"I am Wakee, the elder is out so I shall act for him," the old Elka said.

They were seated in the room carved into the mountainside. It was large, almost six wingspans across. Small windows and three doors leading to the open air let the light and wind in, but the room was still cozy compared to the windswept cliffs outside. The large stone table in the center seemed to be carved out of the rock too, as if it had been planned when the room was created. The chairs were normal wood though, without the backing that the landbound liked so much that made sitting down in Inath chairs difficult for Elka.

After they sat down, the old woman had eyed the rest of the curious Elkas with a stern gaze until only the guard had remained with them.

"Clan Two knows of the destruction of Clan One," Wakee continued, "and despite our bad history, the fact is that we are both Elka. We were prepared to write off your past aggressions. "

Were? Ka frowned.

"On the condition that you accepted our traditions and laws, Clan Two was prepared to accept anyone who survived," Wakee said.

Lo shifted beside Ka, her folded wings fidgeting awkwardly. She sighed and said, "I'm known as Lolu to them. "

Ka looked at his brother and they shared a small smile. Ri just looked perplexed.

He nodded, "I see what the difficulty would have been. Where did the rest go?"

"Those who did not accept us went further east. Four flights and six came to us, only one flight and one stayed," Wakee sighed, "what became of the others, I do not know. "

Ka nodded. Those who chose to accept the traditions of another clan would not be the proud hunters or scouts. Or the elders.

"It is more than just an extra name or learning new prayer flights," Wakee elaborated, "Clan Two is not like Clan One. We made peace with the landbound and agreed to help them in their war in exchange for being left alone. "

Ah. "I see, the landbound attacked and destroyed Clan One," Ka said, more for the benefit of his daughter and Kee's sons, "swallowing that memory and working with them would have been hard to accept indeed. "

"More so for the proud and strong Clan One," Wakee shook her head sadly, "we wanted to take any we could save. But Clan Two survived because we submitted to the demands of the landbound. We would fight their wars and in exchange they would leave us alone. Our own survival meant that we could not allow anyone who would be aggressive towards the landbound. "

Ka and his brother nodded. It was only obvious, not that it would have stopped some of the older clan members.

"What did the landbound want? Clan One never found out," Ka asked.

"They wanted us to scout for them, to signal and carry messages," Wakee explained, "your Scouts made a strong impression on them and it was quite difficult for us to explain that even our hunters can't do much to the zombies. Much less now when they have those beams of light and can actually attack us. "

Ka nodded and looked at Kee. Without even asking what the question was, his brother merely shared the same glance with his wife before nodding back.

"Is your offer to take in more Elkas still open? We will accept your conditions," Ka said.

It would be awkward to have to think up a new name but Ka's pride had long since faded away. Living among the wingless and landbound for years did that to you.

Wakee considered them. "Tell me first," she asked, "where did you live all these years? And why would you suddenly come to us?"

"We were separated from most of the Clan when the final attack came. My brother and I escaped to the west instead and lived with a village of Fukas for many years," Ka sighed and explained, "we served the landbound there as scouts for the local area and later for the wingless when the landbound left. "

Then he continued on with a quick summary of Cato's coming and the destruction of the village, followed by their service under Commander Michi.

"Once Cato, to whom my blood debt runs deep, pushed Michi into freeing us from our service, he brought us to you," Ka said. He withdrew a small stack of paper from his pouch and gave it to the old woman. "He has a message for you, and an offer," Ka explained.

The woman raised an eyebrow but only glanced at the paper for a moment before putting it aside for later.

"I speak for the elders in their absence. I will allow you to join Clan Two. Your experience, if true, shows you can work with the landbound, that is more than sufficient," Wakee said and sighed, "even if Clan Two has submitted to the landbound, it was not without loss. There are far too few Elkas left and every wing is welcome to us. "

"My wife's wings are furled," Ka said, looking at her seriously, "permanently. Will that be a problem?"

