I don’t know how long we sit there, but by the time Bastet stirs and nuzzles me, we’re surrounded by my Bound. Not all of the samurans, though my closest friends are there – River, Catch, Hunter, and Happy. Interestingly, Iandee has joined us too. They’ve come one by one or in dribs and drabs to join our silent vigil. I noticed their arrival, but haven’t shifted my focus from the three closest to me – and the body which by now has gone completely rigid.

  Noir has curled around us, Fenrir has pressed himself against my side, Sirocco is sitting on my shoulder. Pride is beside Catch, looking more bored than anything else, but present nonetheless. Hades and Persephone are surrounded by their juvenile offspring and are off to one side, watching solemnly.

  I’m stiff. Sitting down on the cold ground for an extended period of time and barely moving is not a great idea, especially not after the battles earlier. Fortunately, Flesh-Shaping helps me avoid the more painful consequences of that. A pulse of it through my body gets my blood moving more quickly again, flooding into my extremities and helping my muscles to move without risking straining them or suffering pins-and-needles. I do the same for those my arms are touching – all three of them. Though I do it one by one – I still can’t quite manage that kind of multi-tasking. Not without unintended consequences.

  With a sigh, I pull my hands away, and dissolve my extra arm back into my body. Lathani looks up at me plaintively as usual, but I can tell that her heart isn’t in it. Bastet stands and shifts over, reaching up to nuzzle against her head. Even lying down, Lathani is significantly taller than Bastet these days, but with both of them cooperating, they manage.

  Next, Bastet pads over to Ninja and nuzzles at her gently. She doesn’t respond. Lathani shifts to do the same and I follow suit. Under our loving ministrations, she slowly comes back to herself, the absent, lost look in her eyes gaining a little more life, though the grief remains present.

  After she stands up and returns the affection to the other felines and then rubs her head against me too, I push myself to my feet. I look around at my watching Bound, searching for words to say.

  “Come, let us go to the mountainside gate,” I say finally. “We have a funeral to attend.” I look at the samurans among my present Bound. “Send the word out to gather everyone.”

  Yes, Markus, they chorus. Technically, I could do it myself – a general broadcast to all my Bound, and that would be enough. But I don’t. I’m stepping back from leadership of the village, and I want that to be clear.

  Instead, it’s River who sends out the broadcast and the two Warriors who go out to start rounding people up who wouldn’t hear it. River stays by my side.

  Markus, we made a decision, she says hesitantly. About the survivors.

  I put up my hand to stop her. “I don’t want to hear it,” I say firmly. “Whatever decision the council made, that’s up to you. I’m no longer involved in that matter.” Is it abdicating responsibility? I don’t think so. These are samuran politics, for samurans to deal with. I’ve interfered too much as it is. Were it not for me involving myself so much perhaps Storm would still be alive.

  It’s probably illogical of me to say that – she could easily have been killed by any number of other threats. The fact is that being part of the samuran village has offered us a safe place to live, and a source of materials which we haven’t had to seek for ourselves. On our own, we would all have had to enter the forest significantly more – that the samurans were doing so on our behalf has probably significantly reduced the chances of of us dying from an ambush there.

  But emotions aren’t logical, and emotions are telling me that Storm was killed in the samuran village, by a samuran who was attacking samurans. And that distancing myself from them as much as possible is the best way to keep the rest of those I care about safe. Of course, that’s complicated by the fact that several of those I care about are samurans. And before us looms the portal to Nicholas’ world – Forty-one days away.

  I sigh heavily, my mind turning over various options. I consider each of them carefully as we move towards the mountainside gate in silence. Bastet and Ninja are carrying Storm between them, her body awkward but not impossible for them to carry. I would offer to help, but I can sense that this is something they want to do themselves.

  The walk through the village seems to take forever, but yet at the same time, we’re in front of the corpses of those killed in the battle quickly enough to feel like I’ve only blinked and we’re here.

  Bastet and Ninja lay Storm down in front of the orderly lines that form the bodies of our dead.

  While I wait, I turn my attention to lighting the pile of invader caracasses on fire. The sooner they’re out of the way, the better. Having a disease start ripping through my village due to the bodies sitting around for too long would be an insult in addition to the injury they’ve already dealt us.

  I toss in Tree-whisperer’s body while I’m at it – in the end, it was useless. It might as well be burned to ashes like the rest of them. Honestly, I’m glad I wasn’t able to fight Kalanthia to keep her alive – I wouldn’t have wanted her to see the pain she managed to inflict on us even if we won in the end.

  The pillar of black smoke rising into the air and scents of cooking and burning meat and bone are probably at least as much of a call to the various samurans as anything else. They gather in the area, more and more. By the time I receive the signal from various of my Bound that we’ve probably got everyone present, they’re filling the space around me, packed in tightly on the path, pressed against the hedges in the fields above, even lining the inside of the wall and standing on the battlements to have a decent view of what’s happening below.

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  The only places they do not fill are in between the unburnt bodies and a circle around the still-burning pile of invader carcasses – the heat within a certain distance is too much to bear for anyone but me and perhaps Happy.

