The following morning, Leandor had an audience with his liege, Akun.
He sought to bring to his notice the events that had occurred in his territory last night—the runes and the painful loss of his people.
"That is all, my liege," Leandor said as he bowed before Akun in the throne room of the ant city's castle. The runes that had their mana completely depleted were directly besides him to his right.
"So you are saying that there was a fire in your territory, and in the chaos, not only were some of your people killed and their cores extracted, but the runes you all gathered for the construction work I gave you were mostly depleted of their mana because of a fire?" Akun asked in a slightly serious yet confused tone as he leaned forward in his throne, placing his right hand on his forehead. Glancing over at Leandor and the mana drained runes.
