A gentle breeze, loaded with rain to come, blew through the trees as Luke stared into the campfire before him. The night was dark, the moons and stars hidden behind a thick layer of cloud, even though the rain had passed for now. The air was wet and chilly, yet Luke barely noticed.

The fire popped and hissed loudly, the wood still wet from the rain, but thankfully it was dry enough to burn. A kettle sat amongst the coals, steam jetting from its spout, though Luke was too lost in thought to notice.

'You killed the part of me that loved you.'

Luke gritted his teeth and shook his head. 'Shut up!'

Neither he nor Azee had spoken a word to each other since their fight. Azee had spent the rest of the day bundled up in the back of the cart, her back turned to him. Luke was sure he had heard her crying a few times, but each time he thought about talking to her, her words flashed through his mind.

'You killed the part of me that loved you.'

Luke cursed out loud as he absentmindedly reached into the fire to grab the kettle without using a cloth. He stuck his burned fingers in his mouth, mumbling to himself.

"How in damnation did I let this happen," He grumbled. "Eloise is finally gone, it's just Azee and me... and yet it all goes straight to buggery."

'Chara... Chara started all of this...' Luke's teeth gritted as he glared into the fire. 'That... stupid, arrogant, spoiled canine... it's her damn fault!'

Dropping a handful of coffee beans into the kettle, Luke replaced it in the fire. Leaning against the log at his back, Luke's eyes narrowed. 'I knew I should have arranged for her to suffer an accident...'

With a growl he shook his head. 'No, stupid, I couldn't kill her. She was Azee's sister, it would have broken her heart.'

'But I broke her heart anyways.' Luke let out a long sigh, his eyes stinging as he stared at the black sky.

Luke's hand flashed down to his gun as he heard footsteps approaching the fire. Just as he was about to call out, Azee stepped into the ring of flickering firelight.

"Azee... I-"

"I want to talk to you."

"S-Sure, come and have a seat."

Luke moved to create a place for Azee to sit, but a glance at her face made him pause.

"What's wrong?" he asked, dreading the answer.

"You were right."

Luke blinked in surprise as Azee sat down across from him, her knees drawn up under her chin.

"You were right," she said again, her voice low and dull.

"Right? About what?"

"I have been a coward."

Luke felt his heart drop into his stomach and his mouth go dry. "Azee... I didn't mean-"

"No... you were right." Azee stared into the fire, watching as the sparks rose high into the air.

"I've wanted to ask you why you did it since that day. I suppose... Part of me always hoped that you would tell me without me having to ask." Gripping her knees tighter, Azee's eyes narrowed. "I was stupid to think you would care enough to explain."

"Azee, I do care! Everything I've done, even the mistakes, has been to try and keep you safe."

"Would safe be enough for you?" Azee raised her head a little and met Luke's gaze. "How much of your life would you be willing to see torn apart so you could be 'safe'."

With a heavy sigh, Luke looked away. "I don't know..."

"Luke..."

"Azee... you don't want this."

"I need to know."

"Please, Azee, just trust me. You don't want to ask this."

"Look at me."

Luke raised his gaze from the fire to Azee. A cold hardness to Azee's gaze sent a shiver down his spine.

"I command you to tell me... Why did you sell Chara?"

Luke gritted his teeth, fighting as hard as he could against the rune in his chest.

"No," He snarled, glaring at Azee. "You... don't... want... to know."

"I'm tired of you telling me what I do and don't want. Tell me why you sold my sister."

"I... sold her..." Luke shook his head, gasping in pain. "No... I won't..."

Despite the anger burning deep within her soul, the sight of Luke in pain made Azee's skin crawl.

"Just tell me! Stop killing yourself and tell me! Tell me why you took her from me!"

White spots filled Luke's vision as he fought, his heart raced and his limbs twitched in agony. And then, suddenly, like a switch being thrown, it all felt so meaningless. The rune fully took hold, sweeping aside Luke's will to fight.

"I sold her because I wanted to protect you."

"W-what?"

"Chara was trying to raise a rebellion against me. She was planning on escaping, along with others, and joining some rebel cell in the area." As he spoke, Luke felt as if he were drowning, each word a precious bubble of air torn from his lungs and rising away out of his reach.

"She'd gathered together weapons, knives and tools she'd stolen from the house. She even had a fore on her side, though I never figured out who it was."

