Chapter Eight: Disturbing News

"Mmf..." Valorisa turned away from the window and faced Colin with a perturbed expression on her face. "I just...I really hate this," she replied with a mixture of agitation and concern in her voice. "This standing around. This doing nothing, while Sergeant Major Sinclair and your daughter Searcey are getting reinforcements...it makes me feel useless. It's not what I'm trained to do. I need to be out there. I need to be active, helping. Not standing here twiddling my thumbs, while my brother's city comes crumbling down around us!"

"Ah' see."

Colin arched a brow. "So then," he murmured as he applied a wet cloth to Severus' forehead. "Why aren't yeh' doin' that? Ah' mean, don't get me wrong. Ah' appreciate yeh' bein' here tah' help. And so would Severus and yer' brother ah' think, if they were conscious enough tah' express it. Just... if this is what yer' instincts are sayin' lass. If they're tellin' yeh, that this is how yeh' can be most useful, gatherin' information and such, then what are yeh' doin standin' around here? Do yeh' think that's what Donovan would want yeh' tah' do, if he were in possession of his faculties? Nah. You and I both know he'd want yeh tah' help in the ways yer best at. Go on. Ah' got things handled here. It's not like Ah'm expectin' much change from either of these two patients, anyway."

Valorisa smiled a little. "Thank you, Colin," she said, giving him a kiss on the forehead. "Now, to go get a clue on what the dells is going on out there." The female marten very cautiously then made an egress from the room and worked her way down the hall of the college. She, while progressing, stopped every so often to check on the students and to make sure they had not been injured by falling debris before finally reaching the front door. Val, in the moments where she was about to leave, then quickly pulled herself back inside as she saw Dylan coming up the street with several upper echelon of the Anaton Cultist ranks, a few members of the crew of the Hoarfrost's Halberd, and Dells...was that Sheldton Tan? Last report that Valorisa had received, he was supposed to be locked up in a special cell that the Otters had built just for him. How the dells did he get loose?

Valorisa shook her head.

No, she couldn't panic. Right now, she only had one mission. Collect information. Get back to Colin. Don't get noticed. That was it.

Valorisa sighed slightly, as she tried to listen quietly, to what was being said. Renard, her instructor with the Da Ji Inari, had been quite adept at teaching her how to hone her listening on one subject matter at a time, and even at reading lips, when it came to matters of surveillance. So it didn't take Valorisa long to siphon out what was being said from the sounds of battle which were occurring in the background.

"Beautiful," she filtered from the lips of the otter. "Absolutely beautiful. Dylan, my dear, it's a symphony. The thoughtfulness you put into it. The organization you put into every little detail. I must admit. I doubted you, but you really are showing off the intellectual superiority of us weasels. Heh. Look at them. They're a scrambling mess. A motley bunch of disorganized races, who don't even know how to cohesively work with one another."

"Yes, heh."

Dylan chuckled with a subtle smirk. "It is a beautiful thing, to see one's self proven right, isn't it?" she stated dryly. "Though, it could be better. I mean, what is a sundae, without that proverbial cherry on top? What is a flambe, without the flame? What is a cherries jubilee, without those cute little sparklers? No...it's not a crème de la crème statement. Not yet. Right now, it just looks like a bunch of crazy radicals blowing stuff up. You understand, Sheldton? This is why I brought you on. You're here to organize us. Remember, I would never even have recruited the cultists, if not for you."

Sheldton smiled toothily.

"Right," he said. "And that's why we started here? To get people's attention in the city that is supposed to be a 'bastion for equal treatment to all races?'

Dylan nodded. "Exactly," she said. "I'm sending you to Solmani Marsh, to get things stirred up there. Meanwhile, my agent in the Bristlespine Mountains, is waiting for my call to come out of the shadows and to make things a little livelier in the Groundhog territories. Understand?"

Sheldton widened his toothy grin.

"You got it." he said. "So shall I be off then to have a proper reunion with my traitorous cousins?"

Dylan rolled her eyes. "If that is the premise you wish to use, so be it." she stated waving the otter off. "Just as long as you get the job done, okay?"

Valorisa, as this conversation came to an end, and as Sheldton disappeared through a portal, then leaned back inside and again flattened herself against the door.

"Kysandra...Mariana...Gemma...." she murmured, thinking back to the members of Colin and Donovan's company. To how in particular, it was Kysandra and Gemma who had played a crucial role in helping her brother to establish a nation where people could truly be treated fairly and equally. And how if Dylan truly wanted to tear that all down for a nation where weasels would be put first..."

Valorisa gasped.

"I need to get word to the Bristlespines and to Solmani Marsh," she whispered. The marten, urgently, then hurried back to the infirmary where Colin had just finished putting clean bandages on Severus and was checking the temperature on Donovan to make sure all was okay there.

"Colin!" Valorisa exclaimed in between harsh pants, as she got back to the infirmary. "Bad news....very bad news...S-Solmani Marsh...Bristlespine Mountains...in danger...Leadership...infiltrated..."

