record_id: 30df8b3e-f83d-8[REDACTED_PHONE]-ec194cea887e
created_time: 2026-02-20T05:09:00.000Z
title: 02-19 Career Strategy: Systems Leadership, Integrity, and Values Alignment
source_url: /

[TRANSCRIPTION]
Speaker 1 00:00:00
Doesn't control it. Doesn't it. It doesn't record the transcription. So it's not like, oh my gosh, but it kind of filters me out. And so with everything. And so it'll create reminders for me. Hey, don't don't forget you. You were talking to somebody about this and you committed to doing this other thing. And so I can review all of those, so all actually in the app, I can speak to it and go okay, you know. Tell me what I committed to, and then it'll automatically put it into my reminders. Yeah, yeah, that one, that one, that one. So thanks. You you You right right right. Okay.
Speaker 2 00:01:10
Right. Right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:02:29
Right.
Speaker 2 00:03:01
Yes.
Speaker 2 00:03:59
Sounds good.
Speaker 1 00:08:15
I don't. I don't have any questions necessarily around that. I am, I am, uh, all of a sudden I start going. I am not sure that I am not wasting her time here. Um, I i, i do. I do i question anything that you said on on my ability to um to accomplish those things? Um, no, not even for a second. Um In fact when I, You know, industry specific is a thing that everybody's talking about right now. And what's funny is it's like you you want somebody to to drive metrics, uh and understand how to do that. And and that can cross uh industries and whatnot, but not everybody can do not everybody's an expert on unicorns. Um, And so you know at Recurse Center, you know I I had twenty people um.
Speaker 1 00:09:09
At each of the facilities, essentially that I oversaw, I was multi-site. There's twenty people essentially at each facility, so looking at sixty. So if they say, "Hey, you know we need two hundred people," then they might write me off right out the door. We weren't extremely advanced technologically speaking; we moved that way. We ended up actually automating everything using a data system and So everything was actually tied into a computer, but that was a huge step for us. And I thought that we did it on an extremely. If you looked at it, if we looked at it and said, "That's the gold standard right there," we said, "You know what? Bronze or copper? That's all right." That wasn't my decision. You know, I actually they adopted all of my stuff after I left. So I created.
Speaker 1 00:10:06
You know, I actually created their ERP system. I designed it and coded it on the side because they didn't believe in it. And when I left, they went," This is awesome! Let's do it nationwide." So, I don't want to waste your time. Okay. Spare.
Speaker 1 00:10:36
So, uh, ReCon serves as a bakery waste recycler. So they're bringing bakery waste recyclers. So, what they're doing is they're partnering with the Mission Foods, the Bimbo Bakeries, all of the large scale bakers of of essentially any grain based products. And they're turning it into an ingredient for animal feed. So they're bringing it in. They're drying it out. They're grinding it up, and they're sending it out to uh the cattle, farms and dairies. Um, the thing about reconserv, and I won't go this long on all of my responses, But I think what sets me apart with something like this is everything's moving all at the same time. Give you an idea : I was making them a million dollars a year just at their L A facility. They have not made money since I left, unless my boss is actually running it himself.
Speaker 1 00:11:32
Um, and that was six years ago. They lost one point six million dollars last year. I know this because I had dinner with my old boss last week. Um, um, they lost a million dollars the year before that. Um, And and and the the issue is, is that you've got extreme variability on the on on the inbound because we're the ones actually picking up from all these bakeries, so we don't get to control what's coming in. Um And what the level is because Mission Foods doesn't care about us. They said, "Hey, we threw out some waste. Make sure that I have a place to continue throwing it right and don't shut me down." Because if that thing's full, I have to shut down in our mission foods. I don't care about you so you've got.
Speaker 1 00:12:38
Yeah, yeah. So it's extremely niche, which is extremely hard for a guy like me to go. That's why that's why I say, well, if you want industry specific, I am probably not your guy. But, if you get, if you want somebody to be able to understand processes and figure out, You know, i I went from transportation to manufacturing and then into and then into construction. I understand processes. I understand how things work. I understand how to make people Do things better, and I adapt extremely well. So, so yeah, so we're and to give you an idea, it's not like we're picking up scraps here. I think right now, they're doing just in the L A area, not including so on. So, they have a plant in Ontario as well that goes as far as Palm Springs and even San Diego. Just the L A plant picks up about twelve hundred tons a week.
Speaker 1 00:13:42
So there is a lot of stuff going on. Um, and so what they do is they it's multifaceted. Number one, you got to bring it in. You got to bring it in efficiently, right? We're you are overseeing transportation. You want to this is actually where why I came to them as a transportation manager. Um, and I rewrote their system so that we could proactively anticipate, The needs of the customers, so we weren't shutting them down by not picking up in time. I was able to increase their payload. I actually designed a truck for them because I realized that in L A, we have, you know, it's L A, right? So we don't have we can't send a trailer everywhere, We don't have enough room. And so I got with the engineers at Peterbilt and said, hey, here is my problem. What can we do? And one of.