They did not miss the shock on Lo's face that faded into pained sympathy. The old woman looked between him and Ri and sighed again, "it is. But not because we do not wish to accept her. Surely you have noticed by now that our land is not like your mountains and slopes. In this valley, carved for the Elka by the god of wind, there is no place for those who are landbound. Even the commanders and messengers of Inath rarely come to us, so hard is the path. Here, your wife will live in a cage of air. "

Ka took a deep breath and looked at Kee, who nodded back knowingly, "in that case, will you accept Ri alone?"

Wakee nodded but Ri cried in shock, "what? But papa, I can't... "

"Ri," Ka put his hands on his daughter's shoulders, looking into her eyes seriously, "you can. I will not say you are old enough, because I wish I could be with you as well. But Mii cannot fly and even the journey here will be long and hard for her. "

"But, but," Ri's face twisted in shock and confusion, and pain, "are you going to leave me?"

Ka closed his eyes as her tearing eyes seemed to stab at him. So much for making this easy. "I am not leaving," he said, "I will visit often. Part of the proposal Cato made was for me to act as a messenger for Inath. And to learn, and later teach, magic. I can see both you and Mii this way. "

Ri seemed to whirl in her confusion, not sure if she should cry. Ka sighed, he had wondered if he should tell Ri about the proposal but this scene would always come to mind and he never seemed to get around to doing it.

Wakee's voice cut through the fog of confusion. "Ri can do the same as you," she pointed out, "although every person in the Clan has to contribute and I'm not sure what benefit a messenger for the landbound could bring us. But if you manage to find honour as one, your daughter would be more than welcome to take your feathers for her own. "

Ri looked stunned for a moment then turned to look at Ka hopefully, who was equally stunned. It had never occurred to him, Ri was his daughter, not someone who would do something so strange and foreign as being a messenger for the landbound.

He didn't get to reply. There was a flapping of wings from outside as more than a flight of Elkas arrived at the door and the ledge taking their turns to land.

"It's Ka! And Kee too!"

The familiar voice made Ka stand up as his cousin came in through the door. "Su!" Ka grinned as he saw the older but still familiar face. Su's larger frame was like Kee's, too heavy to fly quickly enough to be a Scout. Kee leapt to his feet also, clasping their cousin's hand strongly.

"And now the three troublemakers are back together again, I imagine that will be the end of this clan now. "

Ka looked behind to find another much older man smiling at him. Su's father looked much older than Ka remembered, with harsh lines on his face and body accenting the drooping grey on his feathers. He had not aged well.

"I'm sure you'll be here to stop Su if he gets into any mischief," Ka grinned.

"And much mischief it is," Su's mother sighed behind the old man, "my feathers nearly fell off after he came home with a baby! I didn't even know his wife!"

Ka and Kee both stared at their cousin and friend, who smiled at Lo behind Ka. A sweet loving smile that Ka would not have understood back when they were still known as the troublemaking trio of Clan One. After Mii though, he did understand.

Lo shuffled, also with the same smile, "yeah. I'm bonded with Su. Our child is just two years. "

Ri tugged at Ka's wingtip again. "Are these our relatives?" she asked timidly.

"Yes, they are," Ka said, smiling down at her, "this is my daughter, Ri. "

Kee likewise introduced his sons. And then more relatives came in after landing and the introductions began anew.

Ka nodded as a second uncle clapped his shoulder and finally let him alone. The arrival of relatives had turned into a dinner and with members of Clan Two mixing with them, chatting and talking with Kee just like his relatives, it let Ka relax finally. Wakee's words were just that, words, but this sight told Ka that he could truly find acceptance with the clan.

It still did not change the fact that overly familiar relatives could be brushed off, something he never liked about clan life.

"Your proposal is strange," Wakee said, walking up with her son in tow, the actual elder of Clan Two. The three other elders sat against the wall, eyeing Ka and discussing amongst themselves. The other Elka gave them a wide berth.

