Tristan stared in disbelief at the four people who just stomped in to ruin Kerri’s day. The conversation started congenial, he could not hear what was being said, but it was mostly centered around calming Helen down. Kerri forced her out of his office and took an antagonistic stance towards Bruce and Lesly.

The fact that those two were even here was odd. What had happened in the plains, were the ghost crabs dealt with? Was the war between Elder Forest and Elder River over? These two should be enemy warriors especially as they were related to the Forest Caldera’s civil protector. The only conclusion Tristan could come to was something had happened in the Forest Caldera.

On the other side of the glass, Eve was saying something with a serious expression. Kerri was leaning back in his chair, though, Tristan was at the wrong angle to see his face. He was able to notice Kerri’s body language change when Eve’s eyes landed on his trash bin. He stiffened up when he noticed the silver skull sitting on top of paper cuttings and food scraps. It was not as if there were two skulls like that in the Caldera.

The conversation heated up and Tristan realized that he needed to do something. He looked at the two warriors who were focused on the office. There was nothing they could do, sure they needed to protect the steward, but they would not do that by harming the heir to the River Caldera. Not that Kerri was in need of guards a tier lower than himself.

Still, Tristan needed to act. He thought about jumping at the window, but if he did, Frosty and Dirty would kill him on reflex. That’s what a good security team did after all. His eyes landed on the bench he was sitting on. Pinewood was not a heavy wood, the bench was also not much larger than what would be placed at a small dining room table.

Slowly Tristan got to his feet. It was a foolish hope to think he would be able to move and not catch the warrior's attention. Tristan quickly calculated his odds of success, they weren’t good, but at this point, he would take anything above zero.

“Take your seat, boy,” Frosty growled.

Tristan gave him a faux smile of apology. He placed one hand on the edge of the bench to lower himself down. He needed to twist himself in a very specific way, so the spring like circulatory system would assist instead of hinder. A tier one would not be able to throw a forty pound bench with one hand. However, a tier three could.

Frosty was no fool, while he was not sure why Tristan was doing an odd stretch, he had a keen nose for trouble. He picked his axe up from his lap fully intending on chopping off an arm or leg. What he was not expecting was a bench to be thrown at the back of Kerri’s head. This room was not designed to hold prisoners, it was designed as a way to give powerful units an effective way to protect the steward.

If the steward was endangered beyond the capabilities of the tier one and two security team, they would break the window and kill any intruders. Both of their weapons were made to destroy brittle objects. They would evacuate with the steward and collapse the stone building with the same ability that would allow them to break the window.

All this was to say, there was no way the bench would break the window. The guard most likely knew that, but he had been trained to take the killing blow for his charge. He stepped in the way of the bench and cut it in half. The power of the weapon was in the essence reservoir, not the blade, and it lacked the perfect geometry of Tristan’s original daggers, so the cut bashed the bench aside.

Unfortunately for Frosty, Tristan needed to hit the window. He needed to make as much noise as possible, so he tackled Frosty into the window. They hit hard, and the thump caused Kerri to flinch and look back, his eyes mere inches from Tristan’s. No one else in the office seemed to be able to hear it over the crying of Helen and yelling of Eve.

Tristan was pinning Frosty to the glass wall with his body weight. The warrior broke Tristan's grip, he decided to drop his weapon, a good choice in a confined space like this. Now that Tristan was working against his architect alloy, Frosty was easily able to overpower Tristan. So Tristan's head butted the glass, it was quite a bit louder as Tristan's head was basically a metal ball at the moment.

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No one heard that either, but it did give him an idea. Tristan head butted Frosty. Cartilage was pulverized as Frosty’s head bounced off the glass as well. Unfortunately, the man was not even stunned, he managed to shove Tristan back a step. He glared, then punched Tristan in the face. That was the day, Tristan learned the nose was not a bone.

Frosty’s jab was assisted by Tristan’s architect alloy, staggering him back a few steps. A blur flashed past his face, barely missing his nose. Tristan blinked, he had completely forgotten about Dirty. The second guard had tried to cut him in half vertically, the axe blade cracking the floor.

