Chapter 115: What Red Moss Would Allow
Volume 1: The First Civilization
Chapter 115: What Red Moss Would Allow
Talia met them at the border before they’d even reached Red Moss’s gate, having apparently kept watch for their arrival since Rokan’s message reached her days earlier.
"I wondered if you’d come yourself," she said, studying Aren with open curiosity. "Bren will want to hear this plainly, given how much weight your last visit already carried."
"That’s why I came," Aren said. "Some requests deserve more than a messenger."
---
She led them through the settlement toward Bren’s modest hall, Kess drawing curious glances from villagers who clearly recognized the Seeker markings on her cloak, though nothing hostile crossed their expressions — simply careful attention, the kind any stranger might earn in unfamiliar territory.
"They’re watching me," Kess murmured.
"They’re watching all of us," Talia said. "Red Moss doesn’t get many visitors carrying this much history behind them. Curiosity’s a fairer response than most places would offer."
---
Bren received them with the same careful precision Aren remembered from their first meeting, listening through the full explanation — the fracture, the seven chambers, the possibility that two might lie within Red Moss’s own territory — without interrupting once.
"You’re asking permission to search our land," he said, once Aren finished. "For something dangerous enough that an entire ancient civilization was sealed away rather than risk it loose."
"I am."
"And if we refuse?"
---
Aren considered the question honestly before answering. "Then we search elsewhere first, and hope the timeline allows enough patience to eventually earn your trust properly. I won’t force this, Bren. I’d rather have your genuine cooperation than reluctant compliance."
Bren studied him a long moment, something calculating behind his careful expression. "That’s the same answer you gave me the first time we met. Consistency, I’ll grant you, counts for something."
---
"What would you need, to feel comfortable allowing this?" Aren asked.
"Presence," Bren said immediately. "Someone from Red Moss on every search, the same conditions Tamsen apparently set for his own territory. Full transparency about anything found. And—" he paused, weighing something further. "I want to understand this Devourer properly. Not secondhand, through whatever careful summary you’ve prepared. The actual danger, plainly stated, so my people can weigh the risk honestly rather than trusting your assessment of it alone."
---
"That’s fair," Aren said. "More than fair, given what we’re asking."
Kess stepped forward then, something resolved in her posture. "I can speak to that directly, if you’ll allow it. I’ve had contact with it myself. I can tell you exactly what it offered me, exactly how it tried to shape my own grief toward its purposes."
Bren’s eyebrows rose slightly, surprised by the offer. "You’d share that willingly? With a stranger, no less."
"You’re not really a stranger anymore," Kess said. "Not after Aren already asked you to trust this crisis once before. I’d rather earn that trust honestly than hope it holds without proper foundation."
---
She spoke for the better part of an hour, laying out everything — the dream, the persuasive warmth that had nearly convinced her the Keepers’ caution was simple cowardice, the unsettling realization that her own cause might have been shaped by exactly the thing she was fighting to understand. Bren listened with the same careful attention he’d given Aren, occasionally asking sharp, precise questions that Kess answered without flinching.
"That’s considerably more honest than I expected," Bren said, once she finished. "Most causes don’t examine their own foundations this willingly."
"Most causes haven’t been forced to, the way this one has," Kess said. "I’d rather examine it honestly than protect a comfortable version of my own conviction."
---
Bren sat with that a long while, weighing something visibly before finally speaking again. "I’ll allow the search. Under the conditions I named. And I’d like updates directly from you, Kess, rather than filtered entirely through Bukanlibag’s account of things. I trust your honesty more, having just watched you offer it so plainly."
"I can do that," Kess said, something like genuine relief crossing her tired face.
---
Talia, who’d remained quiet through most of the exchange, finally spoke. "I know the southern territory well. If the chambers lie where Sable’s records suggest, I can help narrow the search considerably faster than starting blind."
"You’d help directly?" Aren asked.
"I already helped once, walking two days alone to assess your village properly," Talia said, something wry in her tone. "This feels like a smaller risk, honestly, and a clearer purpose behind it."
---
Talia fell into step beside Aren as they walked from Bren’s hall toward the guest quarters Red Moss had prepared, something thoughtful crossing her expression.
