Private A Sinner's Closet

[Arris Windrun]

NAR SHADDAA
RED LIGHT SECTOR
Acier Moonbound

It wasn't hard to find.

Slip a few credits; ask the right questions, and many secrets become available to you.

In this case, Acier learned the location of Windrun's den on the Smuggler's Moon - a repurposed vehicle garage at the Red Light Sector's edge. He had the timing down, too. Arris was off meeting some Vigo in what was supposed to be a lengthy conversation. Apparently, the cyborg was in some kind of trouble, but details were vague at best. It was one thing to give information on a Black Sun enforcer, another when it concerned the Underlord's dirty laundry.

From the outside, her garage looked unassuming. Faded signage suggested it was once a repair shop many decades ago. There were windows, the exterior blast door was shut, and only a single entrance off to the side. One way in, one way out. Getting in was surprisingly easy. No guards, no security; only a simple maglock with a keypad.

Inside, the spacious location told a different story. Sure, there were vehicles, even a big one half-hidden under some tarp. Elsewhere, the space looked more like an armory than a garage, with an arsenal of weapons and crates of ammunition. Blasters, revolvers, attachments, and spare parts littered plain metal tables. Up on one wall was a nasty-looking rifle, with - oddly - a cybernetic leg that looked like it had been melted; the Dark Horse's signature was written in red paint on it.

In another little corner was a lounge. A couch that looked seldom used and a viewscreen jury-rigged to an illegal HoloNet transceiver, with cables that brambled their way through a hole in the ceiling.

Nearby, a single door led to a backroom. Though this one had harder security on it, with the obvious signs of trip sensors, should anyone brute force their way inside.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Nar Shaddaa - Red Light Sector

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Acier slipped inside and let the door close behind him, careful to ease the seal rather than let it snap. The garage opened up around him, it wasn't a hideout so much as a workspace.

He didn't touch anything, purposefully, the less evidence he was here the better. Vehicles sat where they'd been left, one of them large enough to warrant a tarp. The weapons told a clearer story: laid out in clusters that suggested readiness over obsession. Tools, not trophies.

Ace let his gaze drift, cataloguing, cross-referencing. This wasn't about the hardware. It was about the choices. What Arris kept close. What she kept visible. What she didn't bother to lock away.

The rifle drew his attention despite himself. Then there was a cybernetic leg, melted and fused into the frame. The Dark Horse's mark slashed across it in red.

The lounge told the rest of the story. A couch no one rested on. A viewscreen wired illegally into the HoloNet, cables punched through durasteel with no attempt to hide the violation.

Then his eyes shifted to the backroom door. Hardened security. Trip sensors. Compartmentalization done properly. Whatever was behind it was important. Clearly. He just wondered how important. Was it it plans? Names? Timetables? Maybe even directives from Mercy herself.

Ace dismissed the speculation and focused on the door. A nearby terminal was enough. He keyed in a short access string, riding old maintenance routes and buried permissions until the sensors accepted a false idle.

The motions came back easily. Mira's lessons, old access paths, quieter solutions. It had been a while since Ace had needed those skills. Lately, everything demanded force.

The lock disengaged without protest and he slipped inside and eased the door shut behind him, restoring the system as he went. To the security, nothing had happened.

Now he could see what Arris actually kept hidden.

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound

The extra security was depressingly simple for what the door guarded.

Inside was a cramped space - relative to the rest of the garage - that Arris made exceptional use of. Immediately, near the door, was a sickly sight. Cybernetic appendages overflowed from metal-wire shelves and dangled from the ceiling. Closer to the center was an operating table, with boxes of implants stacked beside it. An inactive medical droid was parked at its charging station. Beside it was a dispenser with a vat filled with raw synthflesh, which looked more like a paste until it was shaped.

On the walls were a series of diagrams. Not plans. Not weapon schematics. Nothing of the sort. It was... Well, it was Arris. Or at least, it was the deeply detailed architecture of her appearance. Something a cosmetic surgeon would have.

Below it, there was a small stand with a holophotograph on it. The picture displayed two girls, in their late teens, by the look of it. One looked remarkably like Arris Windrun, though she was quite shorter, and her face a bit rounder. Of course, there was the obvious absence of any cybernetics. She leaned into the arm of another slightly taller girl with dark hair and a stronger look.

