The judge met us at the tent flap just as my wolugh patient was staggering past, now fully legged if not yet fully clothed.
“Well, well… right on time, too. You do good work,” he observed, watching the man hop toward his match while he struggled to get his leathers back on. “Guy seems a little weak in the knees, though. You’d almost think he was escaping out of his lover’s window.”
I smiled at the man’s joke, even if it was closer to reality than I might have liked. “You can’t expect a guy to regrow a leg and walk off like nothing happened. Give him a minute, let him splash some water in his face, and he’ll be fine.”
“I suppose that’s fair,” he agreed, turning to face me finally. “What about you? I notice you’re still standing.”
I chuckled self-deprecatingly, even as I clutched by trembling hands—and my patient’s tip—behind my back. “What can I say? I guess getting Swallowed has its upsides.”
More specifically, I had been investing into Toughness with a near-religious fervor since discovering the stat’s role in boosting spellcasting stamina, so my staying power had improved by leaps and bounds. Casting a regeneration buff at full power nine times in a row, as I just had, would have put me into a coffin even as recently as a week ago, so I could be forgiven for underestimating my own capabilities. But I knew I would recover soon enough from the trickle of Life Jax was feeding me, and I saw no need to discuss any of that with someone I barely knew.
The man favored me with a smile of his own at the shared banter, even as his eyes went somewhere I could not see, either recalling his own trials or reflecting on those of the survivors. And just as distantly, he murmured, “It is a cruel thing to be forged by the heavens… yet one cannot fault the temper of its steel.”
From the way he delivered that little nugget of wisdom, I had to assume it was either a known saying or a quote from one of those epic poems Lynnria kept telling me about. Whichever it was, I was only half paying attention. My own eyes had snagged on a woman walking past—not because of her physical appearance as you might normally expect, but because she happened to be carrying a child over her shoulder.
Inevitably, my mind drifted to the island where I had first encountered Lynnria and the host of underaged soccer hooligans with her. Or gameball, as they called it, a name that so undersold the violent spectacle of the sport it described it was almost comical.
“Huh…” I wondered aloud. How did she find her kid?
Egger focused on me, likely having mistaken the cause of my utterance. “Sorry. Forgive an old man his musings,” he rumbled, then reached a hand into his coin purse for my fee.
So he is old. But how old is old?
Once again, I had bounced head-long into a wall of mystery well before I had been given the chance to solve the last. That was the trouble with being a perpetual stranger in a strange land. Half the time, I had no idea what was going on, and asking about a thing any child ought to know would only reveal me as the alien I was. I could occasionally get away with it by claiming a sheltered background or falling back on inexperience, but with stuff like this? I had never seen a single individual with features even encroaching on middle-aged—laoi or otherwise—so how was I supposed to find out why no one had wrinkles? Were they even a thing here? Would anyone even understand the question?
Maybe Mia will know… and I’ll bet Xyn can tell me about the lost children. That one should be innocent enough.
As the judge dropped a small pile of copper into my hand, he happened to spy Jax peering at us over my shoulder. “That reminds me, the final is scheduled for just after sunset. Don’t be late.” He glanced toward the arena for a moment, considering, then turned back to us. “But I wouldn’t blame you for conceding. You’ll be facing Mellit’s husband, Tillem. Guy’s an incredible fighter for his Layer… and just as massive a prick. He isn’t the type to hold back even for a normal match, but after that stunt you pulled with his wife, he’s going to be out for blood. He’s the one who took that other fellow’s leg, you know.”
That tidbit laid at our feet, Egger excused himself, leaving us to our own devices for the next couple of hours.
“Mellit’s husband… Tillem?” I said, turning back to the girls with a faintly disgusted look on my face. “Someone please tell me that’s a coincidence.”
“Bollocks,” Jax uttered with a snort of dismissal, ignoring me in favor of the perceived slight to her combat prowess. “That one don’t know who he be talking to. As if I’d be afeared of one little match.”
I had to nod my agreement, even if it was unwilling. “I’d rather not see you too injured, Jax, but you’re right. Short of killing you, there’s not much he can do that I can’t put right. Still… her husband?”
“But he can kill her,” Xyn interjected. “That’s the problem.”