"Whoa, slow down lass," Colin urged as he pulled her up a chair. "What's this about the Solmani Marsh and Bristlespine Mountain leadership? Something about urgent and very bad news?"

"Yes."

Valorisa gulped down a cupful of water as it was handed to her. "Sheldton Tan," she stated. "Dylan broke him out of the Grot. He's loose, and they're working together to bring to fruition this crazy purist dream of hers. She sent him on through a portal to 'stir things up,' as she put it, in the territories of Solmani Marsh."

"Sheldton Tan is...and they're...and she...?" Colin growled. "Oh, you're right," he murmured sarcastically. "That is about as wonderful as a summer daisy. No, in all seriousness lass. Ah'm glad yeh' told me this. That nutcase, if he's been given free reign to tromp all across his old stompin' grounds, the first thing he'll do is try to take out those who he feels were responsible for puttin' him in the Grot in the first place."

"And that is..."

"Kysandra and Gloriana." Colin clarified. "Remember? They were the ones who first alerted their fellow members in the Pentarchy to Sheldton's traitorous actions. They were the ones who first reported that he not only was a faction leader of the Anaton's Covenant cult, but that he also had been plotting to use the Genesis Gauntlets of legend to re-write reality so that it would not be the Pentarchy who were the accepted leaders of the Solmani Empire but the leaders of the Anaton Covenant."

"A plot which was foiled, when you, Donovan, Gloriana and myself, retrieved the Gauntlets first and left him incapacitated in the tomb of Aloysius St. Abbot."

"Exactly. After hearin' the account told by Kysandra and Gloriana, the other members of the Pentarchy saw no other option but to build a prison specifically for the purpose of containing Sheldton Tan."

"Wait...they built a prison, simply for the purpose of holding one, solitary prisoner?"

"Aye. Ah' know it sounds extreme, but they couldn't have someone as dangerous as him, runnin' free amongst the populace. So they got their best designers and architects to build what they called 'The Grot.' A masterpiece of architectural craftsmanship that is supposed to be impenetrable in more ways than one. It blows mah' mind still, tah' think that Dylan found a way to help Sheldton escape. Ah' mean, fer' one thing, the place in the Forlorn Fens. One of the most dangerous regions of all Solmani Marsh. Yeh' have blood skeeters bitin' at yeh' every which way yeh' turn. Yeh' have carnivorous plants like the Fanged bonnet, which will try to eat yeh' alive. Not to mention, yeh' have to survive quickmud as well. And some even say the spirits of people who died while tryin' tah' escape those fens, still haunt the place."

"I see...so he would not have been able to escape by conventional means, then."

Colin nodded. "Exactly," he replied with a soft smile. "He would've needed a way to circumvent the Fens entirely. And the only two ways I can think of in which a creature could do that, would be either to fly..."

"or use a portal." Valorisa concluded as she recalled back to how Dylan had once used a portal stone to summon the vicious Captain Gutgore after the lost tomb of Aloysius St. Abbot had been found. A device she assumed, had likely also been used to effect Sheldton's escape from prison. The purpose, to provide Dylan with a strategist who not only knew his way around the battlefield, but who also had the charisma to recruit men and women from all over Mintara to her cause. As well as the conviction, to keep things organized if her schemes started to fall apart.

Valorisa felt her breath quicken as she clenched her fists. "But to actually let him out...that...that's madness, right? I mean...like you said, if what I heard was correct, and Dylan truly has let him loose on Solmani Marsh..."

"He'll kill the entire leadership," Colin said quietly. "Kysandra and Gloriana? They will just be the first ones, yes. But as you also noted, they will just whet his appetite. He will then move on to the others, the ones who laid down his sentence. Knowing him, he probably won't be satisfied until he's entirely cleaned house."

Valorisa clenched her jaw. "Not if I have anything to say about it," she stated in a soft, determined tone. These words, spoken by the marten, then immediately caught Colin's attention as he called after her while she headed for the door.

"Oi!" the prairie dog called. "Where do you think you're going? We got wounded here. Listen. Ah' don't know what's goin' through your head right now, but ah' can't have yeh' runnin' off, just because yeh' think yer' the only hand of justice, left in town."

"But..."

"Eh! No buts, lass! Ah' mean it. Besides, the fact you technically are the sole most experienced fighter left in town, not to mention the second most skilled with medicines, and the best scout we have right now, Ah' simply can't spare yeh'. Ah' know. Ah' can see from that look in yer' eye, that yeh' want to help. That yeh' want to go rushing in, and yeh' want to take down Sheldton before he can harm those that we care about. But rushing in, and beating up Sheldton? What kind of plan is that? What would Renard say? What would mah' beloved wife, Maxine say about actions like that?"

