The woods were silent again, except for the sound of two very unhappy, very large men stumbling through the undergrowth.Grunk and Shiv, the bandits, were a pathetic sight.Grunk, his ribs clearly bruised from Pyralis's push, was hauling the heavy, stinking, decapitated corpse of the Marsh-Drake. Shiv, his face pale and clammy, was juggling the various fungi, mosses, and the severed head of the creature.Pyralis Cinderfall, his enchanted amulet once again hiding his features, strolled behind them, not even a speck of mud on his boots."So," Pyralis said, his voice light and conversational. "Grunk and Shiv. That's what you call yourselves. Adorable. What's your real story? You're terrible bandits. I mean, truly, spectacularly bad at it. Not smart enough to be spies. Too weak to be mercenaries. What are you?"Grunk, huffing under the weight of the Drake, didn't dare stay silent."We... huff... we're just highway robbers, boss!" he wheezed."He's right!" Shiv squeaked, nearly dropping th

The corner of Pyralis’ lips widened."Kill him?" Pyralis laughed, a short, sharp, ugly sound. "Elara, no. That's... messy. And it's what Johan wants me to do. Why would I do what he wants?"He looked up, his eyes on the distant, glittering spires of the Royal Capital, visible even from here."No. I'm not going to kill him. I'm going to own him. Kaelen hates his father. And his father's estate just so happens to have a massive, walled-off, 50-acre northern pasture that borders the Capital Wall. We’ve been looking to expand."Elara's eyes widened. "And... you're just going to... ask him for it?""I'm going to make him beg me to take it," Pyralis said, his smile turning feral. "Now come on. We need to go see Kaelen. I need... a camera."Two nights later. The Gilded Lily.It was an upscale inn, clean, quiet, and discreet. The kind of place where high nobles came to do things they'd hang commoners for.Pyralis and Elara were not in disguise.This was a 'night' operation.Pyralis Cinderfall

Pyralis and Kaelen both stared at the unconscious woman lying in front of them on the bed."She... seems tense," Pyralis offered."It's the fear of needles," Kaelen said, with a dismissive shrug. "It's very common.""Right. Needles." Pyralis clapped his hands. "Well, while you're playing with your comatose nobility, the rest of us have work to do. We're running low on... 'interns' for the new estate. And Elara found another one of Valgus's old 'shipping warehouses'."The raid was over in thirty seconds.It wasn't even a fight because she exterminated the bugs.The new safe house, the Yunis pasture, needed bodies.Grunk and Shiv, while terrified, were not enough to maintain a 50-acre estate, let alone one that was secretly a military base.So, they went shopping.The new slaver warehouse was identical to the last. This time, Pyralis didn't even bother with a monologue.Bo, now with his mind clear and his loyalty absolute, was the hammer. He didn't just break the door, he smashed the tw

They slipped into the hallway. It was quiet.The guards were all outside dealing with the smell.They found the transfer room. Seraph picked the lock in ten seconds. He had magic in his fingers even then.Inside the room was full of crates.But there it was. A small, ornate box with the Royal Seal. It was sitting on a table.Seraph grabbed it. He felt the weight of it. It felt like gold. It felt like food for a year."We got it," he whispered. "Let's go."They turned to leave.The door slammed shut.A heavy iron bar dropped into place on the outside.Seraph froze and looked at Elara. Her eyes were wide.A slow, lazy clapping sound came from the corner of the room."Very good," a voice said. "Very, very good."A man stepped out of the shadows. He wore a pink flowered robe over his uniform. He held a cup of sake.It was the Third Knight Commander himself, Jinto. He was younger then.His face was smoother, but his eyes were just as sharp."You avoided the perimeter wards," Jinto said ges

Miles away, deep in the heart of the Common Lands, there was a building that smelled of baking bread and old wood.It was the “Sisters of Mercy” Orphanage.A run-down, drafty sanctuary run by a group of tough-as-nails priestesses.Pyralis Cinderfall sat on a small, wobbly wooden stool that was far too low for him. He was surrounded by children.He wasn’t wearing his usual dark armor or his flirty, dangerous persona.He wore a simple wool tunic, and his enchanted amulet softened his sharp features into something kind and approachable.Across the room, Lyra Ashwood was helping the head priestess fold laundry.She looked... different.The haunting, emo demeanour was gone. The constant whispered conversations with the Echo were silent.She was smiling. It was a small, shy smile, but it reached her eyes.She looked peaceful here, among the orphans who had nothing, just like she once had.&ldquo