Chapter 4208  Crossing Paths (Part 1)

"That's the best part of my plan, Theseus." Xenagrosh turned her long neck to look him in the eyes. "Certainty. I know and trust Kigan, Bytra, and all core members of our team, just as I know and trust that I can kill everyone else in the Organization with ease.

"We are allies, not friends. Once our paths diverge, the gloves come off."

"Does that include me as well?" The Bastet-Meneos knew that, away from the ground, it would have been easy for the Shadow Dragon to dispose of him.

"I really hope it won't come to that." Xenagrosh said, and he felt her sincerity via the resonance between their cores. "I rescued you, Theseus, and I brought you into our fold. I consider you- What the fuck?"

She straightened her body to an almost vertical position and flapped her wings so violently that if not for the Meneos' vines anchoring him to her back, he would have been thrown off the Shadow Dragon.

"What's wrong? Did you find the fungus folk?" Theseus felt the heat rise in Xenagrosh's chest and quickly spread to her scales.

"Yes, but that's not the problem." She took deep, loud sniffs, like a hunting dog on a bloody trail. "The fungus folk has gone that way. The problem is that one of Narchat's Upyrs recently passed here as well and went in that direction."

She pointed southeast first and then westward.

"Are you sure?" Theseus asked.

"I never forget a smell." Xenagrosh snarled. "I'd recognize one of the bastards who attacked Lutia amid thousands. It's the Bastet-Upyr."

'This is not like I imagined reconnecting with my clan.' Theseus swallowed hard, hoping that the Shadow Dragon was wrong. 'Has my entire bloodline sided with the Dead King, or is it just someone like… Paquut?'

"Are you still sure we should leave?" Xenagrosh asked, snapping him out of his daze. "Do you trust the Organization so little that you'd rather let Verendi's Council and the Dead King compete for the fungus folk?"

"I've changed my mind." The Bastet-Meneos said. "We should stay. Yet I'm not interested in the fungus folk. Can we please chase the other Bastet? I need to know what has become of my bloodline."

"What do you plan to do? Politely ask the bastard for a hug and a chat?" The Shadow Dragon replied.

"Not even I am that naïve." Theseus shook his head. "I just need to look him in the eyes and introduce myself. If he informs the clan of my presence and asks for backup, it means that the entire Bastet bloodline has sided with the Dead King.

"If he doesn't and tries to avoid exposing his actions in Garlen, it means that he's a traitor to the clan as well, and we can kill him along with his accomplices."

"I like how you think." Xenagrosh rubbed her snout. "Either we expose a powerful enemy the Organization was unaware of, or we foil Narchat's plans and kill a few of his goons, we win. The fungus folk can wait."

***

A few hundreds of kilometers away, the Master Eyes informed Solus of the presence of Xenagrosh, Theseus, and Akhton. Even though they all wore cloaking items, the artifact had memorized their energy signatures and could detect them from that distance.

'What are they doing here?' Solus thought. 'For a moment, I thought they were after the fungus folk as well, but the Upyrs are way off the mark while Zor has changed her course and is headed their way.

'Maybe Meln did something stupid like messing with the Organization, or maybe he sent his goons to find potential recruits in the Awakened underworld of Verendi, not knowing this is Vastor's turf.

'Whatever the answer is, I'm glad I won't cross paths with Zoreth. Explaining what I'm doing here to her and how I know her to the Hordes would be complicated. Also, if she is after the fungus folk, we'd end up fighting.'

"There!" Ygri and Kalla said at the same time, pointing at a small pond surrounded by short grass.

The silvery Horde had just recognized the perfect spot for a snack they would look for if they were on the run. Kalla, instead, had detected an energy signature similar to the Hordes' but much weaker and less complex.

The Apprentice Eyes completed the scan in a handful of seconds and pinpointed the position of the fungus folk the moment it was done.

"Your kin went straight north from here." The Wight said. "They are close, barely 134 kilometers (83 miles) away. They are in good health and alone."

"Let's keep them that way." Loma said as he Warped everyone. "I'm sorry, but we'll leave you at a safe distance. The fungus folk is bound to be feral at this point, and we need to calm them down before you can approach them."

"Are you sure that it's even possible?" Nyka asked. "In their place, I wouldn't trust even you guys."

"You don't understand." Loma opened one Warp Steps after another. "One of our newborns is not much different from a human child who wakes up in the middle of the night.

"The fungus folk is alone and afraid, with no memory of where they are or how they got there. The first thing one of us always does is look for someone who can explain to them what is happening and reassure them.

"It's how the rumors about the fungus folk spread in the first place. They stumbled into the first human settlement they found and tried to communicate. When talking failed, the fungus folk attempted a merging to share their thoughts, but the humans mistook it for an attack and panicked.

"At that point, the fungus folk realized that the humans weren't ignoring them. The humans couldn't understand the fungus folk because they belonged to a different species.

Our youngest made two more attempts, one with magical beasts and another with plant folk, before the news of a newborn fungus folk spread and the hunt began."

"I'm surprised the fungus folk hasn't already been captured if they entered three settlements." Kalla pondered. "The fear they caused should have been enough to alert the authorities and reach the Awakened Council's ears after they revealed themselves the first time."

"Even as a newborn, fungus folk are naïve, not stupid." Loma replied. "Cities are too big, and the armed guards protecting them are scary. We usually look for a small village with no walls to stop our escape and people who appear friendly.

"After the first failure, our youngest gave up on the village and approached magical beasts who also lacked the means to fight them back. Our youngest had no better luck in their attempts to communicate, but at least they drew even less attention to themselves than before.

"Villagers are considered ignorant country bumpkins, and the story of their encounter with the fungus folk was dismissed as the random attack of a young magical beast.

"Magical beasts are even more isolated, so no one paid attention to the fungus folk until the two matching stories reached the ears of someone with the knowledge to connect the dots.

"By then, Ygri was already on the lookout for the fungus folk, but there was only one of them and many search parties."