Varis placed his short sword in its sheath, dropping the other short sword as he stood over the dead skeleton. Well, the now [i]actually[/i] dead skeleton, its numerous bones broken in two as he stomped on them. He slowly turned his head over to his allies, his face masked with a grim expression as it slowly turned, only to see the sight of Hugh and Sana... [i]together[/i]. A very thin smile -- undetectable unless searched for -- touched the corner of his lips as he slowly walked on over to his group of allies, his grim expression returning as he stopped in his tracks, standing next to Artos.

"Dear word," Varis muttered under his breath, just loud enough for Artos to hear him. "Artos--" He stopped himself midway as he pronounced Artos' name. He slowly looked towards Artos, a slightly discerning look on his face before he turned back to the sight of Hugh and Sana. "... Magus, remind me... how many days has it been since this group met up? One? Two?"

Varis continued to stare at Hugh and Sana, the fighting over now that the main threat was gone. His brow was furrowed, his mind clouded as he slowly thought of what had just happened, what had just occurred just a moment ago, all due to this particular situation, all due to this damned situation that they were stuck in. It was almost as if he had just quickly crossed over all the supposed [i]five stages of loss[/i]. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. He went through all of those five stages in just a mere matter of minutes -- of course, thanks to the help of the damned singing elf.

Varis had much to think of, because just for one moment, one slight moment, he had shown himself vulnerable.