“This one isn’t worth much”, the woman said.

  “I disagree. The craftsmanship on the handle of that knife by itself already justifies the asking price”, the boy countered.

  They were in a dim lit room.

  Wooden beams rising to meet the ceiling, floor boards that creaked when stepped on, crates pilled up in half hazard manners until they too almost reached the topmost edge of the room. The whole place smelled of cigarette smoke which barely repressed the stench of long term humidity in the air. Shadows danced on the walls and upon the ground, as small lamps hung at the edges of the room, some even hidden behind crates lit up as much as they could.

  The four youths had come to claim their dues and to discuss further tidings. The rest of the men, some standing still and eyeing them, others worked and moving across the room, sometimes bare-handed, sometimes carrying a haul of various shapes and sizes, all could find their interests and loyalties tied to the middle aged woman bartering with the chestnut haired boy in the center of the room.

  “You are asking for forty iron coins for a single knife with some minor silver finishings. If I were to melt these down, it would not be worth enough silver to even compare to the over half a silver coin that you are asking me for”, the woman retorted.

  “Our services have a cost. The risk we take is yet another cost.”, he paused for a moment. “That aside, I hope that your eye for artistry isn’t dulling, Lady Ioanna. We may finally have to take our business somewhere else.”, the young man merrily countered.

  The woman who sat on a pile of crates, organized into a makeshift chair, eyed the young man with a piercing glance. The golden hair, with a tinge of grey creeping in and the ever-slight wrinkle on her face, here and there added to the aura of brutal cunning that she naturally exuded.

  “That blade by itself simply isn’t worth what you are asking for. Give me something else on top and I will consider meeting your price.”

  “Uuuuuuuhhhhh…”, moaned Georgios, as he turned his head back towards Kenos, both in annoyance and as an indication for the green-eyed boy to step forward.

  “I also nabbed these. They will go well with the knives, if the buyer is a romantic”, said Kenos.

  From within the confines of his long, pearly white cloak, the boy produced three blood red handkerchiefs, embroidered with gold threat and an insignia that looked like five blades piercing five forts on five hills, in what seemed to be golden wax.

  At last the woman smiled, shifting her gaze now to the charcoal haired youth.

  “Kenos! Always the reliable supplier. You look better than last time.”, she said.

  The boy narrowed his eyes, visibly irked by something.

  “Food has been a bit more abundant these last couple of weeks.”, the boy said.

  “I suppose that the benefits of the changing of the seasons are fast to show themselves”, Lady Ionna remarked.

  “Yeah, they have been giving us more meat!”, merrily chimed in Leo from the back.

  “Yes, yes, thanks for the input, Leo. Anyway…does the full set interest you more now, Lady Ionna?”, Georgios snidely inquired.

  “You talk as if they somehow are meant to go together from the very start.”, she paused for a moment to think, bringing her finger to her chin, and nodding at the items, from her crate-constructed chair. “Yes, this has enough value to more than warrant the asking price if each of the three knives is paired up with one of these handkerchiefs. This is bound to sell well to our more nationalist clientele.”

  “Good to see that you like them. That will be two silver coins for each set.”, said Georgios.

  “What? I just agreed to your terms and you want to change them immediately?”

  “Well…yes? I did ask for a full silver coin for each knife. I consider the handkerchiefs to be almost as valuable as each of the blades. But you agreed that they are a set, so them being sold together increases their value and since I am supplying them both, I should get return on putting them together. When I buy boots, I expect them to be a pair. They should be worth more together than individually, no? Going barefoot is a hazard to one’s health.”, explained Georgios.

  “It is still too much for my taste”, Lady Ionna countered.

  “Even if it will put you even more so in the good graces of those nationalistic customers that you mentioned?”.

  She paused and looked upwards for a moment while mumbling something before locking eyes with the young man once more.

  “No. My standing with them is good enough already. Don’t try to haggle with me too much boy, or the same will no longer be true for you.”

  Some men moving things around started to throw some looks at the youth, but he either didn’t notice or didn’t pay them any attention.

  “One silver coin for each set is still too low a price though.”

  “One silver and thirty iron coins”, she bartered.

  “Seventy iron coins”, he countered.

  “Fourty”, she replied.

  “Sixty”

  “Fifty and I am going no higher”, the older woman argued.

