Chapter 23: Reunion
The command hall had no windows. And it didn’t need them.
The black stone walls were polished to perfection, embedded with bronze plates where red runes pulsed in rhythmic intervals — as if the room itself was breathing.
It was a place designed to keep the mind sharp and the body alert. No distractions. No comforting shadows. Only cold walls, clear orders, and discipline.
At the center, on a base of solid obsidian, rested Hagan’s desk: wide, symmetrical, with no loose papers or personal items.
Only one magical artifact sat there — a Visum Sphere, a lower, unstable version of an ancient real-time arcane communication device. He had acquired it recently during one of his expeditions into a dungeon.
It was fragile due to being a cheap replica. The sphere hovered thirty centimeters above the surface, its core vibrating in bluish tones. Fragile. Rare, but easily destroyed.
At that moment, the sphere vibrated with a pulsing blue light — an urgent message notification.
Hagan looked up with disinterest. His armor wasn’t on, but rested nearby on hooks beside the dark stone throne.
He wore only the underclothes of the uniform: dark leather pants, a metal pelvic guard, and a plain black tunic clinging to his broad chest.
His beard was tightly braided, as required by the First Guard’s protocol.
He snapped his fingers.
"Display."