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Which was part of the reason why he was hoping now that Father might be able to broker a peace with Morgunov for the Liar’s life.

But it was always impossible to tell what Father was truly thinking. Perhaps he merely thought them useful and wanted them to think that he had a soft spot for them. In fact, that was most likely the case.

Here and now, however, during this tentative downtime in the battle, Gohvis-Aeha was thinking that there was little point in trying to argue with Germal about any of this. Boy, did he want to, though.

No, he should focus on gathering as much information for the Prime as he could for when they eventually reconvened. The Prime could be the one to pass judgment on Germal. Or Father, perhaps.

Ah.

Iceheart seemed to be getting antsy. No doubt, being closest to the raging feldeath in this chase made for a rather uncomfortable position. Gohvis-Aeha almost felt sympathy for the man, especially because the marshal still had subordinates that he was trying to keep safe.

With his predictive atmospheric senses, Gohvis-Aeha could all but see the unfolding mayhem back there. A whirlwind of ice, tossing Vanguardians haphazardly out of Kallmakk’s path--including Iceheart himself, who still got clipped by a dark beam and lost a leg, only to replace it with an icy one a moment later.

Hmph.

Foolish Vanguardians. Throwing their lives away. Too young for this fight, most of them. He couldn’t even recall any of their names. Maybe he could’ve, if he accessed the network, but that was still too dangerous to attempt. He needed every ounce of situational awareness, right now.

One of them caught a pitch black tendril across the torso and went flying. Unfortunate timing. Iceheart was too busy avoiding another three beams at once. That one who got sent flying was doomed. He could sense another tendril materializing from Kallmakk’s back. It was almost certainly going to morph into a mouth and devour that poor bastard before he even touched the ground again.

Gohvis-Aeha’s right eye shimmered, then winked.

The black tendril that he knew would appear did so, but it exploded apart in midair before it could reach the hapless Vanguardian. Instead of getting eaten, the battered man hit the ground rolling and quickly fell behind in the chase, disappearing from Gohvis-Aeha’s sight.

Perhaps he was the foolish one. Why had he done that? The Prime wouldn’t have bothered. The Vanguardians were idiots for thinking they could rely on him at all. They deserved to reap the consequences of their idiocy, didn’t they?

Ugh.