Jax eased himself down into the fragrant grass beside the huge gladiator known to everyone in his heyday as The Unnamed.

His gaze lingered for a moment on the grave of his friend's long-dead human wife before he joined in watching the sunset painting the clouds with a whimsical brush over an azure ocean.

The scent of salt and fresh-cut grass was a melancholy balm to ease the end of the stressful day of informing families only to trudge out here on reluctant feet to the small home of one of his last living true friends in this gods-cursed world.

Only his sister-in-law was left to be informed. She would have to wait for him to bring his brother home to the clan on their upcoming trip.

Two long hours later, The Unnamed broke the silence.

With a jagged voice that sounded like the man hadn't spoken in decades, he asked, "Is it true?"

Jax tilted his head down a few degrees, before producing two beautifully wrought boxes and laying them gently in the grass before him.

An intricate motif of vines and flowers growing around a stylized house shield and crossed axes decorated each ironwood cube, their guild amulets set into the center of each shield—work he had another friend rush for him on the boxes lady Chess had provided.

Tears pooled at the corners of the scarred man's eyes as he traced a finger along the whorls of each etching but didn’t fall.

With thick fingers, he lifted each lid and caressed the polished skulls of his sons inside with callused palms.

A soft nimbus of magic snaked up and out when he accepted Fordina's prompt and the magic dormant within his children dropped into the bags Jax had folded neatly beside each head.

Another long time later, The Unnamed turned to meet Jax's eyes.

"Alright," he said, using Jax's shoulder to leverage himself to his feet before heading inside the cliff-side house unsteadily.

Jax listened to the dark waves crashing below.

The Unnamed returned minutes later clutching two shovels in one hand and two ales in the other with two headstones tucked under his arms.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Jax took an ale and a shovel before downing the ale in one long pull.

His huge friend matched him.

The pair started digging.

When they were done, and they had stood silently for a time, the Unnamed reverently collected each small bag into a small haversack before turning to his lifelong friend.

"We have a debt to repay," Jax said.

The Unnamed smiled thinly and slapped Jax on the back with a solid thwack before returning to the house.

In a few minutes, he returned with a bigger pack and a tall walking staff tucked under his arm. He locked the house with an intricate key before tucking it back into the neck of his loose white shirt and heading out with the old dwarf on his heels.

"You won't like it," Jax warned once they passed back into the city proper.

The Unnamed tilted his head in question.

"She's a bard."

The Unnamed pulled up short to give him an 'are you serious look'.

Jax nodded.

"Luminous cursed bards." The Unnamed spat, his large mitts tightening into fists before releasing. "Well, a debt is a debt."

Jax suppressed a smile. "Who knows, maybe you'll like this one's music."

"Music," the Unnamed spat the word like a curse.

"We'll have you dancing one day," Jax laughed at his dour friend.

"On your grave."

"In your grave."

The Unnamed's staff twirled out lighting fast. Jax's attempt to dodge just had the stick tangle up in his legs awkwardly. Making him tumble headfirst into the dusty path.

Jax spat sandy grit and a few pebbles from his mouth before glaring at the old gladiator from his knees. "Now that was just uncalled for," he protested accepting a hand up warily.

"You need to watch where you're walking." The big man shrugged before tugging.

"Fine then, I promise I won't have someone animate your corpse," Jax muttered.

He looked his huge friend up and down while dusting himself off before asking the age-old question. "Are you sure you're an elf?"

The Unnamed rolled his eyes and flicked one of his mangled ears. "Half-elf"

"Yeah sure, maybe, but what about the other half?" Jax prodded while giving the bloated and twisted appendages hanging from either side of the scarred and pockmarked face a critical side-eying. He had to concede they may have been pointed at one time. The man was over two centuries old and didn't look a day older than a thirty-year-old human under the scars.

The Unnamed barred his crooked teeth at him in a mockery of a smile as an answer.

"Two hundred years and you've yet to tell me your name or what the hell ancestry you have, other than elf. What kind of elf is an ugly hairless giant," Jax grumbled under his breath.

"My name's The Unnamed," the half-elf explained patiently.

"I think need new friends!" Jax threw his hands into the air and trudged on. The tightness in his chest eased a little when he heard his friend chuckle softly before crunching gravel indicated he was following once more.