Draoidh respect all walks of life. Even those that follow darker paths have their part to play in the natural order of things. Evil doesn’t exist without good, just as light doesn’t exist without dark. However, respect for the natural order doesn’t mean their order won’t eliminate evil and chaos when it arises. Draoidh are the guardians of order and protectors of the pure.

~Mother Danu, The Primordial Goddess of Nature

A hidden mountain pass to the north of Rosdoe was covered with trees and shrubs. The way the rocks fell created a naturally hard-to-discover entry unless they stumbled on it with blind luck. Still, the passageway cut through the mountain with minimal variation, which wasn’t natural.

If that wasn’t enough to keep it hidden, the dangerous slope up to the entrance was covered with scree and bramble. It’d be hard to track anyone across a surface like that. But only if using standard methods of tracking.

Further up the sheer face of the cliff, another natural crack was hidden in the shadows of a crevice. This crack looked over the hidden entrance, and the room behind the crack was obviously man-made.

Five men loitered in this cozy room. A thick wooden table was encircled by sturdy, matching chairs and bookshelves lined the walls but had long been emptied of any goods. A fireplace was lit, but it was designed so that its light wouldn’t be seen through the crevice, the same crevice that prevented the room from becoming toasty.

On the side furthest from the hole in the wall was a staircase hewn from the solid stone. None of the men present knew who made this place but suspected it was probably created by Stone Breakers.

Three of those lazying about sat at the table while the other two stood guard and watched the area below. After a time, they saw a man scrambling up the slope and came directly toward the hidden entrance.

“Boss is back,” one of the two on guard commented to the room.

The others perked up at this, and fifteen minutes later, a tall man dressed in semi-conservative clothing walked into the room. The thing that surprised them all was that he had a full head of hair.

“B-boss?”

When the man saw that the other five were staring at his head, he ran his fingers through his hair.

“It’s a wig. Can’t let those fools know I’m the leader of the Bald Cohort,” Harry explained.

“Boss Harry, what’s the plan?” Croney asked. He was one of the two on guard and saw their Boss had been trying to escape detection of the undead below. “That’s a lot of zombies outside our hideout!”

“Dammit, Croney!” Lackwit, better known as Lackey, yelled. “How many times have we told you not to call them zombies? They are pulse challenged, but a little heat, and they… should be fine. Especially that one there, she’s—”

“Is your brother a dimwit?” Gerry asked.

Croney sighed tragically while rubbing his smooth pate. Joining the Bald Cohort was the best decision he’d ever made, but he really couldn’t leave his brother behind. The scrawny guy everyone called Lackey was actually Croney’s older brother. When Lackey was three, he nearly had his skull crushed by a vengeful cultivator, so he wasn’t all there.

“Leave him be,” Silver said. He supposedly had silver hair, a rare color, and rather than be an outcast for it, he started shaving his head at the age of ten. He rarely spoke but was probably the most feared of the group. Talent alone put him at the top of the entire cohort, but his agility and fighting ability were what they feared most. Silver could turn almost any object into a hidden weapon.

“Why? We all know he is an idiot,” Gerry stated matter-of-factly. He wasn’t wrong, and most people in their organization called Lackey worse things.

“We are all bald. Do you like that label?” Silver asked.

“I don’t, but unlike you, I really am bald.”

“Then why would you label others?” Lackey asked.

“So we should just forget half the words we know and cancel all nouns? Those are labels, too. Is that what you mean?”

“Yes, Gerry, let’s do that. Are you sure you aren’t the idiot?” Lackey asked.

“Don’t call me Gerry. My label doesn’t define me.”

“Shut. Up!” Harry roared, biting off each word. The entire cave went silent, and even the undead outside stopped their damned keening.

Calling his people the Bald Cohort was a joke because most weren’t even bald. Boss Harry, the person everyone respected, wasn’t bald, but everyone believed he was. Even now, he told them he was wearing a wig, and they bought that without blinking.

It’s like the moment these people shaved their heads, the razor went too deep and cut their brains. He didn’t even follow who was saying what in that previous conversation, and even trying to fathom the thought process involved gave him a headache.

“Do you idiots know why I chose this place as my base?” Harry looked around at his idiot generals. “Because the door I forbid all of you from entering is actually a passage directly through the mountain. That means we don’t need Rosdoe or the ability to fly to get through to the other side. We just need to pack enough supplies for a week’s journey, and we can directly walk there.”

