“You are not thinking clearly, or you would have noticed this yourself. Think about it.” Solus said.

“What’s more likely? That some of the smartest people you know miss an obvious detail, or that they just hide it from you and put their base on lockdown exactly because they know what they are dealing with?”

***

Somewhere else, at the same time.

Xenagrosh couldn’t move a finger as her captor gutted her open like a fish. She couldn’t even think as he cast one spell after another. Some he used on her, others on himself.

Yet even the slave array that shackled her will had its limits. Xenagrosh could still see from her unblinking eyes and listen to the ramblings of the creature.

The thing in front of her looked humanoid only in the widest sense of the term. The two lower limbs that supported his weight ended in three long fingers, two in front and one behind, which allowed him to adjust his height and angle as needed.