Astrid Grimblade had been a great talent before her death. She managed to turn Malachi Grimblade, a talent in his own right, into a mere puppet, had used Sylas to get rid of Lucius for her by avoiding taking him as her pick, and had almost killed Sylas himself at one point.
She was smart, sharp, and powerful. Clearly, she was head and shoulders above her competitors. And yet, no matter the ranking involved, whether it was the Merit Leaderboard, the Leveling Leaderboard, or the City Leaderboards, there was one person who was consistently ahead of her no matter what she did.
Kael Darkmane.
The Darkmanes were the most low-key of the three hidden families, and the only one of them that Sylas had never personally come across. Though, their ancestors had likewise died under the system's fury.
Much like Kael had always been first—with the exception of leaderboards Sylas had been on—the Darkmanes had likewise only ever had two candidates to the three of the other families.
