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So instead, they were hoping to reach civilization and then contact some of their allies to come pick them up. But they had washed up on quite the remote beach, it seemed. Even the reapers had yet to sense a single other soul, despite intermittently venturing off to do a bit of scouting.

They were also somewhat reluctant to leave their servants too far behind. And after that absurdity that they had all endured in the middle of the Luthic Ocean, Parson didn’t necessarily blame them.

There was a prevailing feeling that, even now, it might not yet be over. That Morgunov might be hunting them down, as retribution for going after him.

Unless, somehow, he’d been slain, too. The exact outcome of that madness remained unclear, of course, but Parson felt like that was simply too much to hope for.

When was the last time things had gone this badly?

Never, perhaps. It depended on just how terrible the Vanguard’s losses had been, and they wouldn’t have confirmation on that for a while yet.

But it wasn’t going to be nothing. Not this time. Parson had witnessed several of his fellow generals get killed right in front of his eyes. Reapers included.

Had Lamont made it out, though? And Sanko?

It was hard to parse out everything in his mind, but the days of mostly quiet shambling had been helpful in that task. At this point, he was fairly certain that he had seen both Sanko and Lamont get caught up in an enormous blast while trying to go to Sai-hee’s aid against that massive wolf.

The very same one that they’d met in Bellvine. The one that Parson had met on so many amicable occasions. The one that had always seemed to be Germal’s unswerving companion.

Until he killed him.

What sense did any of this make? Just how much had Germal been hiding from him and Damian?

Doubtless, this had to be at least part of the reason why Germal had begun to change so much after Bellvine. With the benefit of hindsight, yes, he’d never really been the same, had he? It was a slow transformation, but that was the catalyst, wasn’t it?

There’d been a time, of course, when Parson had been much more curious about that strange shift. Noticing the many subtle changes. Asking questions upon questions.