"Chara... was planning to rebel?" Azee shook her head. "No... no you're lying."

"I'm not," Luke replied simply. "She was planning on using you as well, using you to get to me. I knew that if it came down to a choice between me or your sister, you'd have chosen her."

"I..." Azee could do nothing but stare open-mouthed at Luke.

"I confronted her, told her to stop. She told me she wouldn't, that she'd rather die than live as a slave." As his will began to return, so too did the anger in Luke's voice. "Do you have any idea what her rebellion would have meant? Every last slave at the Ranch would have been culled, every last one, including you. I sold Chara, and the other rebels, to protect you and the others."

The fire sputtered as a stiff, cold breeze blew through the trees.

"So, now you know." Luke picked himself up off the ground and glared down at Azee, still gripping his aching chest. "I hope it was worth it Azee, I really do

"But... but she-."

"And you want to know the greatest irony of all of this?" Luke interrupted. "When I told her how much danger she was putting you in, you know what she said to me?"

"I-I don't..."

"She told me that you had already betrayed her, and the others. She planned to protect you, of course, by sending you away. And what was this great sin you'd committed? This betrayal? You were happy. You were happy being with me."

"She wanted me to be happy!" Azee protested. "That's what she always said!"

"Don't be so foolish." Luke scoffed, his contemptuous tone cutting into Azee. "She wanted you to be like her, angry, bitter, never satisfied! She hated that you were comfortable!"

"You're lying." Azee snapped, jumping to her feet.

Luke let out a harsh burst of laughter. "Have you forgotten? Azee, I literally can't lie to you! Not that there would be a point anyways."

Desperately, Azee searched the link, looking for even the slightest trace that Luke wasn't telling the truth.

"The fact of the matter is, you've travelled Lord-knows-how-far to rescue a sister who had already given up on you. You've risked death and torture. You've sacrificed the love of the one person on this plane who would have done anything for you, for someone willing to let you and all the others be culled so she could run off and play rebel."

Azee's heart raced, her mind spun. There was no lie. No matter how hard she searched, no matter how hard she concentrated, there was no lie in Luke's words.

"No," She moaned, dropping back down to her knees. "No..."

"You know something... I know that things were difficult. It wasn't easy for you, what with my position and yours." Luke stared down at Azee, his voice hard and cold. "But I tried. I protected you, I sent my mother and sister away to keep you safe. I gave you my heart and put everything I have in the world at risk for you. So it wasn't perfect, but you were safe and comfortable at the very least."

Azee tried to speak, but the words all seemed to die in her throat. She wanted to be angry, to lunge and fight, but her muscles refused to move.

"I did my damnedest to treat you like... well, like a human," Luke continued. "Your sister tried to take that away from you, so I sent her away. You wanted to know why I sold her? That's it. I sent her away to protect you."

"How.... how dare you..."

"I hope the answer was everything you hoped it would be."

The ground beneath Azee seemed to crack and open up, dragging her down. All she could feel was a cold, yawning emptiness in and around her.

Luke paused for a moment to look over his shoulder as he turned back towards his tent. "I suppose, in the end, Chara got what she wanted; you did end up like her."

Without another word, Luke marched off to his tent, leaving Azee alone by the fire.

***

As he lay in his cell, on what straw he could scrape together, Trip kept the shield rune clutched tight against his chest. The constant rubbing of his fingers had smoothed the rough edges of the crystal. For the thousandth time, he considered activating the rune just to test it, but he didn't dare risk discovery or wasting any of the rune's charge.

There was still a part of him that feared this was all part of some cruel joke. After all, why would the agent who had captured him in the first place help him? Perhaps it was a ploy to get him to reveal something, not that he had any information to tell. Perhaps she hoped to win him over, turn him into a spy? Perhaps she simply wanted to be cruel.

Trip shivered as he heard a pair of footsteps drawing closer. He twitched as a loud clanging rang out, the sound of a club against the bars of his cell.

"Oi, you still alive in there, long-ears?"

With what defiance he could muster, Trip raised his head and growled at the man standing on the other side of the bars.

The jailer chuckled a little at Trip's response. "Hey, that's good. keep that spirit up lad, we wanna get a good show out of you once the bishop arrives." The man crossed his arms and shrugged. "Personally, I'd rather see you hang than get the garrote, ain't nothing like watching a good dance from one of you filthy animals."

