I give them a few moments to think about it and then head straight for the enemy Earth-Shaper – out of everyone here, she’s probably the most dangerous if she somehow gets access to her magic again. After all, it’s the earth that holds the enemy Warriors captive and helpless.

  “What is your choice?” I ask her, my voice cold and merciless. Purposefully so – this is not a time for them to see me as weak. And now, I find that I no longer necessarily want to kill them. Not when doing so won’t bring back my own people.

  I find that I’m abruptly tired of pointless death. They clearly followed Flying-blade blindly, just as the Pathwalkers of my own village followed the shaman blindly even when it meant sacrificing their own people. If I’d killed them all immediately for what they did to the hatchlings, or let Kalanthia kill them for what they did to Lathani, I wouldn’t have got to know them as they are. And they’d never have been able to change the way they have.

  That’s not to say that I’m just going to let them get off scot-free. Their choices did kill too many of my people to let it go without any sort of consequence. But surely it’s better for everyone if they are willing to rebuild what they have broken and maybe re-earn the position of respect they have taken for granted. To become true members of the village rather than just prisoners held by my Bonds.

  It wouldn’t make up for the losses, but it would strengthen my village to a point beyond what it was before the attack.

  And if Windy’s self-centred assertions are not entirely her usual hot air, I will need to leave the village in as powerful a position as I can when I leave. Considering that we still don’t have a proper replacement for my Bonds, true conversion is far more important than temporary Binding. By the time I leave, everyone who remains in the village needs to be a true member of it, or they need to be removed one way or another.

  With that in mind, I focus on my task again – setting the foundation in place for what I hope will become a sturdy structure by the time I leave.

  Earth-Shaper doesn’t take long to decide that she wants to live, nor do the other Pathwalkers when I put the same question to them. Samurans in general have a strong desire to live, no matter what they have to go through to ensure it. Even Flying-blade’s fanaticism wasn’t enough to overcome that primitive urge.

  When it comes to Water-former, though, I find there’s a complication.

  “If you kill or chain us, you will have to face the leader of the whole red tribe,” threatens Water-former. “We are her sisters and she will defend us.” Apparently, this is the second of the Pathwalkers Flying-blade was able to ‘convince’ to join her party.

  “Will she, though?” I ask her, almost idly. “I got the impression that this was off the books, so to speak.” Though I doubt my expression translates directly, Water-former gets the message.

  “She will never let her sisters languish in the hands of another Pathwalker, especially one who is not even a true member of the People,” she spits at me definitely despite her mana-deprived fatigue.

  “Then she can ransom you back,” I tell her, crossing my arms in front of my chest. “If you wish to live past the next few minutes, you must accept my Bond. I can always choose to release you if your leader offers me sufficient for your ransom. Otherwise you’re a liability and I might as well just kill you now.”

  Water-former looks at me in horror as my own Pathwalkers receive my words with a mixture of emotions. Tarra seems approving; Flower seems disturbed. Happy is dissatisfied – I know she'd prefer it if I just killed everyone here. River is supportive as usual. As for the others, they feel less strongly about it, either similar to Tarra or Flower.

  “Fine.” Water-former spits. “I surrender. But if you break a scale on me, my leader will make you and your village pay!”

  “I will treat you exactly as I treat the others who came with you and who have also surrendered,” I answer levelly.

  The Battle of Wills goes quickly, the verbal surrender helping just as much as the yielding of the three Pathwalkers at the other village did. Finding I have the Willpower for four more Bonds after I release the Unevolved I Bound earlier for healing purposes, I get my new Bound to identify the most dangerous and influential among the Warriors and Bind them too.

  With their Pathwalkers and top Warriors all under my control, the rest of them surrender too, and I get their word that they will obey my commands and those of the Pathwalkers and Warriors originally from my village. I resolve to keep an eye on them – or rather delegate some of my people to do so. I’d better keep them out of positions where they could cause more damage than I would prefer, but thanks to their actions today, there are plenty of things for them to do which don’t require them being around too many of my people. Until I manage to accrue enough Willpower stat points to Bind them properly, of course.

  That sorted, I decide to send my people back to my village. And since I need enough firepower to deal with the new additions to our ranks, I keep about half of my Warriors with me, sending the rest to go with the Unevolved back to the village. It takes a while as well over a hundred samurans stream past our group to funnel through the gap still present in the vine strangler forest. But finally we’re down to my closest non-samuran Bound, my Pathwalkers, half of my Warriors, and the new Pathwalkers and Warriors.

  With fewer eyes watching, I decide that we have one more task to do before we can move on.

  “Right. Let’s see what the big deal is about this crystal.”

  Be careful, warns River.

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  “I intend to be,” I reassure her, approaching the black crystal which seems to gleam malevolently from within its weave of rough fibres. Everyone is watching closely, and I sense a mixture of concern and anticipation running through the Bonds. But I’m not intending on putting on a show.

  Closing my eyes, I look at the crystal with my magic sight. I probably shouldn’t be surprised to see just how brightly it glows there, despite its colour to my physical eyes – it appears even more powerful than a normal Energy Heart. In fact…. I frown as I see the complex Energy patterns within it – the last time I saw something like that was when I held the fellapodil’s Core.

  Could this be formed from a Tier three’s Core? Perhaps.

  The Core is definitely still powerful, but its patterns appear…inactive. That is, until I reach out to grasp the handle of the cords woven around it. The Core shines brighter and the patterns start moving more quickly. Within a few moments, I see little threads of connection extending up from the Core itself, reaching towards my hand.