Ka flicked a wing in polite acknowledgement to Raki, who looked solemn despite the increasingly festive mood. In the elder's hands was the stack of papers that Cato had given Ka. Once Raki had arrived with the other elders and Wakee had summarized the talk for him, the four elders had quickly confirmed Wakee's permission to settle in their clan. But Cato's proposal was giving them some trouble, Ka could see. He knew it wasn't going to work, but Cato had insisted anyway.

Sometimes blood debts made life difficult, but then it wouldn't be a debt otherwise.

"It is hard to understand how this benefits the clan," Raki said, "or the landbound for that matter. And we know they are ever so keen to count benefit by way of their coins. Why would they teach us magic, when it was the very weapon that let them prevail over Clan One?"

"Have we ever asked?" Ka pointed out, "my service at the Inath fort was not too bad. They understood our limits and never tried to press them. I even have some of their currency. "

"It will do you no good here," Raki said in a warning tone.

"I understand of course," Ka said.

The worst part was that he did understand. Not just what Cato was trying to do when he wanted the Elkas to learn magic, and even this thing he called magic engineering which was a new thing even in Inath. Not just why Cato had said some not very nice things when he heard that the Elkas had never done such a thing as farming. Not just what Cato meant when he said that the reason Inath humans treated the Elkas and the Fukas like foreign beasts, not quite like people, was also partially due to their self-imposed isolation.

Ka understood that Raki did not understand. And that Raki would never accept letting Ka into his Clan while doing something no one understood. It wouldn't be worth his honour.

Cato had called it a cultural barrier, whatever that meant.

"Cato said that he would provide food and clothing in exchange for my being such a messenger for two years," Ka said. Frankly, the amount Cato had offered when Ka pointed out the essential flaw was staggering. That amount of food was more than sufficient to support ten Elkas for the same period. "If we still cannot find any benefit in continuing the arrangement then, he will give up. "

Raki considered the matter for a moment, "you say you have a blood debt to this human?"

Ka nodded, "he told me that he would understand if I did not wish to take on the role he wants and refused to consider the matter of the debt. He says that regardless of whether I become a messenger, he will consider the debt paid. "

This much Raki understood, and Cato never would. Ka would uphold his end without fail or his honour would be forfeit. If Raki refused Ka's role as a messenger, Ka would have to leave Clan Two in order to fill the debt. And Ka could not consider a mere two years sufficient payment.

"And my mother just had to tell your daughter to follow you," Raki sighed, "very well. We have our misgivings but the payment promised is great enough. Two wings less will not hurt us when we never had them before. "

Ri looked around the room, slightly bewildered by all the strange people around her. The spree of introductions had resulted in her father and uncle playing catch up with everyone else, it was turning into an impromptu dinner already.

But Ri was feeling quite overwhelmed with all these new people around her. She had grown up in a small village of Fukas with only immediate family, among Elkas anyway, and to suddenly find so many others examining her made her feel strange inside. Like she wanted to hide away. But her father kept presenting her like some kind of trophy, all smiles over how well she had grown.

It was good to see him smile, that had been so rare back in their village, but Ri felt weird about the way he seemed to know all these strangers and all of them seemed to know him too. Like she was just an extra tagging along behind his wingtips.

After a particularly long gap in the introductions, Ri took the chance to step away from her father and slipped past the large dinner table. With a strip of paka meat in her hands, Ri took one look at her father, still buried in conversation with the Clan Two elder and jumped out of the door.

In the cool evening air in the shadow of the Snow Wall, Ri took refuge from the noisy hall on the windy ledge. The cool air flowing through her feathers was nice and calming.

She nibbled the salty meat in her hands appreciatively. Mm! It was actually quite delicious. Ri idly looked out across the valley, still seeing new things among the nooks and crannies. Cracked rocks and steep cliffs hid scraggly trees. The hollows whispered in the wind, little pockets of trapped air singing to her quietly in the night.

It was truly a beautiful place, one that any Elka could appreciate.

"Is the party too loud for you?"

The sudden voice behind her made Ri yelp and tumble off her perch. She flapped out her wings and swooped back up awkwardly.

