For two days, Garek and Selene accomplished little, beyond attempting to determine whether it was physically possible for a certain Grimmling to make up for eight years of unknowing celibacy in some sort of manic speed run.

The fact that it came on the heels of both of them nearly dying may have contributed.

Eventually the two decided, for the sake of their longer-term physical well-being, to give it a bit of a rest.

They sat on their familiar spot after breakfast, listening to the quiet sounds of wildlife. His arm was draped across her shoulder and her head leaning into him, her left hand resting on his thigh. Finally, she sighed. "I suppose it is time we discuss our next steps."

He chuckled. "Honeymoon's over, eh?"

She pushed her shoulder against him and made a sound of dissatisfaction. "You are a child at times, Garek Grae."

"I was never raised properly. Blame my parents."

"I am not one to talk, but still."

He laughed more openly. "Fine." He grunted and stood. "Let's get to it." He went to the tent and returned with a notebook and his Scroll. It wouldn't have signal out here, but he could still take notes with it offline. "Where do we start?"

She took a deep breath. "What are we to do?"

"Ah, one of the difficult ones."

"Garek!"

"Okay, okay. I do actually have some ideas. But you have to tell me if you disagree. I'm not your minder, just your devoted sex slave." That got him a look. "And personal bodyguard, for reasons." He scratched at a feline ear. "Honestly, the fact is, we don't have enough information to make much of any type of plan, other than near term." He tapped the display. "Your mother says there is a war going on, and that seems obvious, but it's probably not what we think it is, based on her 'dipping the toe' comment. So, we need to share notes here and see if it becomes clearer, eh?"

"I will tell you what I can, but-"

"But if I'm not mistaken, your mother has purposefully left you out of the loop."

"Correct. I know that there are… plans. She has a sort of council. But when they are there, I am limited to personal areas, or sent off to explore on my own." She smiled, "That was how I came to find this place." The smile faded, "and the justification she used when I left to bring that message for you. I was misled."

"You couldn't have known, and if we dwell on that, it'll just distract us. Let's take a step back, what is our goal here?"

"To stay alive, and together," she frowned, "and free to come and go. I would not see you locked in a tower with me, even if it were better than alone."

"Good. And what else?"

Selene picked at her clothing. "I would not see my mother made my enemy." Her eyes flicked to his.

His face softened. "I understand. And frankly, I doubt we would survive that. So we don't want to be your mother's enemy." He took a deep breath. "I can't imagine being her ally."

"No, no you could not. So that leaves us?"

"Somewhere in the middle. Neutral? Looking out for ourselves? Or trying to find some strange path between the two sides, which we don't even understand." He rubbed his brow. "Which leads us back to a point. If we are going to do that, we need information and leverage." He looked at Selene carefully. "I'm going to say something that is going to sound ugly, but it needs saying." She nodded carefully. "The only thing keeping me alive is you. You are leverage against your mother, and that's what she feared. And rightly so." Selene's face paled, and he waved his hand. "The difference between what she feared and this, though, is that it works both ways. You are also leverage against me. I won't use that against her, not unless you agree it's necessary. But that means I need to know what you do know, and you need to find out more."

"I… I will not spy-"

Garek crossed his arms, "I'm not going to ask you to."

"Then what?"

"I need you to separate out your feelings toward your mother, and your Queen. You need to think about them as two different people, requiring two different approaches. One of these people loves you desperately. The other has plans that don't involve you. Our safety depends on keeping it that way."

Selene searched his face before responding quietly, "This is why you counseled us to not act hastily."

"One of them. I'm not a complete cold-hearted bastard. She matters to you, and that matters to me." His brows drew together. "But frankly I think your mom is fucked up."

She laughed bitterly, "I would not have phrased it so."

"But still. You need to reinforce your relationship with her, not break it."

Selene stiffened. "I will not perform machinations, she would sense it."

"Good. Be the daughter you have always been. Forgive her and mean it." Selene blinked at him. "It's the right thing to do, and anything else puts us both at risk. If your mother is as broken, as alien, as she seems to me, then pushing her the other way risks catastrophe."

