The moose stood there, staring at each of us in turn, seemingly refusing to leave after its scream. Was this some kind of strange rutting behavior? Maybe dominance challenge? What was going on? I just didn’t have a frame of reference for a moose gaining sapience. Then it focused on John and Glorp, moving its head back and forth only between those two.

  “When is the last time anyone has seen Maud or Glorp’s siblings?” I asked, finally starting to think I understood what was happening. That was when I noticed the blood on the side of the moose. Something had stabbed deep into its side. One of its antlers was also chipped. The moose had been in a fight.

  “Not since before the meeting,” John said. I opened my chat window.

  There was no response. “She isn’t answering the soul communication either. Something is wrong,” I yelled, and the moment I did, the moose seemed to realize we understood at least part of the problem, turned, and ran back from the building.

  “Glorp keeps tabs on that moose,” Elicec yelled, while I pulled back open my chat window.

  Closing the window, I released the tools from my storage and looked to the others. Rabyn and John were both already gone. Likely chasing after Glorp and the moose, and I couldn’t blame John in the slightest. I was just glad Rabyn had gone with him. Connie had started singing just as I got to my feet.

  “Go, we can handle the rest here,” Pryte said as the rest of the squad dashed from the building, joining the moose chase. What the hell had happened that could hurt the moose and hurt Maud? We shouldn’t have those more new problems on Earth yet. Was it an orc?

  “What do you think it is?” I called to Elody as we pursued the moose.

  “For the damage I saw on the creature, and to take on someone like Maud, it has to be either another primal mana beast we didn’t realize had started to awaken or someone from the larger Spiral. Before you suggest it, I do not think it was an orc. We’ve been monitoring the area for them,” Elody answered. There weren’t a lot of options for more dangerous animals than a moose, so I guessed other primal mana beast was out.

  “Could a dungeon have started to form?” Cecile yelled.

  “I don’t believe so, especially not without being detected,” Elody answered. I agreed with her. Corey was able to sense other dungeon cores now, and they’d have noticed one this close. So what the hell was it?

  Several blasts of lightning ripped through the air much further into the woods from us, just as a chat window popped into my head.

  I closed the window and yelled to everyone still with me. “Maud is awake and fighting, which is kind of obvious as we saw the lightning. Glorp and her are fighting some kind of fish man who attacked them.”

  “Run faster!” Connie ordered.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, trying to do what she had said.

  “Connie is right. They are likely an assassin for the Triox. Why they are here exactly, I don’t know, but we need to get there now!” Elody yelled, mirroring Connie’s tone. Another chat window popped into view.

  I again closed the chat before telling everyone else. All I got back were determined attempts to move even faster. I spotted Rabyn a few seconds later, dueling with more or less what Maud had described. It looked like a trout with arms and legs. Both of its arms were holding swords, and the clang of metal on metal was heard each time Rabyn parried one of them. John, to my surprise, had produced his own knife and was standing next to Maud as they both fought off an attacker together.

  “Discovered, retreat!” one of them yelled, just as my own fireball hit the ground where it had stood moments ago. But no, I had missed. They were all gone now.

  “Is everyone okay?” Elicec yelled. Maud had a few bruises and some cuts on her forehead, and Rabyn had a deep stab in his leg, but they were both still standing. Why the hell had the Triox decided to attack the Maud and the kids?

  “Mostly,” Rabyn answered as I went to work healing him while Elody took care of Maud.

  “Is this because of Korl?” I asked.

  “Doubtful. I think he’s going to stick to the judge’s order. He prefers to stay in those lines. Maud, what exactly happened?” Elody asked as she tended to the woman.

  “We were trying out a new animal trail we hadn’t before. Everyone was having fun with the moose suddenly charged out of the woods and crashed into a tree, knocking one of those guys out of it. I didn’t even know they were there. Then, before I could send you a message, it fired something, and everything went weird. By the time I realized what was happening, Glorp was fighting one,” she answered, her voice even faster than usual, she still looked worried and didn’t seem to want to move from the kids behind her.

  “You don’t remember fighting them as they tried to get to us?” Glord asked.

