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Hey there guys, back from my two day vacay with lions bears and tigers and one hell of a sunburn. Before the chapter starts I have a little optional questionaire to gauge audience opinions.

Here it is: Who's your favourite character and who would you like to see under a semi going 130 km/hr?

You can comment here whenever you want, and your feedback is truly valuable.

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          Vera could feel a warm puddle forming in her mouth, slick and salty as it gushed from a gouge in her tongue. The attack Truvius delivered had been expected, but aiming directly for her face and forcing her to bite her own tongue was not a situation she had prepared for.

          Regardless of the circumstances, Vera hadn't a shred of remorse. She was exactly where she wanted to be.

          "Do you want to stop off at the bathroom?" Truvius said, his voice a weak whisper in her presence. He was doing everything he could to avoid eye contact, a glimpse of her face enough to leave him sickly pale at his actions. "I'm sorry..."

          "For what?" Vera replied, underestimating the well of blood in her mouth as some of it bubbled out onto the floor. She slipped a handkerchief from her pocket, the white cloth quickly turning red as she spat in it, paying Truvius an evil grin as he stared. "Not surprised you went with a sneak attack."

          "I didn't mean to hit you in the face, I was going to go lower but..." He stopped, swallowing a spurt of nausea as saw the bloodied handkerchief Vera was dabbing her tongue with. "I went too fast. I didn't mean to hurt you..."

          "I bet you'll be thinking that exact thing when you and Ray go through with whatever you have planned for Káel." 

          Vera pressed the cloth against her tongue, the corners of her lips curving as she stared at Truvius. He was working up an excuse, but even a second of silence paid to her statement condemned his words as a blatant lie.

          "About the library, we were talking about a surprise party for Káel."

          She smiled. 

          There it was.

          "A surprise party that only you and Ray were planning?" 

          Truvius diverted his attention to the floor, anxiously pinching at the flesh of his palms. "We decided not to do it." 

          Vera winced as she pressed too hard, pulling her tongue back in to feel the swollen lump clogging most of the stream. "So what were all those other meetings then?"

          Truvius froze, his legs stiffening as he skimmed the empty corridor for guests. "How did you...?"

          "Please," Vera sighed, snapping her fingers for Truvius to keep following. "You're way easier to stalk than Káel." Her chest swarmed with excitement at the fear growing in Truvius' eyes, the ring in her voice played by sarcastic mind. "And the best part is I didn't even have to follow you, you literally just gave it away."

          Truvius' mouth hung with dead words, moving in the hopes of chugging out a response before he gave up and simply closed it. 

          Vera knew her laughter didn't help, a silent chuckle wracking her shoulders as she pressed the mostly soaked cloth to her mouth. They were fast approaching the nursing quarters, the forced ending to the window of opportunity she had planned out and she had yet to make her point.

          But that was hardly a problem for her.

          Dropping the bloodied rag she gripped a handful of Truvius' uniform, ripping him off his feet and into one of the smaller corridors branching from the hall. Truvius was scrawny enough for her to throw him up with one arm, the element of surprise working to her advantage as he didn't even struggle against the treatment, his widened eyes skimming her expression with more fear than confusion.

          "Confusion is innocence," Vera hissed, her fist twisting into Truvius' collar to keep him still. "Fear is guilt."

          "Then I'm very confused," Truvius whimpered, shrinking into his clothes as Vera muttered a spell under her breath, a sound blocking shield surrounding them in a bubble of silence.

          Vera swallowed back the blood pooling in her mouth, fueled by the growing pain in her mouth as a soft and trilling whistle escaping her lips to call Cinder to her shoulder. "I'm not sure if you're aware, but Latos is one of the best places to send people who won't talk." She whispered, sharpening her voice into a blade that she could press against Truvius' throat. "I've picked up more than enough tips from their very best interrogators."

          Truvius didn't waste a second under the pressure of her gaze. "There's actually something following Káel, Ray caught him-" 

          "I don't want to hear it, Káel does," Vera snapped, a crackle of fire sparking off Cinder as she pressed Truvius into the wall. "I know you went to Ray to get him to help you spy on Káel, so you're going to tell Káel everything and make sure Ray's plan is completely unsalvageable."

          "There could be a Novan following him around!" Truvius retorted, trying to loosen her fist as her knuckles dug into his neck. But the more he squirmed the harder she pressed, feeling her fist dig into his windpipe and choke out his words. "He could be in danger!"

          "He has a wild Sandregian ice drake for a guardian, I didn't see you investigating if Puff would devour him for breakfast," Vera spat, dropping Truvius' collar to shoot her other hand out and grip him by the hair, dragging him close to whisper in his ear. "I've seen children in dungeons paired as cellmates to proven murderers and violent street filfth for being Novans and Garaean, crying for their parents that hit the chopping block weeks ago." She dug her nails into Truvius' scalp until he yelped, his shaking breaths quickening with the jolt of pain. "I didn't have a great first impression with Novans, the first one I met even tried to gut me in the woods. That doesn't mean I'm going to go hysteric if someone sneezes and it sounds like they whispered Novan."

          Truvius couldn't work up any words, his face hidden from the shame of making any sort of eye contact as Vera kept a firm grip of his hair. In the silence she could feel his body shaking. Another sign that the interrogation was going perfectly.

          "Shame on you, he's going home in four days anyways," Vera seethed, slowly untangling her fingers from his hair and wiping a spot of blood that had escaped her split lip.

          Truvius didn't lift his head, pulling his hands up to rub something from his face as he gave out a withered reply. "He's not."

          "Pardon?"

          Truvius tried to swallow his quivering voice, his distress was even clearer with the struggle as Vera noticed the dabs of wetness on his cuffs. "Ray can't take him back."

