Chapter 65: Something Doesn’t Add Up

Adesewa watched the two young men disappear between the towering trunks of the Thousand Boughs.

Jet walked slightly ahead, one hand resting near the Vorpal Blade at his waist while Frey followed beside him with his usual relaxed stride.

Their backpacks were considerably heavier than when Cassian had first encountered them, and neither moved with the careless pace of people who believed the forest had suddenly become safe merely because they had survived one dangerous expedition.

They checked the surrounding trees, avoided walking directly beneath unfamiliar hanging growths and occasionally slowed whenever distant sounds traveled through the canopy. Within another minute, vegetation swallowed most of their figures.

"They’re interesting," Adesewa said.

Cassian had been inspecting the expedition ledger beside her. He glanced up. "Which one?"

"The quiet one." Adesewa muttered.

"Jet?"

Adesewa nodded.

Marcus, who had been tightening the straps around a harvested material container, looked toward the forest as well. "What about him?"

Adesewa didn’t answer immediately. Her gaze remained fixed upon the gap where Jet had disappeared. She had met countless young Awakeners during the fifty years since the First Red Moon.

Some were naturally talented. Others were arrogant enough to mistake a powerful Divine Rune for experience. A smaller number possessed good instincts and survived long enough for those instincts to become genuine skill.

Jet Saint-Clair didn’t fit comfortably into any of those categories.

"He’s strange," she finally said.

Cassian’s brow rose slightly. "That is a surprisingly vague assessment coming from you."

"You remember what my Divine Rune is."

"Agassou."

"And its Authority?"

"Pursuit."

Adesewa finally turned toward him. "Agassou doesn’t simply help me chase things. Pursuit begins before the chase. A hunter notices movement, hesitation, changes in rhythm, when prey becomes alert and when something nearby doesn’t fit the environment. After using Agassou for decades, that sensitivity doesn’t disappear because I’m not fighting."

Marcus frowned. "You think Jet is dangerous?"

"I didn’t say that." Adesewa said.

"Then what did you feel?"

Adesewa considered the question. "Something off."

Cassian and Marcus exchanged a glance.

It wasn’t fear she had sensed from Jet, nor killing intent, hostility or any obvious supernatural reaction. During the expedition, however, there had been moments when his responses seemed slightly misplaced for someone so inexperienced.

He asked sensible questions but rarely the questions she expected from a new Walker. He watched people as carefully as he watched monsters. He was surprised by some things and strangely unsurprised by others. None of those details meant anything individually, and Adesewa had no intention of building an accusation from instinct alone.

Perhaps Jet was simply cautious. Perhaps he had secrets. Every Awakener worth remembering eventually collected a few.

"What exactly are we supposed to do with that?" Cassian asked.

"Nothing." Adesewa shrugged her shoulders.

Marcus blinked. "Nothing?"

"He fought beside us. He honored the agreement. He accepted the Red Seal, and he didn’t cause problems during distribution. Whatever else he is, I have no reason to interfere with him."

Cassian rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. "You still offered him a place."

"Being strange doesn’t make someone useless." She rolled her eyes at him.

Marcus gave a quiet snort.

Adesewa looked between the two men and found almost identical traces of confusion on their faces.

She shook her head, lifted her spear and turned toward the rest of the Raid Team. "Stop thinking so hard. You’ll hurt yourselves."

Cassian stared after her. "Was that directed at him or me?"

"Both of us," Marcus said.

"That seems unnecessarily disrespectful."

Marcus picked up his pack. "You’ll survive."

Adesewa was already walking away before Cassian could answer.

Farther into the Thousand Boughs, Jet and Frey continued along the route toward Zenith Citadel.

The forest had grown quieter as evening approached. Long shafts of amber light descended through gaps in the immense canopy, illuminating drifting particles and patches of moss along the roots.

Their pace remained steady rather than hurried. Both were exhausted, and running through unfamiliar territory simply to reach the Citadel slightly earlier would create more danger than it solved.

For nearly twenty minutes, Frey said very little.

That alone told Jet something was wrong.

Eventually Frey stepped over a root thicker than his waist and glanced sideways. "Doesn’t any of this seem strange to you?"

Jet kept walking. "You’re going to have to narrow that down."

"Cassian." Frey said.

Jet gave Frey a brief glance and asked. "What about him?"

"He finds two random 1-Star Walkers in the forest and invites them into an expedition for a Grade Three Origin Treasure." Freg was silent for a moment and then said.

Jet’s steps slowed slightly.

Frey noticed. "Exactly."

"We didn’t know what the treasure was when he approached us." Jet said.

Frey looked up at the evening sky and replied. "That makes it stranger for us, not for him. They knew."

Jet said nothing.

