“Yeah, pretty sure that’s an insane reason to cavort with unseemly forces from beyond the veil of reality, Len. Every damn folk tale or legend or goddamn community play emphasizes how that’s exactly the sort of thing that ends in boundless suffering for all.”
“You’re not wrong, but I’m gonna have to leave concerns about my immortal soul for later. Way too much going on right now. Like, in case you hadn’t noticed, that minor detail of a saboteur running around the camp?”
“First, you’ve got no confirmation that it’s a saboteur, there’s still the non-zero possibility that it was just a really unfortunate series of events. There’s every chance that the wind blew down your first hut and hell, I dunno, maybe someone screwed up on securing the other panes and it just went wrong? No way to be sure and going paranoid isn’t gonna help anything.”
“Am… am I needed here?” asked Pitch, sounding vaguely offended at being ignored. “It kind of seems like I’m not needed here.”
“Oh shut up, you,” snapped Kila. “Whatever your game is, I’m not about to let you just have your way with Len. Just leave her be.”
“Let’s get one thing straight, Orc,” the creature replied, voice seeming to deepen in some way that Len couldn’t quite quantify. “My arrangement with the Namethief is binding. An accord was struck freely and enthusiastically. I am bound to her as she is to me, and I won’t be changing that any time soon. Unless you wish to take up your own arrangement with me, I’ll thank you to remain silent on issues that are beyond you. You partake in this moment by my will alone and push me too far and I may see fit to do you ill.”
“Enough,” Len groaned. “I really don’t need to be hearing this shit from both of you. Kila, Pitch is my problem to deal with, I just didn’t want you excluded from knowing about it. I’m committed to not keeping secrets from you, that’s all there is to it. You don’t get to dictate how I deal with these problems. I’m doing the best I can here.”
Kila glared at her hard but eventually relented and dropped her gaze.
“Pitch. I don’t understand you. I don’t particularly like you. And I REALLY don’t trust you. You’re interested in me, fine, but if you’re going to keep dropping in on me, you’re damn well going to be civil while you do it, and you will be civil with any of my friends you happen to interact with.”
The shadow wavered for a second, rippling with some emotion Len couldn’t grasp entirely, but it too relented.
“As you wish,” it said guardedly.
“Great, now go away. I have bigger things to deal with right now than your nonsense and I’d really prefer to get on with it.”
The thing offered her a mock bow, then vanished. The air around them shuddered and time resumed its normal flow.
“Len, I get that you think you have this under control, but there’s just no way that you do.”
“Are you kidding me, Kila? I haven’t had a damn thing under control in years. Hell, I’m not sure I’ve ever had things ‘under control’. It’s not that I think I’ve got a handle on things, it’s just that I’m used to it by now. I can’t stop, I can’t rest, I just have to keep going to the next damn thing until I die. And I damn sure am gonna make that death as hard and as bitter as possible for anyone coming to claim it.”
Len knew that she was getting a bit unhinged. She could feel the anger and the fear boiling up to the surface again. Every damn time she dared to believe that she was close to having some goddamn power over the situation, the situation insisted on proving her wrong. It wasn’t Kila’s fault, but she was the only one nearby and she needed to vent.
“Fine, you win,” said Kila, raising her hands in surrender. “I don’t agree with it, but you’re a grown ass woman, you can make your own calls here. What can I do to help you?”
“Honestly? Just tell me what you think after I talk to Valkar. I really don’t think he’s the guy, but I trust the Trio, they know their people and hell if I can understand why Larry’s so successful at it, but he is, so he’s probably right.”
“Kid’s come a long way since you started out with him. How’d that happen?”
“Hell if I know. Gave him the right opportunity and a taste of success, I suppose. Apparently that was all it took.”
There was a rustling at the front of the tent and Valkar sauntered in. He didn’t look particularly concerned about the situation, and hadn’t been considerate enough to wander in with a giant “I did it” sign on his chest, which left questioning as the next step. Len sighed and gestured for him to take a seat.
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“Valkar, meet Kila. I’m sure you were introduced when she got here, but official duties of introductions and all that: meet our new blacksmith.”
“You let Malar know about that yet?”
“Wait, HE’S the blacksmith? I always thought it was Rem.”
“Nah, Rem’s more of a tinkerer. Likes to build gadgets and whatnot, but hasn’t had anything to do with that knack since getting here. Malar’s the smith, not that he seems to give a shit anymore. Still, if you’re firing up a forge, I’d bet that he’d want in.”
“No harm in having two smiths,” put in Kila. “If he’s that good, I’ll happily work under him. Otherwise, I could always use a second.”
Len nodded along, then shook her head.
“That’s not actually why I called you in here.”
Valkar’s eyes narrowed, but he nodded.
“Say what you need to say, boss,” there was an edge in his voice that hadn’t been there before.
“Look, I’m not making any accusations yet, but I do need to know what you do about the glass getting destroyed.”
“Not a damn thing,” he said harshly. “Heard the crash outside in the morning, didn’t see any tracks leading to or from it. Didn’t hear anything from inside the mine. That’s all I’ve got.”
“You couldn’t have bumped into anything by accident, didn’t see anyone leaving the mine? Nothing at all?”
“No. I didn’t. Look, I get that you don’t trust me, but I’ve held this camp together for a long damn time. We had forty people when I got here. Misfits, loyalists, goddamn dreamers. Any number of people that the Demon Lord just tossed aside because they were inconvenient. I did everything in my power to keep them alive and still lost them one after another. Your crazy ideas don’t stand a chance in hell of saving this place, but you had more food on the table last night than we’ve ever had in my time here and I sure as hell wouldn’t risk that over some petty grudge about you kicking me out of my tent.”
Len let him say his piece, then nodded.
“Fair enough. We haven’t had many real conversations. I could’ve stood to learn more about what you’d been through. I know that trust is a slow thing, I’m not trying to destroy what little you’ve maintained here, but it’s also not nearly good enough. I WILL be turning this place around. I’ll need your help to do it. Can you think of anyone that might be trying to sabotage things?”
“No. Everyone’s stressed near to breaking, but no one’s going to actively damage things that are working. If you want to blame someone, maybe look into those humans you’re so trusting of.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve seen them snooping around from time to time. They don’t come close, but they have their eyes on us. They may say that they’re perfectly content to see us build ourselves up, but what fool would believe that? They’re testing us, planning the moment when they wipe us out.”
“That’s nuts. We’re starting to have beneficial trade with them, providing them resources that they don’t mine themselves and doing it for stuff that they have plenty of. Why would they risk that?”
“You’re kidding, right? Even as rejected as we are, we are a part of the Demon Lord’s Army. We’re a threat to them by our very existence. All of humanity will be brought under our boot eventually, of course they’d seek to crush us.”
“I don’t believe it,” said Len. “There are more options on the table than that, and I’m going to prove it. Besides, if they were just interested in wiping us out, I don’t believe for a second that they’d have trouble doing it. Ten warriors would slaughter us without breaking a sweat, and they have to have at least two hundred.”
“So they say, but I’ve never seen more than five or six. Don’t trust them just because they tell you things.”
“We’ll talk about that later. I’ll think about what you’ve said, I promise, but I don’t think it’s them either.”
Valkar grunted and said no more, waiting to be dismissed.
“Look, I’m sorry I suggested you might be the saboteur. I really don’t know what to do with things here, and it’s putting me on edge.”
He grunted again, but that was it.
“Fine, you win. Go back to your post. Keep an eye out for any of these humans you’re so worried about. We’ll deal with it if we have to.”
He nodded stiffly, rose, and exited the tent.