"Wow…" I chuckled as I took a deep drag on my pipe, the burn helping push away my tiredness. Blowing out the sweet smoke, I said, "That was quite the ordeal. I'm glad you guys got out of there alive… And I have to say, it's far more impressive than what I was doing."

"You brokered a peace with the Kin, successfully infiltrated the Cradle while it was under hostile control, found a legion, and brought them back to the Triad," Sathera commented.

"Ha!" I barked out a self-mocking laugh. "I was there, but I didn't really do anything. Kanieta, one of the Leaders of the Kin, used me as a medium to relay her intentions. Panta did the same. After their civil war broke out, they wanted me as far away from the Triad and any possibility of relaying the information to the legion. And then I quite literally stumbled into the 14th."

Tilting my head down from the sky, I looked around at the group scattered around me. We were sitting on crates and barrels that were stashed in the alley between the scout barracks and the adjacent one. I wasn't sure what was in them, but I was confident from the rotting boards that whoever ordered them to be placed here had long forgotten about doing so.

Leaning against the walls or claiming crates of their own were Sathera and her gang, with Kathren slinking along behind them, with Markus and the reaper off to the side. My other surviving momentary students and the veteran scouts apparently didn't care enough about my story to hear me report it to Markus.

That, or they didn't want to get any closer to the reaper, which I didn't blame them at all for that one. If I saw a way to get away from him, I would be the first to take it, but I didn't think that would be happening anytime soon.

"Still," Markus said, "whether it was intentional or not, anyone who looks at recent events will have to bring up your name. I would say you are on the fast track to becoming a centurion…"

"But I'm an elf, and I'll be lucky if someone doesn't sick some assassin on me for stepping outside my station." I finished as he trailed off, spike and disgust filling my voice.

"…No one would do that," Sathera said as if she was reassuring me while laying a hand on my arm, but it sounded like she was asking for reassurance for herself.

"He's not wrong…" Reaper Keeper murmured, "I'll have to put out feelers for any contracts for him floating around. More importantly, it will add an extra variable for any attempts on his life. Which will be a headache."

"Yeah," Kathren scoffed. "It's all about poor Redgenald and how much work he has to do. Who cares that someone's life is in danger for simply succeeding in doing his job. Because that's what really matters at a time like this!"

Keeper, his face twitching in irritation, turned to Kathren and spoke in an intentionally calm and level tone, "I am here to do my job, and he brought up a point that needs to be considered and planned for if we are going to deal with it in an effective manner. For example, if I put out the word to the criminals that Scout Green is under my protection and that I am not only a major gang boss and a Reaper, then most will never consider taking such a contract. The ones who do will be those who came into town recently or those already willing to turn their backs on the republic. In the best case, eliminating them will cut down potential enemies by one."

"So everything you do is just for your job?" Kathren snapped back, "Is everyone either a friend to the republic or an enemy? Is there room for anything close to a personal connection coming into Redgenald's life? Do you even have emotions, or is everything calculated through the filter of risk and reward?"

A scowl appeared on the reaper's face as the woman nearly shouting at him stomped forward, arms planted on her hips as she looked up at the man, head cocked to the side in a challenge. "Oh? Would it be better that I let my emotions run my life? Maybe every one of my actions should be made impulsively in the moment instead of carefully planning out the best path forward to achieve my goals."

Kathren flinched at his words, and then her face clouded with anger, "Yes, living in the moment and letting your emotions out would be better! I would say that maybe you could learn how to do that by looking around and watching people, but you only surround yourself with emotionless assholes. Even if that wasn't the case, you would have to believe that people could change, which apparently you don't!"

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"I never said anything like that; of course, people can change!"

"You say that, but your actions prove your words otherwise!"

Turning to Sathera, I raised an eyebrow in question. She leaned close to me and started whispering into my ear, a half smile on her face as she watched the duo. "Kathren might have told the story of how she and Redgenald worked together during the fighting to bring down the first ring wall, but she left out the part before she found out that he was a Reaper. Apparently, they were getting close."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and I don't think the spark between them has vanished after discovering who he really is."

