Chapter 26 #2
She rolled her eyes. “You should have asked me if I was coming first.”
“You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t.”
She clicked her tongue. How annoying.
They left the inn.
Arleria’s group waited by the eastern gate.
Four figures, including Arleria, gathered around a horse-drawn cart loaded with supplies.
Derell leaned against the cart in his plate armor, arms crossed, already radiating disapproval at the world in general.
Malick sat on the cart’s edge, warhammer across his knees, eating an apple.
Kern leaned against the gate, his bow over one shoulder, both eyebrows in a neutral position that would undoubtedly shift as the day required.
Arleria saw Alsen first. Her posture changed, a subtle straightening, a warmth entering her expression. She raised a hand.
Then she saw Luna.
The warmth didn’t vanish, but it paused. A moment of recalculation behind those dark, intelligent eyes. She frowned at Alsen.
Before she said anything, Derell already straightened. “Who the fuck is that?”
Arleria’s frown deepened. She looked at Alsen with an expression that wasn’t angry so much as reassessing. He apparently forgot to mention Luna’s existence to her too.
Luna stood three steps behind Alsen, backpack over one shoulder, sleeping bag strapped to the top, spear tied to her back. She didn’t flinch, didn’t bristle, didn’t do anything at all.
At least she wasn’t smirking.
“This is Luna,” Alsen said, doing his best to sound calm and confident. “She’s my traveling companion. She’ll be coming with us.”
Derell’s arms uncrossed. That looked worse than when they were crossed. “Nobody said anything about a sixth.”
“I’m saying it now.”
“That’s not how this works.” Derell took a step forward, his plate armor catching the gray morning light. “We negotiated the job for five. We planned supplies for five. We discussed formations for five. There is no room in any of that for some girl we’ve never met.”
Malick had stopped eating his apple. Kern’s eyebrows performed a complicated maneuver that communicated something between curiosity and skepticism.
Arleria raised a hand, silencing Derell. She walked to Alsen, close enough that the conversation became semi-private. Her voice was controlled, disappointingly so. “You didn’t mention her.”
“I should have.”
“Yes. You should have.” Her eyes flicked to Luna, scanned her with the same efficiency she had used on the not-so-enchanted vase, and returned to Alsen. “Who is she?”
“She travels with me. She handles practical things. Camp, navigation, supplies. She’s been with me for a long time.”
“And you neglected to bring this up during any of our conversations… because?”
Because he was too busy trying to impress her. Because Luna had slipped out of his focus during the past few days. Because his charisma score made him excellent at talking and terrible at planning what to say. “It didn’t come up.”
Arleria’s jaw tightened. Not much. A fraction of a movement that she immediately corrected. But he caught it, and the message behind it was clear: you made me look unprepared.
“Her pay will be a share of mine,” Alsen added quickly. “She carries her own weight, and if food’s an issue, she can hunt really well. You won’t notice she’s here.”
From three steps behind him, Luna’s expression didn’t change. But her eyes took on a menacing glint.
“I’ll notice,” Derell said. “Another body means another set of rations, another person to account for in watches, another liability if something goes wrong.”
Malick tossed his apple core into the cart. “What does she do?” he asked, looking at Luna directly. “In a fight, I mean. That spear doesn’t even look like hers.”
Everyone turned to her.
Luna met Malick’s eyes. She held the pause for a beat longer than necessary, then shrugged one shoulder. “Trust me, you don’t have to worry about that.”
Malick frowned. “That’s not an answer.”
“It is. That you don’t like it isn’t my problem.”
Derell gestured at her as if she’d just proved his point.
Alsen turned to glance at Luna. He gave her a look that very clearly communicated you could try a little harder. She only returned a faint smirk.
Kern said nothing. His eyebrows settled into something neutral. He looked at Luna for a moment longer than the others, then turned to check the strap on his quiver.
Arleria exhaled through her nose. The sound of someone making a decision they didn’t love but could live with.
“She stays. An extra pair of hands is useful, and the supply margin isn’t that thin.
” She looked at Luna. “You pull your weight, you don’t wander off, you listen when given instructions. Understood?”
“Sure.” That did not sound like an agreement.
“Good.” Arleria turned to Alsen. The warmth from earlier was noticeably toned down. “We’ll discuss this later.”
They departed through the eastern gate under a sky that couldn’t decide between gray and darker gray.
The road north cut through farmland for the first few hours, but the land started climbing by midday. Fields gave way to rough pasture, pasture gave way to scattered woodland, and the road narrowed from a proper cart path to a track that the horse pulled the cart along with visible reluctance.
Alsen fell into step with Arleria near the front.
Whatever coolness she’d shown at the gate thawed gradually as they walked, replaced by the gravitational pull of shared interests.
They picked up a conversation about mana resonance frequencies in enchanted materials that had apparently been suspended mid-thought from two days ago.
Derell drove the cart. Malick walked alongside, warhammer across his back, eating something else now. Kern ranged ahead and to the flanks, moving naturally alongside the group.
Luna walked behind the cart. Not with anyone. Not avoiding anyone. Just there, in the gap between the group and nobody, occupying no useful space.
Nobody talked to her.
She didn’t mind. The only thing that bothered her was how easily Alsen seemed to have gotten out of it. She had hoped for an argument, ideally with some follow-up silent treatment from Arleria. That didn’t pan out.
The terrain steepened past the first waystone.
The road, if it could generously be called a road, turned into packed earth and loose stone winding between hills that were growing teeth.
Rocky outcroppings jutted from the grass like bones breaking through skin.
The trees were stubbier here, wind-bent, clinging to hillsides with the determination of things too stupid to know they shouldn’t grow.