It surprised Lilith that her immobilisation of the mut continued even until the group showed up. She had already swept up the former wolf’s ashes. The insights from that dissection were enlightening for the future but ultimately not relevant to the coming conversation so she merely remembered them and set them aside.

Soon the heartbeats approached and despite her enhanced vision it only allowed her to see their entire figures when they came into visual range instead of vaguely humanoid shapes. Trees were particularly opaque obstacles.

Nevertheless she stood to greet them though she kept her magic on the mut for caution’s sake. She also had to return her hearing to focus on her current location so the vice-captain’s voice was not exceptionally loud in her ears. “What on Earth do you think you were doing young lady! You could have gotten yourself…” The vice-captain bellowed in rage before coming to a sudden halt as he stared at the immobilised, drooling mess of a werewolf on the floor.

“Most excellent you have arrived. I have some information about the mut that you shall likely want to listen most carefully to. Though I am not certain Douglas has not already informed you.” Lilith said deliberately ignorant of how this looked.

The vice-captain continues to stare at the clearly incapacitated creature at her feet. The knights too do not often let their eyes stray. Some meet her eyes and look away in fear while others squint at her or the surroundings in an attempt to integrate this scene into their world view. Nonetheless no one answers her unspoken question so she continues to speak.

“Assuming Douglas has told you little I suppose I shall enlighten you. This” she lightly kicks the werewolf as a small experiment to see if he would stir. He does not. “Is called a werewolf. This is what crown prince Wyatt has become and I am fairly certain it’s contagious.” She explains.

“Contagious? It’s not a disease.” One calls out their voice slightly shrill but with a note of anger. Lilith does not flinch but merely stares at them curiously paying special attention to their eyes, skin and arms. Upon confirming no inhuman features she looks them in the eyes and answers the question attempting to be inoffensive.

“Actually by the definition of the Imperial Scholarly Academy, a disease is any abnormal condition of an organism or their structure resulting in an identifiable group of symptoms and caused by infection. A werewolf may reproduce or ‘infect’ via oral contact.” Lilith explains.

A few of the knights back away from the incapacitated creature while others snap their gaze towards her but the one who called out before falls silent. Some however look rather confused or are expressionless the latter presumably just as clueless as the former. Jacob is now looking at the mut with a hint of caution so she decides to simplify since he will not.

“To re-iterate my point for those of you not versed in the scholars language, This creature can bite you and force a transformation of your race to their own. This is one of their weaker members as far as I can tell and I am fairly certain it’s physical stats are beyond D.”

Silence descends on the less intellectual of the group after that while others are curious as to where she is pulling the creature’s stats from but do not mention the matter. Jacob finally stops staring at the creature on the ground and turned his attention towards Lilith. He does not kneel down to her height this time as he asks.

“What have you done to it? I do not imagine a deinty girl such as yourself has the strength to punch it’s lights out so thoroughly.” The vice-captain, or given his language perhaps Jacob would be more appropriate, looks down into her eyes without his usual smile.

“I used a combination of a paralytic and anaesthetic such that all of his body is now relaxed while his mind is hazy to the point of sleep. I can procure some for you should you like to use it yourself. Though I have found it does not work on certain individuals likely because of their physical stat.” Lilith answered though she was not particularly keen on having one of her vampires constantly spit into a bottle to provide poison for knights.

Thankfully Jacob shook his head. “We knights are strong enough not to require poison during our duty” He answered and though she thought he was being naive she at least appreciated that he did not take her up on that offer despite needing to offer it for efficiency’s sake.

She nodded in respect of his decision but swiftly moved on. “I would like the creature interrogated. I would prefer if I am the individual to do so but I am aware that perceptions do not change immediately or so drastically that you would allow me to do so. So long as I remain informed of developments, I am not particularly unwilling to hand over the specimen.” She explains.

Jacob nods at her and as she searches the crowd she finds Claire and Angie walking up to her. Claire is expressionless still unused to her control while Angie is gliding her eyes over the mut and her checking both of their neck, arms and available pockets.