Valorisa sighed. "That they're the actions of a first year inductee in the Da Ji Inari," she murmured, as she took a seat at the foot of the bed where her brother was lying, before then crossing her arms. "She'd say, 'A fool is the only one who rushes in without a plan.' And I know one of them would also at least tell me, 'that the young one who rushes in with anger and with no plan, is the one who eagerly invites death to their table.' Which...is admittedly true. I mean, I want to help those my brother whom I deeply care about. But you're also right, Colin. If I go rushing into something that I'm not prepared for, or I don't know how to handle...I will most certainly get myself killed. And that will put Donovan in a worse situation than he's in right now."

"Which is why I can't have you rushing in to help the people of Solmani Marsh at this moment."

"But we can't just leave them defenseless and on their own!"

"Who said we'd be leaving them on their own?"

"Huh?"

Colin chuckled. "What Ah' mean, my dear," he clarified as he placed a paw on the marten's shoulder, "is yeh' can rest assured that Ah' know of at least one otter in Solmani Marsh who will know of Sheldton's arrival, long before he officially makes his presence known. Yeh' may have heard my daughter speak of her that not so long time ago, when you and yer' brother first arrived here. Maybe yeh' didn't, ah'm not sure. But her name is Belayana Xo'mala. She is...one of the more mysterious members of that August body, the Pentarchy. She is th' keeper of societal records, goin' back to th' end of the Great Pilgrimage and up tah' th' foundations of today's Solmani Empire which were laid by Ana and Tan. The twin prophets who are believed to have founded modern otter society. She is, I admit not the most sociable otter in Mintara. However it should not be precluded that her dissociable nature immediately equates apathy when her people and her homeland are under dire threat. Nay, she will fight to protect her fellow otters and her homeland despite how they judge her for being such a drastically different individual from the rest of 'em."

"Different...how so?"

Colin chuckled. "Well...for one, she is the descendant of Shadi. The third sibling who was forgotten when the otters started treating Ana and Tan like they were ascended divines, and when they incorporated them into their philosophy of all things having two halves. A third wheel, like Shadi had no place in that philosophy. Especially with her connection to spirits and her practices of the old ways which predate the Balanic-themed theology which Otters incorporate into their lives today."

"I see. So...she's a witch?"

Colin chuckled. "That's...a rough way o' puttin' it," he said with a smirk. "Nay, she's more than that. Belayana has a gift forgotten by most otters. She chooses tah' remember a tradition not just tied to th' bloodlines of her otter ancestors but which is also tied tah' th' bloodlines of her very clan. Her ability to hear the language of animals. To heal with plants and herbs and to know the news of the world by receiving it through the lips of the spirits...all these things, are what give her authority and are what cause her advice to bear such great weight with Lod'zhak Premiana. It's why, she is considered the Lod'zhak's personal advisor, much to the chagrin and distaste of other otter bureaucrats."

"Oh?" Valorisa chuckled lightly. "Well...that's interesting." She murmured. "Anything else about this Belayana person I should know?"

"Mmmm..."

"Colin."

The prairie dog sighed. "One thing," he murmured. "It's really just a small footnote, not important at all..."

"Colin!"

"Aright, aright, don't get yah' tail in a knot. There is one thing, alright? It's a minor detail, but a detail, nonetheless. Belayana has...one small quirk about her, which is a result from her family lineage."

"Quirk?"

Colin nodded. "Simply put," he stated, "Belayana is not a full blooded otter like she appears. Yeh' go back in her ancestry and you find there was an ancestor of hers, I can't recall their name at the moment, who had relations with a vampire bat. A trait, which then was carried down the genetic line all the way to Belayana."

"Wait...she's a vampire!?"

Colin smiled wide. "Not in the way you're probably thinking, " he replied calmly. "Like I said. This isn't some dark curse. She's a hybrid, like mah' daughter. It's simply a result of her genetic ancestry. And before you ask, no. She does not drink blood. She gets disgusted and repulsed whenever people immediately jump to that conclusion."

"Then how..."

"How do her powers work?" Colin chuckled once more. "Wish ah' could tell yah'," he replied. "Honestly, ah' don't understand them mah' self. All ah' know, is it has somethin' tah' do with her eyes. She locks eyes on yah, and next thing yah know, yah' feel the very vital essence bein' drained out of yeh'. 'Tis why she wears a visor some ninety percent o' th' time. She doesn't dare trust herself to be around people without some kind of ocular protection. Lest her eyes stray and make accidental eye contact with an unassuming individual."

"It sounds difficult."

" 'Tis.'" Colin replied with a solemn nod. "But at the same time, her abilities are what make her a powerful ally against Dylan. When Donovan awakens, he will most definitely want her at his side. Believe me."

"I do."

Valorisa sighed. "I just wish my brother would hurry and wake up," she replied as hints of a relaxed expression b became apparent on her face. The female marten glad that at least for now, the Solmani region would have a way to defend itself. "C'mon," she urged softly as she continued to stroke a paw through Donovan's hair, "What's going on in that head of yours little brother? Why is it taking you so long to wake up? We need you..."