Chapter 21

On a rainy night in Peressa, Dominic lay curled up on the bed of a cheap motel room in Branlowe District. The wallpaper was peeling with mold, and the sheets were stained with god-knows-what. Outside, neon lights flickered through the filthy window, casting shifting patterns across his pale face. Right then, his phone buzzed again on the nightstand. It was the 15th message from a debt collector. They wrote, "You've got 48 hours to pay up, or we're coming to end you." Hands trembling, Dominic grabbed the half-empty bottle of whiskey. The cheap liquor burned down his throat as the TV blared international news. "A Caldrian woman, Ashley Lowell, was arrested in Silvaris for transnational fraud and money laundering, with estimated damages reaching 230 million in Aureos." The broadcast jumped to a shot of a police station in Valemont. Ashley was cuffed, and her once-perfect curls were now a tangled mess. When a reporter pressed her about the missing funds, she suddenly turned to t