"She is not human."

"Not nearly as much as you, no. We need to understand her, so we don't fuck up."

"I see. Yes. I agree to this."

"Good girl."

"Woman."

He smirked. "Last time you said that, things happened."

"Do not you go down that path, Garek Grae."

"Fine. So shall we start with my side or yours?"

"Mine will be shorter, for I fear I know less." Garek gestured her to continue. "Very well. My mother is old. Extremely old. She has plans, but I don't know what they are. She can force Grimm to spawn, and she can spend effort to make one more intelligent and larger. She can control them, to a degree." He made a note. "She does not love humanity or faunus-kind, I believe. She has servants… well, better to say, she has servants, and agents." More tapping. "Yes. Servants are there I suspect for me and when her agents are in residence. I do not know whether she really cares what she eats, though she does eat and drink. The servants are human, now that I understand. They live and work there, preparing meals and cleaning the chambers."

"Are they slaves? Captives? Citizens?"

"I am unsure. I have never asked, and none has ever tried to leave. But that does not signify." She frowned. "They are polite, and normally pleasant. I have not seen them punished unduly, but mother barely pays attention to them. Except for the one." Scarlet eyes closed and reopened. "I was much younger and asking questions that I had been told not to. Something about why I could not travel to other continents and what was there. None of the servants would answer, except for one kindly older maid. Visha her name was." She swallowed. "Mother spoke with her, and I did not see her after. I do not know what happened. I can hope that she was left to live elsewhere, but I now I suspect not."

"I'm sorry."

"Yes. Another example of Mother's perceptions of threat, and reaction." She sighed. "And these Agents. I know only of three at the moment. There have been others, but I have not seen them in several years." Garek's fingers poised above the Scroll. "The first is a tall, lean man. Green eyes and dark hair. I do not know his first name, but he was called Watts." She rolled her eyes, "But he would demand you call him Doctor Watts. I do not believe that is medical. He is enamored of devices." She frowned. "He is most unpleasant. Sneering, dismissive. Arrogant. Even were I not warned to avoid him, I would do so." Garek nodded as he caught up. "The second is Tyrian, I do not know his last name. He is… he is a faunus with dark hair and a scorpion tail. If Watts is unpleasant, Tyrian is extremely unsettling. He treats Mother like a Goddess and looks upon me with a strange awe, as if I were an impossibility. I do not like him, nor his attentions."

"Got it. Asshole and Creepy."

"Hmph. Your summaries leave something to be desired, faunus." She cleared her throat. "The third is different. He is large, muscular, as if he could break either of us in error. His name is Hazel, as are his eyes. He has brown hair and a beard. He is the youngest of them. Again I do not know his last name. He has been the most friendly to me, though again, very limited due to Mothers instructions." She considered. "When I was younger, he would sometimes stare at me sadly as if he saw someone else. I believe he lost someone, but I do not know why that would make him Mother's agent."

"Good. This is good. Anything else?"

"Unfortunately, no. Well there's father, but I don't know where he lives, nor his motivations, nor how he came to… hmph… why is that imagery disturbing?"

"Always is. Don't fret. Actually, that is another avenue. Why and how, and why not now?" He reviewed his notes for a bit. "Let's go back to the Grimm. You say they are formed, not born. Does your mother create them? How are they spread across Remnant? And you said there is a range of her control."

"Ah. Yes. So, Grimm can be spawned one of two ways. The first is by very large Grimm, but these are rare, including only two that I have ever seen, but both types can fly. One is like a large serpent, the other a fish of some sort."

"Giant flying fish," Garek muttered, "fuck."

"Ahem. The second is from Pools of Darkness. These exist throughout the Grimmlands, and some number of Grimm will spawn from them at a time. It is somewhat random."

"So, they can't just form out of nothing or shadows?"

"No… no I can't imagine that."

"Got it. So the Grimm in Mistral or Vale or Atlas… they didn't swim over… no right. That's silly. So there are pools outside the Grimmlands, somewhere, or large Grimm, creating more?"