The werewolf’s regeneration made certain that the bite wound on the neck was little more than a scratch by this point akin to a needle puncture wound. Thus Lilith was not particularly worried Angie would discover her nature. She had not yet been recruited but she had intended to do so regardless and given her observation skills it would likely be a matter of time.

Jacob nods towards the immobilised mut and several of the knights proceed to hook the arms. Once secure they lift and it’s head only droops powerlessly while it’s legs drag across the ground as the knights move towards the middle of the formation.

Lilith however does not yet know the length of time her poison will last and warns “I am unaware how much longer he shall be kept in that state. I do not imagine long. Expect the specimen to resist violently.” Her advice is taken to heart immediately as the knights shackle his feet and legs together with ice while covering his head in steam.

She decides to assist as well, walking up to the mut and leeching all the colour from his body. Then she gently wraps a hand around his wrist and starts pouring in corruption magic. It does very little at first and the knights holding him look at her confused.

She merely smiles at them and replies “This will take some time. I believe it would be best we continue moving while the effects take hold.” Lilith pointedly looks at the surroundings and the knights follow suit tension returning to their faces. Of course they are in the middle of the formation so they were relatively safe.

Lilith hears the heartbeat a second after her warning. She opens her mouth to speak but closes it immediately following. Instead she begins to sprint towards the edge of the formation from which echoes a scream.

All eyes converge on the noise as though pulled by a black hole. The knights had surrounded the clearing all facing out towards the trees. One such knight was now on his knees, should the stump like protrusions from his torso truly count as such. His blood wet the grass but most importantly the creature in front of him now at eye-level.

A set of incisors long and sharp drip with saliva as the beast opens it’s maw to devour the knight. The thick fur covering the creature’s face cannot hide the narrowed predatory wooden eyes or the hump of muscles on it’s shoulder.

As the knight continues to scream an arrow is fired from inside the formation towards those eyes. The creature moves it’s head minutely down and the arrow collides with the layer of fur. A short ping is heard provoking no further reaction while the arrowhead shatters into fragments of metal and the wood splinters down it’s length.

The maw closes in on the knight and his face pales further. The blood that spurts from his legs in bursts now does so faster seemingly trying to escape the beast on it’s own. Moments later there is a gnashing of teeth. The knight who had been standing in that moment seconds before was now in Lilith’s arms.

She looks at him thoughtfully but does not have time to ponder so she sets him down near the centre with the already assembled mages to clean his wounds and stem the blood loss. She looked at the man’s treatment for only a moment before turning her attention to the beast.

She was certain she could identify the creature from which it had evolved. The beast shared a number of traits with the brown bear commonly found across empire forests and grasslands. This specimen’s fur reflected the moon with a metallic glint and it was slightly larger than the current maximum reported size for a bear of this species.

Under normal circumstances she would charge the creature with claw and fang. Unfortunately company is present. She does not have time to ponder her options as the tremoring roar shakes the nearby trees and an unnatural wind ruffles their leaves.

Immediately Lilith ensures that no more creatures would ambush them. It appeared all heartbeats around them were now increasing in both frequency and distance. Pleased that they had been sufficiently cowed by their predator she immediately uses her magic on the creature. The colour drains from it’s body and the movements it had once used to sever the knight’s legs were now visible albeit blurred.

Seeing this change Jacob regained his senses the fastest and shouted “Fighting retreat! Do everything you can to slow it down!” His order rang throughout the clearing and it was with haste that his men began to carry it out. Lilith however remained still.

She knew well that running would simply make the bear see them as prey and she would only ever take that route should it be the only option available. In this case it was not even a solution let alone the optimal outcome. She did not have time to ponder her word choice or the most effective means to make herself into an authority in the knight’s minds.

