![](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 one120Please respect copyright.PENANAyiY0ukdOto
that seemed like it had a long time coming. She had a harder time than the others in120Please respect copyright.PENANAk8gXeyr4pk
holding her posture.120Please respect copyright.PENANARZ3vBDDRNG
“Celle, Lorian... this is Red.” Dhanel Marce introduced him in such a short manner.120Please respect copyright.PENANAwGXLXzP1KL
“He is an old friend of ours and a former member of the Hand.” The new figure was120Please respect copyright.PENANAgN2caYgHOb
a bigger man; slightly taller and larger than any other here and as he pulled his blue120Please respect copyright.PENANAEwfJ1AIUcj
hood back, he revealed his red hair and his red beard. Both coloured in vivid, almost120Please respect copyright.PENANA5TvbMQyRhl
flaming tones as if they were trying to match the very flames on his back.120Please respect copyright.PENANAOlRsKtZERl
“What are you doing here? Answer me.” Celle takes a few steps forward.120Please respect copyright.PENANAtLsFcM1vKr
“You could say I still live here...” his voice matches the rest of him, deep and steady...
“No one lives here...” she insisted.120Please respect copyright.PENANAsjsVXae21X
“That is enough Celle.” Dhanel Marce requested.120Please respect copyright.PENANADVLaqjXD9b
“Down girl.” Red did not care how much he could infuriate her; instead, his eyes120Please respect copyright.PENANABLWZlOzm1o
were now turned to Lorian, the quiet and more aloof of the group “And you?”120Please respect copyright.PENANAaDhUemG7RG
“...” the silent companion looked instead towards that mountain...120Please respect copyright.PENANAJr1zP5ubp5
“Not much of a talker I see...” Red looked at him from hood to boot “I like that.”120Please respect copyright.PENANAMdA4RDmdhu
Celle insisted: “Sir who might this haphazard figure be?”120Please respect copyright.PENANAOurRPv4lLh
“Disobedient and rude...” Red barely ever looked at her, and he didn’t seem fazed120Please respect copyright.PENANAe4y9T6X08k
by any of her words or stares either “So is this what you drag behind you these days?”120Please respect copyright.PENANABx8EIPfRXN
“Everyone here has definitely earned their place” Dhanel Marce manages to halt120Please respect copyright.PENANAjHzeuuly3D
Celle right before she can sneak in another word “just as they did in your days...” he120Please respect copyright.PENANAOZywojTqFT
smiles “that hasn’t changed my old friend. Nothing has really.”120Please respect copyright.PENANAd8a4gDZHcM
“I am not so sure about that.” Red keeps looking around at them, one by one...120Please respect copyright.PENANAnLm4lfhU9n
“Sir I must intercede, we should not...” but Dhanel Marce cut her off once again...120Please respect copyright.PENANA0oUPHRinwO
“Celle, please...” he asked... “Celle here became your replacement Red, after... well,120Please respect copyright.PENANAW0FoSXifj7
you decided to take your leave of absence, and she has been exerting the same position120Please respect copyright.PENANAwxCjJIkIn7
you did from day one. Needless to say, she is most capable and very much worthy of120Please respect copyright.PENANA3e5VAuBTqw
such responsibility as my second in command. She holds my utmost confidence.”120Please respect copyright.PENANAOF4rbi97jC
Perhaps the captain of the Hand said these words with ambiguous intent, so at the120Please respect copyright.PENANAuGVmuSLdTF
same time safeguard himself against any further implications from Red, as well as120Please respect copyright.PENANAq4GcNQsTs8
to prevent any falser steps from Celle. Or perhaps he did not see that far ahead and120Please respect copyright.PENANA2u0uG5yDyN
simply told the truth, regardless of it worked both ways even if only for a short while.120Please respect copyright.PENANAYzvH9fi9kU
Red looked around once more and then his eyes stopped on the other two; Deena and120Please respect copyright.PENANAUVI5rjujMF
