![](https://static.penana.com/images/chapter/1105590/Zr_dfe2lm5-ed...6a3a1aea9fd.jpg)
Harigar Rhim offered a quick pat on the shoulder and Deena a short smile but one119Please respect copyright.PENANABMHQ2L4c2X
that seemed like it had a long time coming. She had a harder time than the others in119Please respect copyright.PENANA3HpGyptB3b
holding her posture.119Please respect copyright.PENANAEWjrUTkpY0
“Celle, Lorian... this is Red.” Dhanel Marce introduced him in such a short manner.119Please respect copyright.PENANAEkWXFMYOka
“He is an old friend of ours and a former member of the Hand.” The new figure was119Please respect copyright.PENANANjWX7P1cEW
a bigger man; slightly taller and larger than any other here and as he pulled his blue119Please respect copyright.PENANA4UwC3HxjRU
hood back, he revealed his red hair and his red beard. Both coloured in vivid, almost119Please respect copyright.PENANA0k58OnmYoO
flaming tones as if they were trying to match the very flames on his back.119Please respect copyright.PENANAOjzv9HjEG5
“What are you doing here? Answer me.” Celle takes a few steps forward.119Please respect copyright.PENANAPVf46dMXmP
“You could say I still live here...” his voice matches the rest of him, deep and steady...
“No one lives here...” she insisted.119Please respect copyright.PENANAxqpDvpERLL
“That is enough Celle.” Dhanel Marce requested.119Please respect copyright.PENANA4fYdaiwJxR
“Down girl.” Red did not care how much he could infuriate her; instead, his eyes119Please respect copyright.PENANAip1TiY8RPv
were now turned to Lorian, the quiet and more aloof of the group “And you?”119Please respect copyright.PENANALhhHSOvcf7
“...” the silent companion looked instead towards that mountain...119Please respect copyright.PENANA01xBh76OqS
“Not much of a talker I see...” Red looked at him from hood to boot “I like that.”119Please respect copyright.PENANAQBL4klJBX7
Celle insisted: “Sir who might this haphazard figure be?”119Please respect copyright.PENANAyUsSpG8BND
“Disobedient and rude...” Red barely ever looked at her, and he didn’t seem fazed119Please respect copyright.PENANAJb8MrNCDJ5
by any of her words or stares either “So is this what you drag behind you these days?”119Please respect copyright.PENANATPAS0V0aBJ
“Everyone here has definitely earned their place” Dhanel Marce manages to halt119Please respect copyright.PENANAiIO7TECglh
Celle right before she can sneak in another word “just as they did in your days...” he119Please respect copyright.PENANAM2Hml7AEPU
smiles “that hasn’t changed my old friend. Nothing has really.”119Please respect copyright.PENANAIqJ6d0YmOb
“I am not so sure about that.” Red keeps looking around at them, one by one...119Please respect copyright.PENANABDVInL2e9L
“Sir I must intercede, we should not...” but Dhanel Marce cut her off once again...119Please respect copyright.PENANAmQC2mhtcLN
“Celle, please...” he asked... “Celle here became your replacement Red, after... well,119Please respect copyright.PENANAIAQ7jTFyYK
you decided to take your leave of absence, and she has been exerting the same position119Please respect copyright.PENANAHiI70yuZHd
you did from day one. Needless to say, she is most capable and very much worthy of119Please respect copyright.PENANA0BltmzrxEV
such responsibility as my second in command. She holds my utmost confidence.”119Please respect copyright.PENANAPek4kOF3l0
Perhaps the captain of the Hand said these words with ambiguous intent, so at the119Please respect copyright.PENANAQa3SfV9CID
same time safeguard himself against any further implications from Red, as well as119Please respect copyright.PENANAfLdmVoevkI
to prevent any falser steps from Celle. Or perhaps he did not see that far ahead and119Please respect copyright.PENANA1CgZAq96Ik
simply told the truth, regardless of it worked both ways even if only for a short while.119Please respect copyright.PENANApTvBsq4X0Q
Red looked around once more and then his eyes stopped on the other two; Deena and119Please respect copyright.PENANAA03AhAqUuH