I looked at the woman, her eyes all but shining from the interest she was radiating while watching the two fight. "Uhh… If you say so…" Said, hesitant to say anything on the topic. Talking about the potential love life of someone tasked with protecting me and ferreting out traitors didn't seem wise. Also, from what I could see, there was little attraction between the two. Then again, what the fuck did I know, as my only experience with a woman was visiting a brothel years ago. "But I'm glad you, Jim, Joxin, and Bellious made it out of those caves. Out of all of us, you had it the hardest; I can't imagine what it would be like to be trapped in the stone and slowly starting to die."

For a moment, Sathera's bright smile dimmed, "Truth be told, it wasn't the starving that was the bad part. We had food and water, and Jim was only suffering from his own stupidity, so if he died, it wouldn't be that big of a deal."

"Hey!" Cut in the mentioned man, looking irritated, "Why are you bringing me into this? So I made a mistake. Like I'm the only one in the world to do so. We should let the past stay where it's buried and move on with our lives. Looking to the future is more productive."

"You say that like you haven't worn bracers every time you stepped out of the barracks," Sathera commented with a pointed look down at the man's forearms, which had leather bracers strapped onto them despite being in casual clothes.

"W—wha? You? You said that? How could you say something so heartless!" Jim sputtered while the others jeered at him and chuckled, "And after I helped carry you up the endless—

"Less than two hundred yards." Joxin cut in.

"Stairwell." Jim continued, not paying attention to the side comments as he was on a roll. "And that was after I went into the Jade Tomb and carried you out after fainting. Is this how you repay me for rescuing you so many times?"

"Jade Tomb?" I asked.

"He means the jade-like chamber we found and destroyed," Joxin answered. "He's been coming up with a bunch of names for all of the things we encountered while underground. Jim thinks that if he adds in the fancy-sounding names when he tells the story at an inn, then people will be more likely to buy him a round."

"The names are what add gravitas to a story!" Jim declared, "If I tell the tale of how we explored the labyrinth before descending the Spiral Ramp to Hell, fought our way through the Endless Ghost Caverns, climbed up the Howling Shaft, sneaked up to the base of the Endless Stairwell only to decide to destroy the Jade Thrown before finally escaping into the Burial Ground, how could you not become enthralled!"

"Hmm," I hummed, unable to stop myself from nodding in agreement. Jim had a point. Adding all those names to the story, along with what I would expect to be a healthy exaggeration and creative liberties in the storytelling, would make a tale that would enthrall people. "So, how has that been going for you?"

With my question, Jim deflated and kicked his foot against the ground, and Joxin burst out into a belly laugh, even Bellous cracking a smile and Sathera trying to hide her giggles. After he calmed down, Joxin got out between breaths, "It turns out that when you destroy a city and relocate them, the few taverns that remain open suddenly have a lot more business, and finding one where you can tell a tale is impossible. Everyone either has better things to do or is more focused on drinking their worries away."

"Ahh… Well, at least you have your tale ready to go. But I am curious; you said that you weren't scared of starving to death. Why was that?"

Jim shrugged, "The caves were filled with puddles of water, and there were mini forests of those glowing mushrooms. They tasted like someone's wet, used socks combined with bark, but they filled the belly."

"Huh, well, that's good to know, I gues—

"Wait," Reaper Keeper asked, cutting in after finishing his argument with Kathren. "You ate the glowing mushrooms the goblins used as light sources in their tunnels?"

"Umm, yeah," Jim responded. "Pretty sure they are the same. They were just popping up in random places, but they looked the same. I think I still have some dried-out ones in my room."

The inquisitor's face was twisted with disgust and then pity. "Why do you ask?" I said, sensing something was off about the man's reaction.

Suddenly, the man was showing the most emotion that I had ever seen from him, even more so than when he was interacting with Kathren. He looked uncertain and even embarrassed. "Uhh, I don't think it's my place to say. And I can't even say if what I know is accurate or something I'm misunderstanding."

"You can't leave us hanging now." I encouraged him, getting the others to agree.

"Okay," the reaper said with a sigh. "Some of the information I pulled from the dark elf's mind was that those mushrooms are known as shit-rooms among their people. Apparently, after you eat them… and then pass them… mushrooms always sprout from the… manure. At least, I think that is the case for goblins. I believe an insult among their people is a gardener."

"Wait," Kathren said, attempting to contain her laughter, "Are you telling me they ate goblin shit?"

Before she could finish the question, I whipped my head to the side as Sathera retched her dinner onto the ground.

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