Rhys looked around in the control room.

It was hard to let Quinn go, even for a moment, but he needed to make sure that they were actually safe. The rage was burning hot in him, urging the harbinger to go and collect some heads. Any man who thought to use his own fortress against him, to try and hurt his fated... It was a man who had lost his appetite for living.

First, however, how had they gotten ahold of Quinn? Clearly the control room wasn't as big of a secret as he'd been told.

"Tell me everything," he ordered Quinn. "What went on inside here?"

His fated still looked shaken, but she nodded. Rhys could barely stand to see her like that, her clothes torn by the narrow tunnel, bleeding from the cuts she'd received. It pained him to see her hurt when he'd promised to always keep her safe.

"It all happened so fast," Quinn said, frowning, walking around the room as she tried to concentrate. "I came out of the tunnel and at first I thought the room was empty. I was trying to find the lever when that warrior grabbed me. Then I saw the others."

She gestured to the bodies on the floor.

"Only them?" Rhys asked, making sure. "You didn't see anyone else come and leave before I got here."

"No," Quinn said firmly. "The warriors were talking to a captain. Right before I opened the pathway, they yelled for him not to come. I guess he heard them because he's not here."

"More cowardice," Rhys growled, observing the symbols of rank on the armors of the dead. "The gods have seen fit to punish me with weakness in my ranks. I'll make sure it comes to a swift end."

He recognized the marks easily, mostly because the harbinger had already guessed which captain it was.

"Jeroek," he spat. "That ground-dwelling bastard. I suppose I should be thankful it isn't one of my crew. The ones who never join the raids are weaker. Only a man like that would come up with a plan how to kill me without ever facing me in battle."

He looked at the controls with heavy regret in his heart.

"This is no longer safe," he decided. "No matter how Jeroek learned of this place, it can't be left here like this. It's too dangerous with the storm almost upon us. After the long night, I will have made sure there are no traitors in the fortress. For now..."

Rhys looked over the controls. It had been a long time since he'd been there. His memory was as good as ever and he began disabling the system.

"Quinn," he called. "I won't be caught off guard twice. If by any chance you need to remove the block, this is what you do."

He showed her the combination to make the platform spin again. Quinn repeated the action three times before he was satisfied that his fated could repeat it if the need arose. Rhys didn't want to think of those circumstances, but it seemed life had decided to compensate his happiness with dangers he hadn't imagined before.

There was no hiding from the truth, after all.

He'd been careless with the pathway. Then again, so had his father before him. Rhys couldn't remember there being any safeguards in place, but neither one of them had ever thought the control room could be found by accident.

It was hidden behind fake doors and nigh invisible panels that needed to be pushed to open. Not to mention the road there started at a part of the fortress that was rarely used. The air systems a building as huge as the fortress needed were vast and violent. They had created a draft indoors that made that section uninhabitable.

The harbinger wished he had the answers to the questions that burned in his mind. It was technically possible that Jeroek or one of his men had come upon the control room by stumbling their way through the traps.

Another theory was that it had been someone else, a long time ago, who had passed the knowledge down like Rhys' father had done with him. And he had never known because there had been no need for it.

It made little difference. He needed to set up an alarm system to alert him of any intrusions into the room. Rhys planned to set it up later.

The storm was coming. He had a whole month of time to make it work and catch the culprit. After all, they had nowhere to run and hide while the fortress was in lockdown.

"Harbinger," the comm link sounded. "This is Gate Control. There are arrivals, sir."

Rhys stopped to consider and exchanged a look with Quinn who looked as surprised as he felt. Everyone was supposed to be accounted for.

He briefly considered the possibility it was another trick. After all, Gate Control had locked him out of the fortress.

Rhys banished the suspicion. If anyone there had been stupid enough to lock the gates while he was out there, they wouldn't be so dumb as to try and contact him. The voice told him that the warrior was more concerned with the people behind their gates than his wrath.

It just confirmed Rhys' suspicion that Jeroek had managed to convince the Controls that he and Quinn had already returned.

"Acknowledged," he replied into the transmitter. "Are they sending out identification codes?"

"Yes, sir. The codes identify the sender as Kol-Eresh."

That caught Rhys off guard, something that rarely happened to him. Kol-Eresh was another harbinger. His domain was the next one to Rhys', to the northwest of Jos Gharo, making it more susceptible to the storm's damages.

Kol-Eresh was also a stubborn, fierce bastard, making him one of the few men on Luminos Rhys would have called a friend. The warlord's unrestrained temper and straightforward way of speaking had endeared him to Rhys over the years.

He wasn't a man to take a hike mere days before the storm hit. Rhys feared the worst.

"Is he broadcasting his own codes or those of the domain?" he asked the Gate.

"Both, sir."

Rhys swore. Quinn was looking on with a deep concern on her face.

"Does that mean his people are with him?" she asked quietly.

"Yes," Rhys replied, his voice hollow. "The gods are cruel this year."

He opened the link to the Gate again.

"Controls, how many is he claiming?" Rhys asked.

Without waiting for a response, he left the control room behind, making sure that Quinn didn't stumble on the treacherous path. They needed to get to the Main Gate, fast.

They were out of the traps by the time Controls answered. The warrior's voice was hollow.

"Ten thousand at least, sir."

This time, Rhys didn't swear. No curse words were going to make the numbers better.

"And how many more could we spare if we ration?" he asked.

They kept walking in tense silence while the Controls calculated.

"You're not going to leave them out there, are you?" Quinn asked quietly as Rhys headed down the vast walkway to where he knew he could find a hovercarrier to take them to the Gate.

He didn't answer.

Ten thousand men, women and children. Ten thousand souls he didn't know, couldn't vouch for at a time when he had a mutiny growing on his hands. Ten thousand mouths to feed and just as many to keep safe throughout the long night.

"Rhys?" Quinn asked, her voice wavering a little.

"I'm not going to leave them to die," the harbinger replied, seeing the carrier station up ahead. "But this will be a hard, cruel month."

Then Quinn's hand was in his again and the smile on her lips warmed up all the coldness the day had instilled in him. Like the sun peeking out after the storm, she melted the rage and dread inside him.

"Barely two thousand, sir."

It was as he'd feared.

"I will be right there," Rhys told the Controls. "Let Kol-Eresh in. Alone."