“Are you serious?” Silver asked, his eyes lighting up. “That’s great news.”

“It was great news,” Harry said. “Now, not so much because our entrance is surrounded by the undead. I think it’s time for us to leave this floor before we become those things.”

“They identify as zombies,” Lackey said.

“Speak again, and you’ll identify as one too,” Harry growled and slapped the man’s bald pate.

“Sir, we know where Nin is,” Croney said.

“The little girl that ruined my plans?”

“Yes. Nin moved her business into Rosdoe and has some connection to the Vana Syndicate.”

“Business? More like a racket.” Harry grit his teeth. As much as he wanted to hurt that woman, he couldn’t go to Rosdoe. They’d kill him on sight, which is why he regrew his luxurious hair. The absolute truth was that he hated bald people because of his father. The Bald Cohort started as a joke because he shaved his head to hide his identity. Ironically, he grew his hair back out to hide his identity again. Either way, he hated these bare-headed idiots, which was why he didn’t lose sleep over sending them to their deaths. This entire setup was to gain resources.

It only made it easier when they started these stupid conversations like they were some kind of warriors against social injustice. It was like not having hair made them all androgynous and gave them a weird solidarity and had very high opinions of themselves.

It annoyed him because most of them were murders, thieves, and worse—that they felt indignant against anyone was mind-blowing. Not for the first time, he thought about collapsing this mountain on the entire group, but he needed them still. Resources weren’t easy to come by if he wanted to cultivate. They chose to follow him like sheep, and he decided to let them so that he didn’t lack for anything.

The only downside was that he had to make examples of people that stood against him from time to time. It was the only way to ensure his businesses and means of survival remained intact.

“Find us a boat. We’ll enter Rosdoe from the loch since they are distracted, and most of their fighting force is on the wall they built. They’ll never expect us to come in from the back entrance. If an opportunity arises, we’ll take that little girl and leave. Also, leave some people here with a capable person to lead them. We shouldn’t abandon this place just yet because the Hunger Curse won’t last forever. When this is all resolved, we can use this to smuggle goods.”

Everyone except Harry, Silver, and Croney left the room. Silver stood guard near the crevice and watched the undead shambling below. He had doubts about Harry and his so-called plans, but only because he was the only one that had gone up against Nin.

Because he hadn’t committed any serious crimes, she didn’t do anything to him. She only gave him a look, but that one look said a lot. It was a warning that left him scared out of his mind. He thought her actions were odd but still felt grateful she spared him. At the time, the group he was with tried to beat up an old couple who lived in the forest and raised local herbs and crops. They had nothing worthy of their time, and Silver wanted to stop them. However, those idiots just wouldn’t let it go and were burned down to ash. It was the moment he started questioning his life choices.

Silver owed Harry for saving him from a bad situation but knew the man had no genuine affection toward him. Boss only did things that benefitted him. Saving a new subordinate was a benefit and gained him cheap, solid loyalty. Silver wasn’t sure at first, but that changed when he watched Harry ‘save’ another new subordinate.

The man planned the attack on a traveling group of people and then swooped in to rescue the people he wanted on his team. It wasn’t the exact method he used to recruit him, but Silver later realized that the people he had traveled with at the time betrayed him. Harry paid them to leave him behind and later told Silver that his companions died in a raid. They gave him up for benefits of their own.

Staring at the man he called Boss, he sneered in his heart.

Recently, Silver spent more and more time cultivating. His methods were unorthodox and allowed his body to change state. The initial stages were just high flexibility, but later, he could become liquid, and he could turn into a gaseous state at the highest level.

The thing Harry didn’t know was that Silver had progressed quite a lot in recent months. The nine stars on his Shield had solidified and turned into a silver-gold color, indicating that he could challenge the tenth floor at any time. It was the sign more people looked for before attempting a zero-floor trial to upgrade their Shield.

If he did that, not even Harry was his match because the man progressed before his stars had fully manifested. It meant he had a weaker Stone Shield. His Boss was trying to fix this, which was why he hadn’t progressed to the eleventh floor.

So their Boss was strong, but not as strong as he’d want others to believe. Based on what he saw, Nin wasn’t someone his Boss could handle. No matter what, Silver wouldn’t be involved in trying to abduct her.