This day had been a busy one for Magnus, as most were.
First, he'd been informed upon waking that someone outside the walls wished to speak with him.
It turned out to be a crazed lunatic who called himself the Prophet.
Magnus had listened, of course. He always listened. There was value in madness. In the pauses between the man's ravings, he'd glimpsed something else. Not just delusion, but belief.
Still, he'd dismissed him. For now.
The rest of the morning had been filled with meetings: reports of unrest from the Slums, a minor rebellion in one of the Southern Workcamps, and a troubling rumor about a rogue fragment wielder sighted near the marshland border.
And then the report came.
Kael Duskborne.
Alive. Captured.
At long last.
Now deep within the prison complex beneath the Middle Ring.
Magnus hadn't spoken aloud upon hearing the name.
He had simply stood, telling his aides nothing. Then, when the moment came, he made his way to the Black Vault.