Speaker 1 00:14:41
My old boss at the time in transportation, the VP of transportation, came up with this. He's from Georgia, So he came up with this super long trailer that we're going to beef up. This and we're going to do that. And they spent a quarter million dollars on a trailer. Um, Instead, I said I told my my uh sales guy. Um so the trailer is not the way to go. We need a long straight truck and we need to beef up the frames. We need to do this you see what I got? He says yeah and so, You know, after a few iterations, We came up with this truck where we went from being able to haul fifteen tons, legally per load to being able to haul nineteen tons legally per load. And that truck costs one hundred eighty thousand instead of just the trailer that costs a quarter million. And then they put that after I first truck out there a month before I left, we bought three as as a sample. They ended up sending those nationwide as well. Um. 
Speaker 1 00:15:41
So just to go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 1 00:16:60
Haven't even started on manufacturing yet.
Speaker 1 00:17:26
My Dad owned a trucking company growing up. Um. 
Speaker 1 00:17:31
That's where I got my bones.
Speaker 2 00:18:02
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 00:18:47
Uhhuh, uhhuh. And. 
Speaker 1 00:19:08
And I'll and I'll say that, because largely that has to do with, you know, this won't be long, but largely that has to do with SQF regulations, which isum. Food safety quality, which which I am familiar with. One of my sister companies was Top Notch Foods, which I ran as well. They made bread crumbs, So they kind of had a same similar situation ;. They didn't have enough product to figure out how to use product in order to turn it into. They have enough inventory. So, we created that ; I was able to double their throughput, all that good stuff. So, I do have a small background in.
Speaker 1 00:19:49
Everywhere, um, at at all levels of our concern. I I helped with the sales salespeople to determine because we had we had to maintain a certain mix in order to have our output product. Um. Have, you know, hit our our standards, so it had to be a certain percentage of fat protein. So on and so forth. And so I aligned myself with sales on both the raw material side and on the finished goods side. Um and then we had supplements That we were adding in like crazy, So we were constantly bringing in product that I would purchase where I could control. Um, warehouse distribution sending it all out. Um, I oversaw maintenance; I oversaw every level of of that facility. The only thing I did um that you would ask it was essentially my business except I reported to somebody.
Speaker 1 00:20:49
Every once in a while, like. Um, but it really was we were we were autonomous for the most part. I did co packing at um at Top Mushroom. I did not do any packing, So I came and basically, we had to put all of our bread, crumbs and whatnot, we had to package it and send it out to palletize it, send it out to you know whatever customers whatever orders needed be filled.
Speaker 1 00:21:22
So. I'm, I'm targeting you know. I'd go between one fifty and one eighty. I'd like to see the the higher side of that because I really want to get myself into more of a manufacturing role again. A lot of constructions on and more open than I'd be willing to be at.
Speaker 2 00:22:08
Sure. Sure.
Speaker 1 00:22:32
Um, every conserve like I said, I. I was looking at about sixty, as far as director's points were concerned. I actually oversaw myself the entire production side of it, and so I had ten guys there on the L A side, And then I had a transportation manager and an office manager that so we're looking at twelve at L A, and then I had three in Ontario and one in. 
Speaker 1 00:23:05
Um, at top notch boots. So because those are my other sites that I manage remotely. It was essentially a website, um, I that I coded myself. Um, so we can call it proprietary. Um, but it started out as a as a way to proactively um, Anticipate the needs of the customers, um in order to uh for inbound flow. And and then after I got kind of the framework to it, It was like, well, if I just add on this. So next thing, you know, it was tied into our into our purchasing. It was tied into um our inventory system is tied into our shipping. It ended up kind of just oh shoot, if I just add this on, if I just add this on, and I found a little uh.
Speaker 1 00:24:03
Guy in the Philippines to to code it for me and and uh because eventually it was like, well, I gotta do I got a manager. I can't keep on coding. This is taking up too much of my time. So eventually once I got the roots down to it. I was able to go. Hey, can you add this? Can you add that? Um so but I'm familiar, hopefully me saying that I coded something tells you any E R P system you throw at me. Um I will understand pretty pretty darn quickly. And I and I tend to um companies don't ever want to adopt completely into an E R P system. So a company that actually is tied into it, I am happy to take that. I don't need to make it mine. Um a lot of the times, the E R P systems that that I find that companies adopt, don't actually give you solid data. For example, Um right now in our our maintenance program that we use um at Triune that I am working with.