  “That still isn’t enough for what we expect for our catch. If you don’t get a net positive non-monetary kickback from selling it, we should at least get one from selling it to you.”

  “You want something else for the twenty odd coins that you are losing out on?”

  “Sure, why not?”

  “Like what?”, the woman inquired?

  “Don’t know. List some offers, I suppose. Hey, Leo! Seth! You guys want anything that isn’t coin?”

  “No. I can buy anything that I could want”, said Seth.

  “Having a favour on hand is good, but for less than a silver coin in full it couldn’t be worth much, so I will pass”, said Leo.

  Lady Ionna then turned her attention on the charcoal haired boy that had stepped up just a minute ago.

  “What about you Kenos? Is there anything that you are feeling like having? If it is you, I am even willing to give you something worth more than I would have for the rest of them.”

  “Hey!”, Georgios protested.

  “Oh, pipe down!”, the older woman admonished him back. “He is the one that got your group the goods. Don’t even need to ask anyone to confirm that. He gets something extra for the work.”

  The jade eyed youth looked at her for a moment and thought to himself in silence.

  “No…there is nothing worth mentioning that you could do for me at the moment. You can just pray for me the next time you are at the temple or when you do it at home.”, he answered back. “You want anything man?”, he asked Georgios.

  “Honestly, yes, I do. Don’t want to waste this opportune hospitality, if I can help it.”

  “What do you want?”, the woman inquired.

  “I think that you have an idea.”

  After a short pause, the woman called out to a lean yet staunch man with dark chestnut wavy hair that was counting crates on the far end of the room to her left.

  “Hey Lukas!”, she hollered.

  “What?! I am counting rum right now boss!”

  She waited until the man found some parchment and jotted down some rough figures by dipping the tip of his pocket knife in ink.

  Lukas turned to her again after wiping his hands on a rag.

  “What do you need?”

  “Take this key and go to my third vault in the cellar and get me one of the smaller boxes from the green drawer.”

  The man took the brass-coloured key and made his way to the back of the room and closed the door behind him.

  “Anyway…is there anything else that you boys need before we conclude this exchange?”

  “I would like to know if there are any new developments in the situation with the slaughterhouse area”, asked Georgios.

  “No, it still remains a mystery to me as well. Besides some parts of it being under new management and with new meat traders, the only odd thing are the strange noises that are said to come from the underground cages. I have tried to pay off someone in the know, but no one seems to be.”, Lady Ionna commented.

  “What are you guys talking about?”, chimed in Seth.

  “Oh, right, you didn’t come with me last time, did you?”, Georgios mused. There have been some rumours that some new strange animals have been brought to the slaughterhouse area up in the northernmost part of town. No one knows exactly what they look like, only that they are kind of noisy and some people are complaining that the situation is agitating the other cattle. Can’t go in without a permit anyway, so there is nothing that I can check out”, he said, as he shrugged.

  “You think that they are going to make it some attraction for the dignitaries from the draft?”, Leo asked, positively starry eyed. “Are we going to see some exhibition? Are the animals going to have long necks or crazy scaly tails? Are they going to fight someone of renown like I heard that they do down in Praelia?”

  “Doubt it”, Seth replied.

  “If it is anything like that, I doubt that we would get invited. The whole area is walled off.”, Georgios said, as he looked at the door in the back and tapped his foot. “Even if we could get a ladder and see what is on the other side, the place is so big that I doubt we could see anything good”.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “You boys are just having flights of fancy.”, said Lady Ionna, as she threw a quick glance at the only youth that hadn’t spoken up. “It is probably just going to be some fresh exotic meat meant for some dignitary. At best they will make sport out of killing the poor thing and only then cook it. It is a slaughterhouse after all.”

  “Anyway, since we seem to be done here, Kenos, how would you like to…”

  “Hey boss! Got it!”

  Lady Ionna, who had just been interrupted, almost jumped from her seat.

  “Bones and Rot, Lukas! Why did you blasted do that?!”, she said, as she lowered the blade that she had grasped by reflex as she got up.

  “Sorry boss. The door needed some force to get open. Guess the blood went to my head a little”.

  Some of the men working started audibly chuckling a little bit, but one harsh look from Lady Ionna put an end to that.

  ”Took you long enough to just open a door”, she remarked.

  “Someone put crates in front of the vault. Had to move those around”, her employee said as he shrugged.

