“Burn, you fucking bastard!” Alhazred shouted as he tried to punch Tardif in the face. Tried being the operative word. Even the fabric of the bounty hunter's mask was armored, so all the occultist managed was to injure his own hand. Tardif barely even flinched.

The smaller man went out a wince, then a proper yelp when the Helion was on him. She had forty pounds and half a foot on him, easily overpowering him. “The Hell has gotten into you, ya runt?” she grunted as she trapped his arms behind him.

The masked doctor and her warrior nun companion joined them a second later. They had been busy tending to the wagon, repairing the damage from the latest salvo of cultist arrows they had taken. Neither had expected a fight to break out when meeting an old… colleague was probably the best word for it.

“Stand down, all of you!” Junia quickly ordered. She didn't even need to brandish her mace to make her point, simply set her hand on the handle. The pious sister had only raised her weapon on a team member once, literally knocking sense into him, and poor Dismas still had stiffness in that shoulder. She pointed at Tardif. “You, speak. What is his problem with you?”

“Ask him,” Tardif said plainly. The hunter adjusted his mask slightly, careful not to reveal the face beneath it.

“You still too much of a coward to admit what you did!?” Alhazred started into a proper tirade of insults in his native tongue. Paracleseus was quietly thankful she only understood a few words of it. The she did catch were rather... creative.

The doctor was maybe twenty pounds heavier than Alhazred, but she commanded the room better than even Junia. “Enough. All of you. Boudicia, release him. Tardif, make yourself useful, find something on the wagon to fix. Alhazred, join me. Punch me as well, and you will lose the hand.”

Everyone immediately fell in line silently. Not that it was much of a change for Tardif, a man who never spoke a sentence with more than eight syllables in it. But the quiet that fell across the team was almost oppressive. The bounty hunter stood at the wagon, close enough to be within ear shot as he worked on the damages. Everyone else formed a tight circle together. Or rather, a sphere. Alhazred was the center, trapped between the three women who were his team on this expedition.

“Speak,” Paracleseus commanded. Even through the thick mask and goggles, her words were strong. They carried the strength of a doctor who knew blood she had spilled just as much as put back into a body.

Alhazred growled, his dark eyes locked on the bounty hunter across the way. He barely seemed to acknowledge the others. Boudicia fixed that by slapping the back of his head. “Out with it, fool. What's gotten into you?”

Only Junia seemed understanding of any kind. Or at least willing to listen without judgment. She placed a hand on his shoulder. Firmly, but as a supportive friend, not the hostility

of the others. “This is about the failed expedition, isn't it? The one into the Weald, isn't it?”

“He let her die, the fucking pig!” Alhazred shouted instantly, starting at Junia as he pointed at Tardif. “Missandei's blood is on his hands! And he should be burning in Hell for it! If no one else will do it, I ought to be the one!”

A hammer flew across the way. Barely dodging Paracleseus' shoulder, it struck Alhazred square in the chest. The occultist's necklace shattered under the impact, as well as several ribs. Tardif barely moved from his position. His point made with the throw, he went back to his work without a word.

“Fucking Hell, can't go twenty minutes without one of you injured, can I,” the doctor grumbled. Not even acknowledging the strike itself or how close it went past her head, she started to tend to examine the occultist's chest. Her gloved hands tested the impact to see if any organs were ruptured. She was leaned in close, the beak of her mask an inch from Alhazred's face, when she whispered with uncharacteristic softness, “What happened, Alhazred?”

He was still coughing as she checked him. Nothing vital was broken, but the wind had been pretty thoroughly knocked out. Junia was towering over him now protectively. Boudicia was as well, in her own way. She had taken position between the two men, ready to brawl with the bounty hunter if he tried another stunt like that. If those two came to blows, it would be an interesting spectacle to see who would win, pure rage and strength against cool training and tactics.