Speaker 1 00:25:02
They do a good job of telling you exactly where your customer is. They do nothing to tell you, to give you a dashboard to go, well, how are all my customers? Which really means how is my maintenance staff doing? I have to go in and create all of my own little reports. And, so I am very big on creating systems that show me the data instead of me having to go find all of the data. If that makes sense.
Speaker 1 00:26:10
Candidly, um, as you can see, I I overs, i went from L A to Ontario to um top notch food. So I had the regional uh responsibility and I couldn't get the title. Um the owner of the company uh I still exchange emails with him today. He's a hundred years old shows up to work every day. He seriously um if uh So he's donated two hundred million dollars to UCLA. His name's all over the place. He's, one of those guys that you just you need to be in the room with him. He brought in his son. I had this longstanding relationship with him without kind of entering in drama, I got, unknowns to me, i got compared to his son and I couldn't actually get stuff done anymore.
Speaker 1 00:27:06
So, I had a plant that was built in nineteen sixty two. It needed multiple upgrades. Um, I could not get them approved. Um, Because what of a statement that that uh was made that I found out later. Like I said, I still have um every time my old boss comes into town, I still have dinner with him. Something I asked for ten years ago, he said never happened. Don't ever bring it up again. I was told last week Hey, guess what? They're doing it because they found out that you are right. Um, so long story short, uh, son's got a thing against me. Um, and he he was not allowed to fire me, so he was going to make me unsuccessful. So that's why I left.
Speaker 1 00:28:05
I'd say it different. I'd say it differently. If uh, if I was talking to your your client by the way.
Speaker 2 00:28:58
Right. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:29:00
So let's put it this way, um.
Speaker 1 00:29:06
Life got so bad that my wife asked me to stay. I'd reached my golden parachute at Regenstrief because I had tenured over there, and my wife asked me to stay there for six more months. And then she looked at me and she said, "What just happened?" And I go, "What do you mean?" She said, "Your face went white." And I said, " I ' m just thinking about what it would look like to do what you're asking me." She said, "Nope. Leave." And and uh, And that was kind of the thing is it was I could no I could no longer do anything right. I. I had submitted nationwide we were. Nationwide we were installing uh fire systems fire suppression systems. I used the same vendor as eight other plants that already been approved for and I got denied because the warranty wasn't good enough. The same warranty that was, uh, that had already been approved by the same guy.
Speaker 1 00:30:05
Um, So it was just one of those things where I just couldn't do it anymore. Um, and uh, so I quit. I decided I was going to take a little bit of time to figure out my life. And then COVID happened, and I had three little boys at home. And I am like, "What am I doing here? " And so I decided to see if I could start something on the side. And and you know, maybe i can do something here. Um i always thought i'd own my own business one day. And.
Speaker 1 00:30:34
I didn't like it as much as, I thought I would. The economy uh started take started that changing, With with everything and I got an opportunity to go work for Triune, and I said, you know what? That's. That's a lot more um secure. And so that's what I'm going to go ahead and do. But Cirrus was essentially an e-commerce site where I would uh s. Um, I would, I would determine what to sell based on um, Current demand, I'd come up with some. I'd found some software where I could determine that. I would design products to do that. Then, I would find manufacturers in China that could do that at a reasonable price. I'd source it, bring get it over here, get it in Amazon's warehouses and let's sell. Just pretty good with that. Um, i first year, i did seven hundred thousand dollars in revenue. The second year, i did one point two million dollars in revenue.
Speaker 1 00:31:32
Um, but with the rising costs and shipping and and everything, and honestly, Amazon. I am not a big risk taker. I took a huge risk doing this, and Amazon has too much ability to make me fail if they wanted to. And I just you know if I can't control it, I just don't i'd rather stay out of it. So we got an opportunity to leave, and I did so. 
Speaker 2 00:32:32
Mhm.
Speaker 2 00:33:02
That's okay. Motivation. 
Speaker 1 00:33:11
At Triune or to leave? I don't think it's a family business. I should say that first. So, I came in to help and ultimately.
Speaker 1 00:33:34
Ultimately, he wants to grow and he wants everything to be perfect. But he's mind you, I am talking about family here. I can't grow with the standards that he wants to grow with. You got it? He wants everything perfect. And once once the world without being willing to accept the journey to get there and ultimately pay for it. And I am not talking about me; I am talking about my staff. Um, And so I, i uh I built a team from the ground up and and they're looking to me, and they believe in me. And they're act we're doing. I've got guys that haven't done pools, you know, started doing pools two years ago. And literally at Triangle Pools, we're doing the nicest pools in the world.
