Chapter 86: Bloodline I
Nyra’s silence was heavy. When she finally spoke, her voice was tight with restrained fury. "It’s not a good thing. Do you know the kind of pain the victims went through before the experiment worked? Hundreds died in agony. Hundreds more were discarded like failed projects."
Kaedros could see it in her eyes, emerald-green and flashing like sharpened gems. Her fur bristled, and for a moment, he thought she might leap at him.
"So, you were the hero who saved the day?" Rauk asked, a slight grin on his face. He liked the idea, but he couldn’t quite imagine a cat being anyone’s savior. He wisely kept that thought to himself.
Thalso snorted again, and gently patted Nyra’s fur. "Her? A hero?"
Nyra shot him a sharp look but continued in a flat, even tone. "I wasn’t a hero. I was a captain of a mercenary group back then. Killing those scientists and hunters was just a job to me."
Kaedros, Taria, and Rauk were all stunned. A captain? Of a mercenary group? A cat?
It was happening again, Kaedros thought. His perception of the Castle’s residents was shifting once more. Nyra wasn’t as innocent as she looked, just like Thalso.
He made a mental note not to forget how dangerous these people really were.
"Mercenary?" Taria echoed, her eyes lighting up with curiosity. She had heard of mercenaries rogue professionals who took missions from villages, nobles, or anyone willing to pay. They often operated outside the Celestial Order and the bounty hunter’s Association.
They formed private forces, took contracts directly from the people, and were known for honoring their pay. Unlike the bounty hunter’s Association, mercenary groups accepted ordinary people, not just Ascendants, Taria had once considered joining a mercenary guild if she’d been given a path.
"Yes!" Nyra’s tone turned cheerful again. "I led one of the most elite mercenary groups of the time. You had to be filthy rich to hire us. Good times!"
"More like troublesome times," Thalso muttered. "You were a menace, Nyra. You and that outlaw band you liked to call a mercenary group. You were declared criminals."