When the Jawbone eyas arrived home, they didn’t bring their boats all the way to the pier.

Instead they all gathered in the nearby mud banks, under the cover of the trees, to discuss their approach.

“Nothing looks out of place,” said Neeno, eyes glued to the manor house.

Everything seemed just as they’d left it a week ago, from the washing lines strung up between the manor and the barn storehouse, to their mud-caked working boots lined up on the porch. Not even a single stick in the fire pit in the front courtyard looked like it had been disturbed.

But that didn’t mean nothing was wrong.

“Where’s Master Akiyoh?” Said Angelico.

Akiyoh’s quarter windows on the second floor should have been open, as he spent the afternoon painting at his desk. Or he should have been seated out on the porch, reading, but there was no sign of him.

“Maybe something happened to him last night, on Mount Majwa,” said Yoalie, who’d already informed everyone about what they’d seen in the infirmary with Priestess Neary.

“But how would anyone know to come here?” Said Polienne. “The Chief would never tell anyone where we live.”

“It doesn’t add up,” said Kennia.

“So what are we going to do?” Said Qurora.

Lieran, who had backtracked through the swamp forest to clear the area behind them, returned then, steel-faced. “I don’t like how that raptor was flying.”

“Yeah,” said Angelico. Those manoeuvres they’d seen weren’t the moves of a lay’ven.

Lieran opened his own rucksack, and fished out his armbands, his combat gear. “This is one of the scenarios we trained for.”

Darakan smiled widely, as he started to gear up too. “Oh, this is going to be good.”

Kennia sighed playfully, massaging his closed eyelids. “All right, you heard him. I suppose the Chief didn’t drill us in this for nothing.”

Angelico began to stretch carefully, wary of the wounds on his back, as he mentally rehearsed the positions and protocols for conducting an assault on their own house.

---

Angelico and Svennon perched on the parapets between the first and second floor of the manor house.

Angelico leaned out to get a vantage point through the window shutters into Master Akiyoh’s quarters, shifting his weight carefully so the weathered wood of the old manor didn’t creak and give them away.

Svennon swept a hand over his braided hair, as he kept a lookout in the other direction, waiting and watching for any signs from their kith, who had so far cleared the storehouse, the kitchen, and the Master’s outdoor workshop.

Inside the house, Darakan and Kennia were leading a few of the others quietly through the first floor, and then up to the second.

Silently, Lieran descended from the top of the roof to join Angelico and Svennon outside Akiyoh’s quarter windows.

Lieran signed to them one-handedly, ‘All else clear.’

He boldly leaned out even further than Angelico had, determined to spot something.

Angelico followed his lead.

And closer now, he could smell incense; a warm and bitter aroma he hadn’t smelled in a long time.

This was the blend Master Akiyoh burned when he was ill and trying to sleep.

Angelico stuck close, voice no louder than his own breathing. “Wait, Lieran. What if nothing’s wrong?”

Lieran narrowed his eyes and whispered, “If the Chief is sick, something is definitely wrong.”

Angelico took a deep breath, raising and lowering his shoulders.

If the riot they were all about to make woke the Master, he would forgive them on account of their diligence. Probably.

Angelico crouched, getting ready to follow up on Lieran’s entry.

Then there was a noise from inside.

Lieran and Angelico froze.

Straining their ears, they both caught a curious little laugh, in a voice that definitely wasn’t the Master’s.

Someone else was here.

Lieran signalled. He was about to go in.

Svennon relayed that to the rest of their watching kith.

Angelico, from his vantage point, couldn’t see any movement inside. He only watched Lieran, primed to take his cues from Lieran’s initiation.

Lieran lifted his black wings slightly, then burst in, smashing the window shutters off their supports.

Angelico followed.

Lieran struck out at the intruder, pushing into his space as he swiped his claws.

The intruder laughed cruelly, dodging everything easily, before grabbing ahold of Lieran’s arm, and throwing him at Angelico.

They both crumpled to a heap in the floor, barring any speedy entry from their kith coming through the inside door.

But they did file in, from inside and outside, until they’d completely blocked the intruder’s exit from the house.

Cornered, the intruder loomed over Akiyoh, fast asleep in his bed. He pulled out an occultic talisman, a paper strip, and held it over their sleeping Chief as a threat.

“Now, now. Isn’t your Master sleeping?”

The upper half of Akiyoh’s face was veiled, and there was a rag over his forehead, as if he had a fever.