Speaker 1 00:34:28
Um, and I am not just saying that. I am doing. If I started name dropping, you'd know the names of the people that we're building pools for. Um. Mhm.
Speaker 1 00:35:01
We did Simon Cowell. Um, yeah, we did, we did Simon Cowell. We were actually um That was before my time. We were actually fired from that job. He fired everybody because he like lost the house or something like that. We were starting to work on that house, um And uh you know We've done the Kardashians. We've done uh J ay -, Z and and Beyonce I was at the heiress of Walmart's house. The other day. Trevor Noah's house is what I am working on right now. So, doing the stuff that we're doing, especially when you have, I think without going into too much detail, because I know you are short on time. Having pools that are on the side of hills with an infinity edge that spans seventy five feet, one hundred and fifty feet that doesn't have a variation bigger than one sixteen.
Speaker 1 00:35:57
Eighth of an inch takes incredible skill. And going into this, you would think everybody wants to say, "Well, no, it's the masters; they know how to do this stuff." They don't know how to do this stuff. They adapt to it. They mess up and then they fix it and nobody can see it. And an ops guy like me comes in and goes, "No," you know? Um. And so I took I took a guy that two years ago wasn't doing tile. ; had never touched tile. And, that guy is dead on every single time because I systematized the entire measurement and plan process to where we here's how we do this : we come in, we set X, Y, and Z up, and we nail it every single time. Um, And so but having a guy like that, where this industry you are familiar with construction, everybody's always talking to everybody.
Speaker 1 00:36:56
And so, the second somebody knows, "Hey, I can you can do that too?" Yeah, come over here; I'll pay you. And so, I got guys working for me that can make more money elsewhere, but they keep they love working for me. And. And here is the thing : is my equity will at some point in time run out when they can't pay their bills. And, when you tell me why you know it used to be that the guys would go five years and I wouldn't have to give them an increase. Why, is it that these guys? Why why are you coming to me every year asking for these guys to have an increase? Right, how do I build on that? Especially when the guy that I when I originally started, The guy that the head guy was making forty bucks an hour. And right now, my my head guy's making twenty eight and I am just trying to get him a little bit higher. And I can't build on that. Um so um, I just. 
Speaker 1 00:37:50
I feel like I've reworked this guy's teams. I've reworked it, figured out how to make it reproducible. I've reworked how we quote, how we understand things. And I feel like my loyalty factor has been taken care of, and i don't i don't. I want to work again on something that i can build something where when i vent to you, you're not like really?
Speaker 1 00:38:20
You know, um, I I don't want I don't want to fight you for you. I hate the idea that I can't tell you about this problem. Um and and hopefully I'm not venting too much. I'm not trying. i'm really trying to get the You know, I want to build things for people and and if I have to hide stuff from you in order to to build stuff for you, that's not who I am. Um but it's the only way to be successful currently. It's like, well, why is this pool going so well? It's like because I didn't ask him any questions. I am just going to build it the way I want to build it, you know. And that's not what I want; that's not long term. I can do so much more.
Speaker 2 00:39:20
You're good. You're good.
Speaker 2 00:40:04
Sure. You're good.
Speaker 1 00:40:42
Um, I'd like to be up near one hundred and eighty, but I'd be willing to go to one hundred and fifty. To get as you said, I got to get back into it. Um, so I hate saying that, but here we are.
Speaker 2 00:41:19
There we go.
Speaker 1 00:41:51
I Am willing to look. I am currently interviewing for a San Bernardino job right now, which is an hour so home chef Home Chef. Um, they're interviewing for the plant director position.
Speaker 1 00:42:21
Um, it was on a LinkedIn. Um, they they did it on LinkedIn. I applied through that and reached out. I interviewed with their um in house recruiter last week and then not yesterday on Tuesday, I i interviewed with the senior director. Um, I think that went well so. 
Speaker 2 00:43:06
Uhhuh. Oh,
Speaker 1 00:43:23
Thank you. Yeah, um, I uh on Monday interviewed with Besser Bros. which is a garage door company. Um, They're they're it's a PE backed company. The the PE company is Wheelhouse, and they're they're kind of buying up garage door companies all over the place. Um, So we're looking for the owner's going to step out and and I think try to expand. Um, And they're looking for someone to come on in take over that unit and then maybe move into a regional role.
Speaker 1 00:44:12
Yeah, It's a PE firm. Essentially, they're CEOs who I interviewed with. He started two months ago. But nothing active at the moment. It's been. Yeah, I am kind of restarting again after Christmas before I actually come back around and going. You know, um. Hey. We're interested so.
Speaker 2 00:44:54
No problem. Thank you, that's just well. Nine two eight eight six.
Speaker 1 00:45:18
You were saying it perfectly. No, I started it all. I started it all.