  “Let me see your hands”, she requested.

  “This again?”, Lukas said as he first exposed his right hand to scrutiny, followed by his left hand as he swapped the small metal box between them. As that was done with, he also handed her the key along with the small box.

  “Here you go Georgios. This should be worth about one silver coin.”, she said.

  “Nice! Still doesn’t completely make up the difference between your price and the one I asked…”

  The woman glared at the young man.

  “…but it is the thought that counts, haha!”, he nervously said, as he took a couple of steps backwards and opened the lid on the small metal box and breathed in the scent of its contents. “Aaaaah, yes, that is the stuff.”

  “Glad you like it so much. In fact, since you seem to enjoy the favour that I have done for you, I was hoping that you could do me a favour in return”, Lady Ionna said.

  “Depends. What would it be about?”, Georgios cautiously probed.

  He didn’t want to get himself wrapped up in something too troublesome.

  “Lend me Kenos for something that I have coming up”, she said.

  “That isn’t something that you need to talk to me about. I am not his boss”, the young man replied.

  “Fine then. Hey Marcus!”, she called out.

  From behind the group of youths, a large man moved from his tasks and was now towering over them.

  Seth was the first to notice and actually took up a defensive posture, placing himself between the man and Leo.

  The tall man was much more powerfully built than Lukas had been. His figure looked like a solid stone beam with arms and legs jutting out of it. His arms in particular looked thicker than Georgious’, the oldest and most well built out of all four of them, legs. His most notable feature however was that the man’s face was heavily deformed. The entire left side of it seemed to have been grated by some uneven sharp surface and left him with deep uneven marks that could never heal into the shape of a proper scar.

  He looked down at Seth. He gave the youth a smile full of missing and cracked teeth. An unnerving visage, yet his demeanour as he nodded assertively and respectfully at the boy made the tension in the air decrease just a little bit.

  “Excuse me”, the large man said, as he circled around them to stand next to Lady Ionna who he towered over.

  “Is this the one?”, the man questioned, as he looked at Kenos.

  “Yes, this is him.”, she said. “Give him the rundown.”

  “Alright kid. I will keep it simple. Ionna here wants you to help us rob the vaults of the town bank. I am in charge of the operation.”

  The man’s accent was foreign to him. It was crude and it made his speech come off as something between a bark and a growl.

  “No”, Kenos replied, with nary a pause.

  “Scared? I was told that you have no love for the law, or this town as a whole.”

  “Theft to me is a hobby at best. I can see no test of skill or thrills coming from robbing some iron-sealed cave.”

  “Perhaps Marcus was too direct in his explanation.”, Lady Ionna interjected. “We don’t want to take large sums of gold coins or statues or anything like that. We are just interested in one small box kept in the vaults”.

  “Again, not my thing. I pickpocket and take things from under people’s noses while they are being misdirected. This feels like something that would have nothing to do with me.”

  She raised up her hand with her palm exposed. “Hold on, I am not finished. Let me tell you a bit more about the target and what you four could all get out of it.”

  She turned her head to shoot a smile at the remaining three boys.

  “What we are looking for belongs to someone related to a friend of yours from the temple. That little redhead, I believe her name was Euphoria or something. She works for the woman named Sophia who sells items in the main plaza market area. Marcus here was asked by someone outside of the town to secure an item that recently came into her possession. If you agree to help him, you can come work for me for real, as a true member of my operation. What do you say?”

  “Really? You will finally take us on as members of your crew, Lady Ionna?”, Leo asked, while positively beaming with delight.

  “Oh…”, the woman’s face turned sombre as she looked at the young golden haired boy. “Apologies, I misspoke. Kenos will be invited to come work for me. The three of you would be closer to apprentices with extra benefits. You three aren’t at the skill level that I need you at yet. But Marcus runs with a large and solid crew with their hands in all sorts of jars all over Limani. If you want to take the plunge and go big right away, he has already agreed to take you on if Kenos accepts and all goes well. Marcus isn’t as demanding as me.”

  The tall man rubbed his chin as he spoke. “Yes, true. We can’t demand custom expertise with our kind of numbers. That is what groups like Ionna’s are for.”, he eyed all three of the youths. “A Vermillion is always a good addition. The older one can barter relatively well and he seems fit enough. Plus…”, the man chuckled under his breath, with a hint of derision “…he already seems to have gotten his feet wet in regards to how we do things. What can the blonde one do, Ionna?”

