was at the lodge in the first place. He felt no reason to lie to them, and was open about his sensitivity to etherium. He even told them about the loot he’d taken from the lodge, but all that got in response was a frown and a few shared looks.

  Hunter learned that the lodge had been a final effort to hide themselves once it was clear that they wouldn’t be able to stop the ravagers invasion. Hunter asked if there were other lodges, and all Rue said was that there may be a few more.

  The murals he’d seen would suggest otherwise, but he kept that to himself. He had no reason to push for information that they felt would be too risky to leave with him. In their situation, he would probably do the same.

  Eventually they got to the crux of the matter.

  What were they going to do with him?

  Hunter laid it all out for them.

  “I feel like i’ve done you guys a disservice. Had I not unsealed you, you’d still be relatively safe.”

  He noticed a few nods at his words. Rue merely stood with his arms crossed and listened.

  “On one hand, I know can understand how much of a risk you would be taking with letting me go. On the other hand, I have people who are counting on me to do my part in getting us from under the Peacekeepers. And not only that. Some of us won’t be satisfied by freedom if we don’t give the Peacekeepers a bloody nose, at the very least.”

  “So you’ve said,” Rue said with a nod.

  “Maybe we can work together,” Hunter said, finally saying what he’d been thinking the whole time, waiting for the right moment. “What do you think about that?”

  The priest pursed his lips. He considered Hunter for a long moment. Then he seemed to come to a decision, marked by a long inhale through his nose, and a sharp exhale through his mouth as he nodded.

  “The fact that you noticed the glow in the barrier is a sign that it was only a matter of time before we were discovered. I’m afraid that our formation is running out of power, and our combined contribution was no longer enough to supplement it. In fact, the fact that you woke us up will give me time to examine the formations and eliminate systems which will no longer serve us.”

  Hunter felt heartened by the man’s words. He felt himself breathing a bit easier than he had a moment ago.

  “While within the confines of this lodge, we can defend ourselves. Beyond these walls, however, it would be much for difficult for us to survive. Not without the right equipment, and good information,” the priest said. Hunter felt that this was exactly the kind of opening he wanted. Despite his doubts about whether he would even be able to help, he forged onwards.

  “Tell me what you need. I can’t guarantee i’ll find it, but if I do, I might actually be the your best bet for getting them.”

  “Oh?” the priest asked.

  “Seen one of these before?” Hunter asked, pulling his storage ring from out under the strap.

  “A ring? It was a common piece of jewelry among my people,” the priest said. The others stared at Hunter with skepticism. Hunter searched through it a pulled out one of the documents he found at the front desk. The priest’s reaction was more exaggerated than he expected. He raced foreward and grasped Hunter’s hand. Hunter almost pulled away, too, but he was trying to keep his reactions disciplined. Earning these peoples trust had felt like a game of chess— even the truth woudn’t be enough. However, if the priest actually tried to grab the ring, Hunter wasn’t sure if he’d be able to stay calm.

  Thankfully, Rue was able to restrain himself.

  “Where did you find this?” Rue asked, seeming almost enraged.

  “It was a gift,” Hunter said, “From a man named June.”

  “June lives here? On Seedha?”

  Hunter shook his head.

  “No, he lives back where I came from. He’s an Elemental Adept,” Hunter said. Rue relaxed after hearing Hunter’s words.

  “Are objects like this common back on your home?” Rue asked, and Hunter was surprised by the intensity of the man’s curiosity.

  “Not for my people, but among his, I understand that it’s not uncommon to see them.”

  “He is from another country on your world?”

  “Sort of,” Hunter said. He explained that both of their people had established a colony on the same world. Hunter’s people hadn’t been aware of the presence of June’s, but June was quick to make an ally of them in hopes that they could both secure their world against some very dangerous wildlife which threatened to destroy the foundations that both of their peoples were trying to build.

  Rue nodded, showing real interest in Hunter’s story. Even the others seemed intrigued.

  “You say this June is an Elemental Adept? How then were the Peacekeepers able to hold you?”

  “They used a formation that had the same power that you used to capture me. Not only that, but they had the ability to cloak. Or, erm, to go invisible.”

  Rue’s eyes narrowed, and he looked back to his people. When his gaze returned, Hunter felt as if he was staring down a charging army. His guard had relaxed over the last hour, but he was once more reminded that he was very alone in that room, surrounded by potentially hostile survivors of an attempted genocide.