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.”

Once that’s done, we’ll check on Silvic, make sure she’s settled in without issue, and then… I’ll have a conversation with Mina.” His

#####

and Anneliese. They sat at a dining table in an abandoned part of the keep, largely alone. Anneliese’s Starsparrow ate magic

deny that he was worried. It might be Durran decides that Magnus would be better off

poor one, provided it never linked back to any of them. He was

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

brat in fewer words,” she finished rubbing

that mask on tight. They weren’t cheap, and they’re very effective at preventing the waxpox. Or any disease, I

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

As if cowed, Mina

white solemn mask. “Why don’t you wear

“We talked about this. I’m Black Blooded, now.

tilted her head

splinter off the table to draw some blood. Mina cocked her head back, a little shocked. Blood

said exasperatedly, then healed his finger

you drank this, some of your magic would replenish,

don’t do something like that to prove a

might take that poorly. Ultimately, he wiped the blood away and said, “Normal people

talking about the fact people find

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

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 my father’s keep, wanting to speak to

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

of tailors into what I wanted

you know why he’s there? I knew talking

the conversation had become all the more difficult. “Well… to put it in simple terms…

face darkened. “Oh,” she said

“Oh,” Argrave repeated.

Mina placed her hands on

back. “What did he

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

said that you were the one

The more I 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

at Anneliese as she spoke of the Veidimen invasion. He shelved that observation and focused on

Argrave began, biting

honest,” Anneliese suggested as she finished her

spoke to Anneliese, saying, “You might not know much about Induen being from that

“But he’s not stupid. Things have gotten bad in the south—I can attest to that as much as you can,