Speaker 1 00:46:05
Is it an iPhone? It is, isn't it? So I am just going to text you right now with a send later. So that way I won't forget. So okay, I will cool. I will send that to you and look forward to chat with you soon. Good luck on your next thing.
Speaker 2 00:47:01
You're good.
Speaker 1 00:47:04
Sounds great, Karissa. Thank you very much. Take care. Bye- bye.
Speaker 1 00:47:20
Hey Siri, call Ashley on it.
Speaker 3 00:47:26
Sorry, I'm not able to make a phone call at this time. But you can ask me to place a FaceTime call.
Speaker 1 00:47:33
Hey, I literally just got off the phone with her. Um, so it was and it wasn't. I mean, it wasum but not for this job. So she's like, hey, I've got like fifteen minutes, normally I do a video thing, but uh I've got fifteen minutes. I just need to know, You know, they're going to be super super picky. I can't even tell you anything about the business. I just need to know whether, you know, here are the criteria they're looking for and they will not budge. So I just need to go through that and see what it's like. Well, let's not waste your time. You know because I can't do, you know, I haven't done two hundred people like you just said, and and I don't come from a high tech environment. Um so knowing that You know, I can tell you about why that doesn't matter. 
Speaker 1 00:48:25
And why, and I can tell you about my accomplishments from there. And she's like, "Yeah, let's do that." And so um so as I started telling her, she's like, "Oh you I need to send you for this other job that I've got. This director of supply chain. It's like a VP of operations, but it's that's that's the direction they're moving. But."
Speaker 1 00:48:56
Let's let's talk. So, She's gonna, she's gonna, call me back tomorrow. And um she's gonna, send me over that, that job description. She wants me to change my resume for that. Um, She's like, but yeah, this company is like they make cheese, and they are just they need help right now. And your resume doesn't do you justice because I didn't even consider you for this. So.
Speaker 1 00:49:26
So. Um. Hey, my my resume says two hundred people. I noticed that yesterday in my interview. Did you do that? Yeah, it says that I led two hundred plus people.
Speaker 2 00:50:04
I've not, you know, you're you're not a liar, right So I'm not like.
Speaker 1 00:51:00
Underum, Reconserv.
Speaker 1 00:51:04
Yeah, second bullet point led two hundred plus employees. The last one you sent me, um. But I mean I'm not. It's it's fine. Yeah, It says led two hundred plus employees through supervisors and department leads establishing clear accountable. Performance expectations, strong safety culture.
Speaker 2 00:52:50
Numbers.
Speaker 1 00:53:33
She told me to text her tomorrow, and so I am putting in a send later text. I said, "Hi Carissa, It was great speaking with you yesterday about the director of operations position in commerce and the alternate company that you had in mind. I look forward to speaking with you about how to move forward with the director of supply chain position that you had mentioned."
Speaker 2 00:54:02
Thanks again.
Speaker 2 00:54:43
Boys plugged the toilet again. Where are you?
Speaker 2 00:55:31
Okay. It's. 
Speaker 1 00:55:43
Okay. It's, it actually makes me feel a lot better if that's not the current one. You're all of a sudden, all these people are like, well, no, it's like all these companies are interested in me because of that number as. Is what I get concerned about, and then it's like, and then now it looks like I'm a liar. You know.
Speaker 2 00:56:31
Okay.
Speaker 2 00:57:02
That's true. My bad.
Speaker 1 00:57:59
No, I noticed it yesterday, while I was like literally waiting for the guy to come on the other end of the video conference. I'm like, what is this So. Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 00:58:39
See ya. Bye.
Speaker 2 01:09:02
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When shall I come and appear before the Lord? My tears have been my food day.
Speaker 2 01:09:49
Bye.
Speaker 2 01:11:09
And the waves have gone over me. I will be awake and let this step faster. And light is always with me. A prayer to the God of my life, I see you, God, my rock. Why have you. 
Speaker 2 01:13:34
How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
Speaker 2 01:14:30
I'm shaking.
Speaker 2 01:15:44
I will sing to the Lord because He has.
Speaker 2 01:16:41
How much I have to give you name.
Speaker 2 01:28:45
Let's go.
Speaker 2 01:29:56
Even.
Speaker 2 01:37:27
Okay.
Speaker 3 01:44:20
For him. A ruin of gold. The pavilion had been cast down, the sarcophagus broken open. Minon knew something about such things, but the damage she had done to Victor's marble enclosure, even with the aid of the gift her father had left for her, was nothing compared to the destruction wrought upon the tomb of Cyprian II. It was the work of rage, of long harnessed wrath given release. You were here once," Minon watched the dead man. The prince beneath the moon was still ; his gaze fixed on the place where his bones had once rested. She waited for his pensive stare to break, for him to show his own fury and lash out, But when he moved, it was only to touch the disk where it hung against his chest."