Trip said nothing in reply. Instead he just glared at the jailer, baring his teeth a little. He'd learned he had to be cautious, if he didn't respond enough to his captor's taunting, they'd beat him. If he showed too much resistance, however, they'd deny him a meal or send him for another round of torture.

"Gonna be watching a lot more of them dances now that the new gallows are finished." The jailer continued, kicking some filth from the floor into Trip's cell.

Trip's heart skipped a beat. If the gallows had been finished, then tonight was the night.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Yessir, you can bet young Duke'll be real eager to see them put to use." The jailer sneered down at Trip. "Too bad we didn't take more of yer little rebel group alive, coulda made for a good show." He waved a hand. "Bah, who cares, you'll do. I got five Larics on you lasting more than five minutes, so do me a favour, start practising holdin' yer breath."

Again, Trip only growled in reply.

With an ugly noise from the back of his throat, the Jailer spit on Trip before turning and striding off, banging his club along the bars of each cell as he passed.

Wiping the spit from his nose, Trip sat up, his heart thudding hard in his chest. He gripped the rune tightly, trying to calm himself as he took long deep breaths.

"I will not fear," he whispered, recalling Raid's words to him. "Fear is fire, if I lose control, I am burned, but if I am its master it cannot burn me." He repeated the words again and again to himself, rocking back and forth on his knees. "Fear is fire, if I lose control, I am burned, but if I am its master it cannot burn me.

Slowly his fear began to subside, each breath he took strengthening him.

As Trip sat in the darkness he looked down at his hand, the hand that the human woman had taken.

'Did she really mean it? Does she actually want to help me?'

His entire life had taught Trip that humans were angry, evil creatures who used their intelligence for cruelty. He had never seen more than the odd flicker of compassion from humans, never any indication that they had any genuine care for pelts other than as property. Once, while he had been badly ill, an overseer had taken him away from his duties and carried him back to the barn to sleep, even giving him a shot of whisky to help ease his pain. For a time, Trip had hoped he'd managed to make a friend, but days later when he had tried to thank the overseer, the man had responded with a swift kick and a barked command to get back to work. Experience had taught Trip that any mercy a human showed was temporary and purely for their own benefit.

Less than a season before his eventual escape, while Teff was tending to his wounds after a whipping, Trip had asked her. "Why do they hate us so much?"

"I don't know," she'd replied. "One of the older ones told me once that our people betrayed theirs during some great battle long ago. Ever since then, they've treated us like this."

Trip found it hard to believe that a single thing could make humans so cruel. He hadn't expected Teff to know of course, she'd been trapped in the same situation as he after all. Many of the other slaves said simply that it was because humans were just naturally evil creatures, but something had stopped Trip from believing that either.

Finally, he had asked his mother, but she'd only smacked him and told him to stop asking such silly questions. Even if she'd known, chances were she wouldn't bother telling him anyways, he was just one of more than a dozen children she'd had, merely another scrap of pain she never wanted. He wasn't sure why he'd even thought to ask her; maybe some hope that their shared hatred and pain could forge some kind of connection between them. Instead, it had just left him feeling even more alone, adrift in a world where he was just an insignificant speck, likely to be snuffed out in an instant to the notice or concern of no one.

But there had been something different about the woman who had given him the crystal. It had been in about the way she touched him, the way she'd held his hand. There'd been something in her eyes... something he hadn't seen for a long time, something he'd seen...

'In Raid's eyes...'

Slowly, Trip closed his fingers around the crystal. Maybe it was foolish... but he wanted to believe. Whether she came or not, the truth was, he wanted her to be telling the truth.

As he sat in the dark, Trip's nose caught a whiff of something crisp and sharp.

Trip's heart leapt as he recognised the unmistakable smell of smoke. Moments later, his ears picked up the sounds of footsteps and yelling from the chapter house above.

For a moment Trip wanted to burst out into triumphant shouting. The woman hadn't lied, she'd told the truth, someone was coming to rescue him. But as the scent of smoke grew stronger, another rush of fear rolled through him.

Holding the rune as tightly as he could against his chest, Trip pushed himself back to the farthest corner of his cell. Hurriedly he shoved the straw and debris as far away from him as he could. For a moment he thought about activating the rune, but with a titanic effort, he resisted the urge.

