“I want you to take the commanders and a unit of men with you,” Callida fussed.

  Rogue smiled and shook his head. “I want them to stay here with you. I’m already going to have Gravis with me, and Seliga promised an escort from the Bear Tribe.”

  “No, Rogue. I will feel infinitely better about this if I know the men who are with you personally. I want my own men to go with you.”

  He frowned, not sure where this anxiety was coming from. “Then who will be here to help you? I’m not going to leave you here by yourself.”

  “The commanders aren’t the only people who can help me, Rogue. I’ll manage.”

  “Callida–”

  “I’ll stay.” Both Rogue and his wife turned, startled, to where Ablenkung had quietly slipped into the room without either of them noticing. “As you know, I’ve been dragging my feet about renewing my smithing contract with the military. I’ll admit, I was looking for a new challenge when Spahen volun-told me to come on this trip. If you’ll have me, I’d like to stay.”

  Callida rushed to wrap her arms around the tall bear’s waist. “Of course we’ll take you! Gladly.”

  “Am I too late for your boys to consider me some sort of bonus uncle or something?” Ablenkung chuckled and Callida pulled back, shaking her head. “I came to ask how I can help you get ready for your trip, Rogue.”

  There really wasn’t much left to do. All of Callida’s men were notoriously light packers and seemed capable of accepting deployment at the drop of a hat, and Rogue’s own bag was already stashed by the door. “I appreciate the offer, but I think the only thing left to do is inform the men who are supposed to be coming with me,” Rogue said tiredly. His wife and the bear shared a cryptic glance. “What?”

  “They’ve already been informed,” Callida said with a mischievous smile that competed momentarily with the melancholy in her eyes.

  “They’re waiting for you,” Ablenkung added when Rogue failed to find words.

  “So when you said you wanted me to take the commanders and a unit with me, that wasn’t a suggestion.”

  She stepped forward, the mischief losing to the melancholy as she fussed pointlessly with the collar of his shirt and struggled to make eye contact. “It was more of an order than a suggestion, yes,” she said, choking with emotion on the last word.

  “M’lady.” Rogue caught her face, incentivizing her to tilt her head back. “Are you sure you’ll be alright?” She nodded and left a few brief kisses on his lips. “You should say goodbye to the boys.”

  The boys in question were playing in their room. Manasik was patiently building and rebuilding the same tower with blocks for Tajam to knock over while both boys laughed. Probus was harassing Ddalu, poking at his especially chubby tummy while Ddalu squawked in protest. And Tiaki stood in one corner just spinning in circles, his arms wide and his head back, staring at the ceiling.

  “Having fun, Tiaki?” Rogue asked, snatching the 28 month old for a hug. Despite his head lulling about with dizziness, Tiaki tried to push out of his fathers arms to return to his spinning, and Rogue laughed when, upon setting him down, the little shark host couldn’t keep his feet and instead sprawled on the floor, his eyes moving about wildly. “Bye, buddy. See you… see you soon.” Rogue turned to where Ddalu was now screaming at Probus. “Probus! Stop that! He doesn’t like it.” Probus grudgingly obeyed and Rogue invited him into a hug. “Oh. Good hug,” Rogue said when the little lion wrapped his arms around his neck and squeezed tight. By the time Probus let go, Manasik was waiting for his turn, a frown tugging the corners of his mouth down.

  “Dada have go bye-bye?”

  Rogue smiled sadly and hugged the last of the triplets. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. I have to go. But I will be back.”

  “Oh.” Manasik was a snuggler and laid his head on Rogue’s shoulder for a long moment before Rogue had to set him down. “Be good for your mom, will you?”

  Manasik nodded solemnly and Rogue moved to hug the 18 month old twins.

  In the absence of Manasik’s building, Tajam had settled for throwing the tower blocks and complained only mildly when Rogue picked him up for a quick squeeze. Ddalu, on the other hand, was quite ambivalent about being picked up. As long as he didn’t have to move himself, he was content to let other people move him around. As such, Ddalu was about as chubby as a baby his age could be, and Rogue huffed a bit while hefting him to his hip. Rogue gave the last of the five a hug and set him down again.

  “Bye, boys.” They were honestly too young to truly understand, and all but Manasik had already returned to their self-entertainment. Rogue rumpled Manasik’s sleek black hair and walked out, gathering his pack by the door.

  “Would you stay here with the boys for a few minutes while I send Rogue off? They will probably just play in their room,” Callida asked Ablenkung who nodded once to accept the task.

  Rogue took her hand as they walked out, squeezing her long, slender and calloused fingers on the short walk. Neither of them had anything to say.

  They rounded the one large building that shielded their home from the center of the camp, and his escort party came into view. Though their uniforms were limited to a single black band tied around their upper arms with otherwise uncoordinated civilian clothes, the rows of neatly organized, obviously well-trained and attentive soldiers were an impressive sight.

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  “Callida, won't this send the wrong message?” Rogue leaned over to whisper in her ear. “I’m supposed to be going in for peace talks.”

  “A military escort is standard practice when political leaders travel, so it establishes yourself as a leader on equal footing with King Ekata, if only symbolically.”

  “That’s really standard practice?” Rogue frowned.

  She smiled up at him and nodded once. “Yes. At least, I regularly commanded small units like this when escorting Verum to other tribes. And I was involved in escort details for the Alpha and his family as a soldier in the Wolf Tribe.”

