Caleb listened without moving.

"You are certain of the timing." He said when Jackey finished.

"Yes, my lord." Jackey said.

Another silence.

Caleb turned from the window and looked at the room without looking at Jackey specifically, his expression doing nothing visible, just thinking in the particular way he thought when he had reached a conclusion and was now working through the logistics of what that conclusion required.

"The lost elven city." He said. "When we enter, I will need you to ensure certain things about the composition of our group." He paused. "Specifically, I will need Rabid Wolf with us."

Jackey’s expression moved slightly, careful and controlled.

Rabid Wolf was not a name that appeared in casual conversation. He was the king’s right hand fighter, a werewolf of considerable age and considerably more scars, each one of which had a story attached to it that ended badly for whoever had been on the other side of the encounter. He did not travel unless the king sent him somewhere, and the king had not sent him anywhere recently.

"My lord." Jackey said carefully. "Rabid Wolf’s deployment typically requires the king’s direct authorisation, and the expedition to the lost elven city has not yet been formally—"

"I am aware of the protocol." Caleb said, his voice carrying no particular heat, just a flat and total certainty. "Bring him to me."

Jackey stayed where he was for a moment, the conflict between his understanding of correct procedure and his very clear read of the current room working itself out behind his expression.

"Yes, my lord." He said, and went.

Rabid Wolf arrived twenty minutes later, which said something about where he had been and how quickly he moved when summoned. He was large in the way that came from actual use rather than cultivation, his frame carrying the particular density of someone who had been in enough serious situations that the body had simply adapted to the requirements. The scars were exactly as described by reputation, numerous and varied, distributed across his face and forearms and the parts of his neck visible above his collar, each one sitting with the settled quality of old work.

He looked at Caleb with the direct and entirely unsentimental expression of someone who respected authority in direct proportion to whether it had earned that respect, and had met enough lords in his time to have developed a comprehensive personal scale for the measurement.

"My lord." He said. A greeting and nothing more.

"Sit." Caleb said.

Rabid Wolf sat, which already said something, because he was not someone who sat when told to sit by anyone he did not consider worth sitting for.

Caleb looked at him directly. "I am going to the lost elven city when the access opens. I want you with me."

Rabid Wolf was quiet for a moment, his expression not changing.

"The king has not authorised this expedition." He said. Not a refusal, a statement of fact placed on the table for acknowledgment.

"The king will be informed." Caleb said. "This is not something that requires his approval in advance, it is something that requires his acknowledgment after the fact, which is a different thing." He paused. "You know that."

Rabid Wolf looked at him with the expression of someone who knew exactly what the difference was and had opinions about it that he was currently keeping to himself.

"There is someone there I want dealt with." Caleb said, and his voice carried the quality of something that had been decided well before this conversation began and did not require the conversation to complete it. "Cleanly and with finality, in an environment where such things are difficult to trace and easy to attribute to the natural dangers of the location." He met Rabid Wolf’s eyes. "This is the kind of work you were made for."

Rabid Wolf considered this without visible hurry. His expression moved through something that was not enthusiasm exactly but was adjacent to it, the particular quality of someone who had spent a long time doing a specific thing and had never stopped finding it compelling.

"Who?" He asked.

"A human lord." Caleb said. "Young, 1st Origin by his mark, though his actual strength is considerably higher than that suggests. He is not someone to approach carelessly." He paused. "That is why I am asking you specifically and not someone else."

Rabid Wolf looked at him for a long moment.

"The king will want to know." He said.

"I will tell him." Caleb said. "After."

Another silence, longer this time, the weight of the procedural objection sitting between them while Rabid Wolf’s actual inclination worked against it from the other side.

"The elven city." Rabid Wolf said, as though tasting the idea. "I have not been inside one of those in a long time." He paused. "There are usually good fights to be had in places like that."

"There will be." Caleb said.

Rabid Wolf picked up the glass that Jackey had left on the table beside his chair, looked at the contents, drank most of it in one motion, and set it back down.

"Alright." He said.

Jane stood at the towering iron gates of the Aven family settlement with her heart heavy from everything she had just witnessed inside.

The cold night wind sliced across her face like an invisible frost blade that carried the weight of all her regrets and fury at once.

The two moons hung heavy and low in the sky while their silver light painted the polished marble paths and ornate spires in cold mocking shades of white and blue.

Her golden blonde hair whipped wildly around her shoulders with strands sticking to the tear-streaked cheeks she no longer bothered to wipe away in her anger.

Her fists were clenched so tight that her nails dug deep into her palms causing tiny drops of blood to fall silently onto the stone beneath her boots without her noticing.

"Greedy bastards the lot of them," she whispered in a voice that was hoarse and raw from all the shouting that had filled the hall just minutes earlier.

Her father Robert’s smug laughter still rang in her ears along with the way he had bragged about placing the highest bounty on Neil through the Mad Dogs and the marriage proposal to that rabid dog Caleb.

The way he thought he could control everything for the family’s rise made her blood boil while Grandfather Tred exploded in rage not because he cared about Neil’s life but because the Shadow Empress’s direct offer was now at risk of being ruined.

Profits status and climbing higher were all they ever saw in this world while Neil was nothing more than a tool a threat or a stepping stone to them in their twisted plans.

Not to her and never to her no matter what happened from this point onward.

"I’m done with all of you once and for all," she said louder this time as the words carried on the wind like a vow etched deep into her soul with unbreakable resolve.

Her chest tightened with that familiar stabbing pain from the heart condition that had started the day they forced her to break up with him through their threats and manipulation.

The Dragon Empress’s brutal training the dangerous realms that had nearly killed her and the sleepless nights where she cried until her eyes burned raw had all been for one single reason that still burned inside her.

To become strong enough to stand beside Neil again even if it meant sharing him with others after everything that had happened between them.

She didn’t care anymore if he had other women because Cynthia had claimed him publicly as her husband and there was probably someone else too who had been there when Jane couldn’t be by his side.

Jane’s stomach twisted with a sharp hot stab of jealousy but she shoved it down deep into the pit of her stomach where it belonged right now.

Sharing his heart was still better than living without him entirely in this cold and dangerous world they all inhabited.

She would rather be the third woman the fourth or even the tenth than go back to that poisoned family of greedy pigs who only cared about their own power.

With one final glance over her shoulder at the glittering lights of the settlement she was abandoning forever Jane crushed the teleportation token in her palm with determined force.

Spatial energy exploded around her in a violent swirl of blue light and the world blurred into nothingness as she left everything behind without a single regret.

When the light faded she stood in the chaotic outer perimeter of Settlement Number 2 where dust kicked up around her boots from the busy streets filled with activity.

The air smelled thick with sweat and roasted meat from late-night street stalls mixed with the sharp metallic tang of essence being refined in nearby workshops all around her.

Lords and their subjects moved in hurried groups with some laughing loudly while others shouted orders and guards patrolled the high walls with wary eyes scanning for any trouble.

Jane didn’t waste even a second as she grabbed the first guard she saw with her voice urgent and edged with steel from the determination burning inside her.

"Neil Yates and his domain where is it exactly right now I need to find him immediately without any delay at all."

The man blinked at her tear-stained face and fierce expression then pointed quickly while explaining the location in a hurried tone that matched her urgency.

❖❖❖

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