Olimpia

"Then where are they," Kanieta asked carefully, but it came out as more of a statement as she struggled not to let her rage explode into a rant about incompetence, even if logically, she knew that wasn't true, to the messenger.

"I can only guess, Faction Leader." The foxkin said, not daring to look her in the eyes lest it be taken as a challenge.

The last day had been frantic, to say the least. After she snapped awake from exhaustion hours after passing out from fighting the blood golems, she demanded a report about the fighting with the Olimpians.

It turned out the wolves had more of a token force inside the Western Fort than she thought they had. And their warbands didn't even attempt to envelop and smash the legions against the walls when the legions assaulted them.

After they wrapped up the wolves, the Olimpians advanced over the bridges and ground to a halt. On the one hand, it was a testament to her faction's power, but it said little positive about their potential allies.

The Olimpians were hardly keeping up a strong enough assault to overcome the rate at which her mages replenished mana and remade trap spells. And there was only one failed attempt to sneak around the fortifications.

If things had remained the same, they could have held the fort indefinitely, but that was no longer an option.

Kanieta immediately ordered a retreat and wrote out an outline of the situation to be copied and delivered to all of her warchiefs. The message came down to 'watch our backs for signs of the traitors attacking because Derg is still alive.'

It turned out that only she and Green saw Derg's blood golem body. So she didn't go into detail about how he was still alive or how she knew, only saying that the figure they saw was a puppet. Her conviction and the lack of a body were the only reasons people went along with her, though she knew many didn't actually believe yet. But they would soon enough.

Then she sent out a scouting squad across the Rush to survey the crescent moon's camp in the Northern Forest.

In the meantime, Kanieta had moved from her Faction Hall within Forests Edge, which she had woken up in, back to the center platform of the Great Hall.

Meeting her messengers after they walked through the destruction and bodies was quite the statement. It also would spread roomers of exactly what was done and stir up anger among the common people.

"Don't ya fecking touch that!" Threatened a badger to someone actually trying to help, "I wanna save it to age properly!"

And then there were the badgers. They had decided to volunteer for Battlefield clean up.

Kanieta was wrong. Their definition of battlefield cleanup had very little to do with actually cleaning up. At least so far, as she could only assume they planned to eventually eat everything.

They bounded through the bodies of blood golems, picking out pieces they wanted and then hoarding them in different sections of the room.

Kanieta arrived when they started stealing from each other's piles of 'goodies.'

She assigned people to actually start gathering up the meat and blood and burning it, but they ran into problems. Namely, different snarling badgers claiming they suddenly wanted something from that pile, which, as far as everyone else was concerned, was an unrecognizable pile of flesh and fat. But before the badger could say much else, they started snarling and roaring in rage as another badger stole something from their hoard and immediately moved to intercept and fight the other badger.

Kanieta paid enough attention to realize there was some set of rules to what was happening, but she didn't feel like killing a portion of her brain in trying to figure out what they were.

When someone pointed out that what they were doing was cannibalism, they responded, confused as to why you even brought up the subject, "There's no dead badgers in here. Would have smelled them."

No one really had an answer to that, and they gave up on their futile attempt to rationalize with the creatures.

The mess was being cleaned up, but slower than anyone would have liked, not just because of the smell either. There was so much blood mana filling the area that natural blood crystals were forming. Or there were destroyed ones that were reforming.

Regardless, the badgers were a hindrance to everyone trying to clean, but Kanieta wasn't concerned because it was quite the backdrop to her orders, and she had bigger problems.

One such bigger problem was controlling her growing anger. Not at the messenger, though he was the only focal point at the moment.

"Are you telling me that the entire camp of the crescent moon up and vanished?" Kanieta ground out.

The messenger shrugged as if he was helpless. "There are signs of habitation as little as a day ago, but it was only in the hundreds. Their numbers have steadily been decreasing for weeks, as far as we can tell. We asked around Forests Edge, and a few mentioned that they thought more wolfkins were around than usual, but that was all. They only thought to mention it now because of the badgers making them traitors."

"They have been planning this for a while," Kanieta stated.

"That is the conclusion we came to as well." Agreed the scout, trying to be as helpful as possible and not be punished.

"Do you really have no idea where they could have gone," Kanieta pressed.

The scout looked conflicted, but he finally said, "We are reasonably confident that the majority didn't go South or West, though we know some warbands went in those directions."

"What are they doing?" Kanieta asked, but no one could answer. Finally, she waved her hand to the scout, who looked relieved, "Go. Keep looking for any signs of where they went."

"Faction Leader." Said the scout with a dip of his head before moving away.

After a moment, Kanieta turned and looked at the others sitting on the center platform, "What are your thoughts."

"He never thought he would fail," said the motherly Karlonu of the White Paw faction. Her voice was tired, but one could feel an unflinching resolve just beneath the surface.

Only six of the ten factions represented a day ago still had a Faction Leader to meet in the Conclave. And two of those were temporary ones that the Chieftains agreed to give power for the sole purpose of officially removing the crescent moon as a faction of the Conclave.

The Dark Haven, Twin Horn, and Shimmer Scale Faction Leaders died. So did one of the Cats' Faction Leaders, and another got seriously injured, but they never really had a leader, so it didn't count.

Though Kanieta did hear one of them was in the process of getting the position officially. Then again, that could be a rumor one of the cats was spreading. You never knew with them.

