[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/220412/0eb207390f4e0e6834fc87bf2ad93afa.png[/img][/center][hr]
Ceolfric couldn't bring himself to care about the rain. If their demon showed up now, they'd have no choice but to run; they could barely fend off a few undead wolves at their best, and now the rest of his travelling party was disarmed, battered, and probably on the verge of collapsing from an adrenaline dump. With such terrible odds, he doubted his Lord would be merciful enough to even spare him, let alone the others. Instead, he trudged along dutifully beside the wagon, constantly alert for any disparities between his eyes and his aetheric senses.

Their stop couldn't come soon enough.

Ceolfric offered only token aid in setting up the camp for the night; anyone who wanted to argue could try their luck with the wolves again. Quite frankly, he'd need his strength more than them if they were attacked again. Of course, the unspoken power disparity couldn't have peacefully remained so - Cerric decided to drudge it out into the open. The lecture about the consequences of undead exposure was fine, but the bandit couldn't draw anything out of his teamwork spiel except that they were all failing horribly at their assessment. It wouldn't have been so demeaning if he hadn't implied [i]Eila[/i] was the thing holding them together and not Ceolfric's willingness to kill the thing that almost ate her. 

Eila seemed convinced that she wasn't infected, and as far as Ceolfric could tell, she didn't seem to be lying, but he'd have to keep an eye on her anyway. If her aether started feeling faint, he'd have to tie her up or something. Or just kill her to be safe like Cerric had suggested, but there was no reason to throw an entire person away when she might still have use.

[color=AA4A44]"I assume you all know where you fucked up,"[/color] Ceolfric gruffly commented as plopped down at the base of a tree near the fire, leaning against the trunk casually. [color=AA4A44]"But exposure is the first step to composure, so I hope you'll all react a bit faster next time."[/color] A little tenacity would do them some good; being aetherborn was no good if they froze up and cried every time someone wanted to hurt them. Freckles should've been able to handle the entire pack singlehandedly. Even the teenager lost his composure at the end, and he was Ceolfric's running favorite. 

[color=AA4A44]"Now, why don't we go over everyone's skillset and what that can provide in a typical caravan ambush scenario, so we don't have a repeat of that embarrassing display."[/color] Better to keep them on track before anyone started pointing fingers. The bandit figured he was safe, but even Eila was supposedly an educated woman and she surely didn't need to be told that she was a waste of a flank guard in four different ways to understand. One of them would break rather than reliably sticking to the plan, he was sure, but it beat floundering about without any sense of coherence.

Indifferently, Ceolfric drew his sword and poured the remainder of his waterskin over it, careful not to spill any potentially Rot-tainted water on himself. Last thing he needed was to chop a highwayman in half and have it rise up against him a few moments later due to carelessness.
 
[hr]