Blacktail Deer Plateau everything moves, everything pulses, everything lies in the eyes of you

Whereas the man who had joined them remained neutral, and unreadable, Merrit caught the suspicion of both women, and the odds did not stack against him well. Ah, but no worries, until teeth flashed at his heels, there was always time for him to smooth out his stumbles. "Pardon my manners," he said, and offered a small bow of his head with the name Hydra had grace him with, and the one he sought to redeem, "Theseus Stark. I am bound to no pack, but have, for the time, allied myself to the Queen of Moonspear, and the Sovereign of Neverwinter Forest. I ask on their orders."

Merrit -- under the guise of Theseus, now -- supposed the helpfulness of Rusalka balanced on his words, and their trust of him. If Rosalyn had chosen to chase Caiaphas out, then perhaps these wolves were an ally to the cause which he, Hydra, Mal, and surely, countless others by now, sought. After all, no leader drove her packmates away without reason.

"This woman Caiaphas sought to kill an innocent -- and would have, too, if the child's pack had not been so quick to chase her out. We also saw her ripping out another's throat," he said, encompassing himself in that count of witness, though he simply recounted the words he'd heard from Mal the first night he'd met up with the mottled boy. "Last we heard, she was running at large through the Wilds with two others bent on the same murderous track. Her presence in this place puts every other wolf in danger -- woman, man," and he shifted his glance between the three, "and child. And I will not sit by, only to watch her take more and more lives, or watch her following grow."