"It is likely. And as for control. I can command or communicate with a Grimm that can see or hear me. If I can see it, I can think a simple command, and it will obey me. If it can hear me, I can give more complex commands, but many are not intelligent enough to follow them properly. My mother, on the other hand…"

"That's good knowledge. Can she command Grimm across Mistral?"

"No… not like that. She has more power, she use that to create more, and more intelligent Grimm, and be obeyed more clearly. But she does not control millions of Grimm directly, other than to perhaps give them initial instruction, and not to those she has never seen." She thought. "But I believe she can have instructions passed from one to the next, though perhaps imperfectly, and there is a Grimm called a Seer. It allows remote communication and vision between locations."

"Great. The Queen has her own Grimm CCT. Wonderful." He coughed. "So those Grimm, the kind I normally run into… would you call those 'wild' Grimm?" she nodded. "And their ground state is not to congregate unless there is strong negative emotion, and not to be focused on destruction. And that's likely not part of her direct goals."

"Yes, that seems correct."

"And then there are the ones she controls directly, and we have no idea what their overall purpose is."

"Again, correct."

"Okay. Not much, but that's a start. Let's talk about my world." He smoothed off a spot of ground several meters square and picked up a stick. "Here's where things get complicated." And he launched into a long description, interspersed with questions from Selene, about what he knew of the geography, politics, and goals of the peoples of Remnant. By the end, Selene was overwhelmed.

"This is troubling and complex."

"Yep."

"And the… the conflict and hate. Human versus faunus. Pirates and bandits prey on the weak. The wealthy prey on the poor. Kingdoms disunited or denied their place. Corruption." She stared into the trees. "Gods, is Mother wrong?"

"Well, she isn't helping. And depending on what her actual goal is, it may be worse than that."

"And who are her enemies, which she speaks of? She said it goes deeper than you and the other Huntsmen."

"Right. It could be the ruling powers, or a cabal behind the scenes. Hell, it could be gods themselves for all we know. And for that reason," he stabbed the stick into the ground, "we have to be very, very careful what we reveal and to whom. There are at least two power blocs there. Maybe, just maybe, what we need is a third. Can we cobble something together from that." He pointed to his scrawlings. "Fast enough to not get stomped out by either side? To do that, we need-"

"Information."

"Right. And while we don't know who to trust yet on my side. There's one person who absolutely knows who and what we are, and can be guaranteed to not kill us for asking questions."

"Mother."

"And yet again, I am dazzled by your intelligence."

"You mock me."

"No actually I don't." He gave her a good-natured push, and she squawked as she lost her balance and fell off the back of the log. "GAREK!"

"Ohshit."

They spent the rest of the week adding details to their initial plans, practicing with aura, and on a much less manic pace, enjoying each other's company in intimate ways.

Aura practice consisted of either him talking her through learning to push aura around, or using a more direct approach.

"Ow!" She yelped as the finger-thick stick whacked her on the arm.

"What did I say?"

"That is painful, must you do that?" she rubbed the spot with her other hand.

"Mild pain can be a powerful motivator. Push your aura!"

"I am trying. Could you not use a smaller stick?"

"That would probably just sting more." He paused. "And we can stop if you want."

"No! Curse you, Huntsman, let us continue."

She was improving rapidly. And he did feel a little guilty.

A little.

Finally, it was time for Garek to depart first, which was a new experience. "I will leave tonight, after you have gone," Selene said. "It will be bittersweet to feel what you experienced all these months."

"Yeah. It got old."

She became thoughtful. "I believe we will need to meet more frequently."

"The fishermen-"

"Yes, I know, will believe you mad." She rolled her scarlet eyes. "Then we will need to meet elsewhere. Nearby perhaps."

"There's a spot about five miles north of the fishing village that is probably flat and clear enough for Blackfeather."

"Good. Yes, can you return in a month? I will meet you then, and we can share what we have learned."

"Good. That sounds perfect." He stepped forward, and she leaned into him, pale arms wrapped around his lean torso, and lips joined. Reluctantly then they parted, he with his pack, working his way south toward the coast, and her returning to her spot, to wait until nightfall.