Her faction, the Redtail, along with the White Paw, Blood Claw, and Blue Sky factions, were the only ones to make it out with a Faction Leader living. That's not to say they got off light with the death toll the Conclave cost, but at least they still had an official leader.

As far as Kanieta could tell, every faction lost a third to half of their chieftains. Chieftains who filled positions that will be hard, if not impossible, to fill in the short term. Well, all but the Blood Claw Faction, who didn't lose anyone.

And then there was one.

One tiny, little problem.

A faction that also didn't appear to lose anyone, but then again, none of them were around to ask.

The fucking Spotted Prancers and their bitch leader Jovum.

A quick investigation of the chamber revealed that a five-foot patch of the wooden wall had been reshaped. Like an escape hatch had been made, then quickly resealed without considering aesthetics.

It was possible the blood mage only cast a barrier around the doors to reinforce them, though only an idiot would do that. And idiot blood mages didn't last long, so that was unlikely.

The prancers could have huddled in the corner cowering and waited until Green killed the Derg-Blood-Golem — putting aside how that was possible. As Knieta had never heard of a Kin-shaped blood golem. — before making their escape.

With how fast everything went down, no one had been paying attention to much other than staying alive.

All these points and more were pointed out to Kanieta by the other two Faction Leaders who stayed with her. Technically Barlot was in the room, but he was guarding his admittedly impressive — if a sight she never wanted to see — pile of body parts.

"Even if his plan succeeded, and he either killed us all or had us swear Mana Oaths to him, he had to know some would resist him giving the orders. He is not the most well-liked, after all." Commented Joro. "I know my faction would cut all ties with him even if I ordered them not to."

"You have so little sway?" Inquired Karlonu.

"We determine who is Faction Leader by who has the most assets. I am solidly in the lead, but it is nothing the others cannot take from me should they wish to pay the price. And they know it. I am the highest among equals. But they would reject him due to the betrayal more than anything else. Profit is profit, after all."

"How would they even know to cut ties if no one can say anything?" Asked Kanieta, "Derg could have claimed a rogue blood mage performed this act, and no one would even bother looking at him."

"Ahh," Joro said with a twinkle in his eyes, "But you have not seen my clan's latest and greatest product." He plucked one of his sapphire cufflinks on his jacket with a flourish and held it out to them.

Kanieta glanced at it, then did a double take. Small runes were carved into the gold holding the gem, but it was so complex and delicate that she couldn't make it out at this distance. Using her mana vision, she saw a slight glow of a spell, but that was all. And even that took some straining on her part.

"What does it do." Asked Karlonu in mild curiosity while Kanieta was studying the enchantment.

"It is able to record the image and sound of everything around it and replay it. Not only that, but if I use the mana, I can send the recording to a linked pair." Faction Leader Joro said with pride. "I meant for it to be a quick way to send messages and was planning to test it out on the Conclave before advertising it. But…"

"Turned out to provide proof of Derg's actions," Kanieta finished with a vicious grin.

"Indeed." Joro agreed, nodding to her. "Even if he did succeed, every clan would have known about his betrayal, even without the badgers, in a matter of weeks."

"I'm glad that no matter what, he would have failed, but there was no way for him to know that." Kanieta said, "It still doesn't explain his actions."

"Fear of failure?" Offered the rabbit.

"No," Kanieta said, shaking her head vehemently. "We got lucky."

"How so," asked Joro.

Kanieta thought for a moment, then decided to tell them about the Derg-Blood-Golem."Green." At their blank looks, she explained, "The Olimpian Scout." They both nodded in recognition, "Without him… we would have all died."

"By ma Grandfathers left nut, we would have!" Roared Barlot from across the chamber.

"Everyone knows his wife ripped it off when he cheated on her, ya mangy floor rug!" Screeched Barlots wife, Herok, from the other side of the room.

"Just because it was ripped off," Replied Barlot in triumph, "Doesn't mean he didn't have it! In some ways, it was closer to his heart than ever!" Barlot then started roaring in laughter, much to his wife's annoyance.

Tuning out the rest of the shouting match, Kanieta turned to Joro as he said, "He has a point. The badgers are known for their power and endurance. There is a decent ch…" He trailed off as Kanieta firmly shook her head.

"Green ripped Derg in half," Kanieta declared.

"Impossible." Said Karlonu, in the chastising way of a mother to a child. "Everyone knows Olimpians can't directly use their powers on others."

"It was a blood golem in the shape of Derg." Kanieta stated, "It wasn't actually, Derg. And from the blood crystal in the thing's chest, it had enough mana to feed to his warriors until the badgers dropped. Though it is strange, I couldn't feel the blood mana until after it shattered. And Green shouldn't be able to do what he did either, which raises other questions…"

Silence greeted her statement until Joro asked, “…Are you sure." at her nod, he continued speaking but more to himself, "This changes things… And where is he?"

"I can answer that," Said Green as he entered the room, his jaw flexing as he clenched it hard enough to break his teeth. Before anyone could say anything, he continued, "Derg is to the east of here with his blood mages. They are sacrificing the villages in the Cradle to create those abominations and feed their magic."

At the words, a stone dropped in Kanieta's chest, and her mouth hung open in shock.

"Hey, coz!" shouted Nareta from where she was helping to clear since she didn't feel the need to fight — which was not a punishment, no matter how some people were complaining like it was — alongside Kanieta, "You don't have to worry anymore! I found your Chieftain's Staff! The Golems didn't seem to touch it all!"

Kanieta's eyes squinted with the resolve burning in her heart as she started planning her next move.