Speaker 3 01:44:50
Is this why we came here? Slowly, the golden face of the Fisher King turned to Manon. No, he said, the whispered roar filling his voice once more. No, little rabbit. He turned to continue his descent, his cloak billowing behind. But then slowed and looked at Manon. What are you called? An intimate thing names. Somehow the fact that he had not thought or bothered to ask hers until they stood among the bones of his family, The place where he too had once been dead, and buried did not seem insignificant. Manon, it seemed a strange thing that the mountain should bear witness to the speaking of her name. While the names of the dead were carved in silent stone.
Speaker 3 01:45:21
Manon, he repeated. It means beloved sea. Did you know that? And then he turned and walked away. Manon watched and waited to follow until he had curved around the wall of the mountain, his dark figure sharply outlined by the ivory, his footsteps the only sound filling that cavern. They echoed yes but faintly and without the hollowness of stone, radiating out in soft waves. If you ask it of me, I will try to take his power from him. She hadn't heard Luca approach but the hunter stood now at her side. He spoke in something less than a whisper. : You may never be more vulnerable than this moment. Manon kept her gaze on the dead man in the crown ;. It may be our only chance.
Speaker 3 01:45:51
It was in all likelihood correct. Whatever had drawn Cyprian to the mountain at the long night, whatever he was seeking amid all that ivory and gold, his single-minded intent might distract him long enough for Luca to act. A shiver trickled along Manon's back at the memory of the moment, Luca had taken her fire, of the endless abyss its absence had opened in her mind, of the pain and devastating grief. She could see the fisher king dropping to his knees, could see him cry out in agony, could feel the mountain shake with his helpless rage. Manon blinked. Within her ribs, she felt her spark recoil and withdraw until she forced air into her lungs once more. Not yet. I'm not ready to risk pairing yet. Something short of a lie, and yet not the truth. And so they followed a dead man to join the sleeping bones, stepping at last onto the ivory floor of the cavern, passing between a pair of golden griffins holding ivory swords in their talons, welcoming them to a sight unseen by living eyes. Cyprian was standing before a third griffin, this one taller than the others, wings outstretched as though taking flight. Each golden feather a metal smith's dream. Eyes of black gems stared down at the fisher king. Dark gaze meeting dark gaze. Cyprian stepped close to the golden beast and placed one palm against its cold chest. He stood there for a moment then bent his head close to the creature. 
Speaker 3 01:46:50
Menon saw from the corner of her vision Luca touch at his own chest, at the mark of a blazing bear. "There's Ithor," Ciprien said at length, pushing back from the griffin. "This was Skyros." The prince who conquered rode him to war. Menon looked back at the griffin's proud golden head, seeing the sightless eyes anew. "Yes," Ciprien said, his smooth voice dressed in a smile. "He was alive once—a king of the air." He bowed only to Tristianos—the first and last king. Menon knew the stories; the blood king had begun it all, But she had never imagined that griffin in those tales to be more than an embellishment—a myth. Riding the winds of time. How can you tell? The question was asked in a rush, only half formed in Manon's mind before it took shape on her lips. Cyprian looked at her, and then that dark gaze drifted to Luca, to the place where a handprint of black glass rested over the hunter's heart. The touch of my family does not vanish with death. It can be felt. He cocked his head slightly as he returned his attention to Manon. By those who know what they are looking for. Cyprian began a slow circuit of the sarcophagi, beginning with the oldest. Manon watched him linger over Christiano's golden tomb, saw him touch a seal-clad hand to the lid, tracing the shape of the sun carved there. 
Speaker 3 01:47:48
Each ancestor received equal attention until the fisher king reached his own resting place. This he bypassed before settling his gaze on the eighth pavilion. He rested his hand on that slab of gold. And from there, he did not stir, head bowed, the stillness of the mountain wrapped around him like a shroud. Manon cast a swift glance at Luca, his minute shrug mirroring her own ignorance. A half - hearted attempt at recalling the names of all thirteen elescuans in order ended quickly and poorly. Then rather than disturb the dead man's contemplation, Manon took the opportunity to explore. The mountain was home to wonders and treasures beyond reckoning, a host of golden statues A shallow black stone bowl, wider than Manon was tall, seemingly empty when one looked within. But more than once, as she circled it, Manon would have sworn she caught a glimpse of a shimmering liquid dancing just out of sight. A crystal clear obelisk that ought to have shown her own blurred reflection, but instead was full of a midnight sky lit with stars. Twelve delicate ivory pedestals more air than substance holding twelve crowns. The first was a simple circlet black unadorned, another held a gem too bright to look upon. It was the seventh Manon lingered over the one Sipran, the Second had worn before he wore his skull of gold. Unlike the cruel shards with which he had crowned himself in this second life.
