
Harigar Rhim offered a quick pat on the shoulder and Deena a short smile but one321Please respect copyright.PENANAjdGd5nMcPk
that seemed like it had a long time coming. She had a harder time than the others in321Please respect copyright.PENANAkRL1Urp0nx
holding her posture.321Please respect copyright.PENANAHGyYQaRWCe
“Celle, Lorian... this is Red.” Dhanel Marce introduced him in such a short manner.321Please respect copyright.PENANArKxI76R4lW
“He is an old friend of ours and a former member of the Hand.” The new figure was321Please respect copyright.PENANA3kGYBMPcFN
a bigger man; slightly taller and larger than any other here and as he pulled his blue321Please respect copyright.PENANAaRkFdALkzt
hood back, he revealed his red hair and his red beard. Both coloured in vivid, almost321Please respect copyright.PENANAy5MrawMR4K
flaming tones as if they were trying to match the very flames on his back.321Please respect copyright.PENANAUln8aFNMRr
“What are you doing here? Answer me.” Celle takes a few steps forward.321Please respect copyright.PENANAFLFQ4xmOH9
“You could say I still live here...” his voice matches the rest of him, deep and steady...
“No one lives here...” she insisted.321Please respect copyright.PENANAwIIQuX70ES
“That is enough Celle.” Dhanel Marce requested.321Please respect copyright.PENANA8xvCouOT1r
“Down girl.” Red did not care how much he could infuriate her; instead, his eyes321Please respect copyright.PENANA4dkCJWVvA2
were now turned to Lorian, the quiet and more aloof of the group “And you?”321Please respect copyright.PENANAbBeFoA6El1
“...” the silent companion looked instead towards that mountain...321Please respect copyright.PENANALcSUz5xZfo
“Not much of a talker I see...” Red looked at him from hood to boot “I like that.”321Please respect copyright.PENANAYNPuhUtrmX
Celle insisted: “Sir who might this haphazard figure be?”321Please respect copyright.PENANA7hUDqu1rxp
“Disobedient and rude...” Red barely ever looked at her, and he didn’t seem fazed321Please respect copyright.PENANAnCe4diLMlz
by any of her words or stares either “So is this what you drag behind you these days?”321Please respect copyright.PENANAJZWvj1yaln
“Everyone here has definitely earned their place” Dhanel Marce manages to halt321Please respect copyright.PENANALwGuroJdkz
Celle right before she can sneak in another word “just as they did in your days...” he321Please respect copyright.PENANApCZMBKdHGQ
smiles “that hasn’t changed my old friend. Nothing has really.”321Please respect copyright.PENANAF7AA7V8TfI
“I am not so sure about that.” Red keeps looking around at them, one by one...321Please respect copyright.PENANAe3GL8bDeTE
“Sir I must intercede, we should not...” but Dhanel Marce cut her off once again...321Please respect copyright.PENANAEvKqQpMceO
“Celle, please...” he asked... “Celle here became your replacement Red, after... well,321Please respect copyright.PENANAvpAMIFCrdz
you decided to take your leave of absence, and she has been exerting the same position321Please respect copyright.PENANAPyMb6NpxNB
you did from day one. Needless to say, she is most capable and very much worthy of321Please respect copyright.PENANARi7qe5TNYg
such responsibility as my second in command. She holds my utmost confidence.”321Please respect copyright.PENANAtTyt2wPM7n
Perhaps the captain of the Hand said these words with ambiguous intent, so at the321Please respect copyright.PENANAy8WAiy6f8m
same time safeguard himself against any further implications from Red, as well as321Please respect copyright.PENANA5GTcTykWBv
to prevent any falser steps from Celle. Or perhaps he did not see that far ahead and321Please respect copyright.PENANAOWoPY4Repu
simply told the truth, regardless of it worked both ways even if only for a short while.321Please respect copyright.PENANAddagPOucch
Red looked around once more and then his eyes stopped on the other two; Deena and321Please respect copyright.PENANAsxBuKz8uFO