The holo-photo contained a message, too, which read...

To Arris: I wanted you to have a copy. - Rox
​

At the other end of the room came a soft blue glow. Viewscreens and monitoring equipment, and something damning on one of the screens. It was a bird's-eye view of Edic Bar, and it included heavy data. Not the kind you could gather from a glance. Platform schematics. Shipping logs. Crew manifests. Every detail of House Veruna's Tibanna operation.

It was first-party information, smuggled into the Covenant's hand. It was only a question of who and why. Infochants and disgruntled workers might have been a first guess, but even they would have a difficult time amassing such precise information on the facilities themselves.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Nar Shaddaa - Red Light Sector

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace took everything in piece by piece. The shelves of cybernetics weren't shocking, but the volume of them was... interesting. Arms, legs, components in various stages of completion or abandonment. He wondered if it was inventory. Maintenance for her own cybernetics. It was ironic, Arris treated her own body the same way she treated everything else: modular, replaceable, improvable.

The operating table seemed to confirm it, and the synthflesh vat sealed the thought. His gaze drifted upward to the diagrams lining the wall and stalled. They were... her? Precise measurements. Structural breakdowns. Cosmetic architecture rendered with surgical intent. Ace exhaled slowly through his nose. Windrun hadn't just rebuilt herself, she'd authored herself.

The holophoto caught his eye next. Ace stepped closer, careful not to touch it. Two girls. One unmistakably Arris: shorter, rounder, untouched by metal. Human in a way that felt almost foreign now. The other leaned into her easily, familiar and unguarded.

To Arris: I wanted you to have a copy. - Rox​

His dark eyes lingered on the holo's contents, almost softening if you looked close enough. So, there had been a before, a version of Arris Windrun who laughed, who stood close to someone without calculating angles or exits. Someone who hadn't needed to replace pieces of herself to survive whatever came next.

The soft glow at the far end caught his eye, he turned toward it. Viewscreens filled with data, dense and layered. It was a bird's-eye view of Edic Bar, broken down far beyond public schematics. Platform layouts. Shipping schedules. Crew manifests. Tibanna flow charts tied directly to House Veruna's operation.

Ace's expression hardened in thought. This wasn't scraped, or bought second hand. This was inside access... someone with authority, proximity, and motive. Someone who knew House Veruna well enough to bleed it dry without raising alarms.

A noble traitor. The noble traitor that had cast a shadow over this operation for weeks now. The thought surfaced uninvited, sharp enough to make his chest tighten. Aurelian Veruna's name followed immediately, unwanted and heavy. The idea of Sibylla, of what it would do to her if that were true, made his jaw tighten.

He pushed it down. Speculation could wait. Facts couldn't. Ace pulled out a small cam he'd brought specifically for this, raised it, and took a single photograph. Enough to preserve the scope without lingering.

Sibylla needed to see this, so did the old man, Lorn.

Not later. Not softened. Not filtered. Whether this was Aurelian who was behind this or not, it'd help the investigation into who the traitor is.

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound

A loud groan and a rumble. The building shook, if just a little. The front door - yeah, the big one - had opened.

The medical droid awoke at its charging station and took two steps forward. Its head rotated towards Acier, the stranger it hadn't expected to be in the same room.

In a masculine voice, the droid spoke. "You are not supposed to be here." There was a slight shift in its tone; budget vocalizer.

Of course, it had that uncanny innocence that class one droids often had. Hard to tell if it had any reason for alarm, or capacity to defend.

It was unmistakable. The cyborg was not one to hide her presence in the Force, even if she knew how (she didn't). Arris Windrun had arrived, and she couldn't miss the backdoor ajar.

"Hold on," she was talking to someone. "I'll call you back."

Windrun had arrived in worse shape than she left. Her synthflesh was damaged in multiple places, jacket torn, shirt singed with holes from blaster fire. Her right arm and hand were melted along the surface, but still functional. She had been in a fight, that much was certain. Whether it was a mutual exchange or a massacre? Hard to tell with Arris, who seemed partial to both.

