
Harigar Rhim offered a quick pat on the shoulder and Deena a short smile but one395Please respect copyright.PENANAAa25n48S68
that seemed like it had a long time coming. She had a harder time than the others in395Please respect copyright.PENANAD0l3bWWNfs
holding her posture.395Please respect copyright.PENANAAgG7GWoEYR
“Celle, Lorian... this is Red.” Dhanel Marce introduced him in such a short manner.395Please respect copyright.PENANAoTuPySTvDr
“He is an old friend of ours and a former member of the Hand.” The new figure was395Please respect copyright.PENANAy8ATMBI8rP
a bigger man; slightly taller and larger than any other here and as he pulled his blue395Please respect copyright.PENANA2TEpe3o2CX
hood back, he revealed his red hair and his red beard. Both coloured in vivid, almost395Please respect copyright.PENANAjZDOw9WGcO
flaming tones as if they were trying to match the very flames on his back.395Please respect copyright.PENANA3prG2TgGnz
“What are you doing here? Answer me.” Celle takes a few steps forward.395Please respect copyright.PENANALvUM4FACPR
“You could say I still live here...” his voice matches the rest of him, deep and steady...
“No one lives here...” she insisted.395Please respect copyright.PENANA2N3jLjpbSG
“That is enough Celle.” Dhanel Marce requested.395Please respect copyright.PENANA61hkkS2SGw
“Down girl.” Red did not care how much he could infuriate her; instead, his eyes395Please respect copyright.PENANAc3AWsJh8LP
were now turned to Lorian, the quiet and more aloof of the group “And you?”395Please respect copyright.PENANA8S3TmN9TWp
“...” the silent companion looked instead towards that mountain...395Please respect copyright.PENANAChn1AbtPrJ
“Not much of a talker I see...” Red looked at him from hood to boot “I like that.”395Please respect copyright.PENANA5o7oVfruet
Celle insisted: “Sir who might this haphazard figure be?”395Please respect copyright.PENANAhQtjG6tjkD
“Disobedient and rude...” Red barely ever looked at her, and he didn’t seem fazed395Please respect copyright.PENANAH1Fh7PV0PC
by any of her words or stares either “So is this what you drag behind you these days?”395Please respect copyright.PENANAm7IhSoBEps
“Everyone here has definitely earned their place” Dhanel Marce manages to halt395Please respect copyright.PENANAhlVt8FlQv0
Celle right before she can sneak in another word “just as they did in your days...” he395Please respect copyright.PENANAvemjXEW18T
smiles “that hasn’t changed my old friend. Nothing has really.”395Please respect copyright.PENANABoyYEabWb1
“I am not so sure about that.” Red keeps looking around at them, one by one...395Please respect copyright.PENANAB9fZnCOs54
“Sir I must intercede, we should not...” but Dhanel Marce cut her off once again...395Please respect copyright.PENANAKxXDule89Q
“Celle, please...” he asked... “Celle here became your replacement Red, after... well,395Please respect copyright.PENANAnOSvnl0Qnd
you decided to take your leave of absence, and she has been exerting the same position395Please respect copyright.PENANAE5Ld6QYygv
you did from day one. Needless to say, she is most capable and very much worthy of395Please respect copyright.PENANA0mHXE9qJNi
such responsibility as my second in command. She holds my utmost confidence.”395Please respect copyright.PENANANneY2rIKyz
Perhaps the captain of the Hand said these words with ambiguous intent, so at the395Please respect copyright.PENANAQw1lN6A971
same time safeguard himself against any further implications from Red, as well as395Please respect copyright.PENANAwsyFRD7Tjj
to prevent any falser steps from Celle. Or perhaps he did not see that far ahead and395Please respect copyright.PENANA76N0NnTAQH
simply told the truth, regardless of it worked both ways even if only for a short while.395Please respect copyright.PENANA3WubT7TCK9
Red looked around once more and then his eyes stopped on the other two; Deena and395Please respect copyright.PENANAsRv5u5KSbT