  “Huh. I guess you’d know better than I would,” Rogue shrugged.

  “I need to have a quick word with Rapax. Give me a minute?” Callida said, and kissed his cheek before pulling away.

  Rogue watched her leave and indicate for Rapax to follow her into a private sidebar, likely conferring last instructions. While waiting for her to finish, he double checked the contents of his pack one more time and glanced through the rows of soldiers patiently waiting to begin the hike out of the valley, organized in five rows of ten, each row lined up behind one of the five commanders. And Gravis… where was Gravis? He started looking around for a person that really shouldn’t be difficult to pick out of a crowd and jumped when he found Gravis somehow standing behind him, already assuming the role of bodyguard.

  “Gravis! Primordials, when did you…?” Rogue clutched at his frantically beating heart. “Where did you come from?”

  “I’ve been here the whole time,” Gravis said with a mildly amused shrug.

  “Right. Sorry. I didn’t see you there.”

  “Gravis, are you ready?” Callida’s voice floated over his shoulder, and the bodyguard nodded solemnly. Rogue turned in time to accept a last hug and tearful kiss. “Stay safe, Qiangde. Stay close to Gravis and listen to the commanders, and… come back.”

  “M’lady–” He smiled against the interrupting kiss.

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  ***

  “Rapax–”

  “You’re worried that this might be a trap. Even if King Ekata’s request isn’t a trap, we might be waylaid by others with less pure intentions while there or while traveling, I know.”

  “And–”

  “And you’re about to ask me to take extra precautions, keep on top of training while on the road, prepare contingencies, stay alert….”

  She smirked in the face of his perfectly accurate prediction. “You’ve already thought this through.”

  “You trained us well, General,” he said, and then his tone became suspicious. “You haven’t talked to Rogue about this, have you?”

  “No. And you won’t either.”

  “You don’t think he deserves to know?”

  “It’s best that he enters peace talks without mistrust.”

  “So you’re leaving such things with me,” he said with a reassuring smile.

  She nodded, but there was a heaviness in the way that she smiled back at him, her brave mask cracking when she glanced anxiously back at her husband.

  “I can only promise that I will do everything within my power to bring him back to you,” he said, a paltry but honest effort to comfort her.

  “That’s all I can ask.” She teared up anyway, and Rapax reached automatically for the handkerchief in his pocket to offer her.

  “No. Keep it. You might need it for your trip.”

  “Oh, please. It’s… it’s good luck to collect tears before going off to battle rather than afterwards,” he said, spinning an excuse together as quickly as he could think of one.

  “That’s one I’ve never heard before,” she said skeptically, laughing even as she turned to hide her tears from the men behind them.

  “Yeah…. I mean, you haven’t?!” Rapax doubled down. “It’s a classic Lion Tribe superstition. There’s an old fable about an army that went to war. The men whose mothers and sisters and wives a-and girlfriends cried over them were the only ones that made it back alive, so… so it’s good luck… to collect the protective tears of a woman.”

  “A woman specifically? Or just tears in general?” she challenged.

  “A woman… specifically. I don’t know. That’s just the superstition,” he shrugged trying to be nonchalant in his answer. It must have worked because she accepted his handkerchief and carefully dried her eyes before returning it to him.

  “Kind of a gross superstition, don’t you think?” she said. “But if true, these tears are for all of you, not just Rogue. I count you all as my brothers, and several of you as my best friends. So if crying over you will protect you….”

  Rapax reverently folded the handkerchief, returning it to his breast pocket. “Thank you, General.”

  “Rapax!” Arum’s arm slung over his shoulders, startling him out of his mulling.

  “Arum?”

  “You were just looking a bit too serious. What are you thinking about?”

  Rapax’s hand moved to his chest, feeling the slightly thicker padding where the handkerchief had been stowed before pulling it out. “Hey, Rogue!”

  “Yeah?”

  Rapax rummaged through his pocket to hand Rogue the soiled handkerchief. “Keep this in your pocket at all times…. It’s good luck.”

  “Um… ok?” Rogue said, confusion sitting between his brow. “Thanks?”

  Rapax nodded and turned back to Arum to whisper at him. “We need to talk about some last instructions from the general later without Rogue.”

  “Without Rogue?”

  Rapax nodded once in confirmation.

  “Hey, Rapax, what’s with the handkerchief you gave Rogue? You said it was good luck?” Baca called from somewhere behind him, and Rapax strategically feigned surprise.

  “I’d have thought that was obvious. She cried over him — over all of us. I collected the tears for luck. I thought it only appropriate that Rogue be the one to keep it.”

  “Oh. Right. I see. That makes sense,” Baca said with a frown, confusion still evident in his scowl.

  “Sorry, but I still don’t get it,” Rogue said — the only one brave enough to admit that he had no idea what Rapax was talking about.

  “It’s a military tradition, so I’m not surprised,” Rapax said quickly. “The tears of a woman before heading off to battle are good luck. Those who are cried over are protected. Every soldier knows that.”

  “It’s… certainly better than making them cry because you don’t come back,” Arum hazarded carefully.

  “Yeah, exactly,” Rapax smirked.

  Thank you all so much for your patience through my hiatus. I'm trying really hard to add regular writing back into my life. Your continued patience and encouragement are appreciated as I figure things out.

  All my best,

  Trish