Finally, as Paracleseus took a moment to check Alhazred's pulse, did the occultist speak softly through groans of pain. “Missandei died as we escaped the weld. It was clear that only two of us would make it. When she offered to sacrifice herself... Tardif did not stop her. And he stopped me from doing so as well.”

“I remember your return from that expedition. You were heavily wounded,” Paracleseus said, thinking aloud more than anything else. She nodded to herself. The occultist would live, though not comfortably for some time. “How was her death his fault?”

“He... We were fools, going out alone as we did. We should have waited for William to recover. But I pushed us to find the Hag in the wood, and Tardif agreed. Missandei tried to tell us no, but joined to keep us alive... She did, in the end...”

Tears had begun to form in the corner of Alhazred's eyes as he spoke now. His voice was cracking every few words as he tried to continue.

“Fool is right. You felt invincible, coming back from the dead, didn't ya?” Boudicia scoffed.

“NO!” He immediately shouted back, voice broken with tears. “No... I shouldn't be alive.

But if I am... I should do something with it... I... I should find something worthy to take me, this time for eternity... I should be the one in the ground, not her. If I die taking out something cruel from this world, it means I at least came back to do something worthwhile... to make up for a lifetime of wrongs... I should have died out there, saving Missandei. Not the opposite.”

“Start from the beginning, Alhazred,” Junia said softly. Like a true sister of the cloth, ready to take confession. No sound of judgment in her voice, no implied emotions to read into. A simple, pleasant request. As if to punctuate the sentiment, she added a soft, “please.”

The occultist shook his head for a moment, forcing the few tears that had begun to run down his throat into silence. He watched the ground intently as he spoke. Whether it was fear of retribution or plain shame was something even he wasn't sure of.

“We knew where the Hag was hiding. And we thought as a small group, we would surprise her, end her before she got one of us in that blasted pot again. We believed the three of us would not be noticed by those other creatures hiding in those woods... we were wrong. “Some of the bandits still lingered, seeking vengeance for those we had already killed.

They fell easily enough. But in searching their camp, we... I did not watch our rear. An ooze had consumed me before I even knew it was there. Tardif and Missandei were able to pull me out before I was swallowed completely. I was not able to save my focus, though...The academic's skull was melted in a moment.

“Then the wolves joined. I had my knife, and one good hand to fight still. Tardif and I were able to beat them back. Neither of us fell, but we both gained more wounds with each passing moment. When the final ooze fell to Missandei's bolts, only one wolf remained, quickly split in two by Tardif.

“By now, both of my eyes were half blind from the stinging acid, and my hands weren't working right. Tardif was using his axe in his off hand, the good one with a bone jutting out that wasn't his. Missandei was the only one who seemed intact. Until the tree trunk knocked her aside... another of those giants had found us in the chaos. Tardif focused on its weak points while I swung madly with my knife. I'm not sure what I cut, but I got a few good hits in, I believe, before Tardif took its head.

“Finally, we had a moment to breathe. And to realize how doomed we were. I was almost useless now, Tardif down to one arm and only a handful of caltrops left in his bag. Missandei's only wound was the worst, though. Her entire left leg was shattered. Both bones on either side of her knee were sticking out through the skin, and she was bleeding badly. On the wind, the sound of more of them coming stood out. At least wolves, but likely worse followed. We knew we had failed. The Hag would live another day. The only question was if we would.

“I volunteered to stay. I knew I had the lowest chance of survival, even if I made it to the hamlet. I thought if I could buy them time with my knife and Tardif's caltrops, they could flee to safety. Maybe I would get lucky and they would bring reinforcements, drag what remained of me back to be buried. A pipe dream, really, but it was all I could muster to hope for. Missandei disagreed. Not that we needed to stall them, but who should do it...

“She volunteered. She said she would be slow, but could still fight them until we escaped. That she would only cause whoever fled with her to die too. She told Tardif to hook me around the waist so I wouldn't get lost and drag me back. I argued, said I was likely useless now anyway, and that she should live to fight another day. She said that was the point, that my sacrifice now would be in vain if she were killed as they escaped.

