Alex headed toward his tent and Emily followed. He'd set himself up near Kael's command area. They were on the outskirts of the formation to protect the weaker members, which gravitated to the middle.

Selia and Ashe were currently near the middle with the injured and those who didn't have combat-orientated titles, like Healer or Chef.

Emily took a look around the quiet camp before ducking into Alex's hovel.

It was strange how quiet everything was even though they had just been attacked. People were filtering back into their tents and yet Emily didn't feel like they had the right level of fear for the current situation. She'd mostly taken care of things but as far as Kael was concerned there were still more Miragestalkers out there. Emily thought she'd gotten them all, but she couldn't be sure. The illusion had surrounded their whole camp but the moment Emily had killed the skulk of foxes, the crevasse had fallen apart.

The possibility that there were more out there was unsettling, but since they had dealt with the bulk of their numbers, the likelihood that they would hunt them was low.

As Emily entered Alex's tent, a smell of menthol lingered in the air, but she quickly focused on the man as he unfastened his boots and dropped onto his sleeping bag.

With an open hand, he indicated for Emily to sit across from him as he got comfortable.

Emily pursed her lips but sat down crossing her legs as she lay the desert fox down next to her. The beast had stopped struggling a while ago, and Emily had felt a connection opening up between them.

The first thing she got from the creature was keen hunger and outrage at being unable to bite his captor.

Emily snorted at the chihuahua-type energy this thing was giving off. Interestingly she discovered that the little beast could not use its illusions on her if she bound its tail. Not that it would be able to, as Emily could immediately tell what it was trying to create wit their connection.

However, even with this, she kept it bound as it would no doubt try and take a bite out of her again if she let it up right now.

It was such an adorable creature but just like its nature, looks were deceiving.

Alex glanced down at the creature for a second and frowned but glanced back up at Emily.

"Okay, so I wanted to say I'm sorry for losing sight of you, I should have known you'd do something like that. But more importantly, what happened back there? It was a massacre."

Emily glanced up from the fox and into his eyes.

"I had no intention of charging in, but this little guy made it necessary. As for what happened I used my new strength to deal with them."

Alex sighed.

"Your new strength? Does this have to do with your illness the other day?"

Emily pursed her lips and even though they were alone in the tent she lowered her voice.

"Well… yes. As you know, my natural abilities are derived from how much life energy I can accrue. But at certain points–it difficult to know exactly– they reach a threshold, and go through a quantitive and qualitative change."

Alex stared at Emily with a firm expression on his face.

"And that's what was happening back then?" he said.

Emily bit the inside of her lip as she squinted at him. Alex stared right back and sighed.

"Look, I can't help you if you don't trust me. I'm not the most trusting guy either but I've been trying to be honest with you as much as I can," he said.

Emily glanced around the tent as she got her thoughts in order, or anywhere that wasn't directly at Alex.

"...tell me who wanted you dead, and then I'll share," she said trying to buy herself time.

Alex frowned and fell silent, then he looked over at the fox and gingerly began to scratch its fur. The little beast growled at him but otherwise didn't struggle much.

"If that will make you trust me more sure…" he hesitated but gathered his breath and spoke. "It's my family, or to be more precise, my father and brother."

Emily squinted. She had never had enough of a family to bother caring about, but something wasn't adding up.

"Your family must be well connected to send assassins to another continent," she said slowly.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Alex stared down at the fox–who had stopped wailing and seemed to be letting out a weird purring yip.

"They are, it helps that they can afford to spare no expense," he said quietly.

Emily narrowed her eyes at him.

"You know I thought you came from a wealthy family, but are telling me it's more than that?" she asked.

For the first time in a long time, Alex looked at a loss for words.

"Yes, it's how Eva and I got here so fast last time. We used the waygates to close the long distances, but they are only accessible if you have the right people in your pocket. If I were to use my family name we might have been able to use the ones in Lorethil, but that would come with a whole host of problems. Namely, they would know exactly where we were." he said.

Emily blinked as some of the pieces fell into place.

"And Kael, does he know?" she asked urgently.

Alex pressed his lips together and nodded.

Emily's eyes widened.

"What the hell are you thinking? He could be hand delivering us straight to their doorstep?!"

Alex's face was firm and he nodded.

"It's a possibility, but Kael is a man who thinks not only of profit. If it were to get into a bidding war for our lives, I'm confident I could pay it, but more than that, he never gave me up last time."

Emily leaned back for a second.

Was that why it had to be Kael? Was it because Alex knew he could trust the man? What had Kael done that got Alex to trust him across lives?

