Why can’t Mom speak up? Why won’t she expin everything? The shocked Aranea tried to comprehend as their escort led them below, carefully carrying the girl. They brought them to the very bottom of the fortress, into a pce known as the Ice Cave.

  From what she knew about it, it was both a prison of sorts and a meditation area. The Ice Fangs visited it to reminisce about their temporarily lost homend or to gain a firsthand impression of what it looked like while they pondered the mistakes they had committed or tackled a particurly difficult mental task.

  Meters-thick, never-melting ice covered every millimeter of the vast cave, utterly silencing the incessant hum of the cooling chambers hidden throughout the pce. Countless frozen water crystals reflected the group, pyfully sending rays of light at them. It smelled of burnt ozone mixed with toxic chemicals here, and an intense rumble bounced off the ice, pounding in the ears. While beautiful and magnificent beyond any tale, Dad had told Aranea that the nd of his ancestors wasn’t a kind or safe pce, and the icy room perfectly imitated it without actually endangering the New Breeds naturally resistant to chemical hazards.

  When the guards pced them in the middle of the room, near the table full of food, the biting cold caught Aranea as her foot touched the floor, and she whined.

  Mom embraced her, hugging her close, trying to warm her up with the warmth of her body. Kaisa still growled slightly, but now it sounded desperate as fear and hopelessness crept into her voice. They hugged for what seemed like an eternity, and the girl gradually recovered her ability to speak.

  “Mommy, I’m sorry, so sorry!” She mumbled, white mist pouring from her mouth. Kaisa’s stomach grew dangerously cold, and Aranea could barely feel her feet. “I didn’t want this to happen. I really didn’t mean it. Please forgive me...”

  “A…ra..ne…a,” Mom half-snarled, half-spoke, scaring the girl. Never before had she heard this tone; it sounded like a demon trying to parody human speech. “You are… not guilty… Do not bme… Yourself… I love you… I will… save… you.” Kaisa threw her head high, almost to the point of snapping her neck, covered by bulging veins. “A… gift… Please… And I am your…”

  “First there was you…” An alien voice, youthful and wicked, flowed from Mom’s lips. “…then there was I, then there were we, and soon we’ll be one, and then I’ll be all and you’ll be naught… But that courtesy I shall give you. Let’s rock, Kaisa!”

  She howled. This was not Mom’s call. With sudden dread in her veins, Aranea understood that this was the sound of someone she had heard for the first time.

  And then all hell broke loose. Ice cracked on the walls, shattering under the ferocious sonic pressure and showering them with sharp floes. Kaisa’s body grew, flesh tearing her clothes to shreds, and her fur shed, revealing porcein skin without the slightest tan. Her legs thickened, her jaw changed shape, and an amber light shot from her eyes like a projector light. Aranea froze in terror as Mom, this creature she had become, picked her up and charged for the doors. The gigantic obstacle was crumbled by a single paw. Cws, impossibly long, easily shredded the steel capable of withstanding an artillery barrage.

  The creature tore the right sb, rger than Kaisa herself, clear. She flung it aside, lowering herself on three limbs to fit into the corridor, too narrow for her to stand tall, and in shock the girl understood how much Mom grew. Her shoulders barely scratched the walls and instantly colpsed them as she advanced, holding the girl to her chest. Tangled bck hair dangled from her scalp, far too coarse for her former silken locks. Mom’s heart was beating, not steadily as before, but like a fierce fme that was about to burst through the roof of a burning wooden house.

  Voices from ahead announced the arrival of a knight’s squad heading down the stairs, accompanied by a bareheaded medic bearing the royal crest of the Sunbde House, the fming sword, on his snow-white armor.

  “To the patients…” the medic said, stumbling before the towering nightmare that filled the corridor.

  The knights tried to push him into a small alcove, but the man, blindingly fast, raised his gauntlet, sending a surge of electricity into Kaisa. The pale creature jerked, colpsing the roof. She gasped, trying to close in on the medic while the knights circled around her, reaching for their rifles.

  “Not the guns, idiots!” The medic yelled. “You risk harming the child! I disrupted her nervous system. Use the swords and hack away the arm and rescue the hostage! You two, go inside and find the second victim; assess her condition immediately…”

  Kaisa smiled, mindlessly and far too wide, cracking the skin at the corners of her lips. She moved her arm, pushing Aranea into the blue current linking her with the Ice Fang’s gauntlet.

  “Don’t… dare…” Kaisa whispered. “No! Calm your tits. What’s it going to be, healer?” she jeered.

  “Impossible.” The Ice Fang blinked, but the trembling hand kept moving. With a snarl, he turned off the electricity. “Why you, degenerate lifeform. It changes nothing. I have just the means to euthanize you…”

  He was a sage, understood Aranea by his tall height and the marking of three unfinished circles spreading from the center of a circur image on his left shoulder. A rank below a sword saint, this man dedicated himself to unearthing dangerous secrets in the abandoned boratories, eradicating the world-threatening pgues, and performing miracles in the hospitals, saving thousands and curing the once incurable. Though a noble profession, Keyl had once whispered to her how this wing of the sages’ organization often used their knowledge of physiology and the less dangerous discoveries to defeat the worst scum in the most gruesome ways.

