Harigar Rhim offered a quick pat on the shoulder and Deena a short smile but one118Please respect copyright.PENANA4mxSeEo82G
that seemed like it had a long time coming. She had a harder time than the others in118Please respect copyright.PENANA7aKnR3iIRS
holding her posture.118Please respect copyright.PENANAKbwAGjq0aq
“Celle, Lorian... this is Red.” Dhanel Marce introduced him in such a short manner.118Please respect copyright.PENANAD9Zbi2zOAS
“He is an old friend of ours and a former member of the Hand.” The new figure was118Please respect copyright.PENANAH6b1r52ysp
a bigger man; slightly taller and larger than any other here and as he pulled his blue118Please respect copyright.PENANA0swzysojOi
hood back, he revealed his red hair and his red beard. Both coloured in vivid, almost118Please respect copyright.PENANAtS30cCeND1
flaming tones as if they were trying to match the very flames on his back.118Please respect copyright.PENANAAeRKaR90Bq
“What are you doing here? Answer me.” Celle takes a few steps forward.118Please respect copyright.PENANAC3aBoFYubF
“You could say I still live here...” his voice matches the rest of him, deep and steady...
“No one lives here...” she insisted.118Please respect copyright.PENANA6wawcn8hSi
“That is enough Celle.” Dhanel Marce requested.118Please respect copyright.PENANAsTCbygNE2K
“Down girl.” Red did not care how much he could infuriate her; instead, his eyes118Please respect copyright.PENANAkQ7ATIbqzU
were now turned to Lorian, the quiet and more aloof of the group “And you?”118Please respect copyright.PENANAKDZwUoJMZ1
“...” the silent companion looked instead towards that mountain...118Please respect copyright.PENANAQTCALNBsZn
“Not much of a talker I see...” Red looked at him from hood to boot “I like that.”118Please respect copyright.PENANAKoQNoOe8r2
Celle insisted: “Sir who might this haphazard figure be?”118Please respect copyright.PENANAl7W7RgV8qW
“Disobedient and rude...” Red barely ever looked at her, and he didn’t seem fazed118Please respect copyright.PENANAy43jWsUKXP
by any of her words or stares either “So is this what you drag behind you these days?”118Please respect copyright.PENANAkXjyP4qxwH
“Everyone here has definitely earned their place” Dhanel Marce manages to halt118Please respect copyright.PENANAfduEkgzpnL
Celle right before she can sneak in another word “just as they did in your days...” he118Please respect copyright.PENANAJKAjfBTZyO
smiles “that hasn’t changed my old friend. Nothing has really.”118Please respect copyright.PENANA1x67jDwm9h
“I am not so sure about that.” Red keeps looking around at them, one by one...118Please respect copyright.PENANAXu2n9R6sIV
“Sir I must intercede, we should not...” but Dhanel Marce cut her off once again...118Please respect copyright.PENANAn9EMT3DcAU
“Celle, please...” he asked... “Celle here became your replacement Red, after... well,118Please respect copyright.PENANAU4rWy6sLpW
you decided to take your leave of absence, and she has been exerting the same position118Please respect copyright.PENANAOzrTrhpoIO
you did from day one. Needless to say, she is most capable and very much worthy of118Please respect copyright.PENANARm6pyn7Vqd
such responsibility as my second in command. She holds my utmost confidence.”118Please respect copyright.PENANAVFOLcoSfby
Perhaps the captain of the Hand said these words with ambiguous intent, so at the118Please respect copyright.PENANA6gWGUbDq8A
same time safeguard himself against any further implications from Red, as well as118Please respect copyright.PENANAfuZrGRiQUD
to prevent any falser steps from Celle. Or perhaps he did not see that far ahead and118Please respect copyright.PENANABC2YfE7XCo
simply told the truth, regardless of it worked both ways even if only for a short while.118Please respect copyright.PENANASMFLYWUVFE
Red looked around once more and then his eyes stopped on the other two; Deena and118Please respect copyright.PENANAxD3Hmh6r1A
