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It had been fifteen minutes since I planted myself behind this tree, crouched low like some wannabe spy.
Fifteen minutes of waiting, watching, and trying not to get too comfortable.
The Aegis Collective branch wasn't at all what I expected.
I thought it'd be impressive, sure, but this? This was something else.
The compound was wide, building was massive, steel and glass fused into something that screamed power.
Even from this distance, I could see how polished it was, how every inch of it radiated wealth and authority.
And with that kind of quality came security. A lot of it.
Guards patrolled like machines, moving in patterns that weren't random at all.
Cameras rotated in precise intervals. Magic wards glowed faintly across the perimeter, lines of power woven into the very ground.
It was like staring at a fortress.
And if this was just one of their branches, then I couldn't even imagine what the headquarters must look like.
Probably a damn city of its own.
