[i]No one ever asked what happened after the Gap. Where I went, what I did, what I had to do. And I pray to the light that no one ever does.[/i]- Saint-14 Solkis waited in his chamber. He stood facing a massive door that led to his throne. He stood knowing that the end was near. Outside his throne he heard the furious chatter of rifle. Screams and howls of the dying and soon to be. Clanging from the sound of sword on armor. A defeated sigh escaped his mask. His assault had failed. The City still stood. In the Gap, his House had known defeat...and the last chance for victory had escaped his people. Now it's ghouls had finally cornered him. Damn the Wolves. Damn them. It had been the heat of battle. Winter had stalemated along the right flank. The Kings...those cowards, had already abandoned their so called allies. But the Devils were holding on. The center may yet have broken, but Solkis had no reserves. If the Wolves had come in time. If the one the City called "Shaxx" had not counterattacked. If...No, there was no time for ifs. A Kell lived by staying in the here and now, not dwelling on past defeats. Now Solkis knew, the fire outside was dying down. His men were slowly being silenced. Their ether snuffed like so many on the journey here. Perhaps it was the same ghoul. The strong, tall human-shank with the strange helmet. He remembered the being from the Six Fronts, when he had been a small Captain and when the being obliterated almost a hundred of his Devil brothers in one storm of light. Perhaps fate had played a cruel joke and now destiny had brought them together once again. Perhaps.... No, no matter the foe, Solkis would face him. Anything less was weakness. And weakness meant death. He set down his shock blades. He holstered his gun. A Kell does not hide behind a blade or bullet. A Kell lives and dies by the will of one instrument, their bare hands, the final proof they have risen above weakness. Solkis gazed down the door to his throne. He waited, knowing that it would come down any second. He waited, knowing that behind it, his destiny lay in wait.