I stood there waiting to see what they would do. “Aid me oh Great Bear! Grant me power to crush my enemies!” Panuk pulled out a wood bear head talisman from under his shirt. He then pierced his paw to bleed on the totem.

“Mittens!” my father said.

“Don’t worry. I want this to be a challenge. Three cubs are pathetically weak. I would kill them instantly. An ancestral spirit will make this trip interesting. So just stay back and watch old cat,” I told him.

“Fine!” he said as power rushed around Panuk. He then grew in size. His head was almost touching the roof, standing 12 feet, or 4 meters, tall. He let out a roar. It wasn’t that impressive in my opinion.

I would end this quickly and leave a lasting impression on these bears. I would smack down their ancestral spirit and kill them all. Getting a lot of EXP. If Panuk hadn’t called on the bear’s ancestral spirit, then this mission would have been terrible. Now that he had, it had gotten much better. I was hoping it would be as much as I had gotten from the snake apostate.

Panuk rushed directly right at me while his two friends went to my flanks. I casually walked forward, while poised to move. This Great Bear swung. I leapt up, and my hind paws landed on its arm, my claws digging in as I raced up it.

The Great Bear swung his arm up. I leapt off and forward, right onto its head. My paws plunged into its eyes. My claws digging in nice and deep. Black smoke poured out. I ripped out of my paws and leapt off the ancestral spirit as it slammed its paws on its face to try and kill me.

I landed on the floor of the meeting hall. I easily ducked under a swing from one of Panuk’s friends. I twisted up and around the bear’s body, my claws ripping apart his entire side. Blood poured out as he screamed. The other bear looked at me in fear as the Ancestral Spirit stumbled around. I rushed at the other bear and he waved his paws in panic and screamed.

My claws ripped out his throat. I dodged the blood splatter. No need to get blood on my parka. The bear collapsed to the ground with a death gurgle. I turned back to the Ancestral Spirt as it eyes began to reform.

Well time to end this. I raced around behind, using my claws to slash at its legs. Black smoke poured out and it collapsed to its knees. I tried to spin and hit me. It was too slow. I raced around the Great Bear and then leapt on its back.

My claws dug into its pack, shredding it over and over as black smoke poured out. There was more roaring as it tried to reach me. “Die!” A bear from the sidelines had drawn a sword and rushed in. I flipped off the Great Bear, twisting in mid-air. My claws slashed out, cutting the bear’s throat open. Just as my father was moving to assist the bear who had intervened dropped down to floor dead.

The flip and slash had worked perfectly. I had been working on it for a while. Ever since it had failed against Fenrir. Now I had it down perfectly, my movement perfect in every way. I rushed past the fresh corpse and leapt on the Great Bear once again.

There were no more interruptions. Half a minute later, it finally dispersed. It completely burst apart into black smoke, which quickly disappeared. Panuk fell to the ground dead. His body was a shriveled-up corpse. That was interesting. I would have to ask Mes about that and why that didn’t happen to the Apostate when he summoned the snake Ancestral Spirit.

I went over and retrieved the talisman. The wood was slightly warped and blackened. Well it was proof that the heresy was purged beyond our reports. The Covenant Church did like its artifacts to put into the Vault.

“Well, I believe that is my victory,” I said while I calmly walked back towards Akiak. He looked tired and resigned, like he already knew the outcome.

“It is. Mittens of the Covenant Church has won. The three families of those fallen, shall not be spoken to and take no supplies but what they wear. They are banished to the frozen death for one year.” There was crying from some of the other bears, but I didn’t care. My father gave me a proud nod, that warmed my heart.

“Remove the dead and give their bodies to the watery depths for those who have no strength. Let them be eaten by the weakest creatures of all, fish. Their names shall never be spoken of again. For that is the old way. Bring back the chairs and tables.”

The chairs and tables were brought back, and we sat down once more. “Are the representatives of the Covenant Church satisfied and the matter is closed?” Akiak asked.

“Yes. The matter is closed. Since those responsible are dead or punished,” my father replied.

“Very well. Now onto the second matter. The Covenant Church is mobilizing for war against the snakes, they demand that a twentieth of us bears fight in their war. If we refuse, they will declare us enemies,” Akiak said. While we hadn’t said the last part it had been implied enough.

“There is no choice. But we send our support, then we should be supported in turn. We have shown we do not tolerate heresy with that fight and the exiles. Let us demand our old home of Bearstead. The fishing is better there. While it is ruined now, we can rebuild,” council member one said.

