"Perhaps so, Old Friend. I will miss you."
"Why do you persist in talking to that old woman? She is nothing in the grand scheme of things. She will wither and die, as all things do," his Companion spat.
The Guardian turned. "They have passed the Trial of Truth. Arkaya will not let them leave for some time. The young one has many injuries, and the drug must still dissipate from the older one's system."
"Things will progress in their own time."
"Is there not a small part of you that wants them to succeed? That wants this long life to end?" he asked quietly. His companion turned cold eyes on him.
"We have a function, Guardian. Once it has been fulfilled, we will cease to exist. It is not a case of wanting or not wanting. You grow too sentimental."
The Guardian turned away, and returned to watching the two human men. Perhaps he was too sentimental, but at least he was not as cold and hard as his companion. Arkaya had been right. He was tired. He could no longer remember his Companions name. Nor even his own. They were Guardian and Companion, beings set to fulfill a simple function. To Guard the treasure.
He hoped, before the end, that he could remember his name.