"Good day, McKennan rats."
Looking down from above, Annan mimicked Maria's disdainful arrogance.
The human Soldiers on the wall had all been replaced. Rats who had switched sides, dressed as elite Ratfolk, patrolled the ramparts.
"Stuen... things. Why are you here?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing..."
There was no evidence the Stuen Rats and McKinnon Rats were working together. The Stuen Rats had spent centuries hollowing out Breeze City, while the McKinnon Rats' reckless charge could only ruin their plot. But there was no evidence they weren't working together, either. So Annan kept his answer vague:
"This is Holy Race territory. You shouldn't be here."
The gray-robed Ratfolk Ritualist fixed his scarlet eyes on Annan atop the wall. "Open the gate."
"This is the Holy Race's web of schemes... You McKinnon rats can forget about meddling!"
The gray-robed Ratfolk Ritualist answered Annan in Ratfolk fashion: an Elite Rat behind him kicked Broken Fang to the ground and drove a rusty iron sword into his oily fur.
"You want to start a Holy War?! The Holy Race gave us this mission. You're digging your own graves!"
Annan's angry shout echoed beyond the wall. "I'll tell the rat nest and have the Champion Ratfolk punish you!"
The front ranks of the Rat Tide stirred. Champion Rats were taboo to humans and Ratfolk alike—they might never have killed a human, but they had certainly slaughtered Ratfolk.
Cunning, sly, suspicious, and sinister by nature, the Ratfolk Ritualist neither killed Broken Fang nor fully believed Annan. Instead, he dragged Broken Fang back into the Rat Tide.
Broken Fang was a genuine Stuen Ratfolk, so he was unlikely to give the game away. Still, given how Ratfolk operated, he would suffer for it... All Annan could do was keep Star-Moon Bay's disguise