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Heir of the White Lotus (Web Novel) - Chapter 2187: Shadow Directorate
Chapter 2187: Shadow Directorate
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Ten years.
For ten years, she had served as the Known Lord of this city.
For countless more, she had been its resident. She was born here. She grew up here. She studied at the Sapphire Tower. She climbed the arcane ranks. Struggled and overcame obstacles.
She had witnessed the city’s triumphs and endured its hardships. She had watched its people quarrel, compete, and sometimes turn against one another.
But she had also watched them stand together when it mattered most.
And now, in the aftermath of the Red Gala, she saw the same spirit once more.
The massacre had taken countless lives. The betrayal of the City Watch had shattered a trust that many had believed unbreakable.
Yet the people had not scattered.
They had gathered before the Sapphire Tower, united by their grief and anger, bound together by the memories of those they had lost.
The betrayal had wounded Davos. The deaths had left scars that would never truly fade.
But they had also reminded the city of something it had never been able to afford to forget.
That Davos drew its strength from unity.
And in the tenth year of Emily Damon’s reign, that unity had grown stronger than ever.
***
Emily walked through the dimly lit corridors of the dungeons deep beneath Mount Davos.
They lay even deeper than Ajax’s lair, hidden beneath layers of rock and ancient stones.
Figures squirmed in her shadows.
"Ghost," she called out.
A figure stirred in the darkness and emerged from her shadow. He fell into step behind her without making a sound. Nor did he have any presence.
He was the head of Davos’s intelligence division, an organization responsible for intelligence gathering, counterintelligence, espionage, counterespionage, and every other form of spycraft meant to keep the city safe from threats lurking in the shadows.
The Shadow Directorate.
Of course, the division had failed gloriously.
Just like the rest of the city, they had never seen the City Watch’s betrayal coming.
It was akin to a hand turning against its own body. The very guardians meant to protect Davos had opened the gates to its enemies, and the Shadow Directorate had been none the wiser.
Now, they were prepared to die to rectify their mistakes.
Ghost was a tall, lean man dressed in tight-fitting black clothes. His entire body was concealed beneath the fabric. He had no visible facial features, only a white mask with two narrow slits for eyes.
"Yes, my lady." His voice echoed in the corridor. It was modulated and eerie.
"Did you find their secret base of operations?" Emily asked. "I refuse to believe they planned it all from the City Watch headquarters."
"I have," Ghost said. "The enemy used Havel Norwood’s estate to hide. Very well concealed. Artifacts found there are unlike anything I’ve seen."
Xelthari, Emily thought with a grim look in her eyes.
Ghost continued, "Tunnels under the estate led to multiple avenues beyond the city. They were expertly hidden. Not in our blueprints."
"Newly constructed?" Emily asked.
"No, my lady." Ghost shook his head. "Old. Very old."
Silence.
Only the sound of Emily’s footsteps echoed in the corridor.
A minute of deliberation. Then she asked, "Have the rats yielded any useful intel yet?"
"Of course, my lady," Ghost’s voice echoed. "Under torture, there is nothing they can hide from my men. They’ve revealed everything. And when they ran out of valuable intel to give, they began making up tales so they could be granted death."
"How can death come so easily?" Emily said, her voice cold and dark.
They arrived before a heavy iron door, flanked by two operatives of the Shadow Directorate. The moment Emily and the Ghost approached, the two operatives dropped to one knee.
"My lady."
They opened the door for them.
A foul stench wafted out.
Beyond the door was a torture chamber. Bloodstains covered the walls, some fresh, others old enough to turn black. A wooden table stood in the center of the room, flanked by two chairs.
A fat man sat on one of them.
Frey Well, one of Davos’s Unknown Lords, had thrown his lot in with Nigel Norwood and helped orchestrate the attempted coup.
He and the other two Unknown Lords had never imagined that the coup would fail and the Witch of Davos would still be alive. It’s why they never left the city. It’s why they were apprehended.
Well’s cheeks were swolled and bruised, one eye had swolled shit, and deep cuts ran across his face. Blood had dried around his mouth. Several of his teeth were missing, leaving behind bloody stumps where they had been ripped out. His fingernails were gone, every one of them.
His hands were tied tightly behind his back. He was naked. Dark and purple bruises covered his body.
Yet the worst part was his eyes.
They had lost all their defiance. All their fear too. There was nothing left in them. Only a hollow, lifeless state, as though the man had already given up on living.
Emily took a seat from across the traitor.
"Lord Well," she greeted politely. "Unfortunate that we had to meet under such circumstances."
The man raised his head and murmured, "I’ve revealed everything I know. Please... just kill me."
"I am reminded of a proverb," Emily said. "The hells hath no fury as a woman scorned."
She smiled wryly and shook her head.
"Scorn. Is scorn the darkest anguish a woman can suffer? If so, then what of a woman whose daughter was murdered, her head wrapped in a gift box and presented to her?"
Emily’s face turned cold, and her expression darkened with wrath.
"You have unchained the boundless fury in this woman. So rage I will be. Vengeance I will be."
She rose to her feet and turned. She turned to Ghost, who had been protectively standing behind her, and nodded.
Then she left the room. She did not wish to witness what was about to transpire in this room.
After the door closed, Ghost stepped forward and said to Frey Well:
"Heard you like little boys?"
The traitor did not reply. Nothing others could say could incite a response from him after the torture he had gone through. He only wished to die. Nothing else. Just death.
"What about big boys?" Ghost asked.
The other door in the room opened and a group of giant, burly men with cruel intentions stepped inside.
Ghost looked at them and calmly instructed:
"First, cut off his cock and stuff it in his mouth. Then you are to take turns and rape him bloody. Understood?"
"Yes, sir." Three voices boomed in the small room.
With that, Ghost dissipated into shadows.
And then...
Fear returned to the traitor’s eyes.