“Is that the problem?” Am I being the weird one? Surely, they saw how alike they looked. And with those names?! They were like something an ill-advised mother might name her twins. “She’ll just come back after a day. And even if she couldn’t, I thought the Law forbade that kind of thing.”
Jax let out a weary sigh. “It do. But the rules be different for tourneys. Ye can nay stop accidents when yer using live weapons, so the Maiden—in Her infinite generosity—lets us off with a fine, the cunt. Be more than any purse, most times, so poor folk like us avoid a killing stroke like plague.”
In other words, if you were rich enough, you could challenge someone to a match and kill with impunity—a decided advantage if your opponent was in a lower tax bracket. As a supposed nobleman from a sheltered background, that was something I could be excused for not knowing, though. It was obvious I had never engaged in a duel in my life, so what reason would I have for understanding how they related to class politics?
“Right… well, let’s just hope this guy is having financial troubles. And hope the Maiden wasn’t paying attention just now. You really need to ease off the swearing when you’re talking about divine beings, Jax. You’d think you would have learned your lesson after that mess we just went through.”
“Why? What’d I say?” she asked, blinking just as wide-eyed and innocent as could be.
I glared down at her. “Oh, you want me to say it?”
“No!” she said quickly. Then, with a cheeky grin, she hopped up to plant a kiss on my lips with the expertise of a sniper. “I like me master’s tongue pure and clean-like so he can taste the honey ’twixt me legs proper.”
Crude imagery aside, the kiss, combined with the vision of her body reacquainting itself with the forces of gravity, was more than enough to inject a dose of nitrous into my engines. But they hardly needed it. The ordeal I had just put myself through had drained me to the point where my recently altered physiology was demanding nutrients. And I am not talking about steak and lobster.
However, she was trying to distract me, and there was no way I was going to let her—or my easily biddable physiology—get away with it.
“You say that like you expect me to lay you down and have at it, here and now.”
“Be me right,” she argued, and with a slight pout, she began to gently press her chest against me, rubbing the twin points of contact into figure-eights. Which was completely unfair! “Even if it weren’t, I just unblocked me Core. I’d think ye’d be happy fer that. Enough to give a reward, the least.”
“And he’s hungry,” Xyn added.
“And yer hungry!” Jax agreed.
Damn it… of course, they’d pick up on that. How is a guy supposed to stand up for his principles around here?
Fortunately, Xyn’s contribution to the argument had reminded Jax of her presence. “Were about to say that, I was. And what’s it to ye?”
The blonde’s scales shifted again, this time into a series of whirls and flirtatious tattoo-like patterns running up and down her legs—consequently exposing herself in the process. The combination fanned the tendrils of desire Jax had been coaxing to life through my body like an inferno before I could avert my eyes.
“Because I’m calling seconds.”
Jax bristled. “The hell ye be!”
Naturally, Lynnria chose that moment to return to the realm of consciousness, startling upright like she had just been goosed.
“Cum! I smell cum!”
I winced—both at the reminder and to hear that as the first words out of the recently ensorcelled teenager’s mouth. But she had brought up an excellent detail.
“Yes! That exactly. It’s not that I’m unhappy about your accomplishment, Jax. I just don’t want whoever owns this tent to find us with my tongue in your crotch while you’re writhing around in blood, guts, and… and used linens. You don’t like filth in my mouth, and I don’t like it on your body.”
Specifically, another man’s. Even more specifically, where there was any chance of me touching it.
She waved me off, her eyes still laser focused on Xyn. “I know it. But yer worried more for watchful eyes than ye be of filth. Same as me.”
“I think I’d argue that point.”
Xyn crossed her arms with a scoff. “I swear, you have the palettes of children. I’ve been locked away in the Dungeon for eons, and even I know there are few things that can compare with a couple pleasuring each other in secret.” A hand came up to run her fingers through hair, as though in fond remembrance. It also did wondrous things to her exposed flesh. Not that I was looking. “That thrill of almost getting caught… Ah~ You have not lived until you’ve sampled it!”
“That weren’t what I were talking about,” Jax growled.
“And again, I don’t have a palette,” I added. “Why do you keep—?”
“No, I’m sure of it,” Lynnria interrupted. She had yet to move from her spot on the floor, apparently too disoriented… or too distracted to join the ongoing conversation. She tilted her nose about, sniffing. “Definitely cum. Male. Thick and tangy, too. Almost like it was… fermented?” She turned toward the rest of us finally. “Tell me you’re smelling that.”
