“I need to contact my friends.” Serena approached the boulder Wolfin used to close the passage and grasped at the edges, straining to try and move it away.
Though, recovered from most of her injuries, she was nowhere as strong as the man, so she failed to even make the rock budge. She froze, breathing heavily and feeling herself trapped, and heard Wolfin approaching.
“It’s still night out there. Too dangerous for you to be stumbling in search of your friends.” he said. “Let’s eat. If you’re so keen on finding them, I’ll help you first thing in the morning. But you have to do something for me.”
Serena pressed her forehead to the rock and sighed:
“What?”
“Take a bath, alright? You stink like a weefer.” he gestured to the water basin.
“What the fuck is a weefer?” Serena growled, straightening.
“It’s a creature that hunts every night. They’re stinky. And dangerous.”
Serena glanced at the basin and thought for a moment, before agreeing that she really could use a bath, since she spent so many days recovering from her wounds.
“Fine.” the woman headed to the basin, still feeling the aching in her ribs and knee that were injured worse than everything else.
Wolfin followed her with his eyes and shook his head, returning to the kitchen to finish up preparing some meat. When he heard her throwing off her clothes, he didn’t even look, but as soon as she submerged herself in the water and a faint groan escaped her throat, he glanced her way, seeing her massaging her shoulder.
“Serena?” Wolfin turned to face her, noticing how lean and beautiful her body was.
“What?” the woman opened her eyes and met the man’s gaze.
“You still hadn’t told me who you were looking for around here. And how you got to where I found you.”
Serena looked at the water, gathering her thoughts, and noticed the faint streaks of dirt and blood that was washing off her skin being carried by a slow current, which meant there was an underground creek, leaving the cavern.
“I was… scouting out one of the campsites I’ve found.” she said a few long moments later. “When I saw Ellax, a creature jumped at me, and this made the Red Lanyards uncover my position.”
The woman heard Wolfin drop something.
“You’re after the Red Lanyards…” he gritted his teeth. “Figures.”
“You know them?” she glanced his way and saw him approaching with a bowl, where two steaming steaks lay, sprinkled by some herbs.
“We’ve ran into each other before.” he put the bowl next to Serena. “Mind if I join you?”
“I’m in your…” Serena glanced around. “Home? Do as you wish.”
The man smirked and undressed, walking into the basin as well to clean himself from whatever sand and grime he could have collected through the past few days. He tore a piece of meat off one of the steaks and took a bite, studying Serena with a very strange expression.
“Why are you after them?” the man asked, licking his fingers.
“My team was contacted by one of the mayors and we were offered a reward if we would take care of the gang.”
“And… how big is your team?”
“Does it matter?”
“It does.”
Serena pressed her lips together. She was weary of giving him all the information, since she hadn’t known the man for many years and he pretty much threatened her when she first woke up at his cavern. She glanced at the box he threw before her then – now all the pins collected and the box returned to the stack.
Wolfin noticed this and moved closer to her, meeting her eyes with a slight frown:
“I had my reasons to kill those Veluthians, Serena. They came for me. They came to kill me.”
“Why?” she wasn’t hoping to get an answer, as he didn’t reply to similar questions before.
This time, however, the man took a very deep breath and exhaled, before saying:
“After the massacre…” he gritted his teeth. “When your family died, taking with them all of the Bima-Liss traitors… I was one of those investigating this mess. The evidence I found, and the questions I’ve been asking made some of the allies to the Bima-Liss grow weary of my persistence. And while I was able to capture most of those who sent assassins my way, trying to silence me… others framed me for something I hadn’t done. I escaped Velutha only by chance. For years I was trying to fix the damage those traitors caused to my reputation. But my attempts weren’t as good as the influence of powerful families, who gained a lot from the death of Thara-Lyss and Bima-Liss families.”
“Who framed you? And for what?”
Wolfin looked away:
“I was framed for the murder of my wife and son.”
Serena’s eyes widened. The man stayed silent for a while, as if thinking about the times that passed.
“Wolfin?” Serena called him, seeing him flinch at the sound of his name. “Who framed you?”
“Salaar Dorn Kalun.” the man said, throwing a handful of water into his face. “The pieces of armour I showed you belong to the assassins that came after me time after time. At his orders. The last ones I killed two months ago, right here…”
Wolfin pointed at the bloodied rock with chains.
Serena felt something stirring in her memories, and decided to distract herself by taking a bite to eat. Thinking over something that bothered her, she caught Wolfin looking at her with a strange expression on his face again.
“What?” she tilted her head, noticing his eyes studying not only her face, but her body as well. “Got something to say? Say it.”
The man smirked:
“Who knew a scrawny little kid could grow up so strong and beautiful?” he saw her eyes squinting and cackled. “Relax, Scorpi. You’re my ward, not a woman I’d want in my bed.”
Serena forced down an irritated grimace from appearing on her face:
“Thanks, I guess.”
“I didn’t ask…” Wolfin squinted at her, watching her reaction. “How did you survive? I saw the recoding that was shown all over Velutha, but… no one could find you. I assumed, just like all the others, that you died… either by the hands of the traitors or by the assassins that might have been sent after you.”
“How much do you know?” Serena felt her teeth gritting against her will. “About that day?”
“We found your blood, lots of it, on the site. And the short recording came to the communication web a bit later. That’s it. No trace, no hint that you were alive after that.”
The woman looked at her left arm.
“Tekkern caught me by surprise.” she said. “He shot me, blowing off my left arm, almost up to the shoulder. I managed to grab my gun, but my father ran into the fight, shoving me away and ordering me to run.”
Wolfin saw her eyes becoming angry.
“Then what?” he encouraged her to continue the story.
“I followed the order. I fled.” Serena grasped her left wrist, clenching the limb hard. “I got to my ship and didn’t look back. Tekkern followed me, vaporising my right leg as the ship was taking off. He toyed with me.”
She finally raised