Jackal Among Snakes

“I can handle it,” Durran suggested, raising one hand up.

“What?” Argrave asked.

The four members of Argrave’s party sat in one of their rooms, two of them with Humorless masks donned. A few empty bottles lay around—though it did look suspiciously like alcohol, they were the potions Argrave had demanded Galamon brew to give his party more disease resistance. Mina had yet to wake up, but Argrave intended to speak with her about something, too.

“You want your big brother Magnus to croak some info about the big bad evil—it so happens this is an interest of mine. If he really does have a god whispering in his ear, I’m sure I can figure it out,” he suggested, entwining his gray wyvern scale gauntleted hands.

“And how exactly are you going to do that?” Argrave frowned, tilting his head in disbelief.

“Hey, if you don’t want me to, say ‘no.’ I’ll get in line. I don’t want to be stepping on any toes with that damned maniac wandering about. You see the way he crushed that poor girl’s head?”

Argrave nodded and looked to the ground.

“At least Drezki died the way she wanted,” Galamon said, his arms crossed.

Argrave looked to him, frowning.

“No one can call her a coward, fighting against that man as boldly as she did,” he concluded further, closing his eyes.

Argrave nodded in agreement, but he found himself thinking of the scene once again and shook his head.

He focused back on the matter at hand—Durran’s suggestion. He mulled over the matter, biting as his lip as he thought, then continued, “You have to keep in mind this is just a suspicion of mine, not a confirmed fact,” Argrave held his hand out and pointed at Durran.

“Which is why you’re asking me to confirm it,” Durran nodded, looking at Argrave like he was slow. “That’s kind of how ‘confirming’ works, you realize. When you’re uncertain, you—"

“Don’t get all cute about it,” Argrave held out his hands to stifle Durran, which made the golden-tattooed tribal laugh. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Durran shrugged as he shook his head.

“Very encouraging,” Argrave furrowed his brows.

“I’m resourceful,” Durran held both of his hands out. “Look, if you don’t think I can, just say ‘no,’ and this matter’s closed, Argrave. You don’t need to collapse any more towering pieces of architecture to keep me in line.”

Argrave lowered his head, rubbing his chin as he thought about the matter. Certainly, Durran was a main character in ‘Heroes of Berendar.’ The player always did all kinds of ridiculously obscure investigation quests without much issue, which said something about all of the characters and their resourcefulness.

Even excluding ‘Heroes of Berendar,’ Durran had proven himself. Despite Argrave’s compunctions about the matter with the Margrave’s wyvern, the fact remained it worked out well.

Argrave lifted his head and said decisively, “I’ll allow it. But first—you’ll have to hear everything I know about Magnus so that you can act easier, make no mistakes, that sort of thing.”

Durran lounged back. “I’m sure you just want an excuse to talk more, but fine.”

check on Silvic, make sure she’s settled in without issue,

#####

can you be so fine? The suns are barely above the trees, and I’m still half-asleep,” Mina complained, rubbing at her eyes as she sat across from Argrave and Anneliese. They sat at a dining table in an abandoned part of the keep, largely alone. Anneliese’s Starsparrow ate magic seeds off the table before them, and the elven woman played with the creature idly. Argrave’s Brumesingers still slept, nestled in his gray duster. All of them sat within a

that he was worried.

was that the idea didn’t seem such a poor one, provided it never linked back to any of them.

I don’t want to, doing things I don’t want to do, and then going to bed far later than I would like.

call me a spoiled brat in fewer words,” she finished rubbing her

rub your eyes. And keep that mask on tight. They

froze like she’d been caught doing something bad, and then said,

nothing. As if cowed, Mina quickly put the Humorless

now distorted from behind the white solemn mask. “Why don’t you wear one? You got so sick so easily

placed his hands on the table. “We talked about this. I’m Black

tilted her

to draw some blood. Mina cocked her head back, a little shocked. Blood started to drip

exasperatedly, then healed his finger in

drank this, some of your

that

finger to Galamon as a jest, before he realized present company might take that poorly. Ultimately, he wiped the blood away and said, “Normal people don’t have magic

the fact people find it

been a long journey,” he said simply. He saw Galamon nod in agreement

stared at him for a time with complex emotions shining through even despite the mask, then shook her head to dismiss errant thoughts. “Well, enough. We can finally talk about why I came here. Induen—why in the world is he bursting into

a glance at Anneliese as she put her hair back into a half-crown braid, he turned his gaze back to Mina and rested

into what

eyes widened in anticipation. “So you know why he’s there? I knew talking to you would be

all the more difficult. “Well… to

“Oh,” she

“Oh,” Argrave repeated.

Mina placed her hands on the table,

his back. “What did

nonsense. He said he came here to stop the plague,” she spread her arms out in a disbelieving

said that

stayed by her side, the more I learned. She conscripted me for some things, you see. She’ll be the greatest head of House Monticci there ever has been,” Mina said proudly. “She had to deal with

cast a glance at Anneliese as she spoke of the Veidimen invasion. He shelved that

Induen might be…” Argrave began, biting his

honest,” Anneliese suggested as she finished

not know much about Induen being from that frozen

to stop her. “But he’s not stupid. Things have gotten bad in the south—I can attest to that as much as you can, probably. Between the warmer climate and King Felipe ostensibly hastening the disease, it’s