We had to decide what to do.

“I was thinking…” It probably wasn’t the best way to greet a Bokor, but Master James didn’t seem to be too big on proper etiquette. “...That I would be more useful in exterminating the Zombies that the Touched have gathered than I would talking to people.”

Master James yawned and waved me off. “It’s too early to think of such things. We need food.”

“Food?” Val stretched as she walked in.

“Give me a few minutes.” Master James began looking through the cupboards and pulled out random ingredients.

“Should you be doing that?” Val sat down at the table.

“They’ll be reimbursed.” Master James gestured at the ingredients. “This is a pittance compared to what they would pay for our services.” He conjured a little bit of fire and began cooking.

“Are you really going to charge them for all of this?” Val glared at the Bokor.

“No.” The answer came faster than she expected by the look on her face.

“This is a mission that could have helped the betterment of the Bokor. In my opinion that means we should be paying them, not the other way around.” He turned around and began putting food on plates.

“Why?” She looked at me, then back at him. “That’s not how the Bokor are.”

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“I didn’t come here under the pretext of Hunting, charging them now would be dishonest, even if most of the Bokor believe it is their right.” He shook his head. “But I can only do what I can.” He looked at us, “And right now, that is feeding us so we can figure out how to keep this town safe.”

Master James pushed a plate towards Val, “Then we’re going to go talk to people until we learn who killed Winey and is trying to get this city destroyed.”

Val took the food but kept eyeing the other Bokor. “You’re not what I expected.”

“Good.” He started eating and nodded at the third plate.

I sat down and started eating. I’d heard the other Masters talk about how shortsighted and fanciful Master James was, but what he was saying was supposed to be the core belief of the Bokor. If he was so crazy then what really happened behind the doors that I never got to see,

“Any other Bokor would have killed both of you on the spot, burned your bodies and marked down that they killed two traitors when they returned to the island.” He nodded at the door. “And I don’t know of another Bokor on the Island that would stick around here to uproot a Touched takeover once they learned that the ‘cure’ we were told about is nothing but a good cleaner.”

“Master Bran isn’t like that he would..!” I caught myself. It wasn’t because I was being disrespectful. It was because he was right. I could think of dozens of times that we’d left a place that still had ‘rumors of Zombies’, but Master Bran would state that he was ‘sent to kill Zombies, not rumors;.

I sighed, “You’re right. Even Master Bran would have already left.”

“This compassion you feel is good, but you have to learn how to guard it. Otherwise you might…”

There was a sharp knock on the door.

“Masters! Are you awake!”

I got up and walked over to the door. When I opened it Eveth was standing just outside the door. She was normally pale, but she looked almost translucent

“Miss Wreda has been murdered!”