After squatting down to examine the body before him, Captain Ormain clicked his tongue in disappointment.

“He didn’t even see it coming,” he mused while pointing to the hole in the side of Artel’s rib cage. “Struck side on and it cleaned right through. What was he thinking?”

“He probably wasn’t thinking,” Lysalya replied with a sigh as she placed her hands on her hips, not bothering to hide the scorn from her expression. “What a waste.”

When Trim and Svanda’s exchange of gunfire with the Royal Guard had erupted at the wall, Ormain immediately knew that he had miscalculated. He had been correct in expecting that Reina’s group would try something that night and that it would happen along the wall of the Farmer’s District, but he had never expected that they would be brazen enough to attempt their escape beside the heavily fortified gate.

Unfortunately, that was exactly what they had done.

After sending both the lieutenant and Vesche to the Merchant District, Ormain had stuck Artel on the gate where he was out of the way before fanning Shalan, Lysalya, and himself in a neat arc around the poorest area of the Farmer’s District. It seemed logical that this would be where Reina’s team both infiltrated and escaped from the district, so with this in mind he designed a formation where they would have the ability to quickly provide cover for each other if needed. Quietly confident that the trap he had set was in the perfect location, Ormain had thought that there was nothing left to do besides sit and wait while anticipating the moment when they would snatch their already tired prey.

Much like their encounter with The Cloud Orchestra in the Luesa Badlands, however, their targets had managed to easily slip through their fingers like sand before disappearing to what was most likely the plate below while also managing to dodge the Royal Guard. To add insult to injury, this time they had not only been left clutching at straws, they had also lost a member of their team.

“Who’s supposed to get my coffees now?” Shalan sighed as she leaned against the stone wall by the door with a frown on her face. “Useless.”

Ormain glared at Shalan in an attempt to shut her up before any more damage could be done. While he knew that both Shalan and Lysalya didn’t particularly like Artel, Vesche did. Keeping everyone on the same page right now was what he desperately needed, and while losing Artel was an unfortunate setback it was something that he was going to have to move on from. They were a long way from home right now, and internal discord was something that could quickly get out of hand considering how he had some volatile characters like Shalan with him.

Artel hadn't been the greatest suit, but Ormain had put him on the team because he was capable. While Shalan wouldn’t see that and probably didn’t want to see it either, she would understand that Ormain was good at finding people who worked well together.

“So, what now?” Lysalya asked as she turned away from the body. Looking out across the cistern in the gloom, her shoulders sagged as she sat down at the top of the steps which led down into the water. “Do we just keep going?”

“There’s no other option,” Ormain replied as he stood up before stretching his shoulders one after the other. “The lieutenant will fill Artel’s role for now, and I will ask for him to be officially transferred into the team once this is all over.”

“Welcome aboard,” Shalan smirked as she looked over to the lieutenant who had been minding his own business in the far corner of the cistern. “I’m looking forward to the coffee.”

The lieutenant ignored her comment, which caused her face to darken. Instead, he turned to Ormain before lightly bowing his head.

Ormain smiled at the wordless response before placing his hands behind his back. “Nina and her friends have somehow convinced the Farmer’s Guild to use their exit. We’ll be following them down once we work out something with the people in the Merchant District.”

“We’re not going to find them down there,” Lysalya replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. Finding a small stone on the ground beside her, she picked it up before casually tossing it into the water below. “We thought this was enough of a maze, but Areinis is going to be even more difficult to comb through. How about beating them to Terminus and spending some time on setting ourselves up? We’ve constantly been behind the ball ever since we lost them in the Badlands and I don’t see that changing if we keep doing exactly the same thing.”

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When Ormain saw that the general consensus of the group was agreement with what she had said, he frowned. He understood that they were frustrated due to being accustomed to always coming out on top with ease, but at the same time it was the trait that could eventually lead them into ending up like Artel. Confidence was good, but overconfidence could be fatal and The Cloud Orchestra had already proved to them that they didn’t have any issues on pulling the trigger if that was what they needed to do.