  I immediately let it go – unwilling to let those connections touch me. As soon as I release the handle, the threads of connection are pulled back into the Core. I’m glad that touching the handle is the trigger and relinquishing it was enough to stop the threads: I’m getting flashbacks to the Pure Energy stream right now.

  Opening my eyes, I eye Flying-blade. Maybe there’s a way that she can immediately start paying back the massive debt that she owes all of us. And it’s rather poetic justice that she might be the means by which I learn more about the device that she was intending on using to subdue my allies.

  “I want to test something,” I tell her calmly. “Touch the crystal.”

  What? she asks, immediately horrified.

  “You heard me,” I respond, not giving an inch as I cross my arms. “You were so keen on subjecting my Pathwalkers to it; it’s only fair that you should be the test subject. Touch the crystal. Now.”

  I see her fighting against the order, but my Willpower is far beyond hers and she has no choice. I’d feel bad except that this is the merest fraction of what she owes us. Owes me. We all watch as Flying-blade’s body drags her to the artifact, the Bond forcing her hand to reach towards the crystal, trembling with her effort to prevent herself from moving. I close my eyes to once more engage my magic sight.

  When the samuran’s clawtips touch the crystal with a faint chink, it’s a little anticlimatic. The crystal is inert, the slow movement of Energy within not changing one iota. Not like when I held the handle. Interesting.

  “Now hold the handle.” I order her, not opening my eyes.

  I watch as her mana-infused flesh moves, only able to see when she’s actually gripped the handle because the Core brightens and the patterns within it start shifting faster again. The same connections that I saw before start emerging from the Core and twisting their way up the handle. Making contact with Flying-blade’s paw, they enter her body, but don’t seem to do anything more than that.

  The Core itself, however, starts almost sparking, looking a little like a tesla coil as flickers of connections start lashing out at the air around it. And then the whole thing moves, jerking away from me as alarm spikes through several of my Bonds.

  I roll backwards over my shoulder and use the motion to get back on my feet, standing fluidly. The movement while using my magical sight rather than my physical eyes makes me feel horribly nauseous.

  “Stop moving!” I order coldly, snapping my eyes open and glaring at the reason for the alarm. The connections and mana that I can see with my magical sight lingers for a moment like an overlay over my normal vision. But when it fades, I see exactly what I had already known had happened. Oddly, it’s not anger but disappointment that spikes through me.

  Flying-blade is frozen, her body barely even allowing her to breathe. Her arm is extended backwards, the glinting black Core dangling from the handle of woven fibres in her hand – ready to be brought down onto my head like a flail, I have no doubt.

  What did you want to do? I snarl down the Bond between Flying-blade and myself. Now there’s that furious rage I was expecting. Kill me? Bind me? Destroy my soul? All of the above?

  You…you are a monster, she cries at me, desperation and fear transforming into fury. Any of those options would have been acceptable. I saw my chance and I took it! And I would do it again!

  Diving into her memories of the moment that’s just happened, I see that it’s exactly what she said. She didn’t even have any real intention when she prepared to swing the Core into my head; she just hoped that I would be hurt by it, preferably destroyed in some way.

  Pulling out of the Bond, I feel a sense of inevitability settling heavily on my shoulders. I should have known from just how much resistance she’s offered me even after the usual readjusting of priorities which happens when I use Dominate that she was a lost cause. That she would take advantage of any mercy I offered her.

  But I didn’t realise that she would be capable of actually trying to attack me – that’s more than a little worrying considering that being unable to attack the Binder should be hardwired into Dominate Bonds.

  Perhaps I should be grateful that I haven’t discovered that the hard way. I must remember that the Bonds are not infallible. Maybe it’s that strong enough emotions can overcome even the anathema with which the Bond curtails thoughts of hurting me? Though to have such hatred towards me seems rather over the top considering it’s from someone who doesn’t even really know me. But it’s reality I have to deal with, not what should be.

  “Drop the handle,” I order, clamping down on my emotions with a force of will. Flying-blade’s nerveless hand obeys. I don’t even know if she tried to fight it this time. “You just tried to kill me. Do you deny it?”

  Why would I deny something I would happily do again? Flying-blade throws back at me. I know it, she knows it, everyone around us knows it. But I just want to make it absolutely clear why I’m doing this.

  “And if anyone had stood in your way, regardless of who they were, would you have spared them?”

  She makes a wild hiss that’s almost a laugh, almost a scream. I would go through the whole of my village, let alone yours, to ensure that a threat as dangerous as you are is eliminated.

  From the horrified looks that several of the Pathwalkers and Warriors she brought with her are now giving her, even they didn’t realise just how deeply she felt about this.

  “I judge you as too dangerous to have near me and too dangerous to send away,” I tell her heavily, regretting that I have to do this at all, even if I don’t regret that I have to do this to her. Flying-blade doesn’t seem to understand the implications of my words if the way she glares at me hotly is anything to go by. From the sudden distress which spikes along the Bonds of Ice-shaper and Plant-shaper, however, they do. “May the ancestors have mercy on your soul.”

  What? Flying-blade asks, faltering at last as confusion cuts through her molten hatred.

  It’s her last word: I send a surge of flesh-magic down the Bond between us. This close to her, it’s easy enough to manipulate. Not wanting to draw it out – for my own mental health more than for her sake – I make her death as painless as I can, sending spikes of bone shooting through her brain to shred the fragile flesh.

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