Harigar Rhim whom he has been friends with for a very long time, he looked straight119Please respect copyright.PENANAzrkAMBk3MD
at them...119Please respect copyright.PENANAd6AGE5ZQq7
“No promotion for any of you I reckon. Not a single sample of acknowledgement to119Please respect copyright.PENANA0X2t6fQ4tJ
those serving long before this one came to join. She just tagged along and immediately119Please respect copyright.PENANAy4TO508sAr
started running things? I wonder if your king might have found himself a new119Please respect copyright.PENANA3AVxeavMvz
favourite...” he pauses a bit as he easily reflects Celle’s harsh stare “So how do you two119Please respect copyright.PENANArcRykBiD0s
fancy any of it?”119Please respect copyright.PENANAr1FZBqia0v
“We all have our orders Red...” Dhanel Marce concluded before any of the others119Please respect copyright.PENANAMzPyuufgVA
could toss in the slightest contribution. A short but still awkward silence followed.119Please respect copyright.PENANAXr06Tpgdwf
The storm still has them, over this entire region those clouds, always ruthless, do not119Please respect copyright.PENANANHqDD9ba0p
know the meaning of relent and ever do they allow anyone under their gaze to stay dry119Please respect copyright.PENANA7zurGs2bBZ
or warm, for even the slightest amount of time. Closer to the edge of what was once119Please respect copyright.PENANADyU3GjwSDk
a lively Brosse, now six instead of five, are experiencing the local weather, an ongoing119Please respect copyright.PENANAnzTcJATmgN
storm that shows no signs of dispersion or the slightest weakness.119Please respect copyright.PENANAQONeZXlDtL
“You are not wearing your mask.” Deena pointed out.119Please respect copyright.PENANAIMFYdeL2iO
“You don’t need that type of mask here Deena...” Red looked around once again as119Please respect copyright.PENANAObOB0ciKLR
if he was looking for something, and every time he did, one could tell he did not see119Please respect copyright.PENANAsi1FUWkR95
this place like any of the others “Besides I like to see the world as it really is, experience119Please respect copyright.PENANAxr3HrMcGcG
it as it really is...”119Please respect copyright.PENANA36hTv9UMit
“Boss,” says Harigar Rhim “we need to get moving.”119Please respect copyright.PENANAoD9VlsjGdV
“Wait a moment” Red then widened his eyes “Where is Elistia?”119Please respect copyright.PENANA7hBNwRBEFJ
“After you left, she was never the same again Red, she changed...” Dhanel Marce119Please respect copyright.PENANAZJfqDXkupw
ignored Harigar Rhim and kept on talking, as if the sun was shining and his own voice119Please respect copyright.PENANAxK8Kteltkh
wasn’t being muffled by his mask or the heavy rain “...her focus and her strength were119Please respect copyright.PENANAN1deiLUHnD
no longer there as she started to often endanger the success of our missions and most119Please respect copyright.PENANA6PY5GEtUZ3
importantly, her wellbeing. More than once either I or another, had to step in for her119Please respect copyright.PENANAPrviRfLDbv
sake; we suddenly began finding ourselves intervening often in inexplicably made dire119Please respect copyright.PENANAGYEtByTUVR
situations, and whereas before she could have just handled them easily and gracefully119Please respect copyright.PENANAAQ6UtXHxng
all by herself, now, now if not for us, she would have surely lost it all. Everyone here,119Please respect copyright.PENANAut5c7M5PWa
except for Lorian who took her place, has saved her life more than once, and me more119Please respect copyright.PENANALsHsx85yCh
than I would like to count.119Please respect copyright.PENANArN8ZKJj2VZ
We slowly started noticing, all of us, that she had lost something shortly after your119Please respect copyright.PENANAsVlPfEE3Ba
departure; either her heart or her mind or maybe both. Something just wasn’t there119Please respect copyright.PENANAKcltwzYDcG
anymore after you left which is, I think, understandable.