With a shuddering breath, Trip pushed himself into the corner and curled up into a ball, his heart pounding hard as he waited.

***

"Look at it go." Emmet grinned as he watched the gallows and the Chapter House burn. "Right pretty sight."

Emmet and Allec stood in an alleyway across the street from the Chapter House. Even the gloom of the alley was lit up by the blaze, sending rats and mice scurrying into the long, flickering shadows.

"Is that shield rune you gave the lapine strong enough to resist... that?" Allec asked, glancing nervously around the corner of the building, squinting in the bright light of the inferno. He quickly ducked back as a half-full barrel of varnish sitting at the base of the gallows burst, sending great gouts of flame rolling across the cobblestones.

Emmet seemed utterly unconcerned as he lit himself a cigarette. "Should be."

"Should be?!"

"Ain't no guarantees here." Emmet straightened the hat on his head. "Wasn't easy gettin' my hands on a shield rune, gotta make do with what we got. We just gotta have a little bit of faith."

***

Dallet cursed loudly as he ran down the street, following the Order Agent that had been dispatched to find him. Behind him, he could hear the call of the brothel owner, complaining that he hadn't settled his bill, but Dallet paid little mind. From the street ahead of him, he could see a bright orange glow, and a pillar of smoke rising high into the sky.

"How bad is it?" Dallet demanded, hurriedly doing up his red vest.

"It's bad, sir, real bad!"

"Where's Duke?"

"He's trying to contain it, sir!"

As Dallet turned onto the main street his mouth fell open in horror.

The gallows and the Chapter House's south wall were engulfed in roaring flames. A frantic Duke stood in the centre of the street, shouting and trying to set up a bucket chain. A few men and pelts were already working to throw buckets of water onto the fire, but the inferno was so hot that even getting anywhere near was impossible.

"No..." Dallet staggered forward, his eyes locked on the blaze. "No... no no no no NO!"

The front entrance of the Chapter house flew open and Jace emerged, carrying an unconscious agent on his back. Another few Agents stumbled out behind him, hacking and coughing.

"Get this woman to a doctor immediately!" Jace called out. "And keep the citizens back!"

Dallet stormed up to Duke and grabbed him by the collar. "What in damnation happened?!"

"We don't know sir!" Duke replied, his eyes wide with fear. "One moment I was in my office, the next I heard someone calling out 'fire'! By the time I got outside, the whole thing was engulfed!"

"Sir!" An agent jogged up, her face stained with soot. "We can't control it! The fire is so hot that we can't get near enough to get water on it! Even the pelts are refusing to get close!"

"You have whips, don't you? Use them!" Dallet snarled.

"We did sir, they still refuse!"

"Then shoot one of them and give them the order again! I want this fire under control, now!"

"Ignore that," Jace snapped. "Focus on making sure this doesn't spread to other buildings!"

"You heard me!" Dallet howled at the agent, his eyes wide and spittle flying from his mouth.

For a moment, the agent was paralysed, looking back and forth between Dallet and Jace, before finally bowing her head to Jace. "Yes sir!"

As the agent hurried off, Dallet rounded on Jace. "Do you know how much work this has been? I'm not going just to let it fall to ash!"

"Damn your pride Dallet! There are more important things to see too!"

"How dare-"

Even over the roar of the fire, the sound of Jace slapping Dallet with an open hand rang through the street.

"Get a hold of yerself," Jace commanded, glaring at Dallet. "If we let this fire spread, we could lose all of Lillyvale! We can build another edifice to your ego later!"

Dallet said nothing, though the look on his face had gone from furious to murderous.

"Douse the nearby buildings as much as you can," Jace commanded, ignoring Dallet and rounding on Duke. "Use pumps and water runes if we have any."

Duke nodded quickly. "Y-yes sir!"

"We're just lucky that the Chapter House is a stand-alone building," Jace muttered as a part of the roof gave way with a loud crack and an explosion of sparks. But as he turned to direct the efforts of the nearby bucket brigade, the sound of a spark rune activating made him pause.

Jace glanced over his shoulder. Dallet's gun was drawn, though he kept his arm at his side. His face was twisted into a mask of rage, illuminated by the flickering light of the burning Chapter House.

"So, what are you going to do?" Jace demanded, turning and meeting Dallet's glare. His own hands hung at his sides, close to the knives he wore on his belt.