  The sage paw grasped the needler, a specialized pistol, on his side when Kaisa kicked. In the confined space of the corridor, her leg scooped up part of the floor and sent it straight at the man, spttering him against the rock. The sage’s head left a bloody imprint on the stone as Kaisa resumed her assault, ramming the poor knights in full power armor into the walls, treating them as if they were a group of small children standing up to an adult. Their broken forms hadn’t even failed, but the creature had already left them far behind, and Aranea silently prayed to the Spirits for their survival.

  “Child!” The sage cried weakly. “Rescue the child! Find Kaisa, alert the sword saint! They alone can…”

  Steel and stone were torn asunder by the ferocious charge of the strange beast once known as Kaisa. She broke into the main hall, ending up on the balcony. Two staircases to the left and right led to the floor below, and beneath the balcony was a rge pool. A single gate separated the escapees from the outside world. Kaisa lunged and was intercepted by an object that crashed into her side. All Aranea could perceive was a blurred storm front of stabbing steel clouding the very air, and she could hear Mom’s growling in pain and agony while she swiped with her free paw. Both opponents bounced away in mid-flight, with Kaisa nding knee-deep in the pool, soaking it crimson from the rge gash on her right arm that left the limb dangling on a string of flesh. A slice cleanly cut through her bones but failed to sever every muscle.

  The assaint drew himself high from the footprint his light blue and gold power armor had left on the gates. The sword saint from the council faced the creature, his dignity and pride gone, repced by caution and wariness. With the sword in his paws, he didn’t even turn his helmet on the stream of blood pouring from his open side and staining his greaves. He lowered himself on his knee, breathing hard.

  “All these years of training, and for the first time, I failed to see the blow…” he whispered, pcing a hand over the wound. “Let the girl go, fiend. I know not how you got here, but I will sooner perish than let you hurt…” He paused, panting. “Aranea? Girl, is that you? What has befallen you?”

  “Cold,” the girl whispered with her still frozen lips, “so cold. Mom suddenly became strange.” She tried to say more, but all her strength left her.

  The sword saint looked shocked. He removed his hand from his wound and pced the tip of his sword on the floor. He stepped forward carefully, as if trying not to provoke a rge animal. The strange creature holding Aranea cocked her head to one side in curiosity. Dripping drool watered the girl’s fur.

  “Kaisa?” the sword saint asked in shock. “Could it be? You…” He stopped. “I see, I understand now.” He bowed, exposing the rubberized neck guard to the creature. “Please, unhand the girl. I promise, I swear to you that she will be safe and sound. I will find those responsible and will personally drag them to justice.” The creature hissed angrily, and Aranea noticed the enormous wound healing. The damaged muscles were tying themselves together like knots of rope. “You can’t take her with you,” the wolfkin pleaded. “You know what happened to you. If you take her away, it will be just a matter of time… before the worst happens. I can’t let you take her. She is safe; she will be safe from now on. I swear this on all that is dear to me.”

  “Sure did a fine job before,” the beast giggled. “Is that the same worthless drivel you said to Leonidas before you let him die?”

  The sword saint shook as if struck. “Hurts,” he admitted. “Though it is a false reproach, your kind knows how to hurt with whatever tool is avaible. But your methods will find no purchase in my will.”

  “Why don’t we test that hypothesis?” A trembling talon neared Aranea’s eye, stopping just short of it. “No.” She heard Mom’s voice. “Stop resisting!” the beast uttered. “Don’t you dare interfere!”

  “Uncle, step aside!” A shout from the balcony led Kaisa to turn her back on the sword saint.

  Knight-Captain Tilden, in full power armor, stood on the balcony. Aranea recognized him only by his voice. He held a rge weapon, almost as big as himself, on one shoulder, pointing it at Kaisa. Several soldiers surrounded him, their crackling shields in front of them, and more rushed from the passageway, readying their weapons.

  “You have weakened the beast; now I will put her down! Not even a skinwalker can withstand the power of a disruption cannon!” The dynamics of Tilden’s helmet reyed his excitement.

  “Lower your weapon, knight-captain! If you fire the disruption cannon here, you will kill the cub! The entire area will be gone; our guards outside will be compromised!” the sword saint shouted.

  “Small sacrifices must be made for a good cause! Uncle, we can’t let this beast escape into the city! It’s either hers or other people’s lives! We can’t risk it!” Tilden aimed the weapon at Kaisa’s chest.

  “A traitor stabs a failure.” The creature licked her lips. “Such fun! So much for safety. Note how he knew my gender, baby.”

  “Tilden! You will drop that weapon, or I will butcher you!” The sword saint raised his voice in indignation. “Soldiers! Apprehend the knight-captain!” The knights gnced at their captain in uncertainty. “This is an order!”

