"Depends. Are you going to join my nest?" She replied.
"No." They said in unison.
"Then I can only advise you to do things step by step and fix your mistakes one at a time. I'm no volunteer worker and my time is precious." Salaark's frown turned into a small smile as she turned around and left.
'Soon.' She thought.
***
Griffon Kingdom, Orthan Region, city of Hunc.
The failed attempt on Zinya's life had brought terrible consequences for the usually flourishing business of the underworld. Tezka's cursed spells had done more than just kill most of the members of the mercenary units, it had also exposed the location of their headquarters.
On top of that, Zogar Vastor wasn't a forgiving man. As the Master, he had put a bounty on the heads of the survivors so big that no matter where they went, they had no allies.
The Organization scoured the illegal routes out of the Kingdom and patrolled the alleged safe houses. At the same time, the Spellbreakers of the Mage Association questioned the families of the known members of the Talons and had put the entire city of Nunc, where the giant iceberg had appeared, on lockdown.
Even the few rogue mages who had escaped death by Blinking outside the building or out of sheer luck were now forced to hide in the sewers and hope for a miracle.
Anela Linnea, ex-Headmistress of the Lightning Griffon and current General of the Talons, had survived only because her work as a Forgemaster required quiet and isolation.
Also, ever since Scarlett the Scorpicore had decimated the mercenary unit, the upper echelons had moved their private quarters away from the dimensional hub that the Talons used to move around the Kingdom.
'Damn you, Nerea. Once again, this is all your fault. First, you cost me my position in the army. Then, your twice damned protégé had the Royal Court take away from me my seat at the Lightning Griffon, and now that thrice damned Constable Yehval has seized my new house.'
Linnea was sitting on a squeaky chair that belonged to the Frothing Mug. Despite its friendly name, the tavern was so sordid that under normal circumstances she wouldn't even consider burning it with a fireball and using it as firewood, let alone being one of its patrons.
The floors were dirty and sticky from the cheap alcohol that had been spilled during the night that no one had bothered cleaning. Her table was greasy from the food that the so-called cook deep fried in animal fat to cover up the taste of the barely edible ingredients he used.
The dim lights of the rooms revealed so many round marks left by the glasses of the past customers that Linnea had come to believe that no one had actually cleaned the place since its grand opening.
A rat so big that it might as well have worn an apron and worked there as a waiter, mistook the noise of Linnea's chair for the love calls of a member of its species and fearlessly scampered under her table.
It found no love but plenty of food.
The sight of the hairy little creature disgusted her, but since the rat had left the place cleaner than it had found it, Linnea put a piece of cabbage on the floor as a tip.
She had chosen a table near one of the many windows of the tavern, to keep an eye on her surroundings and to have a clean line of sight to Blink away in the case something went wrong.
Unsurprisingly, the glass was the only clean thing in the Frothing Mug and not just thanks to the downpour outside.
The customers of the establishment had a shady reputation and past, if not also shady business to attend to. The clean windows gave them a clean line of sight on anyone who might get near the Frothing Mug and worked as emergency exits whenever police officers burst from the doors.
Linnea stared at the rumbling sky and cursed Nana's name aloud. Back when she was the Headmistress of the Lightning Griffon, she used to love thunderstorms. She considered them as a manifestation of her power over the air element and of her status.
The raindrops reminded her of the tears of her defeated enemies while the booming thunders sounded like applause to her ears. Ever since the Royals had fired her, however, she hated thunderstorms.
Even now she could almost see Nana's shadows in the black clouds, flipping her off with every flash of lightning while the rumbling of the distant thunders reminded her of Nerea's raspy laughter from the last time they had met.
'Wherever you are, old bat, I bet that you are having the time of your life. I've stooped lower than you ever did but at least I'm still alive. Laugh as much as you want, Nerea, this is still my win.' Linnea thought while glaring at the sky.
After being kicked out of the Lightning Griffon, Linnea had been forced to run away from her home to avoid being killed by the very same Royal Assassins that she had once trained at her academy.
Back then, the Royals couldn't afford to have a bitter Royal Forgemaster with extensive knowledge of how the power cores of the six great academies worked go their own way.
Luckily for her, the looming civil war had stretched the resources of the Kingdom's thin and there was always a high demand for skilled Forgemasters in the criminal underworld.
At first, she had bartered her work in exchange for protection, but then the very same runt who had ruined her had given Linnea the second wind she needed. After being slaughtered by Lith and Scarlett, the Talons were in dire need of fresh blood.
The fallen Headmistress had happily joined them in order to regain her wealth and to get her revenge against the Kingdom that had tossed her away like garbage. Thanks to her knowledge and talent, she had quickly climbed the Talon's ranks.
Linnea had worked in the academy long enough to know the basics of every specialization and owned many books that couldn't be bought even on the black market.
Her abilities as teacher, Royal Forgemaster, and leader soon brought the entire mercenary organization under her thumb, giving Linnea back most of what she had lost.
Every powerful noble who needed the Talon's help had to show her respect and deference. Her works would be sold on the black market for tens of times their regular price, filling her pockets with gold.
Last, but not least, by choosing which assignments the Talons would accept and which they would refuse, Linnea had exerted a political influence on par with that of an ancient noble household.
Yet her dream life had been shattered again. She had survived during the past few weeks by breaking into the house of middle-class people and killing all of its occupants.
It usually bought her a few days of respite before someone noticed the disappearance of her victims and called the guards.. Linnea was careful leaving behind no traces nor bodies so that the constables would believe to be dealing with a missing person case instead of murder.