Speaker 3 01:48:47
Shards forged from the depths of innocence. This was a thing of beauty, palest gold, sunbeams harnessed from the sky, crafted by skill beyond man's comprehension. She ought, if she wanted to be worthy of the name Barker, to be calculating the value of what she was looking at. A fruitless exercise to be sure, Given that a price could not easily be placed upon the treasure of the Alaskus unseen for centuries. Just one of the crowns, if verified would earn a fortune and half a fortune if unverified. And yet it was not the crowns that had her attention, even though she had been admiring them. Nearly as long as Cyprian had been hunched over the eighth sarcophagus. Nor was it the strange objects she could not name Comprehend a useful. No, she fixated on something far less grand, far less valuable. Something she knew and understood and had spotted, drawn to it as though it had called her name. The moment she had crossed the threshold of the golden griffins, an unassuming thing: a silver box, plain and insignificant amid the endless splendor, Resting upon a pile of goblets and silken fabrics and precious things like plunder cast aside after a battle. Forgotten, waiting to be claimed. The lid was open. And within rested twelve vials filled with a grainy pale powder, - carrier substance - more of it than she'd ever seen at once. Known no doubt by better names in the dead language. 
Speaker 3 01:49:46
But Manon needed no name. Manon needed only to possess them. The fact that possessing them would not alone be enough, that she would also need a device to harness the contents of the vials, seemed to matter little, not with the vials within her grasp. Manon swallowed. The acrid memory of inhaling the dangerous toxin on the deck of the Karid, filling her senses. In her haste, she'd fumbled the copper device, her shaking hands nearly spilling the precious ivory-coloured grains and her aim? It was not to be thought on. She could still see the Ferenzia ship as it entered little Vidium harbour. Could see company flag flying proudly over stern. Could see Esca de Carrolo at rail. The gloating expression on that woman's face was of Manon's construction she knew Not a memory of the moment, but she did not bother to correct it. She should have been steadier. Would be, given a chance. Menon forced herself to finish her tour of the twelve crowns, stealing a glance back at Cyprian when she reached the tenth. The fisher king stood yet by the golden sarcophagus, unmoving. But then his head snapped up. I wouldn't! The sharp warning reverberated across the cavern and Menon spun to see Luca standing in front of a hunting bow displayed in hands of a golden woman, one outstretched hand other just above the dark wood of the bow, Stilled by the dead man's rattleman with a flourish of his cloak, Cyprian turned from the sarcophagus and strode across the floor that is Telerian's bow.
Speaker 3 01:50:45
And it is not likely to suffer the touch of another, certainly not one outside of the blood. Lukovits drew his hand and stepped back, his face flushed. The prince beneath the moon approached and let his own fingers skim just above the surface of the bow, tracing it from tip to tip, following its slender but strong form. Seemingly satisfied with what he found, Tibrin took it in one hand, removing it from the veiled statue's grasp. He ran his gauntlet along the wood, once more ; the steel of his hand passing smoothly over an inlaid pattern of gleaming silver. But his gaze was not on the weapon in his hands; no, those empty eyes were fixed on Lukovits. Do you covet? Luka glanced at Manon. She could see the burden of the mountain was wearing on him. He was pale, and dark circles had blossomed under his eyes, as though he had gone many nights without sleep. And though his features were carefully blank, though he gave away nothing, she knew why he looked. He was close enough. More than close enough, if that mattered. When Luka had taken her own power from the Chindan hunting lodge, He had done so at twice the distance now between him and the dead king. Manon looked away, not daring even the slightest shake of her head should it give suspicion. Luka spoke ; his voice clear as stone : " O nly a fool would not desire such a weapon." This answer seemed pleasing to the dead king; he nodded slowly. 
Speaker 3 01:51:43
Then examined the bow once more. It would give you. Casually offered, as though death did not deserve more than that one small thought, which Manon had to admit, Cyprin seems to have proven rather irrefutably for the Fisher K ing : death was nothing more than a memory. Then I will admire from afar, Luka said. The dark eyes looked up at the hunter and Manon felt the sharpness of that gaze, though she was not the object of it. I could alter it make it less deadly. The voice had shifted softer laced with promises. :. There is none more accurate. He was waiting for Luka to succumb to ask the price of such a gift Manon smiled to herself. For all his might, for all his gifts, Cyprian did not know Luca at all. "I believe you," Luca said, simple frank without guile and flatly refusing to indulge the dead man. The heavy empty gaze lingered on Hunthur. Manon's slid to the silver box, five steps to her left, surely not deadly to her touch. The vials were insignificant to the likes of the Elesques, who wielded their power as easily as a waterfall falls or the sun rises. She might have gone for them. She might have trusted in Cyprian's concentration on Luca. She might have risked everything. And in that moment of decision, The stillness was broken, but not by her a voice called down from high above on the walkway.
