Lyca looked out his window at the dusky sky as he stroked Eliza’s delicate hair. Full moon had e again. Eliza had e specifically to watch over him again. She fiddled with the box of sleeping pills Anassa had given him. “There’s just three left.” She whispered quietly, her voice like a soft breeze as to not disturb the two of them. “Take two today, you’re building up a tolerao them.”

  Arascus tapped the report detailing the clusion of Operation SkyStealer. Iliyal stood before him, his uniform formal as always, a bck suit with a sword on his belt, dressed much like Arascus apart from the God’s ck of needless onry. “Good thing you stayed befoing off for training.” Arascus said slowly. A thousahs were a statistic, a single death was a tragedy.

  Today, he had to expin a tragedy to Iliyal.

  “It’s bad, isn’t it?” The elf replied, he knew Arascus too well. The God nodded slowly as he leaned ba his massive seat. His office was once a storeroom, remodelled and redesigo hold a massive desk oversized for humans and a chair which would have made an emperor brush. Arascus slowly o Iliyal’s question. “Ilwin?”

  “It is. The other teams succeeded and brought their pnes back. The Pepayel heist got three pnes off the ground. One crashed shortly after take-off. Another developed a fuel leak mid-air, the first oo set was the only one which made it.” Iliyal stood there, unfazed and shook his head.

  “Do we have firmation of what happened?”

  “It’s most likely going to be on the news. Videos have appeared oer already.” The i was the single greatest ge Arascus had to deal with. Before, it was only the most advanced magics whiassa had to weave herself to allow for instant unication, now every fool could send whatever bbber they were thinking to everyone else.

  “What happened?” Arascus flipped open the report and pulled out a picture. It was zoomed in and low-quality, but it said everything that o be said. A massive blue and white 77T transport p’s bottom torn open, its wheel missiing on a runway like a ginormous beached whale. In front of it, a woman in a simple dress. There uddle of vomit at her feet. “Leona.” Iliyal’s mouth twisted as if it was trying to for anvil.

  “Leona indeed.” Arascus firmed. He could be asleep for ten million years and he would never fet Lady Luck.

  “Then there was nothing to be done.” Iliyal said. “I was worried my grandson had made a mistake but against her?” He shook his head.

  “We do have a problem however.” Arascus tinued. “And that is the security of this base.” Iliyal’s face grew darker.

  “We gave them suicide pills.” Iliyal said it because it o be said, they both khe answer already.

  “Even with the pills, we , at best, assume maybe half took them. We’re dealing with Leona so the worst case sario happened, no oook it.”

  “Then we have a problem.”

  “How long would you give us before they find us?” Arascus asked and Iliyal chuckled. His blue eyes carried no mirth though.

  “We could have an expeditionary foing down on us right now.”

  “Then it’s time to accelerate pns. You’re no loasked with training troops, delegate it to someone else. Go assist Mikhail on the nes.”

  “I should help him with what exactly?” Any other man would crumble in fear before a God, asking him to crify a question would be simply unheard of. That was the exact reason Iliyal had been a general in the past and now was Arascus’ right hand.

  “Make sure everything goes smoothly for the man. If he est subjects, you will get him them. If he needs materials, you’ll get them. If he needs more pnes, you’ll get them.” Arascus tapped the repain. “It’s not glorious work, but it has to be done.”

  “It has to be done, so it shall be done.” Iliyal replied. There was no hint of deje or annoyan his voice. “

  “I’ll have pns written up for dealing with Leona. She has to go.” Iliyal thumbed the hilt of his sword.

  “We made this mistake st time.” He said.

  “We’re not making it again. If we ot defeat Leona, then we ot win. There is no point wasting time pying at war when one side has Lady Luck. If we lose.” Arascus shrugged. “Then we’ll have saved ourselves a tury-long hassle.” Iliyal saluted, made a move to leave and then stopped himself mid-turn.

  “There is one more thing.”

  “What is it?”

  “My grandson chose the men well, none of them know about this location. The only one who could leak the secret is Ilwin himself.” Arascus gave the elf a slow nod. Ilwin was the man’s family, of course Iliyal would trust his own grandson. He had known the boy for just over half a year, he had no faults, but there was nothing exceptional about him either.

  “The’s hope he does not.”