  “He is competent at picking pockets, but his main forte is acting and attracting attention. Aspiring actor and all that.”, she replied.

  “Aaaahhh…a swindler! I see, I see.”, the large man remarked.

  “What if I am not interested in joining you?”, Kenos inquired.

  “Well, that would be a mighty shame Kenos, but you would get paid well for your services, obviously and you could choose to also go with Marcus along with your friends. I can’t exactly force you to stay in town and perhaps you would feel safer leaving after doing this kind of heist and dodging the draft.”

  “I still don’t see why my talents are needed for this. My ability to fight is limited and I don’t want to have to secure an entrenched location or dig through rock to burst into a tunnel or anything of the sort. That seems like a soldier’s job.”

  “Now, see, that is the beauty of it. You won’t need to. We won’t even ask you for anything like that.”, Lady Ionna corrected him. “We want to avoid all those complications and enter the clean way. Just find a way to get the keys from the women at the market and the men in the bank. They don’t sleep on the premisses after all.”

  “If that doesn’t work, just help me kidnap the girl that is from your temple or something. She would trust you, right?”, the large man suggested.

  “Hey now, that is too much, ain’t it?”, Georgious interjected

  “Depends on who you ask.”, the tall man shrugged. “Anyway, if his skills are as good as I was told and we do this slow and steady, hurting someone shouldn’t be necessary.”

  “What timetable are we talking about here?”, Kenos probed.

  “I was told that it had to be done in three weeks. Preferably less since the package might get picked up by someone else before long”, the tall man replied.

  “Is this something meant to get sold or delivered to someone else?”, the jade eyed youth inquired.

  “That seems to be the case. Are you in or are you out Kenos?”, Lady Ionna asked.

  The raven-haired boy looked both adults up and down, seemingly taking their measure and evaluating them. Shortly after, he did the same to his own companions.

  “What is in the box?”, he asked.

  “Why do you want to know that?”, Marcus retorted, crossing his arms.

  “I won’t give you an answer unless I first know what is in the box”, Kenos reaffirmed his stance.

  The two adults exchanged looks for a brief moment until Marcus finally spoke up.

  “All right, I guess my employer won’t mind. We are looking for a compass. If you got no idea what it is, it is a small trinket with a glass casing and a two-sided needle on the inside.”, the tall man said.

  “Seems useless to me. Why would I get anything for stealing something that seems like a paperweight with a gimmick?”, the boy retorted.

  “Well, I can tell you what the rumours surrounding these things is. The country of Caligo is famed for its mysterious underground ruins shrouded by mist. Something makes them very difficult to penetrate or even find. The rumour is that these compasses are used to do just that. The ruins are also said to be filled with treasure and fuel much of the country’s economy.”, Lady Ionna explained, as she lounged on her seat of crates, rhythmically tapping the back of her head.

  “Is that really true? Those things can lead us to a treasure?!”, Leo beamed.

  Marcus was looking annoyed, but his demeanour warmed up as he looked at Leo’s excited face. “I don’t know, guess we would have to ask God or whoever”, he chuckled.

  The jade eyed youth looked at his companions and back again to the two adults.

  “Give me three days to think about it. That should be plenty of time considering the schedule, no?”, he said.

  “Why can’t you just agree already? Where do you get…”, the tall man said, but was stopped by Lady Ionna grabbing his forearm.

  “Alright Kenos, you can take that time to get your affairs in order”, Ionna looked up at Marcus. “He is still a kid. Give him time. Besides, you said that you came to me for expertise. Is being meticulous and deliberate not the mark of professional?”.

  The tall man relented. “Fine. Three days and no longer. I am going to have to prepare things on my end. Even more so to account for the possibility of having to do this without you.”

  “With all that I expected most things to be already finished on your end”, Georgious taunted, as he played with his prize between his fingers.

  “The request hasn’t been put out for that long. It only made the top of my priorities because the coin behind it is good”, the tall man grunted.

  Suddenly, the ground shook and the lanterns rattled, casting grim flickering shadows as everyone made their best to endure it as calmly as possible.

  “Well, that was very aptly timed. I guess we should all carry on with our respective business. It isn’t even noon yet, so there is much for all of us to do”, Lady Ionna concluded.

