The tent felt crowded even though there were only three people in it. But Jacque's pissed of, bitchy attitude problem made the canvas walls that had once seemed to stretch so tall into something small and unpleasant.

  Though the double-sealed door and shiny camp lanterns weren't helping either.

  By the time Jasque started yelling, Birch had long since cast her vote in favor of trusting Shilloh and left for bed. Similarly, Biege had acknowledged his own ignorance and left. Though both had made sure to give Wade some sort of pat on the shoulder or sign of support. Birch's had, to everyone's surprise, been a massive hug and whispered promise that he would have help no matter how it turned out.

  That was about the last time Shilloh felt happy, because that was just before Jasque and Scotty had started to go downhill.

  Scotty, bless his heart, was drunk. Birch and Frost had managed to unleash his worst instincts, and the sweet, fussy little man had started crying and giving Wade a nonstop stream of hugs.

  Jasque had been the opposite. At first, he had been dismissive.

  "When we have a doctor say something, we should consider it. Until then, let's move on."

  But when everyone took it seriously, and Wade started listening to her, it had gotten worse. Shortly after Scotty's joyful crying returned for a new round, he was sent to take a cold shower, and Jasque took control of the conversation.

  "Dryad," the dead-eyed slayer growled at her. "These 'feelings' you have are just bursts of confidence, right? Can you even tell if it comes from magic?"

  "No, it's a sensation you learn to recognize as elders—"

  "And even if you think it's magic, you believe the rate of success is four out of five?"

  "That's what I said."

  "Well then," Jasque turned from her and dressed Wade and Frost, completely ignoring her. "Considering what we know about confirmation bias and other cognitive fallacies, I'd put our risk of false positives more around fifty to seventy percent. Those low odds make me think that we should add this to the file and move on. Especially when accounting for the cost of getting him evaluated."

  Wade visibly deflated, but Frost shook his head. "Don't underestimate dryad magic. I have done my research while we waited for our esteemed new colleague to join us. Dryads have very potent magic. And the very fact that it's soft magic means I'm hesitant to put a number on it. Shilloh, how certain do you feel?"

  She stepped forward and worked hard to maintain a non-aggressive body language. "Very. It's the exact same sensation of remembering something, but not knowing where you learned it. When it comes to situations like this, there's not much reason I would get a false positive. There's just no other good reason for me to feel this way."

  Jasque snorted. "There are several reasons," he turned back to Wade. "You don't need to get your hopes up. It will only disrupt your routines and make things hard—"

  "Excuse me, Jasque. What exactly do you mean, there are other reasons?"

  The empty shark eyes flicked around everyone but lingered meaningfully on Frost and the contracts on the table. "Nothing. I just don't think anyone wants Wade to be unwell."

  Fire filled her cheeks, and Shilloh found her fists balled. That son of a bitch. He thought she was running a con, so she got access to the big kids' table. He thought she was a liar.

  "That's not what you meant, and we all know it."

  He blinked at her and then gave Frost a significant look. With that same worn-out paternal patience, he turned to her.

  "I'm sorry if you're upset. This must be very overwhelming for a—" he stuttered, unwilling to use the word 'person' to describe her. "For a friend of Wade's. But—"

  "Cut the shit," Frost snapped.

  The muscles around Jasque's eyes tensed, but nothing else showed his real emotions. "Sir?"

  "Cut. The. Shit. If you have factors that impact your confidence in Ms. Methusela's capabilities, then we all need to know. They will be a part of my decisions, and your ability to collaborate with her will be a factor as well."

  "Fine. The Dryad just got the biggest payday of her life. The entire trip has made it clear that the money is her motivation. With her core useful capability being predicated on a relationship of love and dedication, it only makes sense for someone in her position to realize that the stronger a person she can get to form a relationship with her, the higher her pay and comfort will be. Just think, if she can only protect her cat, bird, and whatever other dangerous cryptos she develops a counterproductive fondness for, then she will not keep this job. In contrast, Wade has been kind and soft around her. She has an incentive to make him the one in control of her ability, and possibly to encourage feelings that could lead to reckless behavior. The more reckless she is, the more she can step up and try to give the impression of value for her next salary negotiation. She probably has a spreadsheet of Talent activation instances ready so she can demand extra by the second."

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  Shilloh's mouth fell open in shock.

  Frost, on the other hand, didn't seem phased by the barrage of accusations. "No," he slashed his hand through the air like he was cutting the notion off. "Shilloh has more files, testimonials, years of observations, and acts of character than most young people we bring into the program. None of it raised significant flags. There is no reason to doubt her until she acts in an unbecoming way. Plus, she will be a peer. None of us will have authority over her, not any more or less than other combat asset in the program. So that fear is unwarranted. Do you have any other issues?"

  Frost had spoken clearly, unemotionally, but the look in his eyes made it clear what he was doing. That talk had been for Wade and for Shilloh. He wanted everyone to know whose side he was on.