She marched towards the back room.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Nar Shaddaa - Red Light Sector

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace stilled when the building groaned, and The Force hit him a breath later. Windrun was back. The medical droid spoke, but Ace didn't look at it. His eyes stayed on the doorway as Arris came into view, burned synthflesh and scorched fabric telling the story before she ever said a word.

He didn't reach for a weapon. That would've just made things worse.

"Caught me." Ace said evenly. Unapologetically.

He shifted a half-step away from the screens, not hiding them, just no longer blocking them.

"I didn't come here to take anything." Ace went on. "I came to learn more about who I was doing dirty work for. Maybe get some leverage. You know how it goes."

Ace remained calm on the surface, telling her what he was really here for was suicide. His gaze then flicked over her damage, quick and clinical. The kind of wear that came from winning ugly.

"On a good day." He said calmly. "You could probably kill me."

He let that sit, then added, very matter of fact.

"This doesn't look like a good day."

It wasn't bravado, but it was a warning. If she tried anything in this state? He was certain she wouldn't walk out of this den alive, whereas he may only suffer a few severe injuries at worst.

Of course, she could strategically back down now and kill him later when she was back to full strength. That was always a possibility. But, Ace had gambled in scenarios like this countless times. Something told him Windrun wasn't that unhinged. Or maybe, she was unhinged enough to respect his resolve, as well as his audacity, and leave him alive.

Regardless, he let the implication hang: that whatever advantage she should have right now was narrower than she liked, and that killing him wasn't as clean an option as it usually was.

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound

"Caught you?" She teased the words back at him.

Her mood was more amused than it ought've been for someone who caught a fresh-faced acolyte sneaking around her privacy. She leaned against the door frame, clearly blocking his one way out. Disheveled blonde hair masked some of the damage to her face.

So, he wanted leverage? That's rich. She respected how he postured, even if a part of her doubted his actual intentions. Why would he look for a way to knock her down a peg so soon? Maybe he was just impatient. But she didn't trust that - not with how disciplined he was. Not with how he hid intentions between a tight jaw and a clenched fist.

Then, he threatened her. It brought a smile to Windrun's face. She tilted her chin up to show it and stepped further into the room.

"You're an arrogant fuck." She declared. "Many want to see me split to pieces, but it sure ain't gonna be you."

Her fingers inched closer to the holsters that hung heavy at her hip.

Despite her own posturing - something was off. It wasn't the damage. No, Arris seemed remarkably unconcerned by it. Maybe she was just insane, but she did not give the impression of someone who felt weakened in her state. It was in the Force. Usually, the Dark Side swirled around her like ferality ready to claim her. Instead, it was suppressed. She was suppressing it. Not the Force, but the darkness and its hold on her.

"So... what'd you figure about me?" She wanted the dirt.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Nar Shaddaa - Red Light Sector

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace didn't rise to the insult. If anything, the smile earned a fraction of his attention, not because it threatened him, but because it confirmed something he'd already felt in the Force. The pressure wasn't there. Not like it usually was with her.

He stayed where he was. Didn't test the door. Didn't mirror her step forward.

"Arrogant? I'm just calling it how I see it." Ace said calmly.

However, her certainty in him not being the one to finish her off tugged at something in him. It was tempting to just seize the opportunity while she was weak. No one would know. And if they did? The Covenant would probably congratulate him for it.

Maybe it was that 'Verd fire' coursing in his veins, that desire to fight and dominate. Or maybe, it was the fact that she served as one of the Covenant's faces, and his hate toward it as an idea, was projected on to her. Cutting off one head of the Triumvirate.

Ace pushed those thoughts aside. His gaze held hers, steady, analytical. Then he briefly glanced around the room. The cybernetics. The table. The diagrams.

"What I figured out?" He said, pausing momentarily. "That you're a freak."

It wasn't meant to be insulting, nor a term of endearment. Ace's tone was flat and honest, indicating that this was, simply, the best way he could accurately describe what he'd learned about her personally.

"But before that? Maybe you had the semblance of actually being a person."

He didn't mention Rox by name or look at the holophoto again. But she'd understand what he was talking about.