Not wasting any time Tristan kicked the flat of the axe as hard as he could. Dirty lost his grip and the surprisingly light weapon was launched into Frosty’s legs. It would have been nice if it was blade first, however the hilt still tripped Frosty. This time Dirty played it smart, he grabbed Tristan.

Tristan tried to resist, but earth kerns were known for the irresistible nature of their strength. In fact, the two biggest people Tristan knew were Siren and Cole, both of whom had earth kerns. Dirty pulled him into a takedown, then followed Tristan to the ground to grapple. Tristan knew he couldn’t let Dirty take him down, and resorted to a tactic he loathed to try….

He bit the man's massive arm. Sure, there was leather in the way, but it was not from a mythical beast, so he got a mouthful of blood and tendons. Dirty bashed Tristan on the back of the head, bouncing his face off the floor, before taking a step back. Tristan hadn’t really paid attention to where he bit, but he could not have gone for a better spot. The inside of Dirty’s elbow was a mess of arterial blood that would kill him if he did not have it treated.

Fortunately, he had a coworker who could do just that. Frosty lived up to his name and coated the wound in a tight ice construct with a simple touch. He turned his blue eyes on Tristan in rage, just in time to see Tristan take advantage of the short triage to scoop up Frosty’s axe and throw it at the window.

Tristan was aware that he was only alive because they wanted him alive and able to talk. He was also willing to take advantage of that. A cripple deserved some leeway after all.

The axe hit the window, sending a huge spiderweb of cracks through the glass. It arrested the axe’s momentum, meaning it did not imbed itself in the back of Kerri’s skull. Too bad. It landed butt first, then the head tipped into the glass, causing it to fall apart completely.

“That is nothing, just a freak crack. It happens to paintings all the time,” Kerri said. His voice grew quieter as the sound of falling glass could be heard.

“You are so dead,” Eve said.

Tristan briefly wondered what Eve had threatened Kerri with. Maybe calling off the marriage, though it did not sound like she had that option. Helen jumped out of the chair that Tristan’s heart was under and ran towards him. The image was quite horrifying as she did not look well, her hair was greasy and her crimson eyes were bloodshot. Helen also moved like a malnourished person, somehow every action was both twitchy and laborious.

Kerri slapped her, he obviously would not let a woman climb over his desk. Tristan felt a little anger at that, he went to squish the emotion as he had done with most of his feelings about his parents. Helen had saved him though, so he let the feeling stay.

“Alright I informed the man from the Agni Raja about our situation,” Vulcan said.

Tristan frowned, “Where were you when I was fighting Frosty and Dirty?” Everyone turned toward him, Tristan coughed when he realized he had spoken aloud, “Sorry, talking to my imaginary friend.”

That did not help the stares, fortunately, Vulcan took his mind off the people, “It would be stupid for me to distract you when I had nothing of value to offer. I need you alive after all.”

“Also how did you know Conni was part of the Agni Raja when he was younger?” Tristan managed to keep his mouth shut this time.

“I talked to his soul tool, it's right in front of me in the primordial realm, also I just found out Conni is a dude and his soul tool is his grandmother’s remnant, he has her name,” Vulcan overshared.

Tristan raised an eyebrow at Conni, who raised one right back. They would need to talk. The entire mental back and forth had only taken a second. Long enough for Conni to stand, dust off his dirty tunic, and walk to the chair.

He retrieved the ice box and stood, “We will be back for the other belongings, so long as they are returned, I see no need to inform the lightning devil, as you call him, about this.”

Kerri clenched his fists, Tristan let a smile slip, so that is why Eve said Kerri was dead. Luke had even gotten himself a name, lightning devil was a bit odd though, as Luke shared an element with the chief god in the temple. Tristan tentatively stepped through the broken glass of the window and around Kerri. The steward twitched like he wanted to strangle Tristan, but he held himself back.

“You might want to get a healer for Dirty, I had to bite him,” Tristan said as he was led out of the building. He had no animosity towards the two guards, they had done their job as well as could be expected.

“Animal,” Kerri muttered, as they left.