((So... Chapters...

  43.5 stay as part of the story, nothing wrong with it

  43.6 Uh... dunno. I'm 50-50 on it.

  ))

  // day after the i//

  Orion jolted upright in a bed, a sharp pain shooting through his wounds. His head buzzed, and an unusual crity sharpened his vision as he looked over his bandaged body.

  'I'm not dead? I move?' he thought, bewildered. Looking at his hands, he noticed an unnatural shio everything. Even his breathi hypersensitive, drawing his focus for a moment.

  "Spirit Tonic" A voice broke the silence. Greyson stood he bed with Marcus at her side, him with a deadpan expression as she calmly spoke. "It's from Ionia. I would not suggest trying anything- its effects will wear off shortly."

  "What does it do?" Orion asked, their distance shifting closer and fading with each breath.

  Orion's eye caught several old mehe door wearing Enforcer uniforms, scribbling on paper every word.

  "You don't have the right to ask-" Marcus snarled, but Greyson waved him to silence.

  She looked at Marcus disapprovingly. Marcus threw a frustrated g plied before they turned back to Orion.

  "It's a stimunt- a temporary boost. We need answers." Greyson said dismissively. She gestured toward his wounds. "You're lucky to be alive. The Kirammans paid a hefty sum for elixirs. Without them, you would be dead."

  Orion lowered his gaze for a moment, his voice bitter. "Why?"

  "I just told you- answers," Greyson exhaled sharply. Her tone grew colder. "You are the primary lead in this iigation. This is the sed topside atta a month, both tied to the Kiramman family. The cil wants answers."

  "Please cooperate, Orion." Greyson's voice softened. "We don't want to resort to other methods."

  Orion paused, remembering the disaster and Caitlyn's face just before he passed out. After nodding slowly, Marcus immediately asked, "Why the attack? People were injured because of you."

  Orion's gaze shifted to Marcus, "It wasn't an attack. They were just kids trying to prove themselves." Heightened breathing and stress caused his vision thten further. He clutched his head and winced, closing his eyes as a massive headache took hold. "I was trying to stop them..."

  "Kids..." Greyson trailed off in frustration, looking down for a moment in thought. She shook her head, "But that doesn't expin the explosion."

  Gritting his teeth through the pain, his headache grew worse as well as the pain around his wounds. He was forced to y down as he answered.

  "I don't kher. Everything just exploded."

  Silence followed. Orion was uo see their rea as he covered his eyes to stop the light. He was struggling to stay scious at this point.

  "They lost their bag of stolen goods during the chaos," Marcus stated factually. "We don't know if they carried any on their persons."

  "Orion, tell us. Did they take anything else?" Greyson asked, her tone desperate as she shook his leg, trying to keep him focused and scious.

  "No..." Orion muttered as his sciousness slipped away.

  He could hear angry cursing from Marcus as everything faded. "Names! Give us names! Damn it!"

  Throughout the day he faded in and out of sciousness, uo do further. Even if he wao heal, Enforcers stood guard to report his as when he woke up.

  Later that day the cil vened for Jayce Talis's trial. While the ethos demanded for his exile after Jayce revealed he was trying to create magic, certain influences and favoritism kept him from such a fate.

  Shortly after, the cil vened again, but with the presence of Greyson and Marcus for a debriefing oack, and without Heimerdinger.

  "You said this was a robbery. Did they take anything dangerous?" Mel asked.

  "Hard to say." Greysos. "We doly know what we did find, let alone what we didn't. It appears they lost most of it during the explosion."

  "This mention of magic has the people afraid." Hoskel speaks politically. "The culprits must be apprehended!"

  "Your attitude makes me question if your best is up to the task," Salo sneered.

  "Oh, we'll find them. Don't worry." Marcus responded aggressively.

  "We've ducted exhaustive interrogations, frozen erce for half the district. With all due respect, cilor, don't you think we've pushed them hard enough?" Greyson tried to reason with them.

  "Do whatever it takes!" Bolbok's angered robotic voice erupted. "Turn the uy upside down if you have to!"

  Mel, ptive, tapped her fingers on her arm. "What of the one culprit? Is he still alive?"

  Cassandra's gaze flickered, her eyes quickly darting from Mel and back to Greyson.

  "Yes." Greyson replied. "He wasn't directly involved in the i. Witnesses reported him sprinting across the city moments before the explosion. When forced awake with Spirit Tonic, he cimed to be stopping them."

  "That's it?" Shoo scoffed.

  Greyson remained posed. "He lost sciousness. His injuries are severe."

  "If he knew where they'd be, then he knows who they are," Mel mused aloud.

  Marcus stepped forward, fidence dripping from his tone. "We'll get names out of him! It won't take long."

  "Good!" Hoskel chuckles merrily as if the problem vanished.

  Salo sharply gred at Hoskel before turning back to Greyson. "The people still want answers. Keep sc the uy until he wakes! Wring those answers from his neck if you must!"

  Marcus's smirk grew, but Cassandra's cold to through the air like a knife.

  "As the victim of yet atack, and the one who paid to keep him alive, you shall not." Cassandra decred with a cold tone, her gre fixed on Salo who leaned ba fusion.

  "You? Why would you pay su exorbitant amount to keep that filthy rat alive?"

  "For exactly this purpose. He owe me a debt now-"

  Mel cut her off, "We ot allow him to roam free. He is still plicit. He khis would happen." Cassandra opened her mouth to protest when Mel gave her a cold stare, "We were le enough with Jayce Talis this m. That's enough."

  Bolbok's mercilessly pressed further. "Send him to the Dredge Priso him rot there."

  Mel and Shoo exged gnces and shook their heads. Shoo spoke first, "That is too harsh for the boy. After all, he did try to stop it."

  "An example must be made!" Bolbok's gears grinded and screeched with rage. "Two attacks in one month are uable!"

  Mel houghtfully, "Two is uable. I agree." She paused before adding, "Stillwater works well. It keeps him off the streets, and it's reserved fh-profile criminals. Let that be the promise."

  Greyson remained silent as the cil discussed Orion's fate away from the public eye. Later there would be a public trial, but his fate was already beiermined here.