I was getting fed up but what did I care. There was no actual reason for to care. I was only worried about so very selective people down there, and Maggie really happened to not have a moral compass. I don’t know if there was any point in her life eight thousand years ago where she did, but whatever compass she once had clearly stopped pointing north a long ti ago.
So all of this was just trying not to put everyone in trouble because of my summon, and then here I was explaining that to them and this bastard was telling no?
’What the fuck. No, what the actual fuck? They can all go die for all I care.’
I inhaled and exhaled, saving myself so peace.
anwhile, Atlas was still staring down from the window. Sothing was happening on the battlefield below. Maggie was finally moving, but the cloud of dust that shrouded the entire field drowned everything, even the sounds that should have been coming out. There were screams though. Really loud, really ugly screams that clawed through the dust like the dust ant nothing.
The man did not mind them. He leaned his jaw on his arms and watched with delight in his eyes.
It was uncomfortable to watch.
’He’s insane.’
"Hey, well then, why should I care. Take to this Auction."
He finally leaned away from the window and looked at . His dark, elderly gaze returned to what it had been when I first t him, composed and asured, like the man who had been savoring screams a mont ago didn’t exist. But there was no way. Simply changing the look in his eyes and giving off the air of a serious man was not going to win back the respect I had just lost for him.
He extended his hand forward.
"Here, Lord Cade, let’s escort you."
I still didn’t understand the respect they were giving . I hated it, in fact. At a ti like this, I rembered back ho with Kassie and how she really always disrespected , especially with that damn new girl she picked off slavery. The one I had been so enthusiastic to save.
’A man sotis chooses the poison that kills him.’
But here, I felt important, and honestly, as strange as it felt, it was slightly intoxicating. The kind of intoxicating where you know you should spit it out but you keep swallowing anyway.
I was walking beside Atlas. Lady Fintan moved silently behind us, and there were more Commanders, about seven of them, all drenched in ominous armor with crimson capes billowing at their backs. This was a procession that made you look important whether you wanted to or not.
People parted across the hallway for us. They skittered to the side, threw themselves out of the way when they needed to, and all of this was sowhat on account of . It shouldn’t have felt good but it did.
We entered the first main hall of the castle, the one I’d seen earlier with several tables covered in paperwork. Soldiers were running into the castle with sweat and gri and blood on their faces, whispering into the ears of those closest to the door, who carried it to the n at the tables. The n who ran in hastily ran back outside. A war machine grinding along without pause.
But we didn’t wait long enough to see another co in, because we were already ascending a staircase that led us far upward. The hall had gone silent. Everyone was looking at the strange boy walking with their commanders, although the tall man beside was stealing the spotlight more than he should have been.
At so point he apologized.
"I’m sorry if the stares bother you. There’s no official statent yet, but I doubt anyone around here knows how to keep a secret."
I simply nodded and said nothing while we continued forward.
We passed through another hallway and entered a double-door lift. It carried us downward. The descent took a few monts, but when we were finally down, Atlas did not simply open the door. He touched a lever, brought out a key and turned it in the keyhole beneath the lever, after which he was able to move it freely.
He turned it down and right again. The small room we were encased in plunged downward with terrifying speed. My stomach lurched, and it took everything in not to stagger and fall. In that mont, I knew we were beneath the ground. Far beneath it.
It finally stopped.
The lights across a hallway began to snap open one by one, tracing a path down the tunnel and lighting everything up.
He stepped out. I followed. Lady Fintan did too, but the rest of the Commanders simply bowed, and as we closed the door behind us, they were drifting upward imdiately.
Atlas stood silently for a mont, staring at the tunnel of lights that seed to stretch endlessly.
No. That wasn’t quite it. The tunnel actually did stretch endlessly. There was a flood of lights that brightened the path downward, and that was exactly why I could see the problem.
There was no end to this tunnel. Just light flooding into nothing.
Atlas exhaled. He looked stressed all of a sudden.
"Ah, goodness. Lady Fintan, would you do the honors?"
The Fox Lady stepped forward. Without the tail obscuring her from behind, every part of her shifted with that unnatural weight she carried, a body built for a kind of violence that the softness of it begged you to forget.
She sent her hand forward imdiately. Her fingers straightened, she struck the space itself.
I didn’t know how that was possible, but it was. That strike rippled across what must have been several kiloters, and the tunnel trembled. Lightly at first. Then the ground began to split and cracks ran across the walls, tearing everything apart.
I staggered, thrown by the imbalance of what my eyes were seeing, but at the sa ti, my feet were perfectly stable on the ground beneath .
’No earthquake?’
Atlas looked ahead, smiling. He did not spare a glance.
"Don’t be deceived by sight. That’s her area of peculiarity."
"Who?"
Before I could even finish the question, Atlas had lowered his head slightly in a bow.
"Lady Hue of the Vanatian House. Humbled to be before your presence."
A lady stood where the tunnel had been. Energy radiated from her like a flood that made my body tremble as if I’d be swallowed whole if I didn’t sit still. But when she spoke, her voice cooled everything down to nothing. Like the surface of water that had never once been disturbed.
"Colonel Atlas. What brings you to this place at this hour?"
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