Strongest Among the Heavens

Daughter lay on her side, one leg draped over the edge, her eyes half-closed in a state of lazy contentment. The door to her room appeared. A long shadow was cast. She turned her head over, eyes half open. The shadow elongated across the floor as Dasha Pang stepped inside. His mask was crumbling, chips falling away to reveal a bloodied lip underneath. His left eye was a dark void, and blood trickled from cuts on his forehead and cheeks. The Ruh al-Qital gi was ripped in places, exposing deep gashes and burns on his chest and arms.

Daughter’s eyes opened fully as she turned her head to look at him, a slow, amused smile spreading across her lips. "Raoul gave you more trouble than expected?"

Dasha didn’t respond to her question. Instead, he spoke in a measured tone as if he was drinking tea, "There are monsters caged on the second and basement floor. The basement can be accessed in specific rooms via keys from Raoul and his right-hand man, Arrow Zhou."

Daughter stretched, arching her back and twisting in the hammock before settling into a new, equally relaxed position. "I’m already having the Whispers take care of it. Even the bodies you left lying on the street were swiftly swept up by my Hieracosphinx," she replied. "Are the rumours true that Raoul kept a baby phoenix in his office?"

Dasha flattened the burnt part of his white cloak on his shoulder. "Yes."

"Lucky us then. We don’t keep monsters but maybe it’s time we changed that. I’ve been thinking of creating a sub-section for living beasts. We already have so many for the dead after all." Without looking at him, Daughter extended an arm. "The journal?"

From his inventory, Dasha pulled out a badgered journal full of improperly stabled parchments.

Daughter’s fingers lightly pinched together to telepathically grab ahold of it. "It’s in terrible condition." Pulling it to her side, her smile became flat. "Really terrible condition."

She took the journal with her and laid on her back, the journal held to the ceiling. A couple pages fell on her chest. The light of her room wasn’t immense yet she could see through the parchments as if it was semi-transparent. Not good.

"There was no damage along the way," Dasha stated.