  As the four youths left their employer’s premises, Seth looked back on the building that they had just exited.

  “Well that was something”, he moaned. “Who was that guy? He hasn’t always been there, has he?”

  “Didn’t you hear? He just swung by to get something done on someone’s request”, Georgious said.

  “I was more so looking at what his mannerisms were telling me, not to the sound coming from his broken mouth. The rest of the guys inside too. They didn’t like him or feel comfortable with him around, you could tell”, the Vermillion snapped back. “He doesn’t seem to be our sort. Is he a former sellsword or something?”, he added.

  “Maybe he is a pirate, I don’t know”, Georgious shrugged as they walked.

  “You should care man. Kenos’s decision is going to have consequences for the rest of us. We are kind of like hostages, you see that, right?”, Seth admonished.

  Georgious threw a quick glance at their white cloaked companion. “I trust him to make the right decision. Whatever implications come from that, I will worry about those when we cross that river.”

  “You are being na?ve”, Seth countered.

  “Aaaaah…don’t spoil the fun kid.”, the eldest youth said, as he opened the metal lid and showed the contents of the box to his red haired companion. Inside there were some strong smelling herbs with an odd shape. “After we are done eating, I am going to roll these up and light them up. If any of you want this, you are welcome to it.”

  The four of them avoided going through particularly crowded areas where they might be seen as suspicious by someone that might recognize them. Instead, they hung around on a small plaza, in the western side of town, where eventually they found something to eat.

  They were undecisive between a stall specialized in fish dishes and one that dealt mostly with meats on sticks, with various sauces.

  Eventually the three of them made up their mind with Leo as the tie breaker to decide that meat was on the menu.

  “Hey Kenos, what do you want to eat? They got water snakes, pagóni, kounéli, blood elk sausages, and fanged bovines.”, Leo asked.

  “Whatever you are eating, I am eating that too”, the youth replied.

  “Haha. You keep doing that, you know? I never took you for the indecisive type”, the golden-haired boy said.

  “It isn’t indecision. I just want whatever you are having. It is that simple. If it is within our means, why not do it?”, the youth replied.

  “Ah, don’t tease our boy too much”, Georgious said, as he put his arm over his thieving friend’s shoulder. “I am sure that he will grow out of it eventually. The two locked eyes. “Just not too fast, alright? You got a big decision ahead. Keep your head in the game for now.”

  “Sure. I can agree to that”, Kenos said, as he slumped downwards to get his friend’s arm off of him.

  “Agree to what? Did you decide on the offer just now?”, Seth asked.

  “No, just that I will keep a clear head and focus on the present now and then I will think about changing myself a little”, the green eyed youth said.

  Soon after, they were sitting on a wooden table outside with their plates filled with various meats on sticks. The three of them started wolfing them down, but they soon paused after glancing up at their black haired friend.

  His hands were clasped together, his eyes were shut tight and his lips flowed at an even pace, reciting the words of gratitude and supplication that they all had heard a thousand times before.

  Before long, Kenos opened his eyes back up and started to eat as well. All but Georgious followed suit.

  “I guess that that part of you isn’t going to change anytime soon, hu?”

  “I might consider dropping it if you stop inhaling those rolls that you do” Kenos said, between bites and gulps of fresh, clean water. “Besides, you are all placing your fortunes in my hands. I doubt you mind if I pray for some guidance and a little bit of luck”.

  “Last time I brought up you being lucky, you almost wanted to bite my head off. Why the sudden change?”, chimed in Seth.

  The jade-eyed youth seemed genuinely surprised for a moment, but quickly compose himself and gave his young friend a smile. It was a warm smile, which surprised the two young ones sat across from him.

  “I don’t think that I am. But just because I ain’t doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t like some when I most need it. It isn’t that hard to grasp, kid”

  Not missing his chance, Georgious quickly gave Leo a wink and flicked something from his plate that hit Seth right in his right cheek.

  “Hey man, quit it”, the Vermillion protested.

  And immediately after Leo pulled himself close to his long time partner and kissed him right in his left cheek.

  “Whoa! Leo, what the heck was that for?!”, the boy yelped, confused and flustered, as he almost jumped off of his seat.

  “Hahahaha!”, all three of them laughed.