“Of course, we smell it. Do you think we’ve gone anosmatic?” Xyn replied off-hand.
I could smell it too, to my regret. Much as I would like to claim that I could only pick up the delectable aromas of my own Dolilim, that simply was not the case, but I could at least take comfort in knowing the wolugh’s… discharge had an impure quality to it that made it entirely unappealing to me. That it had nothing whatever to do with its maleness was something I was fully planning on composing an angry letter about, and it would be joining the others just as soon as I found an appropriate address to mail the lot to.
Xyn gestured to the corner without looking. “Most of it is in that sheet over there, but it isn’t Donum’s, if that was what you were hoping for.”
Lynnria looked almost insulted. “I know that! Do you think I wouldn’t be able to tell—” She jerked abruptly, then pointed an accusatory finger toward the lilim. “Wait a second! I remember now.”
The young woman climbed to her feet, scanning the comparatively statuesque blonde before her from head to toe in a near panic.
“Your eyepatch. Your hair! You were… you were Her!”
“Only partially.”
Jax glanced from girl to woman and back. “What’re ye on about? What her?”
Xyn sighed regretfully, allowing her scales to reform about her torso in a semblance of modesty—to my relief and regret. “I would prefer to save that discussion for when the rest join us.” She paused for a moment to glance toward one corner of the tent. I would almost think she had heard something, but none of the others had reacted. So perhaps she was only listening. “And fully away from the ears of outsiders. That is one thing I will not risk for a thrill.”
“I’m glad there’s at least something,” I muttered.
She made a sound in her throat. “It is your priorities that need straightening, my gift. Sex, even in public, is of no consequence. Information is. And you have been far too lax in seeking it here.”
“I think I’d argue that point, too. But I take your meaning.” I tilted my head back out of the tent to get a look at the sun. “Looks like we’ve got a bit before sunset. Why don’t we head back to our room? We should be able to talk freely there.”
“And have reward sex,” Jax reminded me.
“If we have time for it,” I agreed, ushering the girls out of the tent and into the muddy lane it emptied into. Most everyone nearby was still crowding around the improvised arena, jockeying to get a better look at the match. It was only the loser’s bracket, but from the sound of things, Mellit and my recent patient were putting on a pretty good show.
“We’re having reward sex?” Lynnria asked, as we threaded our way through the crowd, prompting me to pull my enormous hat as far down over my face as I could. “For what?”
“I unblocked me Core!”
“You mean I missed it?!” Lynnria threw her head back mournfully. “Damn it! I wanted to watch that.”
“I doubt you would have enjoyed it,” Xyn opined. “She seduced her way to victory.”
Lynnria’s feet stopped for a heartbeat before she scurried to catch up. “Really? During combat? How do you seduce someone during combat?”
Jax shrugged. “Easy enough if ye got the skills.”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“What skills, though?” she persisted. “And was it a guy or a girl?”
“Were a lass.”
Lynnria grimaced. “Ew…”
“What I’d have said, were it a lad,” Jax countered.
“And you’re not fooling anyone,” Xyn added, eyeing the younger girl. “I take it back. You would have loved to see the end of that match. The idea of overwhelming someone’s better judgment, especially if that someone is a woman… excites you.”
Lynnria stiffened. “It does not!”
“There’s no use in denying it. I can taste the anticipation beneath your shame. Even now, you envision them so wet for you that their weapon clatters to the floor. Making them your devoted slave.” Xyn chuckled knowingly. “I’ll bet you’ve got your first target all picked out, too. But who? A cousin, perhaps? A former servant? …your mother?”
Lynnria whirled on her, claws splayed and hissing, but I was quick to jump between them. “Okay, we just talked about this. People around. Still lots of people around.”
We all of us stilled. We had already rounded the arena to the other side, but there was still more than enough of a crowd milling about to have noticed the flare up. However, once it became obvious we were controlling ourselves, they lost interest in favor of the ongoing match.
Xyn held up her hands in surrender. “Forget I mentioned it. Old habits…”
“Right. Well, you’d better work on those ‘old habits,’” I said. “Or you’ll be getting no seconds from me. Or anything else.”
Her hands fell slowly to her side, and her eyes went hard. For a long while, we simply stared at one another, there in the middle of the crowded street, neither of us speaking.