  “Sorry, Uncle. If you won’t move away from the spsh zone, I will have to sacrifice you too for the future of us all…” A pale light appeared inside the cannon’s barrel. Tilden moved his finger to press the firing stub…

  The weapon fell apart, sliced into three pieces, as a new Wolfkin in power armor appeared next to Tilden. In her paws she held a long and broad two-handed bde, so distinct from the elegant murder scalpel of the first sword saint.

  “You heard your orders. Apprehend the knight-captain.” The newcomer said icily.

  Power armor of the deepest sea color covered her slender figure, a knot of sable hair flowing from the back of her helmet down to her waist. A vast cloak of darker blue, decorated with emerald trimmings, flowed freely from beneath the round pauldrons, shifting during movement like ripples on a calm ke. The sword saint met the intense light of the creature unperturbed, and the Wintersong royal troops barged in, surrounding Tilden and his men.

  She leapt from the balcony, her feet touching the ceiling, and she bounced off it without damaging the structure, as if she weren’t wearing several tons of protection. Kaisa traced her movements, turning toward the gates as the woman nded near the wounded ally. Her every step resembled a part of the dance, without beginning or end, and royal grace accompanied motion.

  “Camelia. You managed to…” the sword saint in blue and gold said, and his comrade nodded.

  “I left to answer your call. All of us are here; the rest are nding on the roof as we speak. We simply need to hold her back. Not even a skinwalker can stand up to First.” Aranea suddenly understood who this person was. Camelia Wintersong, matriarch and head of the Wintersong family line. Keyl had told Aranea that in the past, Camelia and Kaisa had an actual battle sting for many hours, back when the Order still served Ravager. Their duel ended in a draw, and the commander ordered them to stop fooling around.

  “Kaisa,” Camelia mented, “it appears we will never have a proper rematch. As a mother and a human being, I have nothing but compassion for your situation. But I cannot and will not allow you to take your daughter away. Your life as a human being is over. Please find the strength inside of you to y the child down and allow us to help you pass on to the afterlife. On my honor, I swear that your daughter will be taken care of. She will grow up to be a happy person and forget the horrors of the past.”

  “Too bad, so sad. Kaisa is home no more. But don’t think I didn’t appreciate the opportunity…” came a wicked answer.

  The beast snarled and lowered herself for a charge. Her shoulder bulged, widening, spewing fresh muscle and bone that quickly connected to and fused with the severed parts. Blood vessels enveloped them, fresh skin sealed the wound, and the fingers on the disabled paw moved. Kaisa had both paws anew.

  “Save her… Protect her… I will…” Kaisa drooled. Aranea saw two sets of jaws inside Mom’s maw.

  “She is too far gone.” Camelia shook her head. “I will find whoever is responsible and ensure proper punishment. Child, close your eyes and try to sleep. When you wake up, you will be in a warm bed, surrounded by toys, food, and doctors. This, I swear. Ready, Sun?”

  “Ready, Moon,” the first sword saint responded, raising his sword high, while Camelia moved her sword into a low position. “We will hold her until he comes…”

  The skinwalker roared; the force of her battle cry shoved both sword saints at the gates. Not even they could move through this sound torrent. They weathered the onsught, and Camelia shifted her shoulders. Her cloak fell, pooling around her legs as the gorget of her helmet rose to shield her neck.

  Kaisa attacked, catching the blunt side of Camelia’s bde on her free forearm. She swept the sword saint’s legs out from under her, toppling the woman, and dropped herself, elbow hungering for Camelia’s helmet as her wounded opponent’s slice sheared off a bit of hair. The elbow missed the rolled-away sword saint, demolishing the entire floor, shaking the ground, and sending cracks snaking up the walls. A kick nded on the open wound of the Summerspring sword saint, eliciting a long groan.

  The creature sprang from the ruin on her elbow alone, spinning in the air, nimbly dodging the blindingly swift stabs of Camelia. The sword saint, known for her imperviousness to most bullets, found it difficult to nd a hit, and the pale leg twisted at an unnatural angle. Its cw kissed the bde, sending it aside long enough for Kaisa to regain her footing and drift away from the duo, mockingly beckoning with one paw.

  All Aranea could see next was the blur that stretched into every corner of her vision. The figures of the sword saints bore a resembnce of solidity, standing shoulder to shoulder, forming a ring of bded strikes woven with the two swords, though one was noticeably shakier. The ring of death closed in on Kaisa, and she roared again, in pain and anger, swiping at it.

  The next moment, the skinwalker reached the gates, smmed her head into them, and cast them down. Her right arm was missing, and a bloody stump now served her for a shoulder. Both legs carried deep cerated cuts, but the strikes aimed at the bones failed to reach their mark. Aranea heard the sword saints’ shouts as they chased after the escapees, yet Kaisa was already outside. The broken gate was not even smmed to the ground, and the skinwalker rammed her way through the assembled Ice Fangs, tossing them aside as the intense wind kept whipping into Aranea’s snout, and she at st lost consciousness.