Bly's face cracks a smile as you bluster on about how retribution will strike her down the moment you get out of this room. "You need to work on your technique if you ever hope to threaten someone successfully, Decaarr. Don't worry though. We just needed to get you alone where we wouldn't be noticed. As soon as you left the building, we might have been seen approaching you. Once we've said our piece, you're free to go if you want to."
"We?" you say, looking around the room.
"You can come out now," Bly calls, seemingly to no one in particular.
A shadow extends from the far wall, manifesting itself into the form that can only be Huntmaster Jolon. You've heard stories of the youth's uncanny ability to blend in with his environment, but being fooled by it yourself for the first time is nothing short of stunning.
Jolon seems genuinely pleased at your shock, his curly brown hair bobbing as he pulls himself into a mock bow. His clothing is dark—simple and formfitting—and he carries himself with a deadly grace, his lithe body held in a state of perpetual readiness. "I think you'd better listen to Bly, Decaarr. We know that you've found out the truth."
Next
"How do you even know what I saw or where I was last night?" you ask, still trying to remain evasive just in case they're bluffing in order to get you to confess.
Jolon looks at Bly, and she shrugs. "I suppose there's no reason to hide it," she says. "Tiva told us everything. That you infiltrated the humans' stronghold and saw what happens to the adults when they go there."
You stare in slack-jawed shock at the news of Tiva's betrayal.
"Don't worry!" Bly says, holding up a hand to keep you from springing up and out of the room. "We won't tell anyone what you did. In fact, we're here to help you through it."
You're not quite sure how to respond. Most of your friends treat Bly as an outcast, and there have been strange rumors surrounding her ever since she quit her lessons and refused to attend her evening job. She sits right on the very cusp of adulthood, and yet few in the pack expect her to fulfill her role in the pack's affairs. "Why should I trust you?" you ask, genuinely curious.
"I don't expect you to," Bly says. "I imagine trust is in short supply where you're at right now, and I can't blame you if you're wary of what anyone tells you."
Jolon walks over to the door and puts his ear up against it, making sure no one is listening in. He nods to Bly, and she continues.
"Let me ask you a question. Didn't you ever wonder why I abandoned all the duties our system expected of me? Why I don't just blindly go along with what the adults tell me to do?"
You have to admit, you haven't thought about it. Like most of your friends, you always just assumed Bly was crazy.
"I saw what you saw three years ago. Unlike you, I had no one to share the burden with. No one to talk to. I kept it inside until I felt like I was going to burst. The way everything around me just continued going on as if nothing had changed—it was crazy! Everything had changed to me! I stopped going to classes. I stopped going to work. I used my time to train my body and my mind, to work out my anger on practice dummies and anyone stupid enough to get in my way."
Bly scoffs. "Why didn't you tell them?" she snarls. "You sat there in class today like everyone else. Sure, you might have pissed off your instructor, but so what? And what good would it do to push the adults anyway? They've turned into useless sheep, parading across that bridge to the slaughter. Sure, they're not actually being killed, but they're dead inside, every last one of them."
"For what it's worth," Jolon says, "I tried to convince her to come forward with me, but she insisted that the system is rigged against us. Maybe I should have said something myself, but just telling someone what's happening might not have been enough to make them believe it. Now that you've seen the truth with your own eyes, I hope we can put an end to it. Together."
Bly drums her fingers in a steady beat over the top of the chemistry table. "The elders considered banishing me to the Snarl, but Ahote stepped in and recommended I be used to train the adults since I'd physically surpassed most of them in the Way of the Claw. I even have a small dojo to the north. The old fools actually gave me the means to recruit and train my own soldiers to fight back against the humans! We have a few regulars for training already, mostly adults, but we're looking to expand. When they officially recognized Jolon as the pack's huntmaster, I asked him to join me."
"It's a ceremonial title these days," Jolon says, looking almost self-conscious. "There's not much game to stalk in Haven. But the elders think highly of my skills."
"But why did Tiva come to you with this?" you ask. "How did she know you were safe?"
"Tiva and I used to be friends, but she thought I'd lost it when I started ranting to her about needing to fight back against the humans. I…" Bly pauses. "I didn't have all that much tact in the days after my discovery. I suppose when she found out the truth, I was the first person that came to mind for her to talk to. She came to my place in the middle of the night, said she couldn't sleep. Scared me half to death creeping around in the shadows like she was. That girl should know better than to sneak up on me like that."
Jolon clears his throat, and Bly curses.
"Shit. We should get going." She gives you a pointed look. "We'd like you to join us, Decaarr. We could use a good mind like yours to balance us out. Hell, we might even be able to make a warrior out of you yet!"
Jolon gives a stiff nod. "It's up to you. Come with us before the night's work begins. We'll take the back exit so nobody sees us heading to the dojo. I don't want to give away our plans to the elders just yet."
You check the clock on the classroom wall and groan. 3:45 p.m. You have just enough time to get to Elder Ahote's office without being late.
"What's the matter?" Bly asks.
"Instructor Lonan told me that Ahote wants to see me in his office at four."
"Ignore the old wolf. You have better things to do with your time."