Speaker 3 01:52:42
Quickly, a party approached. If it were possible to distinguish one plume of dust from another, Manon did not know. The plane surrounding the mountain of the long night looked as it had. The sun had shifted about the mountain, moving past its apex, beginning its slow steady descent in the west. The shadows had changed as a result, and the sky had adopted a deeper blue, the sort of shade that signals morning has come and gone. And, there was the plume of dust almost precisely where Manon had last noticed it, which suggested a cessation of time. Manon did not think even Zipporah's second could lay claim to. She squinted toward the western horizon, shading her eyes with one hand, which allowed her to ascertain. The plume was moving toward the mountain of the long night, directly toward, In a manner that suggested the mountain was the destination rather than a trajectory that would skirt its base. Cyprien watched nearby, or he had watched; his attention now diverted to watching Manon, as though the arrival of another at the mountain was inconsequential. Could be the same as her last breaking. One of the men from Verdienne's, least grimy of the three, spoke through more than a few chipped teeth: "Ducking back." If Anan was looking for praise, he was destined to be disappointed. Cyprien did not so much as acknowledge him. Still, It was the logical answer :, while their closest village was an afternoon's, easy ride away, their hamlet was an outlier.
Speaker 3 01:53:40
The provenance of woodcutters seeking the best oak and maple and ash in that expansive stretch of forest that lay north of the mountain. To find an inn, one would have to travel an additional day to the west. And if one were demanding enough to require more established civilization by any definition, that was yet another day to the hill town of Asperza where a bathhouse, cold and hot pools, and a rustic yet charming amphitheater for an audience of twenty could be found. In short, There seemed little chance that three groups of travelers would pass within a stone's throw of the mountain on a long night in the amount of time. One might if one were feeling particularly luxurious lounge in Asperza's hot pool with bottle crisp white wine. No. 
Speaker 3 01:54:10
This was the same group Manon had seen before, of this she was certain. She thought of the village in the forest, with a body left there for her to find. A reason perhaps to retrace their steps? Yet the villagers had unlocked their doors and pointed to the mountain, tales of a golden skull on their tongues. And yet Manon did not think enough time had passed for the party to reach the village and return. Most of all, she could not fathom who might seek out a confrontation with the perpetrator of such cruelty, golden skull or no. Better to carry on and think of hot baths and adequate abundant wine. Manon stepped towards Stelucan, picking her way across the side of mountain care. The hunter stood some distance away No doubt in search of some relief from Siprian's presence, and he held one hand up to block the sun. "Your eyesight is better than mine," she said. "Do you see anything?" Luca was quiet for a moment, then he sighed and lowered his hand as he turned to look at Manon. "A banner," I'm sure of it. I had hoped it wasn't so." A banner," Manon repeated, her squint keeping her face from registering her surprise. "I can't make it out. It's not large, not like a military banner. " But, this is no mere merchant or curious traveler eager for a closer look at the mountain after long night." But they can't know he is here," Manon said. Luca raised an eyebrow and shrugged with one hand. Word would have spread from Vodyan."
Speaker 3 01:55:08
Those who escaped will have told their story. He thought for a moment. Arkos must know by now, if not the Archduke himself. Someone knows. Knowing and acting on unverified information are two different things, if that information was even believed in the first place. Besides, we left Vergen days ago. He may have made his mark on our path here, But finding those signs without knowing where to start looking would require a significant and organized effort. When Noll looked out at the approaching cloud of dust, she could see distinct shapes: horses, riders, a single wagon. Their pace was smart but not hurried. I think whoever that is they do not know the trouble. They are riding toward," Lucas said nothing but his grim expression was agreement, And so they waited. Waited for the party to reach the mountain, waited for them to dismount and leave their horses. Close enough now for Manon to count them: nine in all, four armored and armed, steel glinting; five in civilian dress, Two of whom went up to the base of the mountain with the horses and cart. The seven began their ascent. A tedious thing to watch that put Manon on edge. Cyprian waited in silence, a brooding darkness revealing nothing of his intent. Whoever they were, The party was not well suited to climbing ;. Their progress was slow and frequently interrupted as they pointed here and there and discussed their route ;. Their voices disappeared on the wind, leaving Manon to watch their pantomime like tigers.
Speaker 2 01:56:09
The set themselves apart from the other two men who lagged behind.

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