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‘Facade?’ said Roman. ‘I’m not pretending to be happy. I am happy. For the most part. I mean, what have I got to complain about?’

‘Don’t do that,’ said Voreese, her tone abruptly more severe. ‘Don’t minimize yourself. We both know you’ve been through a lot, my dear.’

‘I’m just saying: I’m fine. You don’t need to worry so much.’

‘Roman, it’s one thing to keep a stiff upper lip and get on with your life. That’s great. Admirable, even. It’s another thing to pretend nothing ever happened in the first place. Especially if you’re on a journey of “self-reflection,” as you say.’

Maybe she had a point. It was rare to get this more serious, almost motherly side of her. She seemed to reserve it for when she really wanted him to listen.

Or at least, that was his impression.

He made no response, however, and just let her words sink in.

They finally made it out of the tower, but rather than heading straight for the Tower of Night to find Gina, Roman was made to stop and wonder what was going on in the central courtyard, instead. A crowd had gathered.

Voreese flew ahead of him and consulted the nearest reaper. ‘Has something happened?’ she asked.

‘Ill news from Vantalay,’ said the other reaper, whose name Roman could not recall. ‘Apparently, after getting into a disagreement with the other heads, Lord Elroy has disappeared.’


Chapter Two Hundred Ninety-Eight: ‘Shadow of the Dragon...’
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The battle with Kallmakk went on for days and carried all of them across the vast expanses of the Ardoran continent. Several times, he thought they might’ve left some of the Vanguardians behind entirely, but most of them eventually caught back up and continued the fight.

In the beginning, he didn’t even know the feldeath’s name, but Morgunov eventually ended up explaining quite a bit, during the fleeting moments of downtime that they managed to acquire for themselves in the midst of all the chaos.

Gohvis-Aeha wished he hadn’t been saddled with this mission. Of all the places to be deployed, this had to have been the shittiest one, right? He was virtually certain. If he had more opportunity to meditate and convene with the others, then he would’ve confirmed it. And complained to them, no doubt.

As it was, though, he could only maintain a weak node within the network--and even that ended up getting destroyed repeatedly and needing to be rebuilt each time the fight demanded too much of his concentration.