When we finally reached the ground, Rin opened her helmet, throwing the vomit onto the frozen sand.
I removed my gear and started folding the parachute.
-"My Rin has such a potty mouth. How terrible."
I was channeling my inner Raiga Fujimara. The old man never raised his voice but made you feel out of line with short sentences.
A red jewel manifested between her fingers and her nostrils flared.
-"Give me one good reason, one. Why I shouldn't kill you right here, right now. ONE."
I pointed to the fading light that denoted our airplane.
-"Your luggage went to the hotel, which lies passing the desert to the NorthWest."
She started pumping so much energy into that jewel that I heard it crack.
-"Wrong! Now you DIE!"
I looked at her and smiled.
-"Before you kill me, which way is NorthWest?"
That threw her out of a loop.
-"After you kill me, you will pick up your compass. Because you obviously packed a compass into your clothes. And a map."
She spat on the ground.
-"I am a Magus, a sage of lore and occult knowledge. Why would I need to use a compass when I can cast a spell to give me what I want?"
I sat on the sand.
-"Go ahead with the killing. When the sun rises this area will be under blistering heat and you need to cover as much ground as you can. Come on, shotty shotty, explody explody."
-"I want. My. Luggage."
-"And I want to be able to cast proper magic and shot guns, but them's the breaks."
