She had fallen behind. An easy enough task if one slowed their step enough for the change in pace to be subtle. At first it had not been an intentional lag, but then she had remembered that the reason Thaddeus was striding with such determination into the town was because there was another whom he wished to recruit before the journey began in earnest, and he knew exactly where to find the book because Rook had travelled ahead.

Ever since they had met, Lila had not liked Rook. She did not like the way he spoke or leered or drank or played the games that lost other foolish people money. She had especially not liked travelling with him. Thaddeus she did not mind because of his idealised heroic manner, he was always looking forward and thinking of a bright and shining future. Rook was always looking sideways for the next person who would loose money to him.

Lila knew that each and every one of those people was a fool for gambling in the first place, but she did not have to spend any time with them.

The Tavern that Thaddeus had gone ahead to wait inside was just ahead of her, and as she walked Lila took note of each and every person who glanced at her as she passed them. None of them looked like the kind of people who would have been enlisted, and when she stepped inside the smoky gloom she saw that the reason for this was because they were already gathering around Thaddeus and a boy who looked slightly shell shocked at one of the tables.

A table that was becoming more and more crowded.

She grabbed the back of a chair as she passed it, scraping it along the floor until it was at a place where she could swing it to face the table and sit down, crossing one leg over the other.

“Thaddeus,” she said in the next spell of silence, slightly sourly despite herself, and then curtly to the only other face that she recognised. “Rook.”