"What? Heather was detained while negotiating? And they specifically asked to see me by name?"
Murphy was resting in a room on the frontline, trying to ease the weakness that followed his embrace of the First Blood, when the news reached him. Adele and Shani had both been sent to the Abyssal City to assess the situation, so the message was delivered by Lady Lainnia, Maxim's wife.
She currently served as a ranger commander in the Holy Blood Order, directly under Lady Felocil, the former ranger general of the Kingdom of Castile. In the midst of this war, she also shouldered some intelligence-gathering duties.
But when she brought Murphy the news from beneath the tunnels, she also made a suggestion:
"Lady Felocil already knows about this. She recommends that you not attend the meeting. She'll lead the Fallen God's Children in a surprise attack on the Sin Dwarves."
Lainnia said,
"Though we can't wipe out more than thirty thousand Sin Dwarves, rescuing Lord Heather will be easy. A decapitation strike like this would also effectively curb their arrogance. Given the current fight against the swarm, the Sin Dwarves' brazen behavior is an obvious declaration of war. It's only right that we strike back."
"No, no. Please ask Lady Felocil to hold off. There's clearly something wrong here."
Murphy rolled his eyes and waved a hand.
"Heather's a Starborne warrior with a symbiote implanted in her, a Chaos Core, and fully enhanced organs. As a 'downgraded Astartes,' she should be more than capable of dealing with a bunch of battered Sin Dwarves when things get dangerous.
"With her bold personality, if she'd really been ambushed, she would've made a scene by now!
"But she's sitting over there with the Sin Dwarves. That's clearly suspicious.
"I'm not expecting the Sin Dwarves to