“Missandei said I wouldn't be able to hold them off as long as she could, but I might be able to make it to the hamlet. As long as Tardif showed me the way. I tried to push her towards safety, to tell her to run without me... I missed, and fell to the ground. My eyes failed me completely, the impact ruining whatever sight I had left after the ooze's acid. We had no more than a minute until they were on us. I begged Tardif to drag her back and to leave me with the tools to hold them off.

“Instead... instead, he scoffed. He grabbed me by the collar and ran. I couldn't even sense him enough to resist. All I could do was flail like a beheaded chicken at my savior…Missandei didn't hear me say goodbye, I think... But Tardif heard every single insult I hurled his way for choosing me over her. For making me and him survive when she should have been the one making it back to the hamlet.

“Tardif can scoff and grunt all he wants. The wrong ones survived that night. He knows it in his heart as well. I should be dead, or maybe he and I. But not Missandei... At the very least, she should be here. Not us. Not me”

Alhazred had collapsed sometime in the middle of his story. His words were only barely clear as he choked back the tears. Now they flowed freely as he crumpled into himself. The once smart, proud man, who wielded the skull of his tutor to challenge the greatest horrors man did not know, was nothing more than a crying welp on the ground now. As he admitted that he craved death. Or redemption.

Boudicia had given up on guarding the hunter. Instead, she just glared at him before picking up the whimpering occultist. “I'll get him into his room, get some ale in him. A little alcohol will do him some good.”

Junia and Paracleseus just nodded as the man was carried away. There was a minute of almost complete silence. Almost complete. The man at the center of this story barely seemed to pay it any heed. He was still working hard on the cart, repairing all of the holes and the damages walls that had barely protected them as they had ridden here.

“What do you believe we should do now, doctor?” Junia asked softly, looking to Paracleseus. “My teachings say I should forgive. Or at least accept his help in our task. But my heart... it misses her. I can't stop myself from feeling that she should be here with us, not him. Even if that is what Missandei wanted.”

Paracleseus did not speak a word for several seconds, which slowly turned into minutes.

Her thick mask and gloves made her impossible to read, even to someone who considered her a close friend. When the doctor had decided to hide her emotions, none could convince her otherwise. It was hard to tell if she was lost in thought, actively forcing herself down from a mental ledge, or debating which organ of Tardif's to take first.

The hunter did nothing. He worked silently on the wagon, seemingly accepting that what would come would be what comes.

“... the gold we found on the destroyed wagon. Give it to me.” Paracleseus finally said that softly, only holding her hand out for the pouch.

Junia dutifully gave it to her once the shock had worn off. “You are paying him to come with us?”

The doctor didn't answer. She simply took the coin and walked towards the hunter for hire.

Tardif didn't even look at her. He was busy ensuring that the wheel he had reattached was secure. The sack of coin hit him squarely in the side of his head.

“For Alhazred's life. And for you to disappear,” Paracleseus said simply. “You will take it. You will leave him alone. And we will never see you again.”

The hunter stopped to pick up the sack, finally. He opened it, counted the coin quickly, and then closed it again. He nodded.

“Goodbye,” Paracleseus stated. Then she turned to walk away.

“Missandei wasn't wrong,” Tardif said softly, just loud enough for the doctor to hear. He shook his head to himself as he put the coin pouch on his hip. “If he'd guarded our back, we would all be dead.”

Paracleseus stopped in her tracks. Her back remained to Tardif. Her hand came up, seemingly ready to tear the mask off and speak to him. But a moment later, it lowered back down. She shook her head. “I know.”

“Then why take him and not me? One pessimist to another.”

“... I would rather have a well meaning idealist to balance me. Than to let you convince me to sacrifice the others for my own skin. I have done that enough in my life. You will not trick me into doing so again.”

“Hmmph.” Tardif dropped the tools where he stood. Then he simply turned to walk towards the stables of the inn. He never even looked back at those he almost called friends in a past life.