The Broken Halo

"So you’re still alive."

The Voice sounded relatively calm, but the surprise beneath her words was impossible to miss.

Simon leaned against a black rock and turned the Murmur Bone slowly between his fingers. The wind moved across the cracked lands around him, carrying thin trails of smoke past the low hills.

"You sound disappointed."

A quiet breath came through the Bone.

"The carrier and the cases were swallowed by a Half-Step Abyssal Beast. The ambush collapsed, the convoy returned to Velmora, and you remained silent for more than two days." Her voice became slightly colder. "What conclusion did you expect me to reach?"

"That your people failed."

The red lines beneath the Murmur Bone brightened, and Simon could almost feel her temper rising through the artifact.

"I’ll choose to ignore your words."

She paused.

"Since you’re currently talking to me... It’s either you escaped whatever happened on that road, or you were never in danger to begin with."

Simon’s lips curved slightly beneath the copied face of the dead rebel.

"You can keep guessing."

The Voice did not respond to that. When she spoke again, her impatience had pushed aside everything else.

"Do you have information on the three cases?"

"Yes. They are with me."

A rather tense and seemingly tense silence followed.

It lasted long enough for Simon to hear the wind scraping loose sand across the stone beside his boot.

"You have them?" she asked at last.

"All three."

Her next question came much faster.

"Where is the carrier?"

"Dead."

There was no concern in Simon’s answer, and the Voice showed none either. The rebel had been a useful piece. Now that he was dead, only the cargo mattered.

"How did you recover the cases?"

Simon raised his gaze toward the crimson sky.

"I have my methods."

The Voice released a slow breath through her nose.

"You disappear for two days, return with a claim I cannot verify, and refuse to explain how you accomplished it."

"That sounds... quite accurate."

A pulse of heat passed through the Murmur Bone.

"This is not amusing."

Simon could not help but raise a brow.

"And I’m not laughing."

Simon pushed himself away from the rock and began walking at an unhurried pace. His suppressed aura remained close to his body, while Shadow Sense continued watching the land around him.

"I will give you a location," he suddenly said. "The cases will be inside a spatial ring. You will collect it personally."

The Voice became silent for a brief moment, then her tone sharpened.

"What did you just say?"

"You’re not deaf. You heard me."

The Voice could not help but laugh hearing his words.

Simon, however, did not care in the slightest. He continued.

"I haven’t finished."

Simon’s calm interruption made the crimson lines flash again.

"You will come alone, and you will bring the Second Claw. No guards. No hidden observers. No demons waiting outside to kill me or capture me."

He paused before adding.

"Oh, and all my conditions are non-negotiable."

The Voice laughed again, and there was not a single tinge of humour in it.

"You are stepping far outside your boundaries, Outsider. You are not worthy of summoning the Second Claw to a place of your choosing."

Simon’s expression did not change.

"Worth has nothing to do with this. I possess something your faction needs, and I’m telling you what recovering it will cost."

"You already named your price before the mission."

Simon’s fingers tightened slightly around the Bone.

"You told me to steal three small cases from a guarded convoy while your people attacked it. You did not mention Korran hiding a Half-Step Demon Lord among the escorts. You did not mention a Half-Step Abyssal Beast tearing through the battlefield. And you certainly did not mention your carrier losing the cargo after every part of your operation failed."

The Voice’s breathing became heavier.

"Our people opened the wagon and removed the cases."

"And then lost them."

Simon allowed those words to settle before continuing.

"I recovered what your entire force could not recover from a Half-Step Abyssal Beast. The danger changed. The work changed. Therefore, the price changed."

"You cannot rewrite an agreement after completing it."

"I can when the task I completed was far beyond the one you described."

The Voice remained silent for several seconds. When she spoke again, the anger in her tone had become quieter and more dangerous.

"You believe surviving a Half-Step Abyssal Beast makes you important."

"No. Possessing the ’road’s bones’ makes me important."

Simon deliberately placed a faintly mocking emphasis on the coded phrase.

The silence on the other side became like a graveyard. He could no longer hear her breathing, and when it returned, it was slower.

"I wish I could kill you right now."

Simon chuckled softly.

"You won’t be the first and neither would you be the last."

Simon continued walking between the rocks, his eyes calm.

"If the Eastern Faction wants its road’s bones, you and the Second Claw will meet my conditions."

The Voice’s reply came through clenched restraint.

"This was not part of our agreement. I gave you the information you requested about what our faction knew concerning you."

"That information paid for the mission you expected me to complete. It did not pay for recovering your cargo after your carrier died to a Half-Step Abyssal Beast or for protecting your faction from Korran’s trap."

The irritation in her voice shifted to one of confusion.

"Korran’s trap?"

"The cases are marked with tracking devices and runes."

"And we expected that."

Simon gave a quiet scoff.

"The markings can leave an imprint on the spatial ring or container carrying the cases. You could silence the direct signals, transfer the cargo, and still lead Black Horn from one handover point to the next."

The Murmur Bone became somewhat cold in Simon’s grip, and even its crimson light stopped pulsing.

"How do you know?" she asked eventually.

"Once again, I have my ways."

The Voice fell quiet again.

This silence was different from the earlier ones. Her anger remained, but Simon could hear thought replacing certainty.

"Prove that you have the cases," she said.

"No."

Her restraint cracked and her anger surged once again.

"You expect me to bring the Second Claw based entirely on your word?"

"Yes."

"That is absurd."

"You trusted an unknown demon enough to involve him in this operation. Now you can trust that same demon long enough to collect the result."

"We did not trust you. We used you."

Simon smiled.

"And now I’m using your need for the cases."

A rough breath escaped her.

"You are making enemies you do not understand."

"I killed one of your Wardens, the Fifth Needle, and several rebels. I doubt our relationship was becoming friendly."

The Voice muttered something under her breath, and Simon was certain it was a curse. Then she asked in a colder tone.

"What happens if we refuse?"

"The cases remain with me."

"And if we choose to hunt you instead?"

Simon looked down at the glowing Murmur Bone.

"Well, you can start by finding me... if you can."

Another long silence passed before the Voice finally spoke, but with controlled fury.

"I will take your conditions to her."

Before Simon could respond, the crimson lines flashed once and vanished.

The connected ended.

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