Harigar Rhim whom he has been friends with for a very long time, he looked straight395Please respect copyright.PENANA5oCtrnQGhy
at them...395Please respect copyright.PENANApOuuviVNZp
“No promotion for any of you I reckon. Not a single sample of acknowledgement to395Please respect copyright.PENANAup9iFyi569
those serving long before this one came to join. She just tagged along and immediately395Please respect copyright.PENANAHkBqMlqi74
started running things? I wonder if your king might have found himself a new395Please respect copyright.PENANAXe6Dg9tZrE
favourite...” he pauses a bit as he easily reflects Celle’s harsh stare “So how do you two395Please respect copyright.PENANAgAh9FDT36p
fancy any of it?”395Please respect copyright.PENANAh4kNuiG8wc
“We all have our orders Red...” Dhanel Marce concluded before any of the others395Please respect copyright.PENANA7kJ4v3vkjD
could toss in the slightest contribution. A short but still awkward silence followed.395Please respect copyright.PENANAxxKAr7bgbz
The storm still has them, over this entire region those clouds, always ruthless, do not395Please respect copyright.PENANArShM8tF3eP
know the meaning of relent and ever do they allow anyone under their gaze to stay dry395Please respect copyright.PENANAv03DJoXlPX
or warm, for even the slightest amount of time. Closer to the edge of what was once395Please respect copyright.PENANAnlWQ6igKry
a lively Brosse, now six instead of five, are experiencing the local weather, an ongoing395Please respect copyright.PENANA88cBOCAoZg
storm that shows no signs of dispersion or the slightest weakness.395Please respect copyright.PENANA3nGRBqQwzc
“You are not wearing your mask.” Deena pointed out.395Please respect copyright.PENANAGE1TojtXBN
“You don’t need that type of mask here Deena...” Red looked around once again as395Please respect copyright.PENANATbvqoldUQV
if he was looking for something, and every time he did, one could tell he did not see395Please respect copyright.PENANA88wvOQN1VH
this place like any of the others “Besides I like to see the world as it really is, experience395Please respect copyright.PENANAKanRkuLSGe
it as it really is...”395Please respect copyright.PENANA8K6odMisK0
“Boss,” says Harigar Rhim “we need to get moving.”395Please respect copyright.PENANAXjIGUTCWVs
“Wait a moment” Red then widened his eyes “Where is Elistia?”395Please respect copyright.PENANApQPpIHLF0K
“After you left, she was never the same again Red, she changed...” Dhanel Marce395Please respect copyright.PENANA2Bbd54arLY
ignored Harigar Rhim and kept on talking, as if the sun was shining and his own voice395Please respect copyright.PENANAPLjpeOA8E0
wasn’t being muffled by his mask or the heavy rain “...her focus and her strength were395Please respect copyright.PENANASETxRtwbMw
no longer there as she started to often endanger the success of our missions and most395Please respect copyright.PENANAzDC3MlvASb
importantly, her wellbeing. More than once either I or another, had to step in for her395Please respect copyright.PENANAwPPO13YQvE
sake; we suddenly began finding ourselves intervening often in inexplicably made dire395Please respect copyright.PENANA0aFcUw6f9q
situations, and whereas before she could have just handled them easily and gracefully395Please respect copyright.PENANAPAwQrypetV
all by herself, now, now if not for us, she would have surely lost it all. Everyone here,395Please respect copyright.PENANAdQxIKwqsSI
except for Lorian who took her place, has saved her life more than once, and me more395Please respect copyright.PENANA71ENF8WTo1
than I would like to count.395Please respect copyright.PENANAsIyxy3PefZ
We slowly started noticing, all of us, that she had lost something shortly after your395Please respect copyright.PENANAx2f3ozMf4d
departure; either her heart or her mind or maybe both. Something just wasn’t there395Please respect copyright.PENANA7rs660jqjL
anymore after you left which is, I think, understandable.