  “Aaaaaahhhh…I am never going to get tired of seeing him like this, hahaha!”, Kenos laughed, trying to catch his breath, as Seth only made it worse by turning almost as red as his hair and turning his gaze downwards.

  The three of them kept laughing, as Leo was at a serious risk of falling off of the table, even having to grab his long-time friend’s shoulders and lean on him for support.

  A few minutes passed and they all finally regained their respective composures.

  Before long, their meal was close to being finished. Georgious and Leo had already been finished. In fact they had both given some of their own servings to Kenos and Seth.

  “Hey Kenos!”, said Seth.

  “Yes, what is it?”, Kenos replied.

  “Since when are you the sort to eat this much?

  “Don’t know.”, Kenos said, taking a moment to pause to get a gulp of water in, “I have been feeling really good lately, for some reason”.

  “You were on the skinnier side a few weeks ago, man. Good to see that that has been improving, at the very least”, said Georgios.

  “Hey, while we are on the subject of meat, tell me more about that place where they keep the animals that you were talking about before”, Leo inquired.

  “Ah, that? It is just an open place where the animals run around. It is pretty big, I am not going to lie, but you can’t get over those walls without having the clearance to do so. The walls are simply too high. They let them run around and after some time, they just round them up and kill them and wash the bodies.”, Georgious explained.

  “Guh! That sounds horrifying”, Leo said, distastefully.

  “Well, sometimes they just keep them in underground cages where no one sees them and then they kill them”, Kenos added.

  “Why did you have to say that?!”, Leo shirked back in disgust. “Now my appetite is gone!”

  “Good thing that you ate already, hu?”, Georgious remarked.

  “Actually”, Seth started to say, just as he picked the last of the meat from his last stick and took it out of his mouth, “I just wait to say that I am against the idea of getting anyone hurt”.

  “Are you talking about the large guy’s idea of a plan B?”, Georgious asked.

  “Yes. I don’t like any of it. He is asking us to hand women to him, for God’s sake!”, Seth said.

  “Hey now.”, Kenos admonished.

  “Oh, shove it, Kenos! You know I am right! One of my own no less”, the red haired boy continued.

  “You can be right all you want but at the end of it all, it falls to me to make the decision and to my hands to be deft enough to perform the deed, so don’t go over the line, kid.”, said the charcoal haired boy, as he used his razor-like teeth to tear off the last scrap of meat from the stick.

  “Ahhh, don’t worry about it Seth”, Leo said, as he put his arm over his friend’s shoulder “She will just beat Kenos up if he tries anything…and then we risk a ton of problem because of the plan failing!”, the boy said, pausing for a good hearted laugh before continuing, “she is one of you guys, so it wouldn’t be a problem, right Seth? No offense to you of course, Kenos”.

  “None taken…to be honest I wouldn’t want to hand her over to that guy either”, Kenos said.

  “Someone has a soft spot for red heads”, Georgious teased.

  “Hardly.”, the jade eyed boy remarked, as he rested his elbows on the table and his chin on both of his fists “That girl is at best like a fly that sometimes comes near me, buzzes around for a bit and then we part ways. Honestly, she is such a disappointment…”

  “You expected her to be different?”, Georgious asked.

  “Maybe…I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but my gut tells me that I should expect more from her. As she is, she is worthless. There is nothing about her that I wish that I had myself.”, Kenos paused. “Well… I guess being someone’s apprentice like she is would be nice.”

  “Calling a nice young lady like her “worthless” is a bit much, ain’t it man?”, chimed in Georgious.

  “Not really”, Kenos countered.

  “Am I in that category by any chance?”, Leo asked, chuckling.

  “Not really. At least you are higher on my list than the people that we talked to today.”, Kenos answered.

  Seth, who had been rocking backwards in his chair for a few moments now asked “Right, you like to throw that label out sometimes. But you never did tell us what worthwhile person is like for you”.

  “Why do you care?”, Kenos asked.

  “You can call it an interest by association, since a fellow Vermillion isn’t worth much in your eyes”, Seth probed.

  After thinking about it for a moment, the jade eyed boy chuckled to himself and smiled.

  It was the opposite of the smile that he had shown them before.

  It was vicious and fanged like a carnivore’s and disturbing like a visage of bones peeking out from a marsh.

  It was enough to shock the two boys in front of him and send chills down their spines.

  “That would be someone who would burn down the world around them if that is where their talents took them.”