(Bonus chapter for the brothers of "Frostfang's Claw," 3/5)
Murphy could only marvel at how his little players always managed to come up with something new.
Just a moment ago, he'd received a report from one of Maxim's soldiers: a group of vampire "beggars" had crawled out of the Great Rift and been discovered by Lumina and Sister Pomegranate. They were now under guard.
Murphy and Triss hurried to the place where the vampires were being kept.
On the way, Triss kept "reproaching herself":
"I was only saying it to provoke Femis. I never thought it would actually happen. This makes no sense. With the concentration of astral psionic energy in the inner city, even if they hadn't been dragged into the Astral Realm, there's no way they could have lasted this long—seven whole days!
This doesn't add up, Murphy."
Murphy looked just as helpless.
He knew the wretched vampire beggars hadn't suddenly appeared because of Triss's bad luck, but he took the opportunity to say:
"If you know you have a tendency to jinx things, don't go saying stuff like that. Maybe your poisonous tongue was so bad that some passing god couldn't stand it and prepared this surprise for us."
"Pah. What god would pay attention to vampires? You think our status as the eternally damned is a joke? The Astral Gods want nothing to do with us."
Triss rolled her eyes. Seeing Maxim waiting up ahead, she said no more and followed Murphy. The loyal servant standing before them wore a peculiar expression.
When he saw Murphy approach, he immediately stepped forward and said quietly:
"Those who escaped were several clan leader's personal guards and their servants. Lord Jade was leading them."
"What? What a coincidence."
Murphy was taken aback.
As far as he knew, Salokdar's personal