SHADOWCLAW ARENA
Serena walked through the entrance with Elara two steps behind her.
Tiberon. Dexmon. Finnick.
Gone. All three.
The relief that moved through her chest was so profound it nearly buckled her knees, which were already unreliable given the wine and the shift and the crying and the general catastrophe of the last hour.
Captain Thane was standing in the center of the floor with Captain Calder, both men resetting equipment that had been relocated from the destroyed. Hale was leaning against the far wall with his arms crossed, present and accounted for, radiating the calm energy of a Beta who had been told to supervise and intended to supervise quietly.
Twelve Shadowclaw warriors were absent. The mages were absent. The audience that had made the first session feel like a tribunal had been replaced by four people and a rack of training blades, and the reduction in witnesses was doing more for Serena's blood pressure than the wine.