She remembered the way her sister used to look during the drills she showed off years ago and attempted to imitate her. “Do not flee! Look at it’s eyes! Stand tall and make yourself as large as possible! On my signal walk confidently backwards!” Her voice resonated like the clap of thunder.

Or at least she attempts to make it sound as such. In reality she was fairly certain it was closer to a static discharge but she was correct all the same. Her voice simply had to have enough authority for them to listen and reason would encourage them to follow her. Or at least she believed they were intelligent enough to follow their reason.

Some snapped to attention immediately as though their bodies were following the command whether it came from their superior or not. Others however were trained to obey not built. They stand stall but hesitate to look the creature in the eyes instead looking to Jacob for confirmation.

Then there were those who firmly obeyed their commander. Some were older with worn faces and practised movements while others were jerky, frantic and wide-eyed. All of them turned and ran with the small number of magicians firing spells back at the beast while the fighters simply continued to run with some throwing their weapons back in desperation.

Lilith followed them with her gaze but did not blink at the fact they chose to flee. Instead she matched her gaze with the bear once more but found what she expected. The bear’s eyes had already fixed onto them with laser focus.

She could not allow them to die. Jacob was among those who ran given that it was his order but the most important factor is trust. A military unit shatters and implodes if one is left behind. Unfortunately no matter how knowledgeable she was about predators it was not enough to get between them and their prey, emerging unscathed.

Instead she maintained her gaze and spoke slowly but powerfully putting her hand up to her face in what she would explain later as a gesture of peace. “If we are not welcome here then we shall leave.” A red glow emanated from beneath her hand.

The bear’s eyes became unfocussed and it’s jaw slackened. It did not nod or make any gesture of affirmation but as Lilith nodded to the others and started to slowly walk away while still locking gazes the others followed and the bear simply watched. It’s gaze dragged itself across them as though in a sign of resistance but the rest of it’s body did not move.

Once they were such a distance away that it would no longer be feasible to maintain eye contact she decided to perform a number of experiments before fleeing. First she spoke the sentence aloud in her mind. ‘A friend came to visit and you chased them off before returning home.’.

The bear did not stir and she assumed her command had not stuck. Next she tried instinctive concepts in her mind. ‘Defend. Territory. Now home.’ But once again there appeared to be no effect present on the bear. Finally she tried whispering. “A friend came to visit and you chased them off before returning home.”

Her own voice irritated her in that moment because it was high pitched, airy and resonated in a way that she could not quite explain. It was not the voice she had come to think she had, sounding more akin to her father’s messengers than anything distinctly her. Nevertheless the bear heard.

But instead of turning around it shook it’s head violently and it’s eyes started to clear. She realised instantly that the command had been too forceful. She tried to think of a natural way to integrate her command into the bear’s thought process. No matter how she thought however the bear was likely too instinctual for a logical argument to matter.

She paused as her mind allowed a single thought once forgotten to re-appear. She listened for heartbeats around her and found that most had left to a distance she was fairly certain they could not see her by this point. So with reluctance that swiftly became predatory glee she bared her fangs.

“Me predator~ You prey~” She seemed to almost sing in her airy voice and she could see the red glow on her hand again. She stared into the bear’s eyes her body rigid and immobile like a statue and a smile permanently affixed to her face. It was daring. A challenge directed straight at the bear in front of her.

Before it could respond she was moving towards it. The bear, still sluggish but thinking little of the attack, batted at her with a paw. She turned to mist and not a single particle slipped from her control as the bear’s large paw passed through empty air.

Once the mist had floated to the correct position it reformed and she bit down. The rush that followed excited her for this bear had a soft but sweet vegetable taste akin to a parsnip. She relished the first time she had sweets since her last time in the capital. Of course that had to end eventually and though the bear tried to shake her off it did nothing to free her entrenched claws.

Eventually it stopped struggling and her smile seemed to be almost dragged off her face and replaced by her usual cold indifference. She stared at the bear for a moment in mild regret not having intended to kill the creature. However she would never waste the opportunity and her claw became a scalpel.