Happy Thanksgiving my American readers! Hope everyone had a wonderful day with much to be thankful for. Since I am at my sister's place, you get another chapter! Lots and lots of dialogue, but hopefully you find it interesting. My muse decided to come visit, so I actually know where this story is heading for right now. I hope you enjoy.
Leo's brothers barely had time to absorb that news before Leo, or was is Shadowblade, asked, "Are you seeing actual warriors, or just scouts?"
In that annoying nonplussed way of his, as if he wasn't speaking to a grievously wounded combatant who had just awoken from a coma, Bishop replied, "Both. The warriors, for now, are staying out of the way, but the scouts are everywhere."
"I want to see your surveillance material," Leo told him.
"Whoa, wait a moment," Donatello protested. "You just woke up from a three day coma, and are still recovering from two stab wounds. You are in no condition to be doing anything but staying in bed and regaining your strength."
"Donny, I appreciate your concerns," Leo said gently to his brother, "but if I'm right, there's something much bigger going on here than just the hunt for a drudge and a Traitor. There is too much effort going into this."
"Just what to you hope to gain from seeing those pictures, though," Raphael asked. "I don't believe you're just sizing up your potential opponents."
"Not exactly," Leo said as Bishop handed over the images a lackey had just delivered. He looked closely at the surprisingly clear pictures. "I'm more interested in which clans they represent. You see, the warriors who attacked me the other night belonged to a clan friendly to my former master; however, the mind-master that tried to take control of my bond through the poison on the blade I was stabbed with belongs to a clan that, historically, is an enemy to both clans. Only something big and catastrophic would bring those two clans together, and I want to know if this was a one-off, or if it represents something larger in the works." He took a moment to scan the images while the others waited in tense silence. "Well, shell," he finally muttered. What the hell is going on here?"
"Leo," Raphael asked.
"I'm seeing scouts and warriors from at least five different clans, none of which are allies," Leo said. "So what are they all doing working together?"
"Are you sure they are working together," Michelangelo asked. "The Chi'Tarri don't exactly seem like the types to put aside old feuds just to capture two…traitors."
Leo's eyes went wide at his youngest brother's observation. "Mikey, you might just be a genius," he exclaimed. "You're right; they wouldn't put this kind of effort into capturing a pair of deserters, but what if they were after something bigger." Turning to Bishop he said, "Tell me, what was the name of the queen you served; the one you had the daughter with?"
Bishop made a sound that sounded like something a cat spit up. It didn't mean a thing to the three younger turtles, but Leo's eyes went wide with shock. "You don't do anything by halves do you? You not only got away from the voyta, but you took her only daughter with you."
"What is a 'voyta,' and what does that have to do with this situation," Donatello asked.
"The voyta is the High Queen over all the queens of the Chi'Tarri," Leo explained. "But that's not the important part. The issue is that her daughter, her only daughter, is missing, and whichever clan can return her will gain the voyta's eternal esteem."
"What's the big deal over the witch's daughter," Raphael demanded. "What's one child to these…monsters? I can't see them being the most caring of parents."
"They're not," Leo said, "The only exemption to that is in the case of queens and their single female offspring. The queens are very protective of their daughters."
"Again, I ask why," Raphael said.
"Because the queens only ever have one daughter," Leo explained. "It is a built in genetic…guarantee if you will that prevents a Chi'Tarri civil war from erupting over which daughter would ascend the throne at the death of the ruling queen."
"And Bishop took the high queen's only daughter," Donatello said. "But why now? It's been over eighteen years; why are they looking for her now?"
"Because the voyta isn't just any queen," Leo said. "The voyta holds the blood allegiance of all the sub-queens and clan leaders. Upon reaching twenty years of age, the voyta's heir must be acknowledged by the queens' conclave. If the voyta's heir doesn't present herself, then a vote is taken, and a new voyta is named."
"So all these clans either want to find the missing heir, and gain the favor of the voyta, or they want to kill her in the hopes that their queen will be named the next voyta," Bishop concluded.
"Wait, I'm still confused," Mikey said. "What does all this queen and voyta stuff have to do with Leo? I thought he was sent here to hunt for you."
"That was the initial plan," Bishop said. "And they'd have been satisfied if that plan had worked. But the Chi'Tarri always have contingencies. They had to know there was always the chance that I would overcome their shadow warrior, just as I had done all the other warriors they had sent against me. If I did overcome Leo, then I would automatically sever his bond. Cauterizing the bond is ultimately less painful then simply severing it like Leo's ma…trainer did, but it still leaves a wound that has to heal while the victim learns to rebuild his or her emotional barriers and controls again."
"Hence the poison the other night," Donatello concluded. "If Leo really had been this long without a bond, and he was subjected to a substance that is intended to irritate a partially healed bond, then he just might be willing to give in to the pressure to bond with another master."
"At which point the Chi'Tarri would either have the perfect spy on the inside, or, if you'd trusted him enough, might already have the information they were seeking," Raphael said, following the train of thought the others were constructing. "And with the bond in place, there would be no chance of Leo hiding that information from whoever was 'holding his leash,' so to speak."
"So what is their game plan now," Raphael asked. "Neither of their first two plans worked, so what are they trying to do?"
"What the Chi'Tarri are best known for," Leo said. "Violence and brutality. Right now they aren't sure of our numbers or strength, but very soon they are going to start trying to draw us out. Once they figure out we don't have the strength to counter their shadow-trained warriors, they will launch an all out assault until they get what they came for."
"So how do we stop them," Michelangelo asked. "We can't let them get their hands of some poor, unsuspecting girl."
"They're not getting their hands on my daughter," Bishop said. "I stole her away to protect her from their savagery; I will not let them take her back."
"And just how do you plan to stop them," Donatello asked.
"By giving them what they came for in the first place: me."
So just what is Bishop planning? And just what role do our turtles play in this whole mess? Guess you'll just have to hang around and see.