Somewhere in Hell...
The air here didn't move. It hung—heavy, scorched, metallic—like it had been exhaled by something ancient and long dead.
Varyselle was led down the path by two hulking jailers, her wrists bound in soulsteel, a cursed alloy that hummed with Djinn-dead magic. If she was surprised by the destination, she didn't show it.
Ahead, Zariel stood with his back to them. He had been forced to leave the Sea, and by that, fully welcomed his demon side.
He didn't turn when they stopped behind him.
"Grayclaw," he said flatly.
Fenric, standing beside the escort, offered a half-bow with the lazy charm of someone who knew his own worth. His eyes—predator sharp—flicked once to Varyselle, then to Zariel.
"Payment. As agreed."
Zariel turned. Slowly. His gaze scanned Varyselle with calculation. He studied her the way a general studied a weak point in the enemy's wall.
"She's smaller than I imagined," he murmured.
"She bites harder than she looks," Fenric replied.
Varyselle said nothing. But her eyes locked onto Zariel's— burning with all the fury she hadn't spent screaming.
Zariel stepped forward. The guards tensed. He waved them off without looking. They obeyed instantly. That said enough about who stood highest here.
He leaned in, his voice almost soft. "You think you're still important. That's what I'll break first."
She smiled. "You'll need better hands."
Zariel's face didn't change. He wasn't a man of threats. He was the consequence that came after.
"To the rune vault," he told the guards. "The deep one."
Fenric folded his arms. "Still using the same cell design?"
"It still works," Zariel said. "Even on creatures who think love makes them immune."
He turned to Fenric. "And your part is done. You'll be paid in territory."
"I'll take the lower east of Thalantis," Fenric said. "Strip out the old Leviathan tombs. I hear the blood clots there glow."
"Yours," Zariel answered.
They shook hands, cold and brief.
However Zariel wasn't sure weather Fenric could get the territory. He had staked Thal'Zaron's kingdom. He sighed, irritated. He hated making unnecessary enemies, and the Sea King was a bad one.
Varyselle was taken down into the stone without looking back. But as the guards led her, she spoke—just loud enough.
"Kill me you Bastard"
Zariel watched her vanish into the dark.
"I don't kill pieces," he murmured. "I use them."