The luxurious tent, Olenna's temporary command center on the Riversouth bank, felt hollow despite its opulent trappings.
The mission had been a bust.
She paced across the soft, patterned carpet, but the light scent of jasmine from the incense did little to ease her sharp disappointment.
The meager loot from Daniel's team, a few beast cores that barely qualified as low-grade, a handful of common herbs, and not a single card,was insulting.
It wouldn't even cover the cost of the knockout-drugged Palm Wine.
She paused before a small, elegantly carved wooden table.
Upon it lay a single, worn photograph in a simple silver frame.
It showed two young girls, smiling brightly, their arms around each other.
The older one, Olenna herself, though younger, fiercer, her eyes already holding a spark of the calculating woman she would become.