***

Dropping his spent cigarette to the ground, Emmet withdrew a pocket watch from his jacket and checked it. A slight frown crossed his face as he snapped the watch closed and replaced it in his pocket.

"Your friends on the dock, they gonna move soon?"

Allec nodded. "They will, I'm sure of it."

"Better be... this fire ain't gonna burn forever. An' if they find a way to put it out..." Emmet's frown deepened as another half dozen men and women with buckets arrived.

With a groaning crash, the steeple tower of the Chapter house tore free and collapsed to the streets, sending a tidal wave of sparks and glowing coals skittering across the stones.

"They'll move, I promise."

"Well they-"

Before Emmet could finish, a thunderous boom shook loose a small cascade of dust and dirt from the surrounding buildings. Both Emmet and Allec turned and looked down the alley. In the direction of the docks, a massive plume of fire and smoke was rising high into the night.

"I said a small fire." Emmet shook his head, straightening his hat again. "Hate to think what you'da done if I said I wanted a big distraction."

"Don't look at me, I just set the pelts free and told them to make a mess!" Allec wiped his forehead as he watched the glowing plume of smoke rise higher and higher into the sky. "Lord... they musta put a torch to one of the fuel bunkers."

"That, or somehow Du'Quelle got roped into this as well."

Allec blinked in surprise. "Who?"

"Never mind."

***

The seconds ticked by agonisingly slowly as Dallet considered his next move. He knew Jace wouldn't make the first move, but he would attack the moment Dallet tried to raise his gun. Jace didn't have a gun on his belt, but the old man was fast, and a master with his knives.

"Is this really the moment you want to pick?" Jace asked, his hands shifting closer to his knives.

A bead of sweat rolled down the back of Dallet's neck. He'd get one shot, only one, before Jace would be on him.

So focused were they on their impending duel, neither agent truly registered the explosion from the docks. It wasn't until an agent approached, calling out their names, that the moment was broken.

"Agent Baskerville, Agent Alyard! The docks... There's a fire... At the main dock! The pelts... they're breaking out!"

Both Jace and Dallet turned as the Order agent skidded to a stop in front of them, panting hard. At the same time, both Dallet and Jace caught sight of the pillar of black smoke and fire rising into the sky from the other side of town.

"The docks!" Jace swore, his hands clenching into fists. "The chapter house... this was a diversion!"

"We could be under attack." Dallet's teeth ground as he spoke. "Could be sabotage by the North!"

"Or the lapines comrades! Either way, the Chapter house is a lost cause, and we must defend the docks." Jace looked back at Dallet. "We don't have time for any more foolishness."

Hesitantly, Dallet powered off his spark rune and placed his gun in its holster. "Agreed."

"Good."

As Jace hurried off to direct the other firefighters, Dallet made his way over to Duke.

"Where is the lapine?" he demanded, grabbing Duke's shoulder.

"He's still in the dungeon," Duke replied, rubbing his eyes, which stung from the smoke.

"You didn't think to grab him?"

"He'll be cooked, no doubt about it."

"Not good enough!"

Duke's eyes widened as he glanced back at the burning chapter house. "Sir, it's an inferno! There's no way-"

"I need proof that the little bastard is dead," Dallet snapped. "You have shields! Send someone in, shoot the damn thing, then get out! "

"But... Yes sir." Duke nodded. "What about you?"

"I'm heading to the docks with Jace. If we're under attack, it's where we'll be needed." Grabbing the reins of a nearby hound, Dallet dragged the rider, an Order Agent, from his saddle. Tossing the man to the ground, Dallet pulled himself onto the hound's back. Ignoring the previous rider's angry shouting, Dallet turned to leave, but paused to look over his shoulder at Duke.

"Don't compound this failure by letting our prisoner go up in smoke," Dallet's eyes narrowed. "Kill him, then bring me his head so we have something for the Bishop."

Duke saluted as Dallet rode off towards the dock.

"Lord's teeth, I despise those Illuminant Chain bastards." The rider snarled, massaging his wrist, which he had twisted as he had been dragged from his hound.

"They are our superiors, we follow their orders." Duke looked back at the burning Chapter house. With a deep breath, he reached down to his belt buckle and activated his shield.

"Boss... you ain't actually going in there, are ya?"

"I ain't sending anybody else in." Squaring his shoulders, Duke started marching towards the Chapter House's main entrance.