The spell Xhinn had cast on me ensured my love for this creature, so taking a stand against her like this pained me. But I had my lines. Cruelty was one of them. Whether she had been lying or hitting the nail right on the head was immaterial; Lynnria’s private fantasies were for her to sort out, not for others to drag out of the closet and try on for size.
“I would find that… upsetting, Donum,” she said eventually. “I don’t think you would like it were I to become upset.”
The threat had been leveled with a nonchalance that bordered on malice, and normally, it would have been effective. But I had heard it so many times before that I could not help but smile.
“Why? You gonna turn green and start smashing the place up?”
Her head tilted to one side slow enough that I could almost imagine her neck creaking, studying me.
“I’m thinkin’ she ain’t seen that one, Master,” Jax opined, coming up to my shoulder with a haughty look on her face.
Xyn glanced at her briefly. “Seen?”
“Aye. The master used to attend the theater avid-like, ye know.” Jax tilted her nose into the air. “Told me all about it, did he. Tales to make yer head spin right off.”
Xyn’s face underwent a complex series of emotions before her neck straightened again. “I wish to hear these tales.”
“And I wish you would apologize to Lynnria.”
This time, her glance went to our youngest member. Lynnria no longer looked like she was ready to tear someone’s throat out, but she still had an aura of tension about her. Like she was being hunted.
“And then you will… share?” Xyn asked. “Of yourself? Completely?”
Jax started to growl again, but I held up a hand to forestall her. “And then I will consider it. Just like with… your Mother, I need to get to know you first. You share of you, and I share of me. Bit by bit, remember? That’s just how I work. I don’t like the idea of…” I lowered my voice, “…intimacy when there’s no depth to it.”
“Depth?” Xyn’s look gained a sudden intensity. “You wish to season the flavor between us first?”
“I guess you could put it that way.” Getting to know someone would naturally build up an emotional profile of them within your mind, so from a lilim’s point of view, I could imagine a certain equivalence. “With the way you keep going on about palettes and taste refinement, I’d think that would interest you.”
“And so it does,” she agreed, delivering a solid thump of her tail to the ground. “We shall discuss this at length. Later. For now…” She turned smartly to face Lynnria, who retreated a step before straightening. “Let us set games aside for the moment, girl. I am not one to offer apologies, nor am I one to act without intent. I may don the guise of the trickster or the rabble-rouser when it suits my purposes, but I meant every word I said. And what I said was for good reason.”
Lynnria folded her arms in front of her chest. “That being?”
Xyn shrugged the question off. “Call it a theory. Let us just say that I do not mean to disparage your… appetites. Quite the opposite. I might even—” She paused, again casting her gaze to the faceless crowd, scanning for someone or something I could not detect. “But that too is a topic best left for other times and other places. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Curiosity began to war with the hunted expression on Lynnria’s face, prompting her to offer a reluctant nod.
I let out a grunt, still less than content with the exchange. “You could have summed all of that up with a simple, ‘I’m sorry.’ Is that really so difficult?”
Xyn’s head turned just enough to look at me from the corner of her good eye. “It is when you know the flavor of dishonesty.”
“Which she can’t taste,” I reminded her.
She turned to regard me fully, her eye widening and lips gaping with the revulsion of a debutante first confronted with actual poverty. “Donum! Let’s not be gauche. We both know she cannot help that. There’s no reason to make light of the poor girl.”
I gave her a flat look. To which she responded with an impish grin.
“Sorry, Lynnria,” I said, turning from the unrepentant demon. “Looks like that’s the best you’re going to get.”
She shrugged half-heartedly. “It’s better than I was expecting. I’m surprised she even offered that much. What’s going on with you two, anyway?”
From the sigh that escaped my lips, you would have thought I was attempting to expel the soul from my body. “It’s complicated.”
“Again?” she voiced, the word containing a near-audible wince. “Whistling dicks…”
And it was at that moment that Mia chose to return to my own consciousness. “My lord, why is Arx in a medic’s tent? Who is that woman, and why is she so upset about her linens?”
I whirled on Xyn. “You left Arx in the tent?!”
*
The lilim made a disgusted sound as she stamped up the stairs. “Blasted splinter, spoiling my fun. I was hoping to make it back to the room before he noticed.”