His lips were dry from taking shallow breaths through his mouth.

“What did you do to him?” Demanded Angelico, from the front of the crowd.

The intruder grinned lecherously, “Oh, nothing he didn’t ask for.”

The intruder regarded all of them leisurely, knowing they were sizing him up as well.

The intruder wore a sleeveless outer robe, and his tunic underneath had close-fitting long sleeves. His arm-guards were well-worn, and the face-guard that covered his forehead and temples held back his long, straw-coloured hair from his roguish face.

“You all sure took your time coming home,” he said. “Enjoying yourself at the market while he’s sick? How unfilial.”

Every time anyone moved, the intruder re-positioned as well, waving the paper talisman they couldn’t confirm or deny was truly a threat.

“But this is very cute,” said the intruder. “An Order of eyas secretly training in this sad swamp. I bet you just can’t wait for the day you’re all normal again, and can leave this place.”

Lieran struggled furiously in Polienne and Svennon’s grasp, as they held him back from doing anything stupid while the intruder had Akiyoh hostage.

“Who are you?” Demanded Lieran. Blood was streaming from his broken nose.

The intruder visibly deliberated.

“Tell me, do you understand your Chief’s position? He’s gone to great lengths seeking a cure for you all.”

He brushed the paper talisman over Akiyoh’s exposed cheeks, and it fluttered delicately from his ragged breathing.

“He’ll… consociate with anybody who he thinks can help you.” The intruder looked at Akiyoh with fondness and pity. “And help him too, I suppose. His condition is not like yours, I’ve heard.”

The intruder then suddenly flicked the talisman, and sliced open the pads of his fingers on his other hand. The cloying smell of a mighty raptor’s blood filled the room.

The breeze blowing in through the smashed windows alleviated most it, but they all caught a whiff.

Angelico’s heart was beginning to race.

The intruder’s grin was savage as he squeezed his blood into the teacup by Akiyoh’s bedside.

Then he held up his hand, and the cuts on his fingers healed before everybody’s eyes.

In that moment, Lieran wrestled an arm free, and launched a ball of spellfire at the intruder.

Polienne and Svennon get him back under control between them, and Eshley, their strongest, helped subdue Lieran too.

All his kith were outraged.

“Woah!”

“Hey! You’ll burn this house to the ground!”

But the intruder snapped up an empty spirit lantern, and caught the spellfire in its mantle.

In the intruder’s grasp, the lantern burned up and died immediately.

Death Sorcery.

All the Jawbone eyas properly assumed a fighting stance.

The intruder dropped the smouldering lantern husk. “Who do you think told him about everything he knows about your condition?”

“He’s been liaising with a Death Sorcerer,” confirmed Kennia, gravely.

The intruder bowed as he introduced himself. “I am that Sorcerer’s commissary. Call me Laoceng. How do you do?”

“If you’re an ally to the Master,” said Angelico, “why were you trying to remove his veil?”

The lower edge of it was in fact peeled up a little bit from where it would properly lie.

Laoceng shrugged shamelessly. “What, is he ugly? I don’t care. I want to see his face.”

“Forgive me for offending you,” said Kennia diplomatically, “but do you have any way to prove your relationship with the Master at all?”

“You don’t believe me?” Laoceng flashed what looked like a folded envelope from his inside robe pocket. “This is what he asked my boss for, in return for what he did last night.” He tucks it away.

“That could be anything,” they doubted.

Lieran snarled, “Have you all forgotten how we all do things here? Why don’t we just kill him?”

“You want to start a wingfight? Careful. I’m a raptor who never holds back, and I don’t make exceptions for anybody.”

“Why don’t we just wake the Chief and ask?”

“He’s quite ill, you know,” said Laoceng.

“He was perfectly fine last night when we saw him,” said Angelico.

“Oh? Well, I saw him last night too. And I must say, I undoubtedly know a lot more about him than you.”

Yoalie carefully eyed the tray of medicine on Akiyoh’s bedside table. “Wait a second. That’s not his usual prescription.”

“You’re right,” said Laoceng. “He’ll be out for a while, unless I burn this.”

From his other robe pocket, he pulled out some unique-looking incense sticks. “So you’d better not start anything.”

Unfortunately, none of them could tell if he was bluffing.

And maybe he wasn’t.

Just then, Master Akiyoh stirred a little, mumbling something.

“What did he say?”