          She sank in the weight of his words, the secret Truvius had been lugging around now tossed to weigh on her shoulders. But what burned at her mind the most was one simple question.

          When?

          When did Truvius find this out? Be it a week or a handful of hours since hearing the news, he had every chance to tell Káel. Every chance to do at least one thing to improve his standing before her and make him less deserving of her next move.

          Vera grabbed Truvius' shoulders, driving her knee into his stomach and helping him to the ground with a shove.

          He had every chance.

          Every chance to right himself. So now she was going to make sure fear wasn't an excuse to bite his own tongue.

          "Nightfall," she growled, her lips curling into a scowl as Truvius hugged his knees to hide his face. "I'll walk myself to the nursing wing, coward."

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          Káel watched the ceiling, fidgeting with a pencil that he was bouncing between his fingers as Puff licked at his hair. Truvius had missed the last classes of the day, looking as if he'd holed himself up in the room until Káel got there, reading through his notes with an aura that permeated depression into every crack of the space.

          He'd been in the state for at least an hour, the underside of his eyes slightly swollen, with a spare cloth on his pillow for dabbing at his nose whenever he sniffled. 

          "Do you often stare at people that are clearly in distress?" Phantom whispered, so close to Káel's ear he flinched at the sound.

          Káel looked at Phantom helplessly mouthing 'what' at him.

          "Don't look at me, I'm not your mother," Phantom retorted. "He's your friend, you should know how to talk to him."

          Káel slowly turned his head to Truvius, silently watching him as he read a small book with his unwavering look of sorrow. "You okay dude?"

          Truvius slowly closed his book, taking in a deep breath to compose himself. "I have a question."

          "Yes...?"

          "When you look over your shoulder, there's something standing there... right?"

          Káel froze, the blunt force of Truvius' question catching him completely off guard. "No...? What makes you say that?"

          A miniscule smirk flashed across Truvius' face. "Yeah, I knew you'd say that."

          "I don't like where this is going," Phantom cut in, watching Truvius walk into the study room. "Should have left him moping."

          "You-" Káel stopping as Truvius came out holding a large metal book. He dropped at the foot of Káel's bed, disturbing Jeremiah who had rolled up into a little ball to sleep and forcing Káel to lean up and interrupt Puff's grooming session. He stared at large book, tilting his head to skim the cover 'A Complete History of the Whitecrown Kingdom.' "What's this...?"

          Truvius flipped through the pages while Káel craned to look at them, all the while listening to Phantom mutter his discomfort as he paced about the room. Finding his page, Truvius stopped at a divide covered with sheets of crinkled lined paper carefully shoved into its spine.

          "I don't like this," Phantom said, watching Truvius remove the pile of lined paper and spread the sheets of one sided conversations onto Káel's bed.

          Káel had opened his mouth to speak, but paused for a couple seconds at the scene before him. "You sifted through my trash?"

          "Yeah," Truvius replied blatantly. "But that's not it."

          Káel looked at the page he was pointing at, freezing up even more when he saw the familiar picture. Despite all the gory scenery surrounding the spine-chilling figure, it was unmistakably Phantom.

          "This look familiar to you?"

          A misgiving force crawled through Káel's chest, his gaze darting to Phantom as he silently shook his head. But with every conversation he had with Phantom put to paper before him, denial wasn't an option. 

          So Káel nodded, raising his open palms to calm Truvius. "But that's not a very accurate drawing."

          Phantom sighed. "Debatable."

          "Look I know you might trust that thing..." Truvius started, looking around the room cautiously.

          "Yeah, I do trust that thing and that thing is called Phantom," Káel retorted, grimacing at the bite to his tone. "He's a he... I think."

          Truvius raised his eyebrows. "It's dangerous. Especially one that old."

          "So are dragons," Káel retorted, pointing at Puff as the dragon found a new angle to lick his hair. "And this one's a little stuck at the moment, he's as harmless as a fly."

          "You're from Earth, so it's understandable. But Puff was raised by dragon hunters."

          "What does this have to do with me being from Earth?" Káel replied, a defensive scowl tugging his brow as he stood his ground on the debate. "Do you think I can't tell a good friend from a crappy one because I'm from a different planet? I can tell you one thing, I'm pretty damn picky-" 

          Káel's words were cut short with a pained cry as Puff ripped at a tuft of his hair, the small drake coming out with a few strands between his teeth as Káel clutched his tender scalp.

          "What the hell?" Káel whimpered, eyes squeezed in silent pain as he processed the strange attack.

          With a muffled warble Puff dodged Káel's swatting hand, dropping the tuft of hair down like a prize for Káel to see. As he mustered up the strength to squint, he saw what had pulled the dragon's attention, a small black bead tangled in the mesh of black strands with a single red light that flashed in five second intervals.

          Whatever it was, Káel didn't remember sticking anything like it near his scalp. 

          Truvius leaned in closer to look at the strange object, no bigger than a grain of rice with a clearly metal coating. "What's that?"

          "You don't know?" Káel replied, rolling the small object in his palm with a grimace. "It doesn't look very Lumer-like."

          "I don't sense any sort of enchantments, so it's not magic either," Phantom said, stroking his chin in deep thought at the contraption. "I haven't seen any strange seeds like that on Nova."

          Káel's train of thought struck him like a bat to the back. 

          There was only one person that had flaunted devices so strange they were practically from a world of their own, and only one person he remembered time and time again ruffling his hair without warning. 

          The last person to even come in contact with Káel's hair spare Puff's tongue.

          Ray.

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Quality Quip #33:

'Be the better version of you, unless you're an asshole. Don't be a better asshole.'

~Anonymous