Chapter 92: How to manage their new home.

Julia turned back to the remaining guards stationed at the doorway. "Keep everyone inside this house. No one leaves. They are under house arrest until the Divine Soul Maiden herself decides what punishments best suit them."

With a sweep of her coat, Julia marched out, leaving a trail of heavy silence behind her.

The moment the front gate clicked shut, the heavy pressure lifted, and Ritah let out a loud, breathless howl of grief. Logan let out a massive sigh he had been holding in for five minutes, his shoulders dropping. He walked over to the floor and knelt beside his crying sister, pulling her up into a clumsy, comforting embrace.

"Shh, easy Ritah. Cry it out," Logan murmured, rubbing her back while Clinton just sat on the couch staring blankly at the wall, looking completely useless. "Listen to me. It’s not over yet. I am going to the Mystic Sanctum right now. I’ll see what I can do."

Ritah pushed back slightly, clutching Logan’s forearms with terrifying strength. Her eyes were red, swollen, and fiercely determined. "Brother, listen to me," Ritah choked out, her voice raw. "I don’t care about what happens to me anymore. Let them send me beyond the veil, let them execute me. I don’t care. But you must help Ava. Please, Logan. Save my baby girl."

Logan clenched his hands. How was he supposed to help his stupid niece? At least, if she had spoken to him first, he would have helped her come up with a plan. Now, everything was a mess. The best he could do was help the girl fake her death, change her face and ship her off to the wild lands.

As long as she didn’t contact the family again and survived quietly, she would live. But they would have to cut that blossom mark out of her forehead permanently.

He was not considering helping Ava because he loved her so much. No, his reasons were out of pure selfishness. Trinity and Julia had too much power. He had to accumulate evidence and witnesses to use against those bitches. What was better than a testimony from a Soul maiden that had suffered at their hands?

Logan plotted secretly, while comforting his sister and planning to use her daughter as a step to greater power.

****

After breakfast, Achilles, Hunter, and Zyra sat around the dining table, discussing valley maintenance, deciding who would do what and the rules of the shelter. They needed to do this because of their upcoming trip. Beast valley couldn’t just run itself while they were gone.

"I would have happily looked after things here," Achilles said, leaning back and rubbing his stomach contentedly. "But I have to go back to civilization to attend Eliot’s wedding and to take care of Thorn guild business. Duty calls."

Zyra instantly sneered, her face twisting into a mask of pure annoyance. She aggressively rolled her eyes. "Don’t even mention that wedding to me. I want to hear absolutely nothing about it unless it is a plan to storm it and pour a bucket of pig blood on the bride."

Hunter shook his head but remained quiet.

Achilles chuckled nervously, quickly changing the subject before she could summon Spice to bite him. It was a threat that he had grown used to in the little time he had been around her. "Right, right. Moving on! For Beast valley manager, I highly recommend Crispus, the one legged. He is one of my most trusted men, and the rest of the fellows respect him greatly. He can keep the men in line."

"Scotty should be in charge of the Beast Pavilion, he enjoys it even more than the beasts." Hunter suggested

Zyra tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Scotty yes, but I don’t know this Crispus person. But since you swear by him, I’ll trust your word Achilles. Malia will watch things too." She leaned forward, a knowing smirk on her lips. "From the very first day she arrived in this valley, Malia has been monitoring everything. I’ve noticed the woman just can’t help herself. She desperately wants to be in charge of something. Let’s give her a taste of leadership. It’ll keep her busy."

"Fair enough," Achilles laughed.

Zyra then shifted in her chair, her eyes gleaming with the predatory look of a true merchant. "Achilles, I have a supermarket here but right now, it’s entirely full of beast-related things. I want to add human goods to the shelves...clothes, spices, daily necessities, food stuffs. The problem is that I have no energy stones right now."

Achilles raised an eyebrow. "Then how do we trade?"

"Barter trade," Zyra said simply. "You take a massive haul of my premium beast goods back to the human cities, sell them, and bring me back human goods of equal value. Deal?"

Achilles’ jaw nearly hit the floor. He sat up straight, his eyes practically turning into the shape of gold coins. He accepted immediately. This was a goldmine! Beast valley was filled with rare beast herbs, and materials that would sell for absolute millions on the human black market. He couldn’t pass this off.

Seeing his excitement, Zyra smiled. "To sweeten the pot, I will also give you some rare beast eggs and beast taming skill books to sell."

"Perfect! Absolutely perfect!" Achilles beamed, rubbing his hands together like a cartoon villain. "I keep finding reasons to like you Ms. Scorpion."

"Mrs.!" Hunter chimed in.

The other two looked at him.

"She is married now, so she is a Mrs." Hunter reminded them.

Achilles smirked, "Okay, Mr. Scorpion."

Hunter sighed then sipped his tea, he set his cup down. He fixed his intense gaze on Zyra. "This conversation is very useful, but you still haven’t told me what we are actually going to search for tomorrow, or where exactly we are heading. We have to plan for that as well."

Zyra didn’t answer with words. She pushed her chair back, stood up, and jerked her head toward the door. "Follow me."

She led the two men through the stone corridors and straight into the security room. The sleek, glowing monitors made Achilles look around like a country bumpkin entering an imperial palace for the first time.

"Beauty," Zyra commanded the thin air. "Access the monitor and show the location of the Frost Heart Fungus."

"Right away, host," Beauty’s crisp, digital voice echoed.

The giant central screen appeared a detailed, sweeping map of the entire Wild lands. It showed every feature in vivid detail.

Achilles, who had been distracted by a blinking light on a nearby console, completely froze when he looked at the screen. His eyes went wide. As an information broker, maps were his livelihood.

"Heavens... I have never seen the entire map of the Wild lands that covers all four nations before! No hunting guild has ever explored it entirely." He whirled around to Zyra, his voice shaking with excitement. "Where on earth did you find this map? A treasure like this could sell for millions of energy stones!" He looked at Zyra with hope.