Harigar Rhim whom he has been friends with for a very long time, he looked straight321Please respect copyright.PENANA16jI7082pE
at them...321Please respect copyright.PENANA8TWiCJT3CX
“No promotion for any of you I reckon. Not a single sample of acknowledgement to321Please respect copyright.PENANAj4GA4wfvzW
those serving long before this one came to join. She just tagged along and immediately321Please respect copyright.PENANAtqpPa72IbT
started running things? I wonder if your king might have found himself a new321Please respect copyright.PENANAQhbUnRYJuP
favourite...” he pauses a bit as he easily reflects Celle’s harsh stare “So how do you two321Please respect copyright.PENANATz8NvDHG9c
fancy any of it?”321Please respect copyright.PENANA1JVO6sX2o5
“We all have our orders Red...” Dhanel Marce concluded before any of the others321Please respect copyright.PENANA9IG62etkli
could toss in the slightest contribution. A short but still awkward silence followed.321Please respect copyright.PENANAKtKhTHfY89
The storm still has them, over this entire region those clouds, always ruthless, do not321Please respect copyright.PENANAPN4RrHeBcQ
know the meaning of relent and ever do they allow anyone under their gaze to stay dry321Please respect copyright.PENANAU43pLIPZ6y
or warm, for even the slightest amount of time. Closer to the edge of what was once321Please respect copyright.PENANAcSHc9zDhd2
a lively Brosse, now six instead of five, are experiencing the local weather, an ongoing321Please respect copyright.PENANAnYohxjldIc
storm that shows no signs of dispersion or the slightest weakness.321Please respect copyright.PENANAsivXWyYyZB
“You are not wearing your mask.” Deena pointed out.321Please respect copyright.PENANA5SFdVuFfSs
“You don’t need that type of mask here Deena...” Red looked around once again as321Please respect copyright.PENANABdL4CW7Ldo
if he was looking for something, and every time he did, one could tell he did not see321Please respect copyright.PENANAuvxgnt1Sw4
this place like any of the others “Besides I like to see the world as it really is, experience321Please respect copyright.PENANADcd0vANaG2
it as it really is...”321Please respect copyright.PENANAZWrbJ0aWoJ
“Boss,” says Harigar Rhim “we need to get moving.”321Please respect copyright.PENANALiOMeGZBL7
“Wait a moment” Red then widened his eyes “Where is Elistia?”321Please respect copyright.PENANAbcHg3WYsVQ
“After you left, she was never the same again Red, she changed...” Dhanel Marce321Please respect copyright.PENANAHyCyVB7Mdo
ignored Harigar Rhim and kept on talking, as if the sun was shining and his own voice321Please respect copyright.PENANAkmnxO48vPj
wasn’t being muffled by his mask or the heavy rain “...her focus and her strength were321Please respect copyright.PENANAHrPdwDdrAs
no longer there as she started to often endanger the success of our missions and most321Please respect copyright.PENANAa3LpoYQtJJ
importantly, her wellbeing. More than once either I or another, had to step in for her321Please respect copyright.PENANAx0QlRi7Tj6
sake; we suddenly began finding ourselves intervening often in inexplicably made dire321Please respect copyright.PENANAbzrR7knVpa
situations, and whereas before she could have just handled them easily and gracefully321Please respect copyright.PENANADvSwPhNPS1
all by herself, now, now if not for us, she would have surely lost it all. Everyone here,321Please respect copyright.PENANA4QfA7zc3nV
except for Lorian who took her place, has saved her life more than once, and me more321Please respect copyright.PENANAlEz3paTuRu
than I would like to count.321Please respect copyright.PENANASWOBFTFAxH
We slowly started noticing, all of us, that she had lost something shortly after your321Please respect copyright.PENANAeafE6KfJa0
departure; either her heart or her mind or maybe both. Something just wasn’t there321Please respect copyright.PENANAevI8m5wqQO
anymore after you left which is, I think, understandable.