Ren looked at the strange, glowing blue map on her brick, his icy eyes widening as he recognized the rough structural outline of the palace courtyard. "The underground vault... we tried to infiltrate it weeks ago, but we couldn’t get in because there’s some illusion that’s keeping the locks intact. We couldn’t even bypass the perimeter."

​Hana looked back at Raiden, her lips curving into a cold, superior smirk. "Lucky for you, we have someone from the bloodline."

​She turned her sharp gaze back to the white-haired feline. "So, where’s the entrance?"

​"I’ll show you," Ren said, nodding quickly as his black-striped tail gave a nervous twitch.

​Before he could take a step, Hana paused, her dark eyes narrowing as she looked him up and down. "Ren, was it? Where did you get the smoke grenade?"

​"Ah, this?" Ren reached down, tapping one of the sleek, charcoal-plated canisters hanging from his tactical belt. He pointed his chin toward the massive, weathered alloy structure of Aegis Bunker 03. "We have a similar structure in our clan."

​Hana’s eyes widened slightly, her thumb freezing over her tablet screen. "You opened it?"

​"No," Ren said, shaking his head quickly, his white furred ears flattening. "We tried for years but never got to open it. But just a month ago, a part of it broke. No one knows how, but that broken part had these cool gadgets and straps." He pointed directly to the rugged tactical harness buckled over his chest. "But we couldn’t get to the rest of the facility from that broken entrance, so we don’t know what else is inside."

​Hana narrowed her eyes, her mind instantly running a series of calculations.

It was impossible for an Aegis bunker’s reinforced shell to just break on its own. And of all the structural points to fracture open, it had to be the weapons and tactical storage sector.

Something was highly irregular about that sub-station, and she needed to see this for herself. That was another jackpot waiting to be taken.

​Ren looked at the high-voltage stun gun gripped firmly in her hand, his icy blue eyes blinking with a sudden realization. "What about you? Where did you get yours? I can tell they are similar to what we found in ours."

​"It’s the same source alright," Hana said, her voice dropping into a flat, clinical chill. "But unlike you primitive beasts, I can actually open the doors."

"That’s enough chitchat," Caspian finally cut in, stepping forward to plant himself heavily between Hana and Ren, glaring down at the leopard with a dangerous, lethal intensity.

He didn’t like that this feline had been speaking to Hana for this long, or the way he had looked at her earlier. What did the cat take them for?

"Hana says she’ll save the females, and that’s what she’ll do. But after that, you better run off with your tail tucked between your legs, because the sight of you irks me." he hissed.

​"I agree," Raiden added from behind Hana, his green eyes glinting with a sharp, icy friction that completely replaced his usual playful smirk. His nine pink tails swayed with a slow, heavy tension. "Let’s get this over with so the cat can vanish."

​There was a distinct, lingering threat in his tone, and Hana noticed it instantly. However, she had no intention of letting the leopard vanish entirely just yet. If his tribe was sitting on a fractured weapon sub-station, that meant bunker number five was waiting for her. She wasn’t about to leave a stockpile of old-world supplies and technology go unclaimed.

​Before they could mobilize toward the vault entrance, a powerful, crushing pressure rippled across the courtyard. The snow leopard archers and the remaining fox guards temporarily lowered their weapons as His Imperial Excellency, Lord Kaelen, stepped forward from his granite platform.

His pristine white fur gleamed in the morning sun, his eleven red-tipped tails held in a stiff, commanding fan as his predatory eyes swept over the unusual gathering.

​"What is the meaning of this, human?" Lord Kaelen demanded, his deep baritone booming across the gravel. "You stand in our sacred court, strike a binding oath upon my lineage, and now you align yourself with the very outlanders who breach our gates?"

​Hana took a step forward, her round belly leading the way beneath her dress. She rested her left hand calmly over her stun gun, looking up at the High Sovereign with a flat, deadpan expression.

​"I thought you were somewhat reasonable," Hana hissed, her voice cutting through the courtyard like a clinical scalpel. "You pride yourself on your grand bloodline, you sit on a throne of ancient scrap metal, but you stoop so low as to kidnap females from other tribes for what exactly? It’s truly shameful."

​Lord Kaelen narrowed his eyes into thin, lethal slits, his white fur bristling with immediate, aristocratic offense. "What are you talking about?"

​"Don’t bother denying it," Hana said, her voice completely level and businesslike. "There are captive females locked in your underground vault right now, and I can feel them."

​"Are you being deceived by the feline?" Lord Kaelen asked, his tone dropping into a cold, rigid register as he gestured toward Ren. "Do not listen to what these troublemakers have to say. They are savages from the lower ridges who seek any excuse to slander my spires."

​Hana nearly clicked her tongue, her thumb tapping the side of her tablet. "I just said I can feel them, didn’t I? This is not just word of mouth. There are exactly fourteen females currently detained in your hold."

​She watched his expression with an unblinking, analytical gaze, tracking every micro-expression on his old face. But Lord Kaelen didn’t even flinch. His jaw remained locked, and his predatory eyes held nothing but a deep, genuine anger at the insult to his clan’s dignity.

​"Once again, human, my tribe does not partake in such heinous acts," Lord Kaelen stated without a single tremor of hesitation. "We are the progenitor of the truest lineage left in this world. We have no need for stolen blood. Whatever you are thinking or feeling through your strange relics is false."