Andric regretted going back to talk to Tatiana once he had gotten deep into actually talking to her.

  “How do you truly feel about all this? Are you just putting on a brave face? Someone is here getting all of the attention, the influence, the status that you wanted… that you worked for.”

  “It’s what’s best for our people right now,” Andric managed. His head was beginning to pound. He hadn’t drunk much water that day, and he was already a bit dehydrated.

  “That’s not an answer. I asked how you felt, not whether it was for the best. He’s even stepping in to try and take the women you’ve been courting.”

  And what, you care about that? he thought.

  “How I feel… It makes me sick at heart. Is that what you want to hear? Nothing that I can do about it except try to be the better man in their eyes.” He turned to look over at Victoria, who met his gaze but after a moment averted her eyes.

  Not exactly a promising sign.

  “Hey, fuck her,” Tatiana said.

  Andric gave her a pointed look. Shut up, Tati.

  “Seriously, fuck all of them,” she said, slurring slightly. “You’re a great man, Andric. Why don’t we get really drunk like the fire mage and go scream at the top of our lungs on the cliffs or something? Get those feelings out.”

  He half-smiled and shook his head.

  I must look like a real mess if she’s trying this hard to be nice to me. Just the same as I feel on the inside.

  “I’m going to go talk to Vic, Tati,” he said. He squeezed the harpy’s hand- When did she take my hand?- and rose, almost stumbling with the first step away from the table. But he caught himself and began moving around the long wooden surface, toward the other side where Victoria Twinleaf sat.

  The necromancer was gone, Victoria’s Uncle Edmund and his boy Hayden were circulating, being social, and the only one sitting near the foxgirl was Elder Sybil, the alchemist. When Andric made his way to them, the two were engaged in a quiet, apparently serious conversation, which he interrupted.

  “... a difficult choice,” Elder Sybil was saying. “The life you know and the future you are beginning to unfold.” Her eyes darted up and landed on him, and then the Elder rose to her feet.

  “Andric,” she said, “good to see our war chief is enjoying the festivities.”

  “Thank you, Elder,” he said. “My apologies for the intrusion. If Victoria was free, I was going to come over and talk to her.”

  Victoria turned to face him, her expression unreadable, and she nodded.

  “I’ll make myself scarce,” said Elder Sybil, stepping back from the table quickly.

  “Let’s continue our conversation later, Elder?” Victoria asked, turning to face Sybil.

  The alchemist nodded and moved away, and Victoria looked back to Andric.

  “So, how’s it going?” he asked.

  “I’m all right, Andric. Are you well?”

  “Can I sit?”

  “Of course!” Andric read that as, We’re still courting, silly, don’t act like a stranger.

  He took the seat beside her.

  “Before, I kind of meant, how’s it going… with him?”

  Victoria tensed noticeably, her brow furrowing.

  “It’s been less than a day.”

  “Yes, but… you’ve been living with him for a lot longer than that.”

  “He was in an induced sleep, remember? Recovering from a wound he took fighting beside you and Tatiana.” Without looking, she gestured at where Tatiana was still sitting, across the table.

  “Really?” He lowered his voice. “Because when I first saw him, he looked very recovered.”

  “He woke up a couple of days before you met him… I think? I remember Vidalia said that he leveled up, and that helped him recover a little more quickly after waking.”

  “Perhaps.” Andric went silent. He wasn’t quite certain what he was implying or trying to imply, and as he tried to find the thread he was pulling at in his own mind, the foxgirl seemed to become agitated in front of him.

  “What are you saying?”

  “I don’t know,” he admitted honestly.

  “If he had recovered a day or two or three after his injury, I would have noticed, Andric. During that time, Vidalia and I took shifts taking care of him with Mariella, changing his bandages and feeding him. If he was awake for any of that, I would have noticed… You trust me, right?”

  He hesitated for a moment, then made himself say, “I do.”

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  “Then I hope you and Tybalt can also trust each other. If you can’t, you know that would be bad.”

  She didn’t say “bad” for what or whom, but Andric assumed the two of them were on the same page about that. It would be a negative for their people.

  “What… What is he like?” he asked. “On a personal level, when he’s not around others?”

  When he’s not playing politics, he thought. Trying to make allies. Who is the real Tybalt?

  “I would really rather not talk about him with you,” Victoria said, wringing her hands. “Please respect that. One of you will end up becoming my husband, and with that person, I must have complete trust. You can get to know each other without using me as an intermediary.”

  His face brightened for a moment- she had never said anything quite like that before- and dimmed just as quickly.

  She’s saying that because of him.

  “You must really like him.”

  “That’s- ”

  “I know, you don’t want to talk about it,” he said, cutting her off.

  She nodded, her lips turning down slightly in a frown.