Emily crossed her arms and saw Alex rummaging in his pocket.

"Well, that's certainly more than I would have expected, but…if you trust him then I don't have much to say. There is always the violent option, and this time you have me."

She wasn't certain she could win against Kael, but with her powers slowly gaining strength she could officially give him a run for his money at this stage.

Emily saw Alex take out a piece of dried meat and bring it up to the fox's mouth. To which the little devil chomped on it with relish.

"You still haven't given me my answer, you know," Alex said calmly.

Emily blinked as she recalled his question.

"The answer is yes, that was one of my thresholds. The downside of the process is that I lose a majority, if not all of my control during that time. Each time it happens the duration where I'm defenseless grows, but so does the resulting boost in my strength afterward." she said.

Emily twirled a strand of hair as she watched the desert fox chew the offering happily.

"This time my powers were only down for a couple of hours, but as I grow stronger it will only get longer. If I had to guess the next one could take days"

Admitting all of this didn't feel right, but somehow the fact that it was Alex made it easier. Plus he'd offered up something equally personal, it was not like she was completely defenseless during this time. With the additions of her title, she might be able to make up for it when the truly debilitating changes arrived.

Alex frowned.

"Your homeworld must have been a harsh place if you needed skills like those to survive. I think Kael is probably a bit shocked–we all are– that you took out an entire hoard of Miragestalkers by yourself."

Emily cocked her head at the compliment.

"I'm an anomaly even in my world… And to be honest, yes, it was a nice place to live. Sure the people were annoying and I had a ton of responsibilities, but it was fun to some extent."

Now it was Alex's turn to cock his head.

"Responsibilities? You don't seem like the type to take responsibility seriously."

Emily couldn't help it she laughed at the jab.

"I'm not, not in the slightest, but…" Emily hesitated.

She could see the fox was swallowing down its second bit of meat as it allowed Alex to scratch behind its ears. When Emily brought her hand close the little shit growled viciously.

"Ruling over a lot of people means making hard decisions, and no one wants to be the one taking the blame. Sometimes, what they need isn't a leader—but a villain. A common enemy to unite against, so the real work can be done in the shadows, undisturbed."

Emily looked up in time to see Alex's eyes locked on her. There was a moment when neither of them spoke, but they didn't need to. Emily could see he understood exactly where she was coming from, and he did so without any judgment. It was a strange sensation to have someone understand. Emily didn't regret her path one bit, but it was interesting to feel seen.

Before they could say anything more, the little beast began whining again, but this time, it was more sorrowful as it lifted its head from the sleeping bag to look at Alex.

Alex snorted and fished out another piece of meat and gave it to the thing.

"Well, it looks like he likes you at least. Myself on the other hand…" Emily said bringing her hand closer was rewarded with feral hissing.

Alex grunted non-committal

"Right, what's your plan here anyway, this thing is not a pet," he said.

Emily scratched the back of her head.

"Neither is Cupcake, but we became partners. I think this little guy will be the perfect scout or little messenger."

Alex made a thoughtful expression.

"Well if that is the case I might be able to help, but from the looks of things he hates you."

Emily glowered as the little fox rubbed its face against Alex's finger, but then Emily had an idea.

"I can see that…Wait how about you look after him?"

Alex frowned.

"I'm not looking after a wild beast, Emily," he sighed.

Emily held up her hands.

"Just think about it! I'm sure you have a title that could help with it right? And you have to admit if this little guy would be useful if he used his invisibility to warn us of danger."

Alex frowned at the creature currently sniffing his hand tenderly, the moment Emily saw a crack in his mask she grinned.

"Right, then it's sorted, we can speak to Gerade and find out if he knows anything".

Emily unbound the creature's limbs and watched as it jumped up, turning to hiss at her.

She just smiled at it, making sure it could feel her through the connection.

'Behave, and follow him quietly, or else' she thought.

The desert fox turned to look at Alex and then back to her, hissing once more before running to hide behind the man.

Emily couldn't help but chuckle at its adorable antics.

Alex still didn't look happy but he didn't say anything else on the matter. As she got up to leave he did however grab her wrist.

"Emily do me a favor, the next time you reach one of your thresholds, tell me. I can help you like I did last time," he said.

Emily nodded calmly at him.

"I will, seeing as we know so much about one another, I think it's only fair. In the meantime, I'm going to find Dunham. He's managed to worm his way out of it for the last two days, but I'm going to go collect what is owed to me."

Alex let go of her wrist and nodded, but he still looked concerned as she stepped out of his tent.

Blood points: 603

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.