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(Vernal PoV)

What I was about to do wasn't easy. Free favors from the Khagan weren't a thing. Not even for me. Not even as special and talented as I was. It just wasn't enough. Raven Branwen didn't do free. So I steeled myself and entered the castle of a red tent that the Khagan was residing in.

It took a few days of travel to get here. Out of the valley I occupied and ran for the Khaganate. I didn't dare ask for a portal though I probably could have. That would just be another favor. Raven glanced over at me with her sword by her side from the throne on which she sat. Calling it a throne was generous but it was a nice chair I guess. It was probably usually occupied by the Khan officer who really ran this area of Anima for the Khaganate.

They gave it up though. And Raven probably didn't have to ask for it. It was just given to her.

"Vernal…" She murmured in greeting. "Won't you sit? You must have something to discuss with me?"

She had probably watched my approach from a tiny portal. We had a connection and so it was possible. She had seen it. She had allowed it. Therefore, she planned for it.

I sat cross legged beneath her on the floor. I couldn't meet her eyes.

"Well? Speak," Raven demanded. She put the ball in my court now. Forced my hand. Making me beg her favor.

"I need more targets… I need to target outside the Higabana valley…"

"That's outside your territory," Raven purred. "Why?"

"I ran out of villages. I need fresh ones to raid."

"I left you a hamlet with half a dozen villages. Now you're telling me you need more? Has your recruiting gone so well that you must bolster your numbers with more targets?"

"I just need more targets. The only villages left are fortresses and-"

"What do you mean the only villages left are fortresses?"

"I'm worried that if I attack I'll lose some of my men. They're much more militaristic than the other villages were." And I didn't have that war asset the large Grimm had made. It meant it would be just me and my people against theirs and I was fewer in number than even those that made up the guard at Higanbana.

Our strategy was never about direct confrontations. I would need to be a village to have the numbers to contest them directly.

"I understand what a fortress is. I don't understand how they can be the only village left."

I shuffled my feet. A sign of weakness, I know.

"Did the Grimm swarm over these villages and destroy them during the black out day panic?" Raven pressed.

"No," I murmured.

"Then you destroyed them."

"Yes, I-"

"You destroyed all of the villages left to you?"

"You told me they are like sheep to us."

Raven scoffed at me. "And one cannot milk dead sheep. What were you thinking? No, it's obvious you had nothing but bloodlust on your mind."

She sat above me on her throne, as though I needed more signs of my submission to her. We were hosted in a rival Khan's base. Only some tents were here, instead we were surrounded by solid stone and woodwork.

A place built over a lifetime.

A sign, still, that despite how I was favored, I was just one Khatun who served the Khagan. One of many in subservience and one that couldn't even host the Khagan should she ask.

Further still, I was left begging for her help where others were doing so well they could afford fine gold gifts for the Khagan and silken animal hides to match Raven's black mane.

I thought about pointing out that one could milk dead sheep, just not for very long, but without new targets my men would start to starve and the sass wouldn't get me anywhere. Then my men would abandon me. I needed Raven's favor to gain new targets, mine were all destroyed save the last two villages.

There, they took no chances and had high walls with gunmen equipped with rifles. My men would be torn apart should we attack there. Losses weren't something I could afford either. Not since that blonde huntsman. Further still the Grimm I had used to lay waste to the villages in the valley was absent. I could only blame the blonde huntsman for that too.

He must have slain it then carried on his merry way and I had no idea where to find him to gain vengeance for my lost tool.

"I see that now."

"Oh do you? And I'm supposed to hand over more villages to your onslaught. We play a delicate balance in our raiding."

"I understand. We must raid without drawing the presence of the Grimm. Or at least without drawing too many." I tried to appease her with new lessons learned. I tried to show her that I understood the error of my slaughter.

"Hm. Time will tell if you do truly understand and are actually competent enough to play the game."

"Please I need new targets-"

"Targets I'm supposed to take from other Khans and hand over to you? You already had so many." The Khagan played the same game I did, just on an even grander scale. She had to keep her Khans happy the same way I was supposed to keep my men happy, thus forming a chain of loyal command. If I couldn't find a way to bridge the gap then I would just be another failed leader. I looked down at my feet thinking hard.

"I will give you new targets." I looked up at Raven. "You've been loyal and it is… a learning process. The balance we play... the selection of who and when and how to strike is difficult for even the most experienced of Khans. You are young. You can afford this stain on your record. But you must first fetch something for me."

"Anything," I murmured. "Thank you."

She waved off my thanks.

"A cargo ship went down over Lake Matsu. Atlesian design, clearly. It fell in your new territory. You will strip it for anything of value and bring it to me as a gift. A penance for your mistake."

