Calliope lay back on the bed and felt the warmth of her own body reflected by the thick animal pelts.

 



 “In my defense I did take you to a rather exclusive ball, even if… you know… I subsequently destroyed ballroom, castle, and guests alike and then hurled us an unknown distance through time and space,” she conceded.


“To be completely fair it was me who hurled us an unknown distance through time and space on account of you being unconscious and bleeding out of your eyeballs,” Neil corrected. Calliope considered this.

 

“Well I suppose I hadn’t factored in the fucking idiot part,” she said with a soft chuckle.

“I do owe you Neil, you saved my life, thank you,” the moment of sincerity was interrupted by a knock at the door and Viga bustled in with a pot of thick greasy looking soup and some coarse brown bread.

“You want wine, it extra,” she snapped, much of her good mood appearing to have evaporated. Calliope flicked a coin, apparently from no where and the innkeeper managed to snatch it, bite it, and tuck it into her apron without dropping her load of food.

 

“There are men downstairs, guards for you, so you no try funny busy ness,” Viga warned as she set the stew and bread down and then produced a bottle of wine and a couple of dirty looking glasses.

“Given I can hardly stand my funny busy ness acumen is severely limited,” Calliope replied a touch snarkily. The inflection obviously went over Viga’s head and she bustled out of the room. Calliope rolled onto her side, the most physical activity she had been able to manage, and shoved a hunk of bread into the soup before biting into it. Her mouth twisted with distaste, her normal diet ran towards rare meat and the thick flower broth was not to her liking. Conscious of the spellburn she forced herself to eat.

 

“Any idea what kind of trials they might try tomorrow?” Neil asked, obviously still concerned by her fairly pitiful state.

“No clue,” she admitted around a mouthful of bread, “hopefully its more of a pinky swear type thing though.” Neil narrowed his eyes.

“And why is that?” he asked in a level tone. Calliope blinked innocently.

“Let she who has never animated a corpse cast the first stone,” she replied.