Rashen walked through the doors of the headquarters,but he only found Macy and Gayle once he entered the dining room.He looked more exhausted than he felt. He didn't want to wake Cindrus up so he waited for her to wake up instead, unfortunately for him that took almost all morning. Once she did wake up he still had to wait for her to get ready. He offered to take her home for safety reasons but she declined. "What happened to you? Where have you been?" Macy asked in urgency.Rashen explained everything that happened yesterday. "Unbelievable!" Macy exclaimed. "So instead of instead of an interrogation,you were out playing boyfriend with his daughter!?" "I wasn't playing boyfriend, what was I supposed to do?" "You could've squeezed some information out of her without giving away our operation." "And how would you have done that?" Rashen flared. "Well I wouldn't have done what you did that's for sure!" She flared back.Gayle slammed his fist on the table. "Enough! Both of you!

The Chairman’s room was quite large, quite modern for Grittshore standards. A large chandelier hung from the ceiling, a shelf that held books, honors and what seemed to be artifacts worth small fortunes. Hanging over the Chairman’s bed was a large painting of himself at a younger age, a baby and a woman that looked like how Cindrus might’ve looked in a decade or two. The large window was covered by the scarlet curtains, keeping the afternoon sunlight out.Presently, Rashen had climbed down the desk and Macy had walked up to him and the Chairman. “What is the Order of Jackals and what’s your relationship with them?” Macy asked. The Chairman, sitting, wiped his sweat. He took a deep breath before talking.“In my youth, I was quite the ambitious man if I do say so myself. By the time I was your age I had already envisioned starting the MacRossie Group you see today and I spent years acquiring the knowledge I needed to achieve my goal. And in one of those years I met her,” he said lookin

Rashen felt paralyzed. The Chairman was dead, his body strapped to a chair in a dark room and he had no clue what to do, he felt completely helpless. He looked at the lifeless body, almost unable to process what he was seeing, four years of Imperial training hadn’t prepared him for this. He had failed to protect the Chairman. He began to hyper ventilate, panic setting in when suddenly, the open door slammed shut. The lights turned on revealing the figure that stood behind the door. A man in a long black cloak, his face was pale with grey eyes, ashy hair and a sinister smile.“You’re not the girl.” He said, his voice as cold as the Chairman’s body. “And judging from your looks you’re not the earth tamer either which means it must be my lucky day. I finally get to meet the “Hero of Grittshore.” Rashen’s breathing intensified as he rose his head to look at the man, Haphron was his name. From his looks alone Rashen knew he was with the Order of Jackals, he also knew he was the Chairman’s

Gayle sent two more earthen blocks hurling towards Jirah but he sliced through them both with ease, lunging a blade towards Gayle. Gayle jerked back, the blade narrowly missing eye. There was barely any room in the walls he raised and he was under the impression that Jirah, limited to just two blades would be an easier opponent to defeat, but his physical strength was monstrous and his blades could practically cut through anything. With a simple hand movement, Gayle encased his hands with blocks of earth. He formed massive gauntlets out of them and charged towards Jirah. He blocked Jirah’s swings, countering with a punch to his sides but Jirah twisted his body, dodging the attack. He barely used the flats of his blades to block Gayle’s follow-up, the sheer force of the impact sending him sliding backwards until he hit the wall. Gayle launched the fingers of his gauntlet towards him, but he either dodged or sliced through them. Gayle didn't let up. He launched the stone fingers of hi

To say Garle was shocked would be an understatement. The expression on the old Watcher’s face was a raw, devastating mix of grief, rage, terror, and sheer disbelief.His voice broke into a hollow whisper. “Son…”“I told you never to call me that again,” Argins replied. Unlike his father, Argins’ face held no conflict, only cold, unadulterated hatred.A few minutes earlier, Gayle had been stumbling backward down the dimly lit hallway, clutching his sliced throat as he choked on his own blood.Jirah had stalked toward him with a ravenous grin, three heavy blades hovering weightlessly around his shoulders. Having reduced the confident cadet to a broken mess, Jirah intended to take his time, savoring every second of the kill. He beckoned a floating blade to his palm.Gayle wanted to scream, to beg, to do anything, he was utterly helpless, completely at the killer's mercy. Clutching his neck with one hand, he stretched out the other to try to get Jirah to stop, he immediately felt a sharp