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[sub][color=8E939E]✧     Location: Soft Haven Cemetery     ✧     Purse: 12 copper     ✧     [@Mcmolly] [@Scribe of Thoth]     ✧[/color][/sub][/center]
As frustrated as Kyreth was, he wasn’t blind to the situation unfolding around him – one of very few merits of a childhood in the Dregs was a sort of beaten-in situational awareness. As such, his complaints were momentarily forgotten as he noticed how Lilann’s posture changed from alarmed to merely cautious, and how the armed newcomer peered sharply at the pair, deep in thought as Lilann confronted him. Kyreth almost gasped when she brushed the man’s accusations off so nonchalantly – surely she knew the gravity of the situation? Either she was simpler than she looked or she knew something he didn’t.

On closer inspection, it seemed like the latter was true. Kyreth had been so focused on the worn and polished edges of the newcomer’s blade that he failed to look beyond it; the man himself was dusty and a little disheveled, just out of order enough to have the look of someone who’d been on the road for a while. His clothing didn’t bear any of the hallmarks of uniform garb, no particular colour scheme or emblematic markings, and while Kyreth didn’t know Soft Haven’s standard well enough to pick their uniform from a lineup, he doubted any settlement would equip their guards as inconspicuously as this.

Kyreth was largely deaf to the conversation as the tense exchange dragged on, heartbeat still swooshing in his ears as he waited for the situation to inevitably deteriorate. His and Lilann’s heads snapped to the sound at the wall in unison, though he kept his eyes trained on the yellow-garbed visitors, ears straining to pick up their voices on the wind. 

[i][color=C9F532]“We do the checks, we make sure nothing was distrubed…”[/color]

[color=F54432]“Gunther’s gunna be pissed…”[/color][/i]

Kyreth’s former panic came crashing back when snippets of the distant conversation reached his ears – there was no way those halflings weren’t talking about the mess they’d made, and as guilty as he felt, he did not want to be around when they looked up and found the culprits. It seemed he and Lilann were of one mind as she hastened up her conversation with the armed adventurer, rushing to appease him and get moving. Kyreth didn’t dare interrupt lest he disrupt the uneasy peace Lilann had managed to establish, and though it felt like an eternity passed, the adventurer eventually sheathed his sword and allowed Lilann to lead the way into the woods. 

Kyreth followed without comment, his discomfort at letting the armed stranger walk at his back outweighed by his urgency to escape the graveyard as quickly as possible. Not until they were comfortably in the shade of the trees did he allow himself to breathe again, although breath still came shallow as he snuck constant nervous glances at the man behind him. 

[color=aa4a44]"So what [i]were[/i] you doing, sleeping in that graveyard?"[/color]

[color=8E939E]“The inn was full,”[/color] came Kyreth’s stock reply, so immediate and automatic that it took the Tainted boy a moment to realize he’d said it out loud. Small wonder – that was the least conspicuous excuse he could come up with in the back of his mind – but not for the first time he was disturbed at how easily the lie flew off his tongue. A few years ago he might not have questioned it, but nowadays it was yet another unwelcome reminder of how naturally deceit came to him. He thought it was a trait native to his kind, but to his surprise, Lilann had yet to fall victim to the same impulse; even in such a tense situation as this, everything she’d said so far had been truthful. 

Then what was he doing wrong?

Slowly, he tugged his hood down even lower, more careful than ever to keep his horns hidden from the stranger. It was stupid and dangerous to let quandaries like that get the better of him right now – especially when he had no way of knowing the man’s intentions. It was awfully convenient that he happened to be bound for the Bounty House at the same time as them, moments after brandishing his sword and asking after demons. Kyreth had to fight the urge to palm his knife – partly not wanting to fall to his gutter habits again, and partly fearing the move would prompt a response from the stranger – and his eyes flicked suspiciously over the trees, searching for anything out of place. Not like he knew much about forests, but if a group of thugs was lying in wait to jump them, he wanted to know when to run early. 

Lilann was probably thinking the same thing; she walked on ahead casually enough, but the tense set of her shoulders and the way she tried to keep herself between himself and the stranger gave her away. She was just as tense as he was, just hiding it better. Kyreth wasn’t sure if that was a comfort. 

Yet to his chagrin, the stranger marched on as casually as could be, chatting absently about “aetheric entities”, whatever those were. An awfully abrupt change from brandishing a sword moments before, but at least he wasn’t outright hostile anymore. Still, his ill-fitting nonchalance rang all of Kyreth’s alarm bells; he never knew humans of any stripe to be this comfortable around a single Tainted, let alone two. Lilann’s disguise was good, and his own worked well enough from a distance, but this close up, their eyes would be unmistakable. There was no way this guy didn’t know what he was walking with. So why so calm?

All those thoughts flashed through his mind in a fraction of a second, but just as soon as they came, he shoved them aside. It was smart to be observant, but letting his imagination run away to dark places would only make things worse. What was the stranger talking about again?

[color=8E939E]“I’m not sure what those are, but let’s hope we don’t run into any,”[/color] Kyreth commented flatly, sounding an awful lot like a teenager who wanted to end a conversation. He was tempted to ask if these “aetheric entities” had anything to do with the demons the stranger had mentioned, but something told him that was a route he didn’t want to tread. Hopefully idle chatter could keep the peace long enough for them to get within earshot of the Bounty House.