Chapter 87: Refined Manners

Damon's fingers tightened slightly around the pager as he raised it to his ear. Anxiety gripped him, though he tried to mask it.

The caller was from the Healing Institute in Valerion - a woman whose voice always seemed calm and composed, even when delivering unsettling news. She was a specialist in treating magic circuit cancer, and one of the few people Damon felt genuine gratitude toward.

It wasn't a feeling he extended often - almost never - but for her, he made an exception. There were a scant few who had earned that sentiment: Seras Blade, even though he had never met her; Carmen Vale, whose philosophy had subtly influenced his current path; and, of course, Flora Estin.