"Killing him would be a waste of a perfect tool."
The rage that had fuelled my charge across the Northern Kingdom was now a cold, distilled venom, sharp and precise. I had deployed my best Alphas and Mages toward the mountains. The chase was underway. Now, it was time to address the root of the problem: the architect of the humiliation. I left the chaos of the castle grounds behind, descending not into the shallow, temporary dungeons where Alaric was caged, but deeper. I went down into the earth, into the oldest, most secret levels of my hidden fortress, the subterranean lair I maintained far beneath the conquered castle. This was not a place for prisoners of war; this was a place for instruments and long-term leverage.
