While those thoughts were haunting me, I have monotonously joined Emrum, and the others. Half heartedly listening to their banter as they welcomed my presence with uncharacteristically large cheers. Cheers which threw me off my gloomy track of thoughts.

“Lass!” — Shouted Emrum, and I could see it in his eyes that the man would jump on me to squeeze me in a suffocating hug if his injured leg wasn’t screaming at him to do otherwise.

His glinting eyes turned towards the towering golem and pointed at it with his thumb while sitting backward towards it. — “That thing… I swear on the beards of the paragons… I have never seen a golem like that before! It looks like a work of art, a statue of all things! I thought that someone hit me over the head with a hobgoblin mace when I saw it wreaking havoc across the battlefield. It’s shockingly agile for a golem as well… no doubt thanks to its unique… humanoid shape.”

The other dwarfs grunted in agreement, and Tymur took over the conversation. — “I was there when she made it… the thing has practically burst out of the very rock, I tell you! The whole cave shook with it!” — He added with pride radiating off his face to be able to regale this incredible moment.

I have noticed that some dwarfs from other units were also gathering around, listening into the ongoing conversation.

Kol, along with the others, nodded along with Tymur’s words, adding his own two cents to it. — “I was just about to be flattened by a hobgoblin’s mace, when the golem's first strike landed, cutting through the greenskins as if they were nothing more than wheat at the mercy of a scythe.”

Another wave of awed sounds resonated through the dwarfs… Some of them going as far as to pat me on the back appreciatively.

I didn’t know how to feel about this happiness so openly showed around me, since I was still struggling to accept what I just did. Therefore, I could only smile awkwardly at the gestures.

An angry, accusatory voice appeared among the dwarfs, making me flinch with its intensity.

“If she is such a powerful witch… why didn’t she use that spell earlier? Some of us would have still been alive if she did.” — An accusatory voice among the dwarfs appeared.

A stony silence descended on our little circle, as the enraged eyes of Emrum hovered over the nearby soldiers. — “Who said that? Step forward, now!”

There was a moment of silence, then a relatively young looking dwarf stepped out of the line, somewhat hesitantly. Emrum’s eyes stuck to him, anger slowly replaced by deep disappointment. — “Shame on you, Dorhul son of Yozzok. What would your father say about this?”

The young man was clearly not in his right mind, stricken with grief, most likely. He became livid hearing Emrum’s words.

“My father just died because of…” — He directed a fiery gaze at me, and I gulped seeing the raw hatred reflected in those earth brown eyes.

Skod stepped in front of me. He was tense; anyone could see it, but he still tried to handle the situation with reason. — “We are sympathetic towards you. Please accept our condolences. I was a friend of your father. He was a great warrior who has seen many battles.“

Skod allowed a few moments of silence before he continued.

“Your grief in itself, however, isn’t reason enough to blame your father's death on someone who has nothing to do with it! If you want to blame something, then blame the goblins who have taken his life.”

“Alas, not just your father, but many of us have died today… We have walked straight into their trap, having no idea about what awaited us. There isn’t anybody to blame about this… Things like this happen from time to time… None of us spotted anything out of the ordinary until the last minute. To be honest, we are lucky that we still draw breath after being separated and ambushed by hundreds of goblins.”

There were grunts of agreement and solemn nods among the little circle that gathered around us.

“Your father knew what it meant to be a soldier of the Bronze Company. He was aware of the dangers just as each of us.”

The young man balled his fingers into fists as he shouted back. — “You speak easily… You got to be healed by her after the darklings struck. My father wasn’t so lucky!”

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There were sharp intakes of breaths, and the relatively young dwarf seemed to regret his own words as a handful of stony stares were pointed at him.

Skod, on the other hand, shrugged his shoulders and said stoically.

“It is as you say. I was lucky. But if I weren’t, I for sure wouldn’t blame anybody for my death, aside from my own incompetence.”

“Selora, might be an elf, but she has proved herself to us repeatedly. She is a powerful witch, that is true, but magic is far from being omnipotent! She did her best and saved more lives than any of us could ever reasonably expect from her, not even considering how young she actually is.”