  In a mirror of the last time invaders stormed their way through our village, I stand alone before the bodies of our dead, even Bastet and Ninja a few paces behind me. It’s not a coincidence that the closest body to me is that of Storm. Even if I’m including her in the general ceremony, I’m not above giving her a little special attention.

  As I raise my head, even the quiet clicks and murmured grunts in the samurans gathered around vanish. It is quiet enough to hear a pin drop, despite the hundreds of beings present.

  “Once more, we have been attacked. Once more, we have defended ourselves,” I say, struggling to say ‘we’ rather than ‘you’. But now is not the time for me to divorce myself completely. Not in front of everyone, anyway. In the face of so many deaths, even if it’s a miraculously small number considering the forces arrayed against us, they need to see their leaders as firm, present, and confident.

  “Each and every one of you played your part in the defence of your village,” I continue, turning slowly to meet as many eyes as I can. I see samurans straighten up, their spikes filling with pride as much as with grief. I don’t know if the survivors of the invasion are here. There have been enough new faces that with such a brief look in all directions, I can’t tell. I’m also not trying to tell. I don’t want to know.

  “It is thanks to all of you that the village remains free, that so many of you are alive.” I raise my hands out to them. “And it is thanks to these brave souls who were willing to fight to their own deaths.” So saying, I direct my attention to the bodies lying before me. Many of them have been cleaned up a bit, but some just couldn’t be tidied in any sort of way. “We will never forget their sacrifice.”

  “We will never forget their sacrifice.” The words rumble out from throats all around me – clearly I’m not the only one who remembered what happened after the last battle.

  “They died doing what they felt was right, protecting their homes, protecting their friends.” I choke up a moment as I look down at Storm. “Protecting us,” I practically whisper, unable to do more. My eyes are fixed on the wound that Storm took, the one that spelled her end even as it protected me.

  I don’t know how I would have fared if I’d been hit by the spear. Where would it have even hit me? In my body? In my head? Would I have been able to push the poison out before it killed me, or would I now be one of the dead if not for her sacrifice? I will never know.

  “We will never forget their sacrifice,” I manage to get out.

  “We will never forget their sacrifice.”

  This time, at least, all of the bodies are of fighters. Even Storm’s. There are no hatchlings lying here, nor are there any Unevolved who didn’t choose to be in the battle. It’s small comfort, but it’s something.

  “May the ancestors have mercy on all of their souls,” I say in closing.

  “May the ancestors have mercy on all of their souls,” everyone repeats.

  Aingeal? I ask mentally, calling on the transformed fire elemental to help me. This many bodies is just a touch beyond my capabilities, especially since I’m still paying some attention to the fire behind me to make sure it neither goes out of control nor leaves any bodies untouched. Without me giving the fire a bit of oxygen where it needs it, some of the bodies at the bottom might be left unburned. But that means that I can't dedicate my full attention to the corpses before me.

  Aingeal happily darts out of the bonfire behind me and comes to hover over the bodies. I’m not sure what it intends to do. Sending out streamers of fire which lick at ten of the bodies around it is not what I was expecting at all. But I don’t question it for now, instead hurrying to light up the rest of the corpses.

  Like a wave crashing forwards, I start with those furthest away and move closer as soon as the fire has caught enough to not need my focus so much.

  Finally, I get to the first row. And then…Storm. Before I light her on fire, I crouch down to stroke my hand through her fur one more time.

  “Goodbye sweet cub, my adventurous Storm. And thank you. For everything.” With tears in my eyes, I stand up. A spark grows within her body and I refuse to look away as flames start licking at her feathers. For a moment, it’s like she’s been transformed into a fire-raptorcat, a new type of phoenix. I could almost fantasise that she could be born out of the ashes of her immolation.

  And then her feathers blacken and char with a stomach-turning stench and the illusion is lost.

  I refuse to turn away. Not until the last flame has burned away to nothing, ashes all that remain in front of me. Behind me, the bonfire still burns, but it is nearing its end too. It has burned fiercely and thoroughly, fire cleansing all sins. The ashes will be spread across the fields to help fertilise them, death leading to new life – the cycle of nature. But that’s for tomorrow.

  Tomorrow, I will need to send off messages to the closest tribes – information and a warning that any further aggression will trigger an inter-tribal war. I’ve worked too hard for this village to risk them being wiped out by a retributive strike when I leave. Tomorrow, I will speak with the council. Tomorrow, I will set before them my plan and ask for their thoughts and ideas to create a strategy for withdrawing my presence from this bureaucratic edifice that I have built, while hopefully not seeing it crash down in my absence. Tomorrow, I will reassure Bares-claws that I still intend to see him achieve his Evolution before I leave. Tomorrow, I will start releasing some of my Bonds, the most loyal and least influential first – I have no desire to find out what happens if I release what must be close to a hundred Bonds all at once.

  But that is for tomorrow.

  Tonight, the village will feast its victory, telling tales of the battle, the high points and the low points, the lives saved by the skin of their teeth and the deaths where luck ran out. Samurans can’t cry, but I’m sure that their spikes will be a riot of colours during the feast as they run the gamut of emotions. And I will be there too, their undisputed leader for one day more.

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