Ace folded his arms, eyes narrowing slightly on her, still weighing if this would end in a bloodbath. After that, he continued:

"House Veruna." He said. "That's how you were able to bring down Edic Bar so effectively." Ace paused. "Someone close, or... one of them gave you insider information."

Arris Windrun ​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound

Calling it how he sees it, huh? Arris stepped past the acolyte, making herself more exposed - maybe taunting him to strike. Her attention was towards the holo-photo. She picked it up with care, as if fragile, and held it a little closer.

She glanced over her shoulder briefly when he called her a freak, then back at the photo. Her thumb brushed across it, like she was caressing the blonde, before her thumb covered up the other woman's face.

"Yeah, I am." She agreed softly. "But you're wrong..."

Arris put the photo down and turned to face him. Her smile faded, replaced by something solemn. Sad.

"You don't know what you saw." It wasn't a warning, nor was it deflection. Though what it was, she did not say.

At the shift in conversation from the inklings of her past to Edic Bar and House Veruna, Windrun's mood changed, too. Whatever emotional vulnerability she felt had washed away, replaced by bemusement and dark confidence.

She stepped up to him. "Now why would someone do that?" Full of bantha shit.

"Anyway," she emulated a sigh. "That's old news." Arris took a few steps back and rested her back against the wall, arms folded across her chest.

With a grin, "I meant to find you, yeah? So - it's a good thing you're already here. We have plans, and I want you in on them."

She offered a little pause, then continued. "We're heading for the Core. Gonna knock the Empire down. You in?"

This time, it really was a question. A choice. He had earned something from her. Maybe it was Tapani, or maybe it was the last petty gangster or corrupt champion she had him slay in cold blood. Either way, he earned some autonomy again. And after Coruscant? She meant for him to earn it in full.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Nar Shaddaa - Red Light Sector

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace didn't react when she stepped past him. The temptation to finish her was there. But he didn't take it. He remained still, and his breathing was relaxed.

He watched her with the holophoto, eyes tracking the care in her hands rather than the image itself. The way her thumb moved. The way it lingered. The way it erased one face to focus on the other. When she said he didn't know what he saw, he didn't believe her but he didn't argue. He didn't speak, but his expression acknowledged the boundary.

The shift in Arris was unmistakable. The softness evaporated, replaced by something sharper and more familiar. Ace let it happen. He'd already learned what he could from the moment she didn't want to stay in.

At the mention of House Veruna being "old news," his expression didn't change. But he filed it away. Whether it really was old news, or she was just trying to throw him off the scent didn't matter. The information he had was enough, and hopefully helped the investigation.

Windrun quickly shifted the topic. She was good at that. And what she had told him, left him near speechless. The Core. He kept his expression level, but the confirmation landed harder than he let on. Sooner, then. It wasn't distant planning, nor theoretical momentum.

He exhaled once through his nose, like he was weighing the thought for the first time.

"The Core..." Ace repeated quietly. Curious, not startled. "That's… ambitious."

He shifted his weight, gaze briefly unfocusing, the performance of consideration. Inside, he remembered what Mercy had said at the Red Ronin. Then Tapani flared sharp and unwelcome. Senseless chaos, destruction, and death. Only scaled up, the way he'd warned Lorn it would be.

He looked back at Arris.

"But a chance to take on the Empire?" He said finally. "Yeah, I'm in."

In reality, his reasoning was a partial cover up. The real reason though? It wasn't because he believed it, or because he thought he could change what was about to happen. He didn't like what this was going to turn into either.

But he knew that he needed to play the long game, if he was going to destroy the Covenant from within, he'd have to keep playing the part. Which included partaking in things that'd make weaker willed men squirm. It was a small price to pay when it comes to eliminating a galactic threat.

Then there was the fact that their target was the Empire. That made things easier to stomach. No one else seemed to be doing anything about the Empire's unchecked power. If the Covenant had the desire to take the fight to them, to weaken them?

He was all in.

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound

"You should learn to relax," she remarked.

