“It’s a long story.”
“All we have here is time.”
“I’ll tell you, but first, when are we up next for the game?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Silas
After Rufian and I left the baron’s court, we tossed our disguises and went over our findings. First and foremost, he confirmed that he secured Nicott’s ashes, and I told him that I got Nicott’s Loquirra-Emparra Talisman. My associate asked me how I managed to get that, and I told him that I was so good at my fake job that Gavori wanted me to visit again.
“That makes sense,” he commented as we found a spot to rest in Rufian’s latest drop-zone, Kapata, Dokumbe. “You are by nature a sentimental being. Just like Alzera-Kar.”
“You make it sound like a bad thing.” I made a makeshift grill with green-wood, laying down the suspended sticks flat while Rufian sat on a rock and cleaned the fish he’d just caught with a knife.
“It has its goods and bads.”
“Well, I didn’t hear Gavori complaining. I actually like her. She’s completely different from the first time we met.”
“And when was that?” he asked curiously, fileting the fish over the sticks before he sparked a fire with the snap of his fingers.
“In Lucyna’s lair,” I answered him.
He chuckled. “Where the bully belongs,” he said spitefully.
“I thought so too until I realized that she’s no different than us.”
He jerked his head to me, furrowing his eyebrows. “No different than us?” Rufian said, then fed me a fake smile. “But of course.”
“You know you’re just like your sister. The both of you hate the idea of joining forces with the enemy to beat the dragons.”
“Because honestly, the idea is simply ludicrous.”
“We have no other option.”
“There are always options, Silas. You just need to know where to look.”
“It’s what the goddess wants.”
“The goddess is oftentimes lost in her own fantasies, and we must rise up and take charge.”
“I’m pretty sure that only the dungeon core knows what’s best for her people, and converting back to unity is key.”
“Just as long as we pretend to all like each other, right?”
I glanced at Rufian cross. “Why is getting together such a hard concept for you to grasp?”
“Because it’s unrealistic,” he said as he flipped our meal over to cook on the other side. “Instead of putting all of this mental effort into the impossible, focus on what’s possible. And that is claiming the Grimoire. Not these foolish ideologies.”
“Anything is possible with a little bit of effort.”
“Who do you really fight for, Silas?”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “Where did that question come from?”
“Your actions thus far.”
“My actions?”
“Your heart to heart with Gavori, your kindness toward those two strangers… Stepping directly into the line of danger to help them was—”
“Was what? Human?”
“No, idiotic.”
“Seriously?”
“Not to mention your questionable sympathy for those nymph demons…”
“If it wasn’t for Maxi and her husband Tienus we wouldn’t have ever gotten that bird feather.”
“I am sure there were other ways.”
“Hey, if you got something to say, say it outright,” I retorted, Rufian actually beginning to piss me off.
“I worry you are putting the rest of the world before your own kind. If you’d been raised here, you would know first-hand that they aren’t worth it.”
“But you were, and for someone who was raised in Mavriel, you sure do hate your own kind. And I’m finding it hard to believe it’s because you disobeyed a bunch of old guys and took a quick look at forbidden spells.”