"You!" she said to the boy sharing the ridge, "don't sneak up on me like that!"

The boy was the scout that had led them in. Uh. Tiki was it? Yes, Tiki.

He held out a new strip of paka meat and Ri looked down at her hands to find her half-eaten one gone, somewhere down the valley. She blushed a little and nodded her thanks.

"Sorry about that, I forget to stop being a Scout sometimes," he said, sitting beside her on the rocky stone, legs dangling over the edge.

Ri looked at him again. He seemed younger than when he was leading them in. Older than Ri but young for an adult. And those wings! They were folded and handled with an air of mastery, she recalled his flight earlier, the elegance replaying itself in her mind.

"You are a Scout then?" Ri asked.

"I passed the Test last year," Tiki grinned at her, "for a kid, your skills aren't too bad. Who's been teaching you?"

"My father," Ri said proudly.

"Him? His skills are the real thing," Tiki nodded seriously, "Too bad about his weight though, he won't ever make a Scout like that. "

Ri pouted. Papa was the best flyer she had ever known, but she had to admit that Tiki had surpassed him.

"Don't be upset, he does fly well," Tiki reassured her gently.

Ri could only nod.

"So did you come up here to avoid the crowd or to look at the valley?" Tiki asked suddenly.

She looked down and sighed, "both I suppose. "

Tiki smiled and spread his wings outward to gesture at the rocks around them, "it is a beautiful place, is it not?"

Ri nodded.

"Did you know this valley is not a natural place?" Tiki said, wrapping his wings around him like a feathery blanket. Ri eyed the feathers and the muscles underneath, they were fascinatingly beautiful, like a honed and well-used...

"Hello?" Tiki looked at her, lacking a reply.

"Oh!" Ri flushed again and looked out at the valley. Funny how it appeared so uninteresting now. "I did not know that," she said, "it is a beautiful place though. What did you mean by not natural? Did someone make it?"

Ri could not conceive of a way anyone could make something like an entire valley. Much less one as steep as this cut straight through the cloud scraping mountains to either side.

"The gods made this, in their time," Tiki said, "I can tell the story, if you want to hear it. "

Ri nodded.

Tiki smiled and put away his wings. Ri fought down a sense of disappointment at seeing them packed away but kept quiet.

"The legend is one of Clan Two's oldest. Back during the age of the gods, when the ancient Elkas served at their feet, when the gods were cast down and destroyed in the war of the sky. It is said that the gods had a mighty power here, one that the false gods had been jealous of and sought to destroy. Long was the battle that raged, and many of the gods fell and died, many of the old Elka heroes fell and died, but this place still stood, for all the arms and cleverness of the false gods could not breach these mountains.

In their anger, the false gods called upon the lightning from the sky. The lightning destroyed the land and the gods and even the mountains. And in so doing, the false gods destroyed themselves too. For the gods had their own sky lightning and their wrath was swift and terrible.

Clan One has also their stories of the gods and the war of the sky, I am sure. But Clan Two descends from the Elka heroes who fought at this place, and we tell the story here that one such sky lightning touched the stronghold of the gods here and destroyed them. The valley you see now and the lake where the landbound have built their fort is directly under the place where we fought alongside the gods. "

Tiki was pointing at the lake far below but Ri had long since stopped listening. She stirred when he stopped talking, barely having registered any of the words.

"Are you all right?" Tiki asked, looking at her distracted face in concern. He reached out to her.

Ri pulled away suddenly, feeling a tingling going all the way down to her wingtips. What was going on? She frowned, not really understanding what that feeling was.

Tiki sighed and pulled his hand back, not knowing what to do with her. Ri looked back out over the valley, seeking answers.

It was getting close to night now, with the sun fully behind the mountains and the blue sky overhead getting dark.

"You must be tired," Tiki said, clearly unconvinced of that but she did not contradict him, "I know where my father will send your families to, let me show you to the houses. "

He extended a hand to her and Ri took it silently. She felt as if she couldn't trust herself to talk, as if doing so would break whatever spell had fallen over her in the last few minutes.