Harigar Rhim whom he has been friends with for a very long time, he looked straight118Please respect copyright.PENANA9f1KEZWkHp
at them...118Please respect copyright.PENANAU3wUtCMV3Z
“No promotion for any of you I reckon. Not a single sample of acknowledgement to118Please respect copyright.PENANAInRVL0BZWs
those serving long before this one came to join. She just tagged along and immediately118Please respect copyright.PENANAMnAo3e6ukE
started running things? I wonder if your king might have found himself a new118Please respect copyright.PENANAOnV8P6L4sC
favourite...” he pauses a bit as he easily reflects Celle’s harsh stare “So how do you two118Please respect copyright.PENANAR5jcOjRXQq
fancy any of it?”118Please respect copyright.PENANAKijZRPHP3G
“We all have our orders Red...” Dhanel Marce concluded before any of the others118Please respect copyright.PENANAMEhDRYFCW2
could toss in the slightest contribution. A short but still awkward silence followed.118Please respect copyright.PENANA7AKCko8hAR
The storm still has them, over this entire region those clouds, always ruthless, do not118Please respect copyright.PENANA6SMdUQXHI0
know the meaning of relent and ever do they allow anyone under their gaze to stay dry118Please respect copyright.PENANAtcoJWZHqt2
or warm, for even the slightest amount of time. Closer to the edge of what was once118Please respect copyright.PENANAmHRPIrNu8Q
a lively Brosse, now six instead of five, are experiencing the local weather, an ongoing118Please respect copyright.PENANAD3X0jAxpHL
storm that shows no signs of dispersion or the slightest weakness.118Please respect copyright.PENANA1kExYrrVeV
“You are not wearing your mask.” Deena pointed out.118Please respect copyright.PENANAjfw1gm4kxU
“You don’t need that type of mask here Deena...” Red looked around once again as118Please respect copyright.PENANAY2vh02KXHH
if he was looking for something, and every time he did, one could tell he did not see118Please respect copyright.PENANA9yGNf9LoqJ
this place like any of the others “Besides I like to see the world as it really is, experience118Please respect copyright.PENANAO5xZvSqr2T
it as it really is...”118Please respect copyright.PENANALoNW2lTHQm
“Boss,” says Harigar Rhim “we need to get moving.”118Please respect copyright.PENANAWQncyjPVAI
“Wait a moment” Red then widened his eyes “Where is Elistia?”118Please respect copyright.PENANAZbfiwR2CI8
“After you left, she was never the same again Red, she changed...” Dhanel Marce118Please respect copyright.PENANAQ7Y6ku8Bas
ignored Harigar Rhim and kept on talking, as if the sun was shining and his own voice118Please respect copyright.PENANANeF6uhLfYE
wasn’t being muffled by his mask or the heavy rain “...her focus and her strength were118Please respect copyright.PENANAIfoZTh0Vyo
no longer there as she started to often endanger the success of our missions and most118Please respect copyright.PENANA6fArfHFCNd
importantly, her wellbeing. More than once either I or another, had to step in for her118Please respect copyright.PENANA04mmCpxJkE
sake; we suddenly began finding ourselves intervening often in inexplicably made dire118Please respect copyright.PENANAB4oxQfNQie
situations, and whereas before she could have just handled them easily and gracefully118Please respect copyright.PENANARthYRRUhDg
all by herself, now, now if not for us, she would have surely lost it all. Everyone here,118Please respect copyright.PENANAlvCKSH52yF
except for Lorian who took her place, has saved her life more than once, and me more118Please respect copyright.PENANAUfY4mhogys
than I would like to count.118Please respect copyright.PENANAHHsH4GK11R
We slowly started noticing, all of us, that she had lost something shortly after your118Please respect copyright.PENANAyMtHc2pRhk
departure; either her heart or her mind or maybe both. Something just wasn’t there118Please respect copyright.PENANAsz9JzkAxAH
anymore after you left which is, I think, understandable.