  But I’m not sure you’ve ever put the word “husband” and me in the same sentence before. You spend one day with him…

  “Do you want to spend some time with me tomorrow?” Andric asked. “When I haven’t been drinking?”

  Her mouth shifted to a small, reluctant smile, apparently against her will.

  “Don’t you have work to do tomorrow? Because I do.”

  Andric was about to say he would ask her uncle about letting her off, when another voice interrupted.

  “That’s all right,” said the necromancer.

  Andric turned his head and saw that Tybalt and Vidalia had returned.

  “What do you mean, ‘That’s all right,’” Victoria asked, almost laughing. “You’re giving me permission?”

  “Yes,” the necromancer replied in such a straightforward, earnest tone that Andric let out a little snort despite himself. “Seriously, I’ll get you out of work tomorrow. Just take me to your plot of land in the morning, and it shouldn’t take more than an hour or two. The three of you can spend time together.” He gestured at Vidalia.

  Now all of them looked at Tybalt in surprise.

  Am I not a threat in your eyes? Andric wondered.

  “Well, thank you,” he said after a moment, looking Tybalt in the eyes, trying to study his reactions.

  The necromancer shrugged. “I’ll be busy tomorrow after morning training anyway. And it’s not a favor to you, as I’m sure you know. It’s for the two of them, so they can better make their choice.”

  Andric nodded reluctantly. It sounded reasonable.

  “We’ll go have a good time together,” he said.

  And a part of him genuinely looked forward to it. He had not spent time with both twins together since they were thirteen.

  Another part of him thought that this was the necromancer’s trap somehow.

  But that was absurd.

  Andric returned to his seat and, despite himself, he spent the rest of the feast thinking. Wondering how he would, and if he could, win Victoria and Vidalia away from Tybalt.

  He was still thinking about that when the night’s festivities ended, and the necromancer left with his women and the other members of the Twinleaf family.

  —

  Dero and the other members of Carlos’s caravan stayed at the feast until the villagers started slowly extinguishing the torches, gradually bringing the level of light down to encourage people to go home.

  At the same time, she saw the mystery mage and his companions heading away. She had been watching Tybalt intensely, wondering if he would come back and try to change her mind.

  As soon as he left, she realized she was actually getting a bit sleepy.

  “You had a fair bit of exercise today,” Carlos said.

  “Nothing compared to…” She realized she was thinking of how annoying the task of killing hundreds of monster scorpions would have been if Tybalt hadn’t shown up, and she scowled.

  “You more than earned your keep,” the merchant said, smiling as if he knew what his friend was thinking, “and I hope that you will agree that I am keeping my end of the bargain.”

  “Yeah, the beastfolk village has been interesting so far.”

  He raised an eyebrow as if to indicate, You know that is not what I meant, but he said nothing. For him, the village was probably much more interesting than the matter of a mage who had mysteriously killed monsters so much more efficiently than his hired muscle.

  But Dero knew where she ranked in the power scheme of the world. She wasn’t at the top, no. Perhaps if she had devoted all her life to training, she would have been. She’d had centuries, after all.

  On the other hand, she was so far away from being at the bottom that it was hard to conceive of how an early twenties human male could possibly be anywhere near comparable to her.

  That left her curious.

  Dero rose and then descended from the mountainside back to the caravan along with the others.

  She changed into her sleepwear, a loose fitting pair of shorts and a button-up shirt, and she slipped into her bedroll. After the exercise and the food, she was out like a light before she knew it.

  She jerked awake in almost complete blackness. It felt much darker outside than it had been when she went to sleep. Hours must have passed.

  What’s going on? she thought uneasily. What woke me?

  For a long few moments, she lay still, just listening.

  There was no movement around her, just silent sleepers. Then she sensed him. The intruder was at the periphery of her Perfect Spatial Awareness.

  I wonder what he did that woke me up, she thought.

  Dero dressed in silence, slipping on her skirt, top, and boots from earlier. She didn’t even consider waking anyone else. The dark elf was far from needing backup, and anyone else in the caravan would be a liability if she brought them.

  Besides, if her senses didn’t deceive her, the person outside was the same one from earlier.

  It’s dangerous bringing people you can’t protect into a situation you don’t properly understand.

  She conjured a void dagger, carefully pinpointed her destination, and used Teleport.

  The dark elf reappeared in the sand. She sensed the residue of mana around her position, and something small seemed to move out of the corner of her eye, rushing away. But she focused on the figure crouching in front of her. He clearly hadn’t expected to be interrupted. He quickly started to rise, but before he could get all the way to his feet, she grabbed him by his long, dark hair and placed the void dagger next to his throat. Not close enough to do damage, but close enough that he stopped moving, having seen what it could do.

  “No sudden moves, Tybalt,” Dero said in a harsh whisper. “What are you doing here?”