  And it wasn't lost on Jasque. The slayer snapped and stabbed a finger at a very dazed and shell-shocked Wade. "He turns into a Cernun Boghe! That's a crypto. If he is a Were that turns into a monster, how can he be anything other than a Whisperer? It's literally what that word means. This whole premise is ridiculous! Why are we wasting time and ruining Wade's mindset by entertaining it!"

  "We do not—" Frost started to reprimand, but Shilloh interrupted.

  "What generation?"

  Jasque rolled his eyes. "What are you on about this time?"

  Taking a page out of his own book, Shilloh turned her body away from Jasque, clearly dismissing him, and stepped up to Wade. He was staring blankly at the canvas. Every once in a while, he stared down at his hands, but he barely seemed to be paying attention to what any of them were saying.

  "Wade?" she asked softly. "Do you know what generation Cernun Boghe you alternate form is?"

  The Were winced at the name of the creature, but some coherence came into his gaze.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Do you know if your form is a first-generation Cernun Boghe, or a later one?"

  "Uhhh, I dunno. Frost?"

  The white haired man shook his head. "Wade had a single full shift into his alternate form. That was enough for him to find out it was crypto. We had already been noting him as a person of interest. Still, our tests only went so far as to have the memories of a witness copied and presented to an expert who identified the species based on records he had access to in his past life."

  Shilloh nodded. "That makes sense. The first generation is very rare, and after the third generation, they tend to be so interbred with other animals that it's almost impossible to identify them without magic. Do we have access to that recorded image?"

  "No. Not here," Frost waved his hands at the stack of papers she had signed next to their still mostly full bottles. "Even your signing papers will be disappeared and locked up behind several levels of classification before the day is out."

  "Generation doesn't matter," Jasque said, speaking with his hands. "A crypto alternate means a Were is a Whisperer. Wade's alternate form is a crypto; therefore, he is what he is. This case is closed."

  She shook her head. "Not necessarily. If a Were adopts the body of a crypto with high enough fidelity that it reproduces the natural magic built into that body, then it leads to unpredictable interactions when transposed onto their natural human magic systems. That is what can lead to psychosis."

  Wade nodded. "It's true," he said dully. "It's why I've tried to never Shift into any portion of that form's body plan. It's also why weaker shifters tend to," he gulped, "defer deterioration until later on."

  "Defer, not stop. We still have to monitor you even though you haven't shifted," Jasque pointed out. "Every expert agreed. Just because the dyad knows the simplified, sanitized explanation that they teach in high school doesn't mean all those experts are wrong."

  Again, Frost was able to butt in before Shilloh could tell Jasque to shove it up his ass. She knew, she knew the tenuous peace they had made after the familiar debacle couldn't last. But she couldn't believe this man was already trying to ruin her reputation with her new boss.

  "I read the full expert reports," Frost said, his Gary Cooper good looks set into a stern visage that didn't suit him terribly well. "Weres naturally execute minor Shifts all the time. If they have any skill, it's all but inevitable. That's why we kept an eye on him. But, Shilloh. I assume there's some reason why you think these minor shifts might not cause magical conflicts?"

  "Yes. First-generation Cernun Boghe don't have any magic in their bodies. They're technically cryptos, but mostly they're cursed humans who were used in a particular region as tools of terror and control. Their children are pure cryptos. Those are more common and are seen in semi-stable populations around areas where some particularly vengeful demigod used to live. A first-generation Cernun Boghe has no more non-human magic in their body than a manatee, which is also, technically, a crypto. And I doubt anyone would argue that a manatee's alternate form would lead to psychosis."

  "The area you're talking about, were they near you in your former life?"

  "No. It became a blasted wasteland because, you know, deities." No one objected. Even Jasque took it for granted. But, then again, two people in this tent responded to the name 'godkiller,' so the audience was predisposed to agree with her." But we had an older dryad who explored the world before he came home to take care of his Mom. He studied the area and wrote a book about it. Well, mostly he translated other local books and spliced them together, but you get the point. His passion project never sold well, or got out much past a few local libraries and rich people, but he was a family friend."

  Wade took up and didn't seem to know what to do with his hands. "Shilloh, I really want to believe you. Fuck. I need to believe you, but I don't understand. How can a curse make a crypto from a magical monster body that's not a crypto?"

  She eyed the gin, still sitting on the table, but avoided picking it up with a sigh. If Jasque wasn't here glaring at her, then she might have taken a seat. As it was, she refused to put herself below him in any way.

  "I'm guessing you weren't able to learn too much about them?"

  "No, we learned too much. Every source we went to had a different history and story about them. And we found dozens of similar beings that were sort of similar. If we didn't have someone see what I looked like, we would have assumed it was a myth."

  "Oh," Shilloh said, rubbing her hands together and trying to think of a delicate way to phrase this. "Well, they're myths, they're just no good ones. They are, your other form is, the 'or else.' You're the hellfire and damnation," she said with a weak smile.

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