The way Ace was always so intense - she knew it from a mile away. He didn't like to be read, but she didn't think it was a very conscious behavior either. Maybe he wasn't fully aware of it. Somewhere along the line, she reckoned, he had found it important to control how others perceived him.

When he called their plan ambitious, Arris couldn't help but smirk. She reached into her jacket and pulled a cigarette. It was a habit she didn't quit. The cyborg lit it, took a drag.

Arris waited to reply until after he said he was in. "Good - because I've saved the most important job... just for you. Don't tell Varin, but after your results on Tapani? I think you're the best damn acolyte we have... Though Ghruna has the potential. Can probably kick your ass."

A haze of hallucinogenic smoke filled the space between.

"We're going to attack ISB Headquarters. On Coruscant. We need someone to snatch their records... Personnel, assignments, objectives. Everything."

Funny, Arris actually knew quite little about it. Never been to Coruscant either. Never been deeper than the Corellia System, where she was from.

She nodded at her door, the one he broke into some minutes ago. "I'm sure their security is better, but I've got all the equipment you need."

The technopath didn't need them herself, naturally, but once upon a time she was a solid slicer. Not the best in the game, but good enough, and knew her way around the toys. And, she had the wealth and connections to grab anything she didn't have already. Almost hard to remember she was filthy rich from the Galactic Kaggath; she certainly didn't live like it.

"And," she changed the subject... if only slightly. "If you succeed..."

She withheld the promise. First to gauge his reaction.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Nar Shaddaa - Red Light Sector

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace didn't look away when she told him to relax.

"Relaxing gets you dead." He said flatly.

The cigarette came out next. He didn't react to it outwardly, but the smoke curling into the room scraped at his patience all the same. When Arris called him the best acolyte they had, Ace didn't so much as blink. Praise from someone like her was never free. He assumed it was calibration. Ego stroking to get what she wanted.

But when she mentioned Ghruna... His lip twitched. Barely there.

"Yeah." Ace said. "Probably."

It wasn't insecurity, just acknowledgement.

Then she dropped the real assignment. ISB Headquarters. Coruscant. Ace's gaze drifted for a moment, contemplative. He'd crossed half the galaxy in the past year, the Outer and Mid Rim, dead worlds, war zones, but never there. Coruscant had always been a story. A word. A skyline people talked about like it was a myth. The Core made real.

He nodded once as she laid it out. Records. Personnel. Assignments. Objectives. Total exposure. That made sense. When she gestured toward the door he'd broken through earlier, Ace's eyes followed the motion, already measuring.

"I'll get it done." He said simply.

And then she dangled it.

If you succeed…

Ace didn't respond right away, but something in his expression shifted: subtle, involuntary. A spark of interest he didn't bother hiding, not fully. He bit at the bait, just enough to show he'd registered the hook.

But he said nothing. He waited. Letting her decide how much more she was willing to offer... and what it would cost him to take it.

Arris Windrun​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Of course, he'd say something like that, and she might've retorted that tension made you a target, but... There would be time for lessons later.

"I'll get it done." He said simply.

Now that is what she wanted to hear.

She caught that look in his eye. He wanted her to continue, even if he didn't want to say so. She smiled again. Arris flicked the roach onto the ground in front of her, then brought her foot down, grinding it to ash.

"If... you succeed... I'll let you in on all my plans, as a partner, as my apprentice. I'll answer any questions you have."

Naturally, she held her tongue for a second or two so he might process the offer.

"But don't worry," she chuckled and stretched her neck. Her eyes looked low at the ground.

When they rose again, "I'm not interested in the whole torturing my apprentice thing - my Master said it's not 'conducive to my long-term survival.'"

Arris wondered what Darth Adekos would've thought about her taking an apprentice while he still kicked. The last time she saw him, he was hoarding wealth and babbling on about 'bubbles' and 'bursts.' Then - as soon as it was clear to him she did not understand - he told her to fuck off, only his exact words were more whimsically annoyed.

The cyborg pushed herself off the wall, hands shoved into jacket pockets, and stepped up to Acier, face-to-face. Her smirk remained.

"You won't have to answer to anyone else... Not Mercy, certainly not Vestra... and don't worry, I'm not one for deference. Honorifics mean nothing to me."