“We should ask for good postings for the cubs that go to fight. They will be killed if we don’t ensure a good position,” council member two said.

“We ask for an officer position for the bears we send. To ensure they aren’t split up or thrown away. Our people are our strength. When they come back, we will ask for the land as payment for their services rather than credits,” council member three said.

“We need credits for gear. Our fishing boats are old. New ones would help. There is so much that we need. It will take credits to rebuild Bearstead,” council member four said.

The conversation continued back and forth in that vein. My father and I were silent as we listened in. After ten minutes of talking the Akiak turned towards us.

“We will serve. This the ruling council swears. But we also ask to be compensated with small things in return. The return of Bearstead to our community. And for an officer appointment for us bears to ensure they aren’t tossed away to their deaths. All credits will also be paid out for service, even in death, to the ruling council to give their families and help rebuild Bearstead,” Akiak asked us.

“Very well. Place that in writing and it will be returned to the Covenant Church with my support,” Tom Cat said.

“You can’t agree now?” Akiak demanded.

“What you ask for goes beyond the scope of what we can give. The officer position would be possible with my authority alone, and the credits would be paid out. But Bearstead is not small and something the High Clerics will need to sign off on. If you drop the claim, I can agree to the first two things right now,” Tom Cat said.

My father’s military rank was quite useful in this situation. He could assign a field commission to a couple of bears and mobilize them. I could as well, but his authority was higher than mine as Warrior’s Shadow. That was why him taken the lead here was much better than me leading.

That was a very good negotiation strategy. Akiak and his fellow council members began discussing this. Getting an agreement with Tom Cat now was much easier than trying to sway the High Clerics far away. While Tom Cat could agree to giving their ruined settlement away, it would not make High Cleric Maximilian happy.

I knew that if the territory was given away, then this mission would be counted as a failure. Maybe not officially, but at least in his eyes. He would put more pressure on me, which is something I didn’t want to happen. Sending the demand into the Covenant Church would also be an acceptable outcome, if not as good.

Again, my father could get away with that and myself. Since we were Assassins not diplomats. But if another creature showed up, it probably wasn’t going to get better for the bears. The Covenant Church would tell them tough luck most likely. Bears weren’t good creatures, so they would get beat down, just like the cats.

“Your terms are acceptable, but we would like to send someone with you to discuss our mobilization with the Covenant Church and coordinate. Also to speak with a High Cleric about Bearstead,” Akiak replied.

“That is acceptable,” my father replied. After that an agreement was written up as well as copy. Signatures were placed down.

We returned that evening to the ship with Akiak, who was going with us. We weren’t going to stick around. While I had won, there was bad blood. Again, there was no need to tempt fate. Better to get moving to the next mission. There was a greater sense of urgency at the end of the world.

Getting back on the ship. I looked up at the two moons are our ship sailed away from this frozen place. The cold wind biting into my parka. At least this mission had been simple enough to complete without too many headaches.

My father came up next to me. “That was impressive Mittens. Even with that surprise attack,” he told me.

“Thanks. But it was too easy to be honest. It would have been better if all three of them summoned the Great Bear at the same time,” I said. My father turned to look at me.

“Really Mittens, why?”

“I enjoy this job. I am good at it. In a way I have never been good at anything in my life before. I was never the best in school even with all the studying I did. I like fighting. Even if I don’t like all the missions. I feel alive in a way I haven’t before. What about you?”

“Me? It was something I was raised for. Constant training. No rest. Saberfang was relentless. You remind me of him a bit.”

“Really?” I asked in surprise.

“Yes. He loved to fight and kill other creatures as well. It was his dream to kill an elder snake. The rewards from that would have forced the Covenant Church to name cats good creatures. You might succeed where I have failed,” my father replied.

It was such a small dream. But it was one I would not say no to. Getting more power was just as important. Skills made these fights far too easy. “That’s nice to hear. I think. You two didn’t get along,” I said quietly.

“No we didn’t. But he was my father. Even he got more violent at the very end. He was determined to succeed no matter what. I could respect that. He was incredibly focused and driven. He never wavered in his beliefs, not even once. Not even at the end,” I barely heard the last bit that my father said.

“Well, I am going back in. It is cold out here. Who knows, there might be part snake in our ancestry,” I joked.

“How would that even work?” my father asked while getting a curious look. No! The images. I quickly hurried back into the ship while I heard my father chuckle behind me.

***-***

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