Underground, sat around a round table, a group of seven cloaked figures sat. Each cloak was a different color, from purple to gold.

  “Gods damn it! The first lead I’ve had to a promotion and it’s already fucking dead!” the purple-cloaked man shouted to the sky. Well, cavern ceiling, but tomato potato and all that.

  “Calm down, Darian. A Unique Being is not so easy to kill. It will recover, and it will serve us. Your pointless screeching is not helping anything.” A middle-aged woman spat venomously.

  “I don’t want to hear it! I said to put eyes on the damned thing! I warned you not to underestimate the creature! But what do you do? You put two fucking incompetents to watch over my promotion! Do you know how hard I had to try to limit the spread of the news of a Unique Being? Especially one as obvious as that?” Darian shouted.

  “Oh, quit your god's damned whinging you leather-skinned ancient senile bastard. Just listen to the old bat, she’s usually right about this sort of thing. She’s certainly being more useful than you.” A younger man rolled his eyes at the back of the cave.

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  “Why you disrespectful little- I practically birthed you! You would be nothing without me!” Darius shouted once more.

  The young man rolled his eyes again, “Yeah, yeah. It’s very cool that you managed one impressive thing before hastily returning back to the bottom of the barrel. You created some Runes, whoopty-doo. If not you, then someone else would have figured it out. You aren’t even that good at magecraft, you just got tenure.”

  “Enough. The Unique Being will live, or it will die. It matters not in the long run. What does matter is the increased military presence due to it. We will need to be more clandestine in our operations. That goes double for you, Charl.” A gold-robed man spoke authoritatively. The young man in question scoffed but agreed nonetheless.

  “The rest of you, continue as you have. I will retreat from my sabotage operations for now to tend to the Academy, so Dina, you will take over in my stead.” The sharp-tongued woman simply nodded.

  “And, finally, Darius. Whining won’t solve anything. You getting promoted to Knight Lord is entirely secondary to our plans. A convenience and nothing more. You already hold the highest rank in the Academy besides me, don’t make me reconsider your position.”

  Darius looked suitably chastised but roiled with anger inside. “Yes, Gin. I understand.”