A Gloomy Afternoon in Genoa

While Murphy left the Land of Creation with a strange, weary look on his face and returned to Shadowvale, a battle report concerning Blackflame Pass was finally delivered to the Transian embassy on the Genoa Peninsula.

With this world's communications being what they were, such an important report should not have taken so long to arrive.

The problem was that, even before Blackflame Pass fell, Lord Heather had already noticed that communications with the Brass Fortress had been completely cut off. Neither calculation orbs nor psionic messages worked, and even the blood crystals vampires used to communicate with one another had gone silent.

Murphy said it was the work of the Warp's power. As a result, all battle reports had been forced back to the most primitive means of transportation.

They had to use the Thieves' Guild's channels to pass on information. To keep Dusk from interfering, they also had to ask Lady Shani, who was currently at Krim Fortress, to use her Thorn Clan intelligence network to relay the report.

The round trip had taken far too long.

As a result, the report did not reach the Genoa Peninsula until the afternoon, two days after the fighting at Blackflame Pass had ended. At a time when psionic forces were involved in warfare, a delay like that would get someone court-martialed!

But that was the miserable situation they were stuck with, leaving both sender and recipient at a loss for words.

After receiving the report, delivered in person by one of Grand Duchess Shani's descendants, Professor Malcolm wasted no time. He brought it straight inside the embassy and found Lord Paving on a balcony high in the building, painting. He handed it over.

The vampire lord of a thousand years still had an air of his own.

Even with the