Chrysalis

Titus was relieved to find Morrelia had been returned as promised not an hour after the Legion had withdrawn from the battle. The instant the surge of mana had arrived, Titus had stood down in his fight with the Keeper and the bruan'chii had stood aside. The purpose of the tree-people had been to stymie the Legion and their mission had been accomplished. The Keeper had been gracious, but the leaves had not, rustling with obvious happiness at seeing her enemies fail in their task. Titus didn't care. Including the auxiliaries, hundreds of good Legionaries had been lost in this endeavour and even the safe return of his only child couldn't completely snuff the morose feeling in his chest.

Legionaries fight monsters and died doing it all the time, he knew that it was just a reality of the world, but he was never able to completely shut away the pain of his soldiers dying under his command. His wife would just say he lacked maturity, but then she was always more suited to command than he was. She was in charge of the whole bloody Legion at this point after all.

"Morrelia," he said, embracing his daughter when she reached him, "I'm glad to see you are safe."

She'd been escorted back by a group of humans led by Enid Ruther to the end of the tunnel that led toward the nest. Titus had recalled all his troops to this point and was still waiting for some of the further out groups to come back. He pushed his daughter back so he could look into her face and saw the mixed emotions there. Happiness, shame, guilt. No doubt she blamed herself for losing control of her berserker skills in the midst of battle and getting captured. She had so much promise, if she learned from her mistakes she would be a commander before too long.

He reached up and placed a hand on her head.

be so pleased to see you again. If you'd died just before she finished her commission, I fear she would have collapsed the Iron Mountain down on her own

joke and the more Titus thought about it, the more realistic a scenario it seemed. Watching the expression on her father's face shift from joking to a glum realisation made Morrelia laugh and the knot inside her eased slightly with the release of tension. She had betrayed the Legion, but she believed it had been for the right reasons. With any luck they would never return and the Colony would continue to be peaceful and cooperative with everyone they came across. If so, she would never have to

to retreat safely before things get too crazy down here," Enid

far more grace than he could expect to

new wave coming so close on the heels

do to defend the helpless and it is appreciated around the world," Enid snapped, "if only you'd devoted yourselves to doing that

commander could only shake

two tasks are one and the same. We came here to protect people from what these

gate as soon as possible and he was determined that none would be left behind. After two more hours, every head had been accounted for and the Legion began their march. They were exhausted and drained, but none complained. Better a hard stretch of travel now followed by rest than a never

in force. It was amazing the damage that good people with bad ideas could do, she reflected. Though doubtless Titus would say the exact same thing about her. Not wanting to dwell on such depressing thoughts, she instead turned her mind to the

would need to contact the families of those who had fallen. An unenviable job, but a necessary one. She could remember many times her husband would take on