“Well, he did notice,” Arx yelled, chasing after her. “Why did you even bother taking me along if you were just going to dump me in some—”
Their argument continued up to the second story, where it was mostly inaudible. That did nothing to stop the entire common room’s population from staring a hole right through my shoulder blades, though—even with Jax standing behind me to glare them all down. Then an ear-jarring slam reverberated down the stairwell, followed by a series of unidentifiable yet concerning noises from directly overhead.
I glanced over at Lynnria, who had been hovering near the base of the stairs with an aura of baleful indecision, and sent her a pleading look.
She said nothing, but her eyes held plenty of meaning. ‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Anything!’ my expression screamed in response.
As she scurried up the stairs, I turned back to Tips with a rigid smile carved into my lips. “How much did you say it was going to be?”
The rotund tavern keeper did not respond immediately. His eyes were on the ceiling above us, likely calculating the value in gold of every thump, rumble, and crash that was filtering through it. “Well, so far…” he began, speaking loud enough to be heard over the ruckus, and consequently, throughout every corner of the stone-silent common area, “you have one demolished, full-sized bed frame; one mattress, sheets, the liner, pillows, and comforter that are all technically intact but so covered in stains that I’m going to have to burn the lot if I ever want to get the smell out; claw gouges and links of chain embedded in most of the walls; and…” He laughed humorlessly. “…let’s not forget the puddle of urine that’s been dripping onto my bar counter all afternoon from that Feral Borget you left on top of the antique dressing cabinet.”
A low whistle drifted to my ears from somewhere to my left, followed by a few murmurs of appalled inquiry.
Borget? I wondered, having to take a moment to think. Oh! Oh… Shit… I forgot about that stupid rabbit. And now, everyone thinks… Ah, Man…
Every cell of my being wanted to spin around and hastily explain to the crowd that no part of that little monster had been used for any of the escapades they were imagining—sexual or otherwise—but honestly, it would have done more harm than good.
“All of which is completely irreplaceable,” Pimar continued, “until the trade lines from the river reopen. So what do you think?”
I chuckled weakly right as something that sounded remarkably similar to glass shattering echoed down the stairs. “Well, at least we didn’t set the room on fire.”
Tips did not return my smile. “Were you planning to?”
*
Jax stamped up the stairs in a frothing rage, mirrored in opposition to the trudging melancholy of my own steps behind her.
“I can nay believe that punter… every mokit copper. Every flaming toaty of a copper! Cleaned the oose right out of yer purse, the flint. Why, I’ve half a mind…” She left the thought unsaid, but I could fill in the blanks easily enough. And from the enchanted mace Tips had casually laid across the bar counter during our negotiations, I had a feeling he could as well. “That were sixteen gold ye dumped in his palm!” she continued unabated. “And more in silver. I counted. Ain’t a room in all the laoi territory is worth that much, fresh painted and minty. Not what ye can rent of a night, anyways. Scam and scandal be what that were.”
“I can’t believe he didn’t want the Lust pill,” I remarked, mostly to myself, as I crested the landing to head down our hall. “I know it’s technically a debuff, but at Tier III, that’s got to be worth something.”
Jax just harrumphed in disgust, turning to walk backwards ahead of me. “Oh, believe you me, he would have snatched that too, but fer the whole pub breaking their necks over his shoulder. I’d bet me left tit they think we been downing them things like sweeties after them damages he counted out. Ha! As if a lass like me’d need a Pill to get a bloke’s pecker up.”
I considered offering a slightly different perspective on that assumption, but frankly, trying to convince Jax that a normal person would suspect I was the one plying women with horny Pills was a losing battle. Lynnria was the only one of my girls I knew of whose libido had an off button, if barely. Xyn, I did not know well enough to have asked, and trying to find out if Mia did would have been entirely counterproductive. But none of that was the issue. I was one dude constantly surrounded by a small herd of some of the most attractive women in town. People would naturally assume I had some kind of secret up my sleeves.
They were right, but it was not like I was doing it on purpose. And it certainly had nothing to do with Pills!
“And can ye believe he complained of the smell?!” Jax continued unabated. “Ought to be grateful, the roaster. Only room in the whole inn what’s got a proper man’s musk to it. I were just starting to feel comfortable in there, and now he wants to toss us on our ears?”
