2025-11-09 21:33:39
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Chapter 15: The Third Knight Commander
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
Chapter 14: Hauling Crates
The northern pasture of the Yunis estate was... green.That was the only word Pyralis could think of.After nine months festering in the Lair, and a lifetime spent in the grime of the common lands, the sheer, open greenness of it all was almost offensive.Fifty acres of rolling hills, ancient oak trees, and a clear, running stream. And at the far end, dominating the horizon, was the 200-foot-high, oppressive grey mass of the Capital Wall."Well," Pyralis said, his hands on his hips and with his new silver hair catching the morning light. "It's... big. And it smells like grass. I hate it.""It's beautiful," Elara said, taking a deep, clean breath. She wasn't wearing her disguising amulet, so her true, sharp, pretty face was on display. "And it's ours. I can't believe that plan actually worked.""Of course, it worked," Pyralis scoffed. "He's a coward. And Kaelen's father. The apple didn't just fall from the tree, it rotted on the branch right next to it."Behind them, the move was in fu
Chapter 13: Pot and Kettle
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
Chapter 12: Treason
The common lands stank of desperation.It was a smell Pyralis Cinderfall knew well—a mix of stale ale, unwashed bodies, and the sour tang of hopelessness.He sat in the darkest corner of the "Broken Spear," a tavern so deep in the slums that the City Watch didn't even bother patrolling it.He and Elara were in their daytime faces, their enchanted amulets making them look like just another pair of weary, forgettable commoners.Pyralis nursed a cheap, watery ale with his disguised, average face a mask of bored indifference."I hate this place," Elara muttered, her own disguised face downturned. "It smells like... regret. And urgh… feet.""It's a recruiting office, Elara," Pyralis murmured back, his eyes scanning the room. "These are our people. The ones the kingdom forgot. The ones who are angry. Angry people are useful, y’know."A wiry man with a face like a dried apple—a low-level thug Pyralis knew only as "Rat"—slid into their booth. He was visibly trembling."Y-you... you're the one
Chapter 11: Ingredients of Loyalty
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
Chapter 10: Going shopping
Pyralis was alone.He stood for a moment, listening to the faint, distant sounds of Lyra cooing at Slimey.A small, genuine smile touched his lips. “Weirdos.”He turned and headed deeper into the woods, his new metal feet silent on the damp earth.The Drake Woods was a special kind of hell. It had a reputation for a reason.The very air was thick and magical, and it had a nasty habit of changing paths. Trees would shift, streams would reroute, and clearings would vanish. Most adventurers wouldn’t dare enter without a compass and a prayer.Pyralis, however, had a photographic memory.Where a normal man saw a confusing, hostile labyrinth... Pyralis saw a map.He remembered every tree, every rock, every twist from his days as a mercenary-in-training. He did pull a small, brass compass from his pocket, but only for emergencies.“Still... west,” he muttered. The needle was spinning uselessly. He huffed. “Redundant, but Kaelen would approve of the thoroughness.”He pulled out the parchment
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