“You didn’t have to kill him, you know.”
“Well, I didn’t have to not-kill him, Val. You heard the judge; their muddy little grub hole doesn’t even consider Galeb Duhrs ‘murderable.’”
Dire Fox had known Lanay for a while now. The first few times they’d met, he couldn’t figure out why Lucio called her “Lanay.” It wasn’t until he and Lucio had done a few jobs with another duo that he realized the wizard called every Elf he met the same name. He didn’t know if it was an Elvin nickname or simply the name of the first Elf he ever worked with. None of them had ever seemed to mind, well, any more than anyone else bothered about what Lucio called them, so he supposed it couldn’t have been that derogatory.
“That doesn’t make it right,” Lanay countered, “Your lack of empathy is appalling.”
“Huh. My empathy is fine,” he crossed his arms almost petulantly and they rode in silence for a moment.
Finally, Dire Fox spoke up, “Look, Lanay, what else did you learn about this guy?”
She shrugged. While they’d once passed a night with a glass of strawberry wine and discussion of a commonly despised wizard, their subsequent attempts at personal conversation had been awkward and sometimes confrontational. They could talk about Lucio behind his back, but he didn't feel like he needed to tempt a childish, violent, and powerful mage to stand behind them and cast the wrong spells on purpose.
Still, superficial conversation was better than none, “They said that they initially just took his actions at face value; he’d meet some adventurers, get a fat advance, then come back a few days later with the advance ready to spend.”
“No doubt with the addition of whatever his ‘unfortunate friends’ were carrying.”
She nodded, “Probably. The town was fine with that; most adventurers buy some expedition equipment then blow out of town and are never seen again,” she shook her head, "he paid them handsomely to live like a king, and they didn't give it a thought until the well dried up."
“Ghoulish,” Dire Fox looked past Lanay and saw Lucio’s horse veering off the path towards some flowers. Arms crossed as they were, he was trying to twist his torso to pull the reins and direct it back on track, but to no avail. The Halfling looked back to better enjoy the Human’s inner conflict between continuing with his brooding and not losing time in the pursuit of a rogue warlock.
He turned forward, satisfied that shortly, Lucio wouldn’t have any excuse to continue his posing. Maybe then he’d get over this spell and become some other, more tolerable form of terrible company.
From behind him, they heard a shout, “My horse is hungry and he’s going to eat for a while now!”
He and Lanay glanced back simultaneously to see Lucio, arms still crossed and looking back the way they came, away from them, with his horse grazing peacefully on some flowers by the side of the road, “Oh, don’t worry about me, I’ll catch up!”
Next Chapter
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