Frey continued, his usual humor largely absent. "Think about what we just watched. Adesewa is a 3-Star Awakener. She killed two Greater-ranked monsters by herself. Cassian, Marcus, Safiya, Odhran and Bastian each handled a peak Lesser. The rest of their team wasn’t weak either. They had twenty-seven people before finding us."

"Several were support and harvesting personnel."

"Still twenty-seven people."

Jet stepped around a cluster of blue mushrooms growing from a fallen trunk.

Frey moved beside him. "What did they actually need us for?"

That question had been sitting somewhere in Jet’s thoughts since the battle ended.

At the time, the answer had seemed obvious. More fighters meant fewer variables. The valley contained dozens of Lesser Monsters, five peak Lessers and two Greater-ranked Regal Coil Lions.

Even with Adesewa handling the strongest threats, nobody could guarantee the formation would hold perfectly. Jet and Frey had acted as mobile reinforcement and killed several monsters that might otherwise have wounded members of the Raid Team.

Useful?

Absolutely.

Necessary?

That was harder to argue.

"They didn’t know exactly how the battle would unfold," Jet said eventually. "Cassian told us their scouts had confirmed the numbers, but confirmed numbers don’t mean complete information. More monsters could have been concealed nearby. Others could have been attracted once the fighting started."

Frey nodded slowly. "That’s the explanation I gave myself."

"And?"

"I don’t like it."

Jet looked at him.

Frey spread his hands. "Two extra 1-Stars don’t meaningfully solve that problem. If another Greater-ranked monster appeared, what were we supposed to do? Politely ask it to wait while Adesewa finished the first two?"

Despite himself, Jet almost smiled.

Frey continued before he could answer. "And if the concern was ordinary Lessers, their team already proved they could handle those. We helped, sure, but I don’t believe the entire operation depended on us."

"No."

Frey’s expression sharpened. "So why invite us?"

Jet remained silent for several steps.

The simplest possibility was exactly what Cassian had claimed. They needed additional combatants, Cassian encountered two armed Walkers who appeared capable, and bringing them increased the expedition’s margin for error.

Sometimes coincidences really were coincidences. Jet knew better than most how dangerous it was to treat every unexplained event as evidence of a hidden conspiracy.

But Frey was right about one thing.

The numbers bothered him.

"If they wanted bodies," Jet said, "they could have recruited people in Zenith before leaving."

"Exactly." Frey nodded.

"Unless they didn’t know they needed additional fighters until after scouting the valley." Jet added.

Frey narrowed his eyes. "Then why us?"

"Because we were there."

Frey stared at him.

Jet sighed. "I know."

They continued walking.

A distant animal call echoed through the forest, followed by another farther north. Neither sounded close enough to matter, but both men instinctively checked the surrounding vegetation before continuing.

Frey lowered his voice. "Do you think Cassian was following us?"

"No evidence."

"Do you think they knew who we were?"

"No evidence."

"Do you think the Palladium Tree was bait?"

"That makes even less sense. They nearly died protecting it."

"I’m listing possibilities."

"You’re listing paranoia."

"Paranoia kept humanity alive."

"So did not stabbing everyone who behaved strangely."

"I haven’t stabbed anyone."

"Yet."

Frey grinned briefly, but the humor disappeared almost immediately. "You feel it too."

Jet couldn’t deny that.

He was grateful to Cassian. Without him, they would never have found the valley, never have obtained their share of Palladium Fruits and never have made the contacts they now possessed.

Adesewa had treated them fairly, offered them membership and voluntarily entered a Red Seal that protected everyone involved. Nothing the Raid Team had actually done justified hostility.

Yet gratitude and caution were not opposites.

Jet had died once already.

He wasn’t interested in doing it again because someone seemed trustworthy.

"We don’t accuse them of anything," Jet said. "We don’t invent answers because we don’t have one. Cassian helped us. Adesewa treated us fairly. Until they give us a reason to believe otherwise, that’s what matters."

Frey nodded. "But?"

"We remember the question." Jet smile softly.

That answer seemed to satisfy him.

"Good," Frey said. "Because I was starting to think all those swords damaged your brain."

Jet gave him a flat look. "You were the one who followed Cassian first."

"And you followed me." Frey snorted.

Jet immediately shot at him. "To stop you from getting robbed."

"Which proves you need me."

"That isn’t remotely what that proves."

Their voices faded as they continued deeper along the route. Neither noticed anything following them, and neither found an answer to the question Cassian’s invitation had left behind. Perhaps there was none. Perhaps they had simply been fortunate enough to stand in the right section of the Thousand Boughs when opportunity arrived.

Neither man was willing to assume that yet.

Above the forest, the sun slowly sank toward the western horizon, turning the fragments of sky visible through the canopy from gold to deep orange. Shadows stretched between ancient roots, and the towering trees swallowed the last clear traces of the path behind them.

Jet and Frey kept walking until their figures disappeared into the dense forest.