“Lives were at stake, as you yourself stated. She was forced into a situation where she had to decide who to help. To spare her mana for healing, or use it in a way to prevent injuries all together. She has made her decision an incredibly tough decision. She didn’t know who will be hurt in the conflict and was fully aware that she won’t be able to heal anyone after summoning the golem. Are you seriously surprised that she was hesitating?”

There was no answer coming from Dorhul this time or from anyone else.

Regmir snorted. Drawing the dwarfs’ attention to himself.

He was sitting on the side, currently cleaning off some dried blood from his weapon. The elongated scar which he got from the battle with the Arachne knight was still covering a large part of his face.

I have offered him to heal it multiple times, but the stubborn bastard was treating it like some battle trophy.

He looked up from his task, glaring at Dorhul like he was some sort of interesting bug, and said.

“Yeah… The girl probably also expected that some snot-nosed bastards, like you, were going to deflect their own inability at her on the first chance. Fine, since we are doing that anyway, tell me where were you when your father was mortally wounded? Why didn’t you save him instead of pointing fingers at others? Hah?”

“That’s enough, Regmir… he is not in his right mind!” — I called out to Regmir, who was needlessly provoking an already emotional and probably shocked soldier.

It was enough that they stood up for me. I didn’t want to escalate the situation any further.

Another cold voice spoke up from the slowly growing audience. This time it was an older dwarf. Based on his facial features, he was at least a hundred. Which was considered quite rare among the soldiers of the Bronze Company.

“… Regmir Shatterrock… “ — Stated the icy voice. — “Of all the people, I would never have taken you to be an elf-lover… The Dimhollow clan was enough of a disappointment, but to think the Shatterrocks also become soft in the head. Or maybe just too stiff in the groin, heh?” — He stated coldly. Then added with a sigh. — “Alas, I shouldn’t have been that surprised. There were more than a few rumors saying that you and this elf tended to meet up on your own. So you have become infatuated with an elf witch, of all things! I even heard that you once brought her back to her room all on your own. How bold. I guess she did set a tent in your pants, after all…”

The air seemed to turn completely still as those words were spoken in the dim cave. So much so that even the occasional sizzles of the torches held by the dumbstruck dwarfs could be heard.

I blinked, the gears slowly turning in my head. Well… yes… we have run into each other a few times, but… that was only by chance, right? Wait… what if it actually wasn’t? Is he really? Was he following me all this time? That’s… fucking creepy and just… just disturbing… alright… let’s go with that.

I glanced at him and saw that the man was surprisingly red in the face. Before I could come to the wrong conclusion, however, he had burst into scandalized anger and shouted at the older dwarf.

“Stop spouting nonsense, you senile old bat! It was only a coincidence!” — He defended himself vehemently.

The old man didn’t react much to his enraged shouts, and added thoughtfully. — “A coincidence? So you don’t deny it… Your boldness is admirable… have you laid together yet?”

My jaw dropped, blinking rapidly… I wasn’t sure which part of that idea horrified me more… the part that we were discussing this in front of the entire company or the very idea of me… well, you know.

I felt as if a healthy amount of blood surged into my face thanks to my embarrassment from accidentally visualizing something I definitely shouldn’t have.

My reaction was interpreted very differently by the nearby dwarfs, though.

Emrum, for starters, took a glance at me, then attempted to stand up, shouting like a madman. — “Regmir! She is still just seventy! You disgusting bastard!” — Tum and Kol moved to Emrum’s side, trying to push him down before he could reopen his injuries.

Regmir’s reaction was spectacular to watch. It was the first time I saw him overtaken by genuine panic. He was trying to explain that it was a complete misunderstanding, but the more he tried to explain it, the more suspicious he became.

In the end, I decided to join in on the explanation, since I wasn’t going to deal with an enraged Emrum for something I definitely didn’t do.

Eventually, things somehow were smoothened over, and everybody went back to do their own things. Leaving us sitting around the fire in an extremely awkward mood.

I couldn’t help but wonder how easily the dwarfs could switch from one topic to another and doing that with topics that were containing such emotionally contradicting contexts.

It seems that I have been destined to be forced to reevaluate everything that I have learned of the dwarven culture each time I dared to believe I was starting to get the hang of it.

Sigh…