36 Drohs Pitiful Acceptance (1/2)

”Why would the clan master come himself… and how did he…” Elias couldn't believe what he had heard. He would never admit it to anyone, but the clan leader terrified him, and he knew more than anyone that he was only useful to Roland—or as he was truly named Rol'an—because of his prior connections with Direfell's semi-inner military circle.

He held influence with Direfell's military police, the guards and soldiers who oversaw most of the day-to-day. The fact that he held power over many soldiers, such as Mercer was proof enough of this. Without that power, Elias was next to useless to both the Orion clan and it's master and would've been tossed to the side long ago.

He didn't possess any overwhelming abilities, he wasn't even particularly clever. Rol'an used Elias for a simple, linear goal. To access information regarding Direfell's hive-mind.

He only held his rank as the Orion clan's number two in name, but no one outside the inner circle of the clan knew this. He couldn't afford to have anyone find this out, as it would spell disaster for him. Someone who held power in name alone wasn't worth the effort and would be abandoned the moment they stopped being useful.

Elias knew this, and so he had volunteered for many missions in order to raise his value to both the clan and Rol'an. He had to continuously wear this mask of power, a mere illusion, even if it was truly too shallow to comfortably rely on.

In truth, many of Rol'an's closest confidants eyed for Elias' position. They'd do whatever they could to topple him, allowing themselves to take his place as Orion's co-conspirator. Rol'an himself held doubts in Elias and was obviously very quick to toss aside everything that was useless to him.

”I was told this was just another basic heist job… so why…” His voice skipped a beat as panic overtook him. A surge of worry struck at his heart as he glanced back toward his group in secret, distrust and hate apparent on his face. ”Have I been betrayed from the inside? Was it Atra who has been watching me… or perhaps Nirox… no, it might even be one of the new blood.”

A grunt escaped as he continued to grumble to himself, ”I was on edge all this while… thinking I had gotten the better of everyone. I had even changed up the plan for this exact reason… but it didn't matter.”

It was a good thing he had gone to the side before all of this, otherwise, everyone would have noticed the concern and anger on his face as he tried his best to determine who had been sent to observe him. He knew how careful he had been, but nothing was set in stone. ”Who even had the opportunity to act against me? h.e.l.l, not even that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Thaddeus, who may as well be dead already, had the chance to find out about my plan. So who…”

He paused for a moment as his sight fell on a single person.

”Deus!” His voice escaped suddenly, even he was surprised at the volume.

Deus glance over at Elias from a distance as he ran over, unsure as to why he was called over. ”Elias, what do you want? Were you able to get a message out?”

”Heh…” Elias sputtered out, his voice dried and withheld. ”I got the message out… we're good as usual, my personal reinforcements will come to support us.” He emphasized himself on 'personal' as to try and catch Deus off-guard.

Deus simply shrugged and nodded, fully accepting of this outcome. ”Good to hear. So, we'll be holding the enemy back while we wait for them? I'm not too sure we can handle for more than a few minutes… it'll all depend on how much charge is left on those energy s.h.i.+elds… it can't be too much.”

”Oh, don't you worry about that… they'll hold,” Elias answered as he kept his eyes trained on Deus's expression.

”Fine, just don't get us killed trying to show off,” Deus replied, completely catching Elias by surprise as he walked off.

”That b.a.s.t.a.r.d…” Elias grunted to himself as he watched Deus's back. ”I know your game… you b.a.s.t.a.r.d... you can hide it, but I know you're sweating, worried your little trick of going behind my back hasn't paid off.”

--

”Droh, keep an eye on Elias… something seems off,” Deus instructed to the little Faun as he approached him.

”Why? What did he have to talk about?”

”He seemed fl.u.s.tered, I think he's trying to find a traitor amongst us, even if one doesn't exist,” Deus explained, ”I know for a fact that he withheld something from me… speaking about that, I should warn you beforehand… but you have to stay quiet and calm, or everyone will notice.”

”Calm? I'm always calm. No one shows calmness better than me…” Droh replied, half-joking, half-serious.

”Hah,” Deus simply shrugged and rolled his eyes, ”Sure, mister calm over here. Well, you better not disappoint me, mister calm.”

”Alright, alright. So what did you want to warn me about? Did you get your message out to the military captain?” As he asked, Droh's voice dropped into a whisper.

”Eh, not quite… but you're not too far off,” Deus paused, ”After everything had happened, and with Elias killing that centipede, I figured the worst thing I could do is bring a monster like Roch here… I'd be delivery myself and everyone else up on a silver platter…”

”True, killing that worm really caught me off-guard, even we couldn't have expected that.”

”Exactly. From what you've told me, those centipedes represent the true power of the Lords, so I doubt handing the people who just killed one over after the fact wouldn't be the smartest move,” Deus explained as his voice hit its lowest, practically a murmur.

”So I changed the message a bit… I sent it to Roland.”

”Roland!” Droh shouted out as Deus jumped up and grabbed him, trying to mute him.