It would be hard. My men already rebelled under my thumb. But not impossible. Raven was like that in her teaching and punishment. No task was actually beyond my reach, just nearly. I'd have to go myself And oversee the operation. That meant trusting my own subordinates to lead attacks outside the valley they were used to operating in inorder to restore order to my tribe. I couldn't be in both places at once. Only Raven had that power.

I bowed respectfully. "If that's all I'll get it done."

She wasn't impressed, not yet. She would be though once I brought her the dust that must be on that ship. Many ships were violating the embargo for the higher prices. It was simple supply and demand. Crime would always rise to the occasion if the price was right. This must be a single such ship from which ordinarily the bounty would belong to me, with a cut going to Raven, of course. This time the whole cut would be Raven's. I would be operating at a deficit the moment I struck out. Still I couldn't mistake this gift and second chance when it showed up. I stepped through a portal and back to my own territory. There was a great deal of work to be done.

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The wreckage plowed through fifty feet of trees, brush and dirt where it crash landed just at the bank of Lake Matsu. There was no sign of people moving in or around the craft despite that it has been most of two days since it went down.

Ships which tried to take the shortcut over the lake and which weren't sufficiently prepared for the Grimm that called the floating islands home tended to go down. This was just another unfortunate boat in that regard.

It was true to Raven's words, clearly Atlesian. All geometric angles unlike the smooth boat-like curves of Mistrali ships. Its wings were short and angular and it must have hit the ground relatively slowly if all the dust it should be carrying didn't go off and consume the tiny freighter in a ball of elemental energy.

The containers they ship dust in aren't actually designed to survive crash landings. Who'd have thunk.

Fortunate for us and less fortunate for whoever had been piloting the damn thing. It's wings were busted off and lay twenty feet back, ripped from the hull. One was up in the trees where it had burned through the branches, consuming the last of its fuel before it must have sputtered off and died.

The other was hurried in the earth, a solid ten feet in the ground where it gouged a narrow trench parallel to where the ship forged its own path through the earth.

That just left the body of the freighter and it would probably have a few salvageable parts to go with it.

The boys pulled an unconscious man out of the front of the ship with little regard for his well being before turning back to me. I knew what they wanted and I couldn't deny them it. Plus I had no reason to.

I jutted my chin in their direction. "Slit his throat," I ordered.

I watched the pilot die with a whimper and gurgle.

My boys pulled into the back and, amongst the dust and other cargo they started to haul out, one of them dragged a girl in a blue and white dress. Her ensemble had a familiar white logo to it.

I could guess what they wanted to do to her and it was only slightly less bloody than what they had had in mind for the pilot. Something made me hesitate, though. Her huntsman weapon, dragged out alongside her, was intricate. I took it from a man with a machete and gave the inner dust wheel a spin.

The pilot could go. He was worthless. But this...

My man pulled her face up by the ponytail and she moaned a soft "please." Her face was familiar to me but I couldn't quite place it.

My first instinct was to let the men have her, the pigs, but something made me stop and think things through. Perhaps it was the recent lesson in reeling in my bloodthirst and maybe it was the scar over her left eye. Maybe it was the Schnee symbol on her back or maybe it was her huntsman weapon.

This was no ordinary girl. She was the only passenger on this freighter. What did that mean?

"What do you think?" I was asked by the man with the machete.

I thought it meant she, too, was valuable. She could be sold and bought and Raven wanted everything of value, not just the dust. The girl had something worthwhile about her or else there would be no reason for her being here. She could have an exceptional semblance. She was beautiful even for a huntress. And she had that glow which couldn't be mistaken for anything other than a sign she had her soul unleashed in this world. She could belong to some important family, a dynasty of some nature. She could just be a very talented huntree. She could be any or all of those things but she was worth something to somebody somewhere. That made her a currency of her very own.

Lucky girl.

I was no different. I imagined that the Khagan would pay a price for my living body. She'd also come with bloody retribution but she'd bail me out of a really bad situation if it came down to it. Being a maiden had value. Being a loyal Khatun had value. I was one of her officers. A small fish but a talented one with promise. I wounded Raven in battle and she raised me up to where I was now because she had an eye for real talent.

"I think we hit the jackpot. Bash her." I ordered as she started to wake up. Someone hit her with the butt of their weapon and knocked her down into unconsciousness again. "We're taking her with us." I gave the dust cartridge on her weapon another spin before resting the blade of the rapier against my shoulder.

My boys would be disappointed but they would live. I, on the other hand, couldn't afford any more mistakes or lost chances.

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-WG