The room's temperature seemed to drop several degrees with Kharzan's cold fury. "His idiot son went and got himself killed at the worst possible moment... Is the Strahlfang group already insubordinate?"
"Yes, sir. They demand immediate retribution for the son of Patriarch Strahlfang and his men," the assistant confirmed.
Kharzan rose from his seat, moving slowly toward the window that offered a panoramic view of his territory.
'The idiots of the tiger clan,' he thought bitterly.
For generations they had been rivals of the lion clan, then after an internal war they had fallen under Goldcrest rule, and now that they had recovered numbers and power, they were relatively subordinate but increasingly independent allies.
"If they weren't such a numerous clan with so much prestige in our zone," he murmured, more to himself than to his assistant, "I would never have entrusted this mission to young Strahlfang's firstborn."