***

"Oh shit..."

"What is it?"

"One of the Order boys is heading back in." Emmet pulled his hat from his head and slapped it against his leg. "Bloody fool must be going after the kid!"

"W-what do we do?" Allec asked.

"Ain't nothing we can do." Emmet sighed heavily and placed his hat back on his head as he watched Duke enter the Chapter House.

"Ain't nothing we can do..."

***

Trip panted as he stayed as low to the ground as he could. Smoke billowed all around him, mixed with the odd spark. Above, he could hear the Chapter house starting to fall apart, beams splintering, and walls giving way. The air grew hotter with each passing moment, each breath burning in his chest.

But still, he didn't dare activate the rune.

'Just a little more...' He thought to himself, squeezing the crystal even tighter against his chest. 'Just a little more.'

As the sparks and coals rained down around him, the sound of coughing made Trip's ears perk up.

'That must be them. They came to get me!'

Trip leapt to his feet and dashed to the bars of his cell.

"Hey," He called out, his voice ragged as he caught sight of a figure moving in the smoke. "I'm here! I'm he-"

A single shot rang out. Trip blinked in surprise and staggered backwards, clutching at his right side, before pitching forward and collapsing to the floor.

"Stupid rabbit," Duke snarled, lowering his gun. His throat was raw, the shield around him doing little to protect him from the smoke.

Moving quickly, he stepped over to the cell door, unlocked it, and entered. Duke knelt down and grabbed hold of Trip's ears. He withdrew a pocket knife from his jacket, snapping it open with a flick of his wrist.

"If I had a sword I'd take back your whole head, but your ears should do fine."

Just before he started cutting, Duke noted something lying on the ground beside Trip. It was a piece of catalyst crystal, its dark purple and green edges glittering in the firelight.

"What in the Lord's name..." Duke muttered as he released Trip and picked up the fallen crystal. His eyes widened as he turned it over in his hand, revealing the shield rune.

"Where did you get this?"

As Duke spoke, a loud groaning filled the air, followed by a ceiling beam crashing to the floor in a spray of sparks and glowing coals.

With a muttered curse, Duke pocketed the rune. He grabbed hold of Trip's ears again and raised his knife. As he did, Duke paused, glancing up at the creaking ceiling, his shield shimmering as sparks and small coals fell like rain around him.

To Trip, the whole world seemed to slow down and detach. The smells and sounds of the cell seemed so far away, like the rush of a distant river.

'Am I... dead?' he wondered. He tried to move his arms, but they felt as if they were made of hard clay, stiff and impossibly heavy. Even the pain he felt seemed to float away.

'Is this... Kadaji?' He blinked slowly, his eyelids heavy. It was so peaceful, just as Kash had promised it would be.

'Kash was right... dying doesn't feel so bad.'

All of a sudden, his mind was flung back to the woman who'd given him the rune, the feeling of her hand on his, the promise that he'd be alright. In an instant, all thoughts of Kadaji were wiped away. The pain, the heat, the stinging in his eyes, all came crashing back, tearing through his body like an electric current.

With a burst of desperate strength, Trip began to thrash about, kicking his legs frantically and throwing blind punches

"Dammit, will you hold still!" Duke growled, trying to get his arm around Trip's neck in a chokehold.

One of Trip's wild blows connected with Duke's shield with a hissing flash. As Duke tried to steady himself, Trip twisted his body and kicked hard, his powerful legs slamming into Duke's chest and sending him tumbling backwards.

Duke slammed hard into the bars of Trip's cell, his shield crackling and squealing in protest. The impact left him a little dazed.

"You fucking rabbit," He snarled, gripping his knife tight as he pulled himself to his feet. "Alright, we'll do this the hard way."

***

"Well, that's that," Emmet nodded as the Chapter House let out a final crackling groan before collapsing in on itself with a colossal crash.

"You think he's still alive?" Allec asked, watching as the massive pillar of smoke and sparks rose high into the sky.

"We'll find out soon enough," Emmet replied, watching as the slaves and agents that had remained began tossing buckets of water on the blaze. "Course I'm more concerned about the fact we ain't seen that bastard Duke yet either."

"Maybe he went out a back way?"

"Yeah... maybe." Stepping out of the alleyway, Emmet straightened his hat. "Welp, let's go lend a helping hand."

***

END OF CHAPTER 38