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Harigar Rhim offered a quick pat on the shoulder and Deena a short smile but one319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUWcc1X85cR
that seemed like it had a long time coming. She had a harder time than the others in319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaRelhU2rTO
holding her posture.319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsezPCPEyQQ
“Celle, Lorian... this is Red.” Dhanel Marce introduced him in such a short manner.319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxeAYoKjzbP
“He is an old friend of ours and a former member of the Hand.” The new figure was319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKHgRaCGyd0
a bigger man; slightly taller and larger than any other here and as he pulled his blue319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB9z267a3nF
hood back, he revealed his red hair and his red beard. Both coloured in vivid, almost319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3TakyNLT3q
flaming tones as if they were trying to match the very flames on his back.319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOb0eOVnJLH
“What are you doing here? Answer me.” Celle takes a few steps forward.319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡypy1PZWqcb
“You could say I still live here...” his voice matches the rest of him, deep and steady...
“No one lives here...” she insisted.319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl75PHJMbMb
“That is enough Celle.” Dhanel Marce requested.319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKPf9hDlM53
“Down girl.” Red did not care how much he could infuriate her; instead, his eyes319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJPIJxSycB7
were now turned to Lorian, the quiet and more aloof of the group “And you?”319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEaM2har9jl
“...” the silent companion looked instead towards that mountain...319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOx521ZXTUO
“Not much of a talker I see...” Red looked at him from hood to boot “I like that.”319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5a186LwysW
Celle insisted: “Sir who might this haphazard figure be?”319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrWstfpdzmu
“Disobedient and rude...” Red barely ever looked at her, and he didn’t seem fazed319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUGc3lxLH4K
by any of her words or stares either “So is this what you drag behind you these days?”319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZLLRvYc7nR
“Everyone here has definitely earned their place” Dhanel Marce manages to halt319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdW6kikOq7P
Celle right before she can sneak in another word “just as they did in your days...” he319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxeb75YWMF6
smiles “that hasn’t changed my old friend. Nothing has really.”319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyGaLBh3eL6
“I am not so sure about that.” Red keeps looking around at them, one by one...319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtjp1SUnbyl
“Sir I must intercede, we should not...” but Dhanel Marce cut her off once again...319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSoDZ8252Oc
“Celle, please...” he asked... “Celle here became your replacement Red, after... well,319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbJ4RoAFhRz
you decided to take your leave of absence, and she has been exerting the same position319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzsIpe1DR3R
you did from day one. Needless to say, she is most capable and very much worthy of319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGmUybTkdbC
such responsibility as my second in command. She holds my utmost confidence.”319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM6nCgMYutg
Perhaps the captain of the Hand said these words with ambiguous intent, so at the319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFo4eao6shY
same time safeguard himself against any further implications from Red, as well as319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBO9toeROoD
to prevent any falser steps from Celle. Or perhaps he did not see that far ahead and319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzZrKiXYm18
simply told the truth, regardless of it worked both ways even if only for a short while.319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK93rCAZwSk
Red looked around once more and then his eyes stopped on the other two; Deena and319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ00A6hscZ2
Harigar Rhim whom he has been friends with for a very long time, he looked straight319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM5kRYqEJjF
at them...319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9rGISYChaH
“No promotion for any of you I reckon. Not a single sample of acknowledgement to319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYelWNMyevl
those serving long before this one came to join. She just tagged along and immediately319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwPaFQ2l201
started running things? I wonder if your king might have found himself a new319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRf4OHRn0vh
favourite...” he pauses a bit as he easily reflects Celle’s harsh stare “So how do you two319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXrQTDCCWUW
fancy any of it?”319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO7B87PRVrl
“We all have our orders Red...” Dhanel Marce concluded before any of the others319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWeM6eYUav9
could toss in the slightest contribution. A short but still awkward silence followed.319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtHfyv0tb3Y
The storm still has them, over this entire region those clouds, always ruthless, do not319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFZ4BFxxshp
know the meaning of relent and ever do they allow anyone under their gaze to stay dry319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsTg2OZpMol
or warm, for even the slightest amount of time. Closer to the edge of what was once319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQosEilQoPj
a lively Brosse, now six instead of five, are experiencing the local weather, an ongoing319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuoiWGSq5MQ
storm that shows no signs of dispersion or the slightest weakness.319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVXxKjtWZEV
“You are not wearing your mask.” Deena pointed out.319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzRs0ShRhC3
“You don’t need that type of mask here Deena...” Red looked around once again as319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt4KNJwWrxJ
if he was looking for something, and every time he did, one could tell he did not see319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2yyDiqQsco
this place like any of the others “Besides I like to see the world as it really is, experience319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE6qjJEC1Y3
it as it really is...”319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRQ7qLKlWXZ
“Boss,” says Harigar Rhim “we need to get moving.”319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxOeRztz647
“Wait a moment” Red then widened his eyes “Where is Elistia?”319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWOF8osIXtg
“After you left, she was never the same again Red, she changed...” Dhanel Marce319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHo1csFBXjD
ignored Harigar Rhim and kept on talking, as if the sun was shining and his own voice319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGajlrbAbOE
wasn’t being muffled by his mask or the heavy rain “...her focus and her strength were319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡotr8AjKvRB
no longer there as she started to often endanger the success of our missions and most319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ46NTc3FxQR
importantly, her wellbeing. More than once either I or another, had to step in for her319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNCOVMG00Lj
sake; we suddenly began finding ourselves intervening often in inexplicably made dire319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZBiahQDHpl
situations, and whereas before she could have just handled them easily and gracefully319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIfdBCX06Us
all by herself, now, now if not for us, she would have surely lost it all. Everyone here,319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWS25jvQb64
except for Lorian who took her place, has saved her life more than once, and me more319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3TzfaD1CnE
than I would like to count.319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRyAfXLR4Lv
We slowly started noticing, all of us, that she had lost something shortly after your319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOz9OiEvvTi
departure; either her heart or her mind or maybe both. Something just wasn’t there319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAEZ5nF9J0e
anymore after you left which is, I think, understandable.