"I’ve been thinking about what Kess said," she admitted. "About examining a cause honestly instead of protecting the comfortable version of it. I wonder if my own people should be doing more of that, given how cautious we’ve historically been about everything beyond our own borders."
"Caution isn’t wrong," Aren said. "Just incomplete, sometimes, if it’s not paired with genuine curiosity too."
"That’s a fair way to put it." Talia considered him a moment. "You’ve gotten better at this, you know. Explaining hard things simply, without losing what actually matters in the explanation."
"I’ve had considerable practice, these past months."
"Apparently," Talia said, something almost fond in her tone. "I hope, whatever happens with this seal, that practice serves you as well going forward as it has so far."
---
They spent the following two days working through the search logistics with Talia’s guidance, her knowledge of Red Moss’s southern reaches proving invaluable in narrowing the likely positions for chambers six and seven. By the time Aren’s party prepared to depart, a rough plan had taken shape — Red Moss scouts paired with whoever Bukanlibag sent south, searching methodically rather than blindly guessing at the old records’ vague positioning.
---
"Thank you," Aren said to Bren, before finally departing. "For the trust, and for asking hard questions instead of simply refusing outright."
"Don’t thank me yet," Bren said. "Trust granted isn’t trust proven. I’ll judge the rest of this by how carefully you all actually handle what you find, same as I judged the first visit by what you were willing to admit you didn’t know."
"That’s fair," Aren said. "I wouldn’t ask for anything less."
---
They departed the following morning, the journey home stretching ahead of them with considerably more hope than the journey out had carried. Kess walked quieter than usual, something settled in her that hadn’t been there before Red Moss.
"You did well back there," Aren said, breaking the comfortable silence.
"I surprised myself, honestly," Kess admitted. "I’ve spent so long guarding that story carefully, only sharing pieces of it when strategically useful. Telling it plainly, to someone with no obligation to believe me — that felt like something different. Something closer to actually healing, rather than simply managing old grief."
---
Jarek, half-listening from where he tended the fire, finally spoke up. "Feels like that’s been happening a lot lately. People finally saying the true version instead of the useful one."
"You noticed that too," Kess said, something warm in her voice.
"Hard not to. I spent most of my life being the impulsive one, saying whatever came to mind without much thought for strategy at all." Jarek prodded the fire absently. "Watching everyone else finally catch up to that habit’s been strange. Good strange, mostly."
"High praise, coming from you," Aren said, something almost teasing in his exhausted voice.
"Don’t let it go to your heads," Jarek said, though he was smiling now. "I reserve the right to go back to complaining about all of it the moment we’re home safely."
---
Kess laughed, quiet and genuine, the sound carrying further than she probably intended in the still evening air. "I’ll hold you to that. Consistency matters, even in complaining."
"Especially in complaining," Jarek said. "It’s basically the one thing I’ve been reliably good at since this whole crisis started."
"That’s not true," Aren said. "You caught Sable in the dark without a second thought. Pulled Tobin back from the gate before any of the rest of us reached him. You’ve been considerably more than reliable complaining, Jarek, whether or not you want to admit it."
Jarek ducked his head slightly at that, uncharacteristically quiet for a moment before recovering his usual easy humor. "Fine. Reliable complaining and occasional heroics. I can live with that description."
---
They settled into comfortable silence after that, the fire crackling steadily between them, three people who’d started this journey as something closer to strangers and old rivals now sharing an ease that would have seemed impossible only weeks earlier. Somewhere beyond the firelight, the forest stretched dark and quiet, holding whatever remained of this crisis’s answers, patient enough to wait one more night while three tired travelers allowed themselves a moment of genuine rest.
---
The blue light rose as they made camp that final evening, carrying the steady weight of a journey nearly complete.
[Village Development Update]
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Red Moss Cooperation: Secured
Chambers Six and Seven: Search Authorized
Regional Alliance: Four Tribes United
Memory Synchronization: 55% (unchanged)
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Aren closed the panel and looked around at Jarek tending the fire, Kess finally resting easier than she had in weeks, the shape of this crisis slowly transforming from a burden carried alone into something an entire region had chosen, deliberately and honestly, to carry together.
End of Chapter 115