  “Not really. Must have been running autopilot. Are you guys okay?” She asked, her voice now full of concern as she turned back to the kids. Her cuts started to fade under Elody’s care. I had Rabyn as patched as I could at the moment.

  “Yeah, thanks to the moose, you and Glorp, nothing got to us,” Gorpila replied. Maud leaned in and started hugging each of them. She was quickly joined by Glorp, with his own look of concern etched across his face.

  “While I am glad everyone is okay, none of this answers the question of why they were here or what they wanted,” Rabyn said.

  “Spies, I think. I’m not sure they’d have attacked if the moose hadn’t revealed them,” Connie added.

  “Yes, that makes the most sense. But I still don’t think they work for Korl. They could just be watching me, but why follow Maud, then? Glorp any guess why they might be watching your family?” Elody asked.

  “No,” he answered.

  Connie coughed slightly. “Why don’t we all get back to the meeting room and have a more private discussion,” she said. That was probably for the best; if we were being spied on, we would need an area we could control.

  “Connie’s right,” I said, starting my way back. No one objected.

  “Pryte, how secure is this room?” Connie asked the moment we were all back.

  “Less secure than it was before he smashed his way through,” Pryte said, pointing to the moose that had stayed glued to Maud and the kids the whole way back.

  “I think we can all agree he did the right thing, especially considering we just fought off four spies from the Triox,” Elody said. Pryte’s entire demeanor changed at that statement.

  “Timon, close the doors, and make sure you enable the scry prevention field we had installed,” he said, now with a grim face. He held his fingers up as I started to say something, silencing me, as Timon vanished from the room. Moments later, I felt an odd tingling sensation across my body, and only then did Pryte drop his fingers from his lips.

  “I was worried we’d attract spies eventually. This is a bit earlier than I expected, though. I really thought Korl would stick to the court order. This seems a bit risky for him,” Pryte said, returning to his seat.

  “I doubt it was him. There is something I haven’t told you all as it wasn’t exactly relevant. But now that you are becoming entangled in some of my own family problems, I suspect that was actually my cousin attempting to figure out just what I was up to. He has been a part of the Triox for quite some time now, and it’s one of the other reasons I left home,” Connie said.

  “Any reason you decided against disclosing that originally?” Pryte said, eying her oddly.

  “First of all, I don’t appreciate you pretending you didn’t figure this out already. It’s written all over your face in your total lack of surprise at my words. Second of all, it’s because it wasn’t remotely relevant yet,” Connie replied.

  “You’re not wrong that I already figured out you were related to Reggie, but you are wrong on it not being relevant. Look what just happened,” Pryte replied, now staring down the dwarf.

  Connie seemed to deflate a bit. “Yeah, you’re prolly right there. Man, he’d hate being called Reggie though, promise you will when we actually run into the idiot,” she said, her formal tone dropping entirely.

  “Anyone else have anything else they want to share they don’t think I already know?” Pryte asked.

  “I, maybe, have tried some of that food you brought back the other day, the one with your name on it in the fridge,” Maud said sheepishly.

  “Okay, that I didn’t know. Glad to know humans can handle kerklinking. I’ll remember that for future meals. But back to the main point, clearly the Triox have a way onto the planet, which, considering their resources, isn’t all that surprising. From now on, no one leaves the immediate area without at least two channelers, one of which who can easily contact us,” Pryte said.

  Corey popped into existence next to me. “Please also take Alpha, Beta, Gamma, or myself; we are all linked to Maud and Dave, and it will be harder to render our communication abilities ineffective.”

  “Yes, that too. And no, the moose does not count as a channeler, and yes, I accept we can’t control their movement, but I hope they are aware enough to stay close. Our authority over the area will grow as our resources do, but for now, treat this room as the only truly private room. Now we’ve all had a busy day, so if there is nothing else, I’m calling it a night,” Pryte said with no objections.

  Deepscales are some of the favored assassins of the Spiral due to their natural invisibility fields. As one of the rarer species in the Spiral, the main federation always makes sure to incorporate any new world discovered with members of their kind. This is to keep their power concentrated as one of the truly independent assassin guilds.

  The Forbidden Paths by Glarppp

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