“I’ve heard it before. Maybe somebody’s name?”

Laoceng leaned in, cupping his ear. “What was that?”

Then he slid a pinky finger under Akiyoh’s veil.

Angelico pounced with a scream. At the same time, Lieran broke free.

The rest of their kith scattered, getting out of the way of the fight.

Lieran engaged first, swiftly and decisively.

Angelico surged forward, immediately filling in the gaps of Lieran’s assault with his own attacks.

Laoceng slammed a hand atop a table, holding it down before Lieran, moving in a careless flurry, could flip it over. “You chits have no manners, that’s for sure.”

Relentlessly, Angelico and Lieran forced Laoceng back into the walls.

Lieran and Laoceng exchanged five more moves, before Lieran spun into a jumping kick aimed at Laoceng’s head.

Laoceng caught Lieran’s leg, and threw him over Akiyoh’s bed, into the floor.

There was really only enough room for one full-grown Aven to open their wings in Akiyoh’s quarters, and Laoceng did so first, unfurling his huge deep brown wings.

His eyes were shining with glee.

Angelico hesitated.

There was a clatter as Lieran pulled himself up, at Akiyoh’s bedside table.

Then he looked Laoceng in the eyes and drank down the teacup where he’d dribbled his blood.

Laoceng’s grin only stretched wider. “Oh, you freaks are sick.”

Lieran yelled, “Drag him out!”

From inside and outside, everybody worked Laoceng out of the window, and Lieran, invigorated, threw him out of the manor.

Laoceng hit the ground, cushioning the blow with his spiritus.

But nobody could subdue him.

Lieran leapt out the window to help them.

Somebody yelled, “He still has the incense!”

Hooting with laughter, Laoceng shook them all, and took off up the sloping mountain that cast its shadow over Jawbone manor.

Angelico quickly fixed the Master’s veil, covering him properly, before he leapt out the window too, intent on running that fiend down.

---

When they all eventually agreed that they’d lost Laoceng, they returned to the manor, only to find the Chief waiting for them on the porch, veil draped over his eyes.

They all ran to him in relief.

Akiyoh’s voice was hoarse. “There’s some food in the kitchen. Go ahead and help yourselves.”

“You cooked?” Said Darakan, touched. He pretended to wipe a tear from his eye.

But in the laundry washing area in front of the kitchen, they spotted the dish of bloody rags.

Still on the porch, Akiyoh started coughing, teetering weakly towards the porch [posts] for support.

“Master Akiyoh?”

“Chief?”

Angelico hurried over to support him.

But before he could get there, Laoceng descended on the porch stairs with a flourish, and caught Akiyoh as he nearly fell.

Akiyoh disentangled himself from Laoceng and wiped the blood from his lips with a rag.

He looked as sick as he’d been a year ago. Where had all the progress gone?

“I don’t understand,” said Angelico, taking in the Master’s frail health. “We saw you on Mount Majwa. What happened last night?”

Laoceng put an arm back around the Master. “Are you gonna tell them, or should I?”

Akiyoh cringed at Laoceng’s familiarity, but answered. “Yes, I was on Mount Majwa last night, by the request of a certain Sorcerer contact. Unfortunately, I had to resort to something drastic.”

“He drank the Suffuse water from the Great Majwa,” revealed Laoceng.

“You what?”

“They say those who are worthy are purified, and those who are not have their spiritus shattered.”

“That stuff is basically poison roulette.”

“No, my spiritus is intact. The effects are on my constitution, not my flying. I’m not in worse shape than about a year ago,”said Akiyoh dismissively.

“And Laoceng is indeed the commissary here on the Sorcerer’s behalf.”

Akiyoh side-eyed Laoceng. “What happened to my window shutters?”

Laoceng jerked a thumb at the eyas. “I told you I’d watch them while you were out.”

“You baited them into a fight?”

“They all did their very best to kill me,” said Laoceng. “Your facsimile of an Order sure delivers. You should be proud.”

“I see,” said Angelico, re-evaluating Laoceng. “So he’s supposed to help us get cleansed at Hollowoc Tower?”

“He was,” said Akiyoh.  “But there’s a problem.”

Laoceng pulled the folded envelope out of his robe again and slapped it into Angelico’s hands.

On the side he hadn’t shown them was the seal of the Castellan of Hollwoc Tower.

“Hollowoc Tower has closed its doors to Hativa Quarter. We will not be able to perform your purification rites.”