Here again, my own perspective seemed radically different from hers. Whatever scent I had left behind was, to my nose, completely obscured by the absolute bomb of perfumed delight wafting its way down the hallway. Cinnamon rolls and caramel warred with spiced whiskey and undercurrents of honeyed blackberry jam, the combination of which was an absolute gift to the senses. Or it was to mine.
The rest of the tavern apparently shared a different opinion.
“Jax, can we please refrain from discussing my musk until after we’ve gotten to the room?” I pleaded. “There might still be one or two people left in this inn who have not been apprised of our sex lives. Like on the third story, maybe?”
“Bah! Let ‘em gawk. I’ll have me reward on the roof, if I have to.”
“You’re still thinking about that?” I asked. “Tips said he wanted us out by the nightfall, and we still have to make it back in time for your match.”
“Then we’d best hurry,” she replied seriously, drawing even with the door. “This be the last chance ye’ll ever have to sample this body. After tonight, I’ll be changing, and I want ye to remember how I were.”
I almost lost my footing as I stumbled to a halt. I was so stunned I had to look at her askance. “Why, Jax. I believe that’s just about the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard you say.”
It was such a silly little sentiment, too. All of my girls changed in their own ways, day to day and Layer to Layer. Jax especially. But she had been stuck in her current form since before Raialie had been swallowed, while I had not. I knew how much the growing disparity between us had been eating at her, especially once her looks had been surpassed by Arx. And Xyn’s presence could not have been helping matters.
But none of that mattered to me.
Jax might not have been the sexiest, the smartest, the strongest, or whatever other metrics you might hold her up against. She might have had a mouth on her like a cheap villain from an 18th century pirate novel and had a violent streak to match. But I did not care. She was my First. My number one. She had stuck with me through thick and thin from almost the very moment I had landed on this world. If something ever happened to me, she would be the first by my side, bawling her eyes out, and the first to draw up plans for retribution. Of all my girls, she was the one I loved the most. She knew it too and was proud of it.
So when she started blushing and casting about for excuses, her anger forgotten in a fluster, I could not help but melt for her. “Who’s romantic? I ain’t… yer the one who… who… Gone daft in the head, ye have! I just wanted… w-wanted…”
Smiling down at her, I quickly gathered her into my arms. I knew it was the wrong move the moment I did it. Touching her like that could only send her libido into overdrive, so if I left her hanging after this, the only thing on her mind for the rest of the night would be what had gone wrong and what she would have to do to finally get my robe over my head. There would be no room left over for winning her match.
But it was worth it to see her little gasp of delight. To watch the shivers begin to race up and down her body. To see her breasts pool into my chest as she helplessly pressed herself against me, her lips parted in anticipation. And to smell the delicate waft of refined whiskey cocktails drifting up from her.
“You just wanted what?” I asked, taunting her in a low, seductive rumble. “To dance on the rooftops in my arms? To share a kiss beneath the moonlight? To tie Xyn down and make her watch while you hog me all night long?”
“Master…” she breathed, starting to lean heavily into me. “Master, please. Please, yes. All them things. That last one, especial. Can we?”
My grin broadened, and slowly, I began to inch my lips closer to hers. “Well… no promises. But I’ll see if I can convince her.”
Jax let out a little moan of frustration at the tantalizing nearness of my kiss, held playfully just out of her reach. Until she could take it no more. With a sensual growl, she hitched a leg around my waist and pulled herself up. Her tongue danced with mine for some while, our breaths commingling in shared passion. The growl from before transformed into a pleased sort of purring, teasing my lips with her satisfaction.
My hands found purchase at her backside. It was a firm, shapely thing, muscular yet soft in all the best ways. Gradually, I began to knead her flesh, my fingers teasing the hem of her dress—really just a flap of fabric hanging from her belt to keep wandering eyes from seeing what they should not—exploring ever more deeply. Lower. Seeking the heat between her legs.
And then the door opened.
“Oh, there you are.”
Jax and I turned as one to discover Xhinn, the Demon Queen herself, staring out at us, just casually leaning against the doorframe like it was an everyday sort of thing to have a goddess show up in your hotel room.
She folded her arms and waggled her eyebrows at us. “I thought I sensed something warming up out here. By all means, continue. Or perhaps you’d prefer this body tied up first?”