When Khelfin woke up that morning, he could immediatly feel the dark mood that had taken Vale since the fall of Beacon. "What did I expect? Birds and butterflies?" he asked himself out loud. He stretched his arms and got out of bed. While nearly dragging himself to the shower, he tried to think of a plan of action. Salem's orders had been clear: Remain in Vale as her eyes and ears. While the hot water of the shower ran over his back and cleaned his wounds, reality began to sink in. Salem was never going to release his mother. She would keep using her as leverage to make Khelfin obey her, time after time. Was there any way to break the cycle? Roman was dead, Cinder had been forced to retreat. Besides Khelfin, Salem didn't have anyone in Vale, as far as he knew. Well, besides the Grimm. 

Khelfin got out of the shower and got dressed. Once outside, he got confronted with the giant frozen Grimm, a constant reminder of what happened. "Man, compared with this, Vacuo seems like a theme park." he sighed sarcastically. He walked up to people that were trying to do some damage controle by searching for wounded, rebuilding stuff or plainly fighting off Grimm. Time to blend in again. He played with his dagger in his hand, twisting it around with an obvious ease, while scouting for a group of Huntsmen. As he spotted some, he wondered if he could pretend to be bad at combat, just to see the Grimm enjoy their snack. Whoa, Salem's influence was really getting to him. He shook off those thoughts and joined the Huntsmen in battle. As he slit a Grimm's throat, he realized how weak some of them were. Then again, the problem was mostly their numbers. 

In any case, he couldn't stand out too much and risk exposal. After all, he hadn't lost to team JNPR on purpose for nothing. He had to put away his personal pride and take a beating from them for the greater picture. He'd have to do the same again now with the Grimm if he wanted to keep a low profile. When one of the Grimm came running for him, he pretended to not see it and as it slashed at him, Khelfin fell to his knees in faked pain. "Aahhh!" he shouted loud enough for nearby Huntsmen to hear, while in reality barely feeling anything. He had taken worse shots in Vacuo.