Harigar Rhim whom he has been friends with for a very long time, he looked straight120Please respect copyright.PENANA6mXj3pKmDW
at them...120Please respect copyright.PENANA2dUR6vTych
“No promotion for any of you I reckon. Not a single sample of acknowledgement to120Please respect copyright.PENANAaUACRnblF9
those serving long before this one came to join. She just tagged along and immediately120Please respect copyright.PENANA9vobujvRfO
started running things? I wonder if your king might have found himself a new120Please respect copyright.PENANAb7at9n2HaK
favourite...” he pauses a bit as he easily reflects Celle’s harsh stare “So how do you two120Please respect copyright.PENANAXmxcjyQHLh
fancy any of it?”120Please respect copyright.PENANAry3AWlX9LH
“We all have our orders Red...” Dhanel Marce concluded before any of the others120Please respect copyright.PENANAyYHOw3GaxN
could toss in the slightest contribution. A short but still awkward silence followed.120Please respect copyright.PENANA6HQwQXAaDo
The storm still has them, over this entire region those clouds, always ruthless, do not120Please respect copyright.PENANA94y0gS7B5Z
know the meaning of relent and ever do they allow anyone under their gaze to stay dry120Please respect copyright.PENANAzamuVll9WI
or warm, for even the slightest amount of time. Closer to the edge of what was once120Please respect copyright.PENANAyUrlOVl4RU
a lively Brosse, now six instead of five, are experiencing the local weather, an ongoing120Please respect copyright.PENANAoEkGNROgW6
storm that shows no signs of dispersion or the slightest weakness.120Please respect copyright.PENANAn8O2Ax25sU
“You are not wearing your mask.” Deena pointed out.120Please respect copyright.PENANAA8gpg9IwS6
“You don’t need that type of mask here Deena...” Red looked around once again as120Please respect copyright.PENANAGV2BOGhWcW
if he was looking for something, and every time he did, one could tell he did not see120Please respect copyright.PENANAVBZKBTfblj
this place like any of the others “Besides I like to see the world as it really is, experience120Please respect copyright.PENANAPRidxuK2Gk
it as it really is...”120Please respect copyright.PENANApvyADthTAN
“Boss,” says Harigar Rhim “we need to get moving.”120Please respect copyright.PENANAc1QUeFxKJm
“Wait a moment” Red then widened his eyes “Where is Elistia?”120Please respect copyright.PENANABfDGpSEccS
“After you left, she was never the same again Red, she changed...” Dhanel Marce120Please respect copyright.PENANAKh7PNYff8i
ignored Harigar Rhim and kept on talking, as if the sun was shining and his own voice120Please respect copyright.PENANA4uu50hnZF9
wasn’t being muffled by his mask or the heavy rain “...her focus and her strength were120Please respect copyright.PENANASGpklnZ1WM
no longer there as she started to often endanger the success of our missions and most120Please respect copyright.PENANAXDE0caAH6v
importantly, her wellbeing. More than once either I or another, had to step in for her120Please respect copyright.PENANAKSmhqVHG1Q
sake; we suddenly began finding ourselves intervening often in inexplicably made dire120Please respect copyright.PENANAkTQz0qMhsk
situations, and whereas before she could have just handled them easily and gracefully120Please respect copyright.PENANAVRgJVocWxx
all by herself, now, now if not for us, she would have surely lost it all. Everyone here,120Please respect copyright.PENANAbSnyV0Lfis
except for Lorian who took her place, has saved her life more than once, and me more120Please respect copyright.PENANAEH2qUsEqNy
than I would like to count.120Please respect copyright.PENANAQSKMJEs0KW
We slowly started noticing, all of us, that she had lost something shortly after your120Please respect copyright.PENANAj4brO8FubB
departure; either her heart or her mind or maybe both. Something just wasn’t there120Please respect copyright.PENANA8EI8mmNsmi
anymore after you left which is, I think, understandable.