Eight minutes.

  It took eight minutes for the police to show up and arrest Austin. Eight minutes before something happened that made Austin lose focus control over his Evil Eye skill, allowing Lian to no longer be his living puppet.

  Pops wasn’t too far behind. He went on apologizing about how he didn’t have his phone on him. He was outwardly more panicked than Lian was, but Lian just wanted to go home before either of them decided to kill Austin.

  Sadly, by the end of the day his father, the mayor, bailed him out. Infuriated by this Pops marched towards GAT who were already gathering a legal team to give Lian justice. Protecting artisans is their primary focus, first and foremost.

  Kon's hands were tied so she couldn’t publicly help without painting a bigger target on Lian without her officially joining Spiritus. However, this did not stop her from helping GAT defend her behind the scenes. Pops thanked her for this and made sure Lian knew.

  Tuatha’s policy is to not help others without a deal being struck or something to gain. They promised to help only if Lian joined them. This reminded Pops what the fae’s true colors are like. Unreliable and ready to betray even family. Pops cursed them for this.

  There was no word from Blood Garden but there were signs of memory manipulation on some witnesses that weren’t killed. Pops suspected their involvement. Asmodeus knew and waited with proof for now.

  There was no word from Asmodeus. Yet he watched it from behind the scenes. He was the only one to not leave the planet, for this was an interesting turn of events that could come out in his favor if he was patient. Pops suspected him of ulterior motives and tried to warn Lian about dealing with him in the future. Specifically, not to.

  In between going to court to fight this out legally, Lian dropped out of school because despite acting like nothing was wrong, she didn’t feel safe leaving alone. Now Pops never left her side, doing what he could to help her.

  He had tried to contact Roark, Sol, and the triplets but Lian always stopped him saying that they were busy, and it would just cause them needless worry. Pops would regret not trying to contact them early on even if there was nothing they could have done right away. He would wonder if they would have helped Lian recover better than he did.

  As the courtroom dragged on it was obvious that the corruption on this planet ran deep. Nothing they did worked out and the more GAT tried to figure out what was going on the more their reputation got hurt as law enforcement agencies across UGC territory began to show the council faction hostility. This would lead to acts that turned the common folk against law enforcement.

  The cops who made the arrest were found dead.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  The evidence was sabotaged.

  The jury coerced no matter how many times they were replaced.

  The judge didn’t even try to hide that he was bought off.

  No one could find out who sabotaged the evidence, and many other cases were affected by the incident. With this going on for months Austin Krachen walked free and many suspected that another council faction was behind it.

  During the trial Lian powered through it by forging more and more. Yet with her mental state being unstable she couldn’t finish a single piece. Still, the act itself kept her busy, and some days that was enough. Yet after the trial, she stopped trying altogether. She simply locked herself in her room and stopped eating.

  It was at this point that Pops couldn’t take it anymore. He messaged the others, telling them to come and get Lian. He planned to do something beyond reckless. His blood boiled for justice. Some would say this was vengeance, but he no longer saw a difference between the two, except one being legal. It boiled hotter than it ever did in the forge.

  He took out a spatial storage ring that could hold both his house and smithy. With it, he began to pack everything into the ring but stopped in his office. He packed the tablet in its own unique case before putting it in the ring with a note explaining to never open it. He pocketed Regretz for personal use but stopped at the helmet.

  “I understand that phrase of yours now. The law did indeed fail. Now I will enact my own law for Lian’s peace.” He said this just before putting the helmet in its own container just like the tablet and stored it in the ring. Once everything was packed, he went to Lian’s room.

  He knocked on the door to her room but just like the last few days since the trial ended, he heard nothing. He never heard anything from her room anymore. He was always scared of what state he would find her in.

  “Hey, Lilliana. How are you doing?” When he walked in the lights were out and he saw Lian just wrapped up in a blanket, a plate of untouched food on the desk in front of her. It broke his heart to see her like this. He did try to get her to go to therapy, but when Austin walked free, she shut down to the point where she wouldn’t leave her room anymore.

  “Why don’t you clean yourself up and we can go for a walk. I plan on leaving this place to meet up with the others. We can start over someplace new.” As he said this Lian looked up at him. It was the first time in days she even acknowledged his presence. “That’s right kiddo. One last walk to say goodbye to the good times and we can go elsewhere.”

  He didn’t have the heart to tell her what he planned to do, but it needed to be done. While she cleaned herself up Pops packed Lian's stuff in the ring and they headed to the GAT guild hall.

  *

  Once they arrived at the guildhall Pops had left Lian on the couch long enough to get the local guild master to come out for a brief talk. The guild manager agreed to give Lian sanctuary until either Pops or other family members came to pick her up.

  Before leaving her in their care he gave Lian the storage ring and told her that everything stored in it was for her and her alone. He also lied to her for the first time saying that he would be just outside of her room.

  The original plan was to have her use GAT's personal portal to get her off-world, but Pops was concerned that their portal was down. It would later be discovered that all gates and portals in the surrounding fifteen sectors were all down. It was an attack on the UGC but with all the internal fighting they were too busy blaming each other since none of the council factions had any direct subordinates controlling these sectors as they were recent expansions.

  A civil war was on the horizon and the UGC’s enemies were waiting for them to weaken, but this is a story for another time.