The room was too loud.

Not with noise, but with stuff. The tapestries were thick enough to dampen a grenade blast, and the walls were covered in a weird, jarring mix of history. On one side, there were detailed oil portraits of a woman—Gloria—tearing through monsters like they were made of wet tissue paper. On the other, there were hand-drawn crayon drawings. Stick figures. A woman with a cape saving little circles that were supposed to be people.

There was junk everywhere. Antiques. Trash. Dozens of items that looked like they belonged in a garage sale, but here they were treated like relics.

Anyway. Across from me sat the symbol of power for the Ashen Gryphon. Gloria Sherban didn't match the room. She looked sharp, clinical, and entirely too calm for a woman surrounded by crayon art.

"Are you nervous?" Gloria asked. She gestured toward a porcelain pot. "Have some tea, please. Relax."

I shook my head. "I am good, thank you. Honestly, I feel like I’ve been having a lot of tea these days. My blood is probably fifty percent chamomile at this point."

Gloria chuckled. The sound was low and surprisingly human.

My eyes trailed back to the clutter. The gifts.

"Gifts from people," Gloria said, following my gaze. "People I helped, apparently. When you start leading a guild like this, there’s a lot more tea and boring conversations than actual work on the ground."

"You still go on a lot of raids," I said.

Gloria tapped her desk, the rhythmic —THUD echoing in the lavish room. She turned a tablet toward me. "Not as much as I handle stuff like this."

I picked up the tablet. My strategist brain kicked into gear. It was a forensic report. The drug we’d retrieved from the shipyard—the stuff in the blue crystals—was a perfect match. It was in Francis’s blood. It was in the corrupted hunter who’d turned into a bone-gate at the intersection. They must have scraped the sample from where Hana’s shadow had stabbed the guy.

I scrolled down. The intelligence estimates for Francis were a mess.

"Official records say he was a D-Rank," I muttered. "But these power readings... they estimate him well above that. Maybe a B-Rank level."

"Mana boosters of some kind?" I asked, looking up.

"I thought the same thing," Gloria said. Her face went hard. "But it’s all organic."

"What does that mean?"

"It’s all monsters, Elara. That powder. Monsters turned into dust."

The silence in the room suddenly felt very heavy. The crayon drawings on the wall didn't look so sweet anymore. Monsters pulverized into a compound to jumpstart a human core. It was grotesque.

"Did you guys ever see what those seaside bastards were bringing out from the gates?" Gloria asked. "Arslan? His crew?"

I shook my head.

"Whatever it is, it’s not good. But Francis is a lead," Gloria said. "The only official record of this man’s presence for the last few years is a recurring cash order. Going to this address."

She swiped the screen, showing a map coordinate.

"I want you guys to go find out what this is for. Maybe some family, oh right, no family." Gloria said. "Whatever it is. Use it to get into this ring."

I took a deep breath. My heart did a slow, heavy thrum. "I'll get on it. If we want to find things out, we have to dig deeper."

I stood up, my chair scraping against the expensive rug. I was halfway to the door when Gloria spoke again.

"This annoying work," she said.

I stopped. I didn't turn around.

"I think it’s better," Gloria continued. Her voice was quiet. "It’s better to not receive gifts when you’re helping people. "

I didn't have an answer for that. I just left.

***

Hana was on the couch while Seraphina took her usual chair playing a sodoku she couldn't solve in her office.

Seraphina, bored of her puzzle, had her head tilted, her blue eyes fixed on the Weaponizer. She was swirling a cup of tea that had long since gone cold.

"Are you okay?" Seraphina asked.

Hana gave a short, lazy nod. "I'm good. Just clearing my head."

"You really mellow out in front of your brother," Seraphina said. She was leaning back, her white hair spilling over the chair like silk. She was trying to be casual, but Seraphina doing small talk always sounded like a robot learning to laugh. "It’s a big change. You’re almost... sweet."

"Yeah, well," Hana hummed. She kicked her boots up on the low coffee table, looking entirely too comfortable. "Some sides come out for family... and some sides stay hidden for special occasions."

"Oh?" Seraphina asked. She sounded genuinely curious. "What sides are those?"

Hana finally looked up. She didn't look like a ghost anymore. She looked like a predator that had just spotted a particularly tasty bowl of cream.

She gave Seraphina a slow, playful grin.

"Some fun ones."

A hunt.