Two Elkas, one almost-adult and one just starting, their pair of wings soared out into the falling light together.

Ka stepped into the stone office in the human's fort. Raki followed behind him silently, flanked by the two knights escorting them.

The commander was waiting for him behind the stone desk after receiving his request to talk. The stone room was empty apart from a single chair and table, anyone other than the commander was to stand. Much different from how Michi's official room looked, with all its decorations of war.

"I am Commander Erin. What brings you here?" the human woman asked.

"I have a message for you from Cato and Chancellor Minmay," Ka said, handing her a letter.

She raised an eyebrow and received the packet. "You may go," she said, opening it to read.

Ka coughed. "I was briefed on the contents of his letter. If you have questions, I can answer them, although I cannot make decisions. "

Erin's eyebrows climbed higher as she looked at Ka curiously, "the Chancellor trusted you with information on this letter? You truly are his messenger and not a letter carrier?"

Ka nodded, "I have their confidence. "

"This is very unusual," she noted, "are the Elkas going to start cooperating with us now?"

She looked at Raki for that last question. Evidently, the humans were aware of the power structure of Clan Two.

Raki sighed, "Ka acts on his own. I am here only to observe. "

Erin sighed in disappointment, "oh well, that was too much to hope for. Let's see what the chancellor wants. "

She read the letter quickly.

"A strange proposal," she said finally, "to lend the Elkas knights to teach them Ems and magic, in exchange for giving us those magic cannons? They also want to send us a detachment of soldiers to help fight the monsters? How does that benefit Minmay?"

Ka explained, "Minmay's Guards need experience and even with the current tension, the monsters are our actual enemy. Knowing that you have submitted requests for reinforcements lately, Minmay is of the opinion that the share of the bounty the soldiers earn is enough in light of the experience gained in real combat. He also wants to test certain ideas for the new magical inventions to help defend Fort Yang. "

Erin's cheek twitched as she contemplated the proposal, "he wants to use Fort Yang as a training ground?!"

"Indeed," Ka said, "Commander Michi has been given a similar deal and has also accepted. More than just a training ground, the magical devices that the Minmay Guards are so famous for now are quite experimental. This arrangement will also help to test and refine their weapons. "

"And in exchange I get some of these weapons too," Erin nodded, "a fair deal. Much better than could be expected given his political strength these days. "

Ka nodded. He was certain Minmay himself would have something to say about this concept of fairness, but the code of honour among the landbound was subtly different from the Elka and so Ka kept silent. It would not do to accidentally insult their honour.

"I will have an answer for Minmay soon," Erin smiled, "will you carry it back?"

"That is the purpose of a messenger," Ka said.

"Very well, come back just before Little Night tomorrow, I will have an answer for you to bring him," Erin said, relaxing into her chair, "still I am very surprised to see Elka carrying messages for Minmay. Is he so powerful that even the winged will follow his words?"

"I have my own reasons," Ka said, "I will carry messages between here and Minmay, which should shorten the time of travel greatly. "

Erin nodded. The Elka were too proud to do this, Ka knew, and he also knew that Minmay was taking the chance to present himself in the best way in light of that fact. To say that his reach was so far and so vast that even one of the famously isolated winged people would listen, something that Erin as Commander of Fort Yang right next to a Clan would be in the best position to understand.

Ka doubted whether many others would understand the games Minmay was playing here.

She waved them out and as they flew back to the Home Range of Clan Two, Raki shook his head. "So you speak their words too, Ka of Clan One. Just remember that the landbound are devious and honourless, I hope your debt does not tangle you too deeply in their affairs. "

Ka sighed. Well, at least one other person understood that game then.

And he thought to himself of what Cato said. That the landbound also knew of honour and fairness, theirs were just different. And if the Elka were willing to work with them, the unimaginable richness Ka had witnessed in Minmay might be theirs too.