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.”

sure she’s settled in without issue, and then… I’ll have a conversation with Mina.” His smile grew bitter. “Have to make sure nothing else

#####

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

Argrave couldn’t deny that he was worried. It might be Durran decides that

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

months now,” Argrave explained. “Waking up when I don’t want to, doing things I don’t want to do,

in fewer words,”

“By the way… try not to rub your eyes. And keep that mask on tight. They weren’t cheap, and they’re

been caught doing something bad, and then said, “I

saying nothing. As if cowed, Mina quickly put the Humorless Mask back over

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

on the table. “We talked

tilted her head

off his glove, then took a small splinter off the table to draw some blood. Mina cocked her

said exasperatedly, then healed his finger in an almost

this,

people don’t do something like that to prove a point,” Mina said

Galamon as a jest, before he realized present company might take that poorly. Ultimately, he wiped the

about the fact people find

“It’s been a long journey,” he said simply. He saw

errant thoughts. “Well, enough. We can finally talk about why I came here. Induen—why in

blinked slowly, a little taken aback. After sparing a glance at Anneliese as she put her hair back into a half-crown braid, he turned his gaze back to

question. It sort of tailors into what I wanted to talk to

in anticipation. “So you know why he’s there? I

become all the more difficult.

face darkened. “Oh,” she said

“Oh,” Argrave repeated.

got no idea?” Mina placed her hands on

his back. “What did

He said he came here to stop the plague,” she spread her arms

brows. “Come to think of it, you said that you were

head of House Monticci there ever has been,” Mina said

she spoke of the Veidimen

began, biting his lip. “I

he was being honest,” Anneliese suggested

Anneliese, saying, “You might not know much about Induen being from that frozen land, but he’s a real monster. A butcher

that as much as