Dungeon of Knowledge

Chapter 213: Bone (Part 1)

Tala Tala ignored the curious stares from the various Town Watch guards lounging around the lobby and took a deep breath to compose herself. It would not do to show weakness before them. She reached out and knocked sharply on the door to Kieran Mori’s office.

She waited in the silence after her knuckles had rapped against the solid oak, biting down on her mounting anxiety. She had expected this summons – obviously. She had provoked it after all. If Mori realized she had done it on purpose, though, she probably would not survive this meeting. But he had been inexplicably dragging his feet, and Tala could not get the sight of Aliandra and Malika standing trial out of her mind.

“Come in, Tala.”

She gulped, and then opened the door and entered.

Kieran sat at his desk, signing paperwork with an expensive mana pen. His spine was ramrod straight and his focus unshakeable, and the impressive leather armor he always wore was concealed beneath a dark cloak. Tala approached the desk and waited quietly, the remaining moments of her fate slowly ticking away to rising pressure in her chest and throat.

“You have been made,” Kieran said, his gaze flicking up to pierce her with the same deadly precision with which he wielded his spear.

“What?” she exclaimed, feigning surprise, not having to fake at least the intensity of her emotions.

“Vivian Ross found Donavan’s boots on the merchant caravan and put it together somehow,” he said, putting his pen down on the desk beside the papers with unnerving deliberateness. “I can’t believe you killed Bastian’s son. He’s furious. He wants blood. And he wants it now.”

This was the moment. Tala widened her eyes to sell it better. “I…” she paused under his withering glare and then deflated her chest and lowered her head. “It’s how I unlocked my class…” She trailed her voice off.

“I figured it was something like that,” Kieran said. “No matter. It puts us in a bit of a difficult position, but nothing we can’t handle.”

“Do you want me to resign?” she asked, daring to glance up at the powerful assassin. She had been prepared to argue for leniency, to have to play up her value and contributions, and he had just skipped right past all of it.

“Officially, you’ve already skipped town and I’m

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