One step back. "So - whatdya say?"

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Nar Shaddaa - Red Light Sector

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Partner. Apprentice. Access to her plans. And answers to questions she didn't offer lightly to anyone.

For a moment, just a moment, the weight of it settled in. This was the line he'd been moving toward since the beginning. Lorn's voice echoed distantly in his head, to be unremarkable, to fly under the radar. He almost smiled at the irony of it. The point had never been to stay small forever. It had been to get close enough that staying small no longer mattered. This was that moment.

His focus snapped back when she kept talking. At the remark about torture, Ace gave a quiet scoff, just breath and sound.

"My bruised rib begged to differ" He said dryly. "Last time you shot me point-blank with a beanbag."

His tone almost sounded... light. For once.

When Arris pushed off the wall and closed the distance, Ace didn't move. He stayed exactly where he was as she stopped in front of him, eye-level, unflinching. Whatever she was measuring in his face, he let her have it.

Not answering to Mercy. Not to Vestra. No honorifics. No ritual deference. That part, he couldn't deny, was… appealing. Fewer layers. Fewer masks. If he had to play this game, playing it with one person instead of a chorus of them made it easier to endure.

Ace held her gaze for another second.

"Alright." He said at last. Simple. Decisive. "Yeah. When I succeed." He added, correcting what she said earlier.

Then, inevitably, he tilted his head a fraction.

"But I've gotta ask." Ace continued, tone even. "Why me? I don't follow well. I questioned you on Calipsa. I went behind your back. I broke into your den. I just threatened you." He paused "I'm know I'm useful, but I'm also a problem. Loose cannon, if we're being honest."

His eyes stayed on hers.

"So why take the risk?"

Arris Windrun ​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Acier Moonbound

Oh - she'd tell him what really happened with the 'bean bag incident' in due time, and she liked it when he corrected her. That was the kind of bantha shit confidence she liked to see.

Arris took another step back and a half, hands fiddling around the inside of her jacket pockets. She listened as he asked her why, along with a whole list of doubts he wanted her to clear up. But that was just the thing.

Arris withdrew her hands and stretched her arms out as if holding up the world, or greeting a long-lost friend at the spaceport, with the biggest shit-eating grin.

Why the risk?

"Oh, Ace." She laughed. "You've just described me!"

Her arms lowered slowly until they fell at her side. Actually, maybe 'due time' was right now.

"And that beanbag shit?" She snorted. "Ask Lysander."

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Nar Shaddaa - Red Light Sector

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace watched her spread her arms, the grin, the laugh, the whole performance. But something in his expression shifted all the same. Recognition.

"So that's it." He said quietly, tone conveying his understanding. "You picked me because I'm you. Or... close enough to make it interesting."

The thought settled in his chest heavier than he liked. It didn't feel flattering, or reassuring. If anything, it explained too much. Why she tolerated defiance. Why she'd let him live. Why she'd just offered him proximity instead of a leash.

At the mention of Lysander, Ace huffed a soft breath through his nose. Half a laugh. Half a warning sign.

"I see." He said.

He shifted his weight slightly, not away from her, not toward her, recalibrating. Something sharp pulsed through the Force all the same. Brief. Controlled. Gone as quickly as it surfaced. Enough to betray a thought he hadn't meant to share.

So it had been him. The realization stung more than Ace liked. He'd pegged Lysander as… different. Not clean, not good... but measured. Someone operating in the margins rather than the center of the rot. Grey, where others reveled in black. Apparently not grey enough.

Ace drew a slow breath and locked the reaction down, filing it away with everything else he couldn't afford to feel right now. Whatever that meant about Lysander, it would be dealt with later. Next time they sparred.

"Guess I owe him some payback."

He let the words sit, then toward the door he'd come through. For now, it seemed the conversation was done.

"I'll need time to prep." Ace said, tone returning to business. "ISB won't forgive mistakes. I'll be ready when you call."

Ace turned and headed for the exit. Whatever Arris saw in him: reflection, risk, or something sharper, he wasn't going to feed it by staying.

Then he was gone, the door sealing behind him as neatly as he'd left it the first time. Preparing for what came next.

Arris Windrun​