He also wanted, as immature as it was, to restamp his authority on the group.

“No,” he finally said as he turned to Lysalya. The fingers that she was idly running through her hair stopped as she gave him a curious look, but she didn’t outwardly show any signs of disappointment. In fact, it seemed as though his comment had stopped everyone in the room as though the single word still hung in the air. It was clear that they were curious about his logic, and Ormain didn't mind giving it to them.

“We need to strike while the iron is still hot,” he began. Half of the comment was probably in reference to him striking now with instructions while the atmosphere in the cistern was tense, but he didn’t need to tell them that. “According to the reports that we’ve received, their party has two or potentially even three injured. They’re tired from running, badly hurt, and almost certainly concerned that we are going to be coming after them in full force in retaliation for what has happened here,” he continued while pointing at Artel’s corpse. “We are not going to give them the opportunity to lick their wounds in peace, and we certainly aren’t going to let them prepare for whatever trap we might set either.”

“Works for me,” Shalan said with a smile. “It would be a waste to pass through Areinis without spending some time in the sun.”

A snort from an otherwise quiet Vesche caught their attention as it echoed through the cistern, and when they all looked over to him he simply shrugged. “This isn’t a holiday. Don’t you have any pride in who we are? We’re suits, SuTSU elite. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like it when someone tramples on our team like that and thinks they can get away with it.”

That, was accompanied by a finger in Artel’s direction.

“Well said,” Ormain smiled as he nodded. Truthfully, however, he didn’t agree with what Vesche had said at all. There was nothing to be proud about in being a suit; to him it was simply the easiest way to climb the top of society. If the day ever came that jumping ship would mean that he could get to where he wanted to be just that little bit faster, he wouldn’t even hesitate to throw everything that he’d known away while he jumped.

Pretending to agree with Vesche was simply one way to keep him motivated. Shalan and Lysalya wouldn’t care about what he had said, and they certainly wouldn’t agree with it either, but as long as he could keep everyone moving, Ormain would do whatever he could. The lieutenant was easy to keep pointed in the right direction, so as long as he could manage Vesche and the two women, their mission could definitely be a success.

He certainly hadn’t given up yet.

“Well, I’ve seen enough,” Shalan said as pushed herself off the wall before making her way to the passageway that would take them back up to the alley above. Placing her hands behind her head as she walked, she stopped in the doorway before looking back at the body which lay there. Ormain was glad that Vesche wasn’t looking at her expression, because a light smile crept onto the corner of her lips before she turned finally back and disappeared up the stairs.

“You won’t be missed,” Lysalya sighed as she stood up before also heading to the door. The lieutenant, who had remained silent the entire time, simply followed her without a word. After they had left, Ormain and Vesche were the only two who remained in the now quiet cistern.

“We can’t have his body burned, can we?” Vesche asked. “We should at least take his ashes back to Luem.”

“I’d like to,” Ormain lied. “But we don’t have any time to waste. You want to get revenge too, don’t you?”

Vesche’s expression hardened a little before he nodded. Bending down, he put his palm on Artel’s good shoulder for a second and mouthed something quietly that Ormain couldn’t hear. After clenching his fist into a ball and lightly striking Artel on the chest, he stood back up and walked out of the cistern without looking back.

Ormain smiled. He knew that Vesche hadn't looked back because he was already in tears, but that was something that he would have to get over in his own time. If Ormain could harness that anger and then direct it at their targets, maybe Artel would even prove to be useful in death.

Taking one last look at his subordinate’s body, Ormain headed for the exit. “It’s a shame, Artel,” he said over his shoulder as he stepped through the door, his voice echoing around the now empty cistern. “You had your uses.”

Leaving Artel’s half-dressed corpse in the cistern, Ormain stepped out into the alleyway and went to join up with his team.