Finished. A merciful release from this company of fools!
Edwin shouldered his pack, grunting at its weight; one of his rank had slaves or servants to do menial labour, and regardless of what that shrewish barwhore Shar-Teel repeatedly forced upon him he would never accustom himself to such plebeian sufferings.
He troubled to cast a final look back at the mines. Those slaves had dissipated, and he had seen some of the party snoring in various makeshift shelters. He himself had also needed to rest, but forced himself to make this departure in time.
Quite the opportunity to finally prove himself before the Zulkir and everyone else who would ever dare to dismiss Edwin Odesseiron and his gifts. His fingers went to the folds of his mage's robe, smoothing its silken and elaborate patterns in the form of dancing red dragons and rearing yellow-black basilisks, feeling its powers. A mighty archmage's robe, his by right of conquest he had earned (bah, lackeys!), a valuable protection for him upon his journey to the city...
The sound of the oily voice made him jump, a wretched reflex, turning and gaping as if he was some halfwitted diviner's apprentice looking to the figure making its way between the trees—
"I do apologise for lateness, wizard." The bard smoothly ran a hand along the fastening of his jacket. "Skie kept me rather occupied, you see. Insatiable little vixen."
"And what exactly do you..." Edwin snapped, quickly (of course!) recovering from confusion and surprise, replying in intelligent speech to the monkey. "Go away. Are you unable to see that I am busy?" Eldoth himself carried a well-filled pack, and held that enchanted spear.
"Oh, I'd hardly blame you for jealousy," the insufferable Eldoth said. (Some women simply had imbecilic tastes!) "You travel with four women—three if one discounts Shar-Teel—and yet not one was willing to grant you so much as a time of day, Odesseiron? Young Imoen and that uncouth ogre hardly ran to my tastes, but our delicious Viconia is certainly imaginative; and while one can hardly compare Skie's maiden charms to the drow's mastery of eros, the girl proved quite dextrous in the course of the night..." The man shrugged almost modestly.
Edwin had seen—Viconia paying the bard far more attention than he deserved. And of course that fool of a Skie was utterly besotted, and of course the bard was now boasting of a more interesting night than Edwin's weary packing. Well? In Thay many concubines would certainly favour an Odesseiron above a nobody! "Oh, shut up," Edwin said. "I weary of you."
"Not planning to abandon your companions, are you?" Eldoth said; his greedy eyes looked to Edwin's pack. "I'm sure the former paladin would be absolutely fascinated to wake suddenly and hear that the evil Red Wizard is a deserter."
"I am not a deserter because their mission was never mine and I have given enough to she who malignly tricked me and it is only a trifle of days before it ought to have ended and I have business in the city that the likes of you would never be able to comprehend," Edwin said, with the haughty regality of a Thayvian noble as was clearly his wont.
"Yet the city is also my destination, wizard," Eldoth said. "I do not need, but would not object to, travelling in company; you, upon the other hand..."
There were various monsters in the Cloakwood and even the mightiest wizard was willing to employ a staff of peasants to crudely hit things. "And what are you deserting for?" Edwin interrogated. "Abandoning your dearest fiancee; that crying little brat..."
"That crying little falsely penniless brat. A man must eat, and engage in more entertaining pastimes besides." Eldoth shrugged. "I have recouped some of my losses, at any rate, and should stand for a trifle more." He gestured lightly to the materials he carried; far more than his fair share of the plunder, it seemed. Peasant-born thief. "Shall we come to some mutually satisfying arrangement? We will tell none of the others of our journey, and we may as well travel together. I'm sure you have a few of your little spells still up your sleeves."
Edwin carefully considered. And why not? In truth he was not fully certain of the way to the city from this location and monsters could attack the bard rather than him. "Agreed."
"That ruby ring you wear and—twenty-five gold, then, if you please," Eldoth said. "Protection will cost."
Edwin hissed. The Odesseiron coffers were great in his homeland, he reminded himself. "Very well, you obnoxious twit—"
"Now, now. You would hate to be left to the spiders, wizard," Eldoth said.
"And one final matter to conclude this settlement," Edwin instructed. It was an obvious point. "You will not turn Skie in to the Iron Throne."
A half-smile flashed across Eldoth's face. "Now, really, wizard. You suspect me capable of such a vile thing as to sell a young woman I have so recently shared intimacy with, to enemies who wish her dead? I am, frankly, shocked and appalled at such a low opinion—"
"Because I want to do it," Edwin said.
"—Shall we split the proceeds by half?"
The imbecilic simian bard was exactly the kind of scum Edwin had imagined him to be. "That does not suit my purposes," Edwin said. "There will be a...delay due to the manner I intend to do it; there are matters I must take care of beforehand. So I am willing to buy your share of the Throne's reward in advance. You may have these clerical scrolls; two potions; and these enchanted bracers—of protection, I believe. (Mere gold-valued ttreasure to the simian; political goals to the master.)"
"Add those spell scrolls you have kept; one more of those potions of speed; and—shall we say roundly a hundred gold in addition?"
"You're cheating me," Edwin said through clenched teeth. "It's only information of her that we have to trade, and you are only entitled to a half share at absolute most." Kidnapping and dragging the weeping child would be troublesome for both personality and Shar-Teel-related problems. "I travelled with her before you did."
"But you are asking me to surrender a reward on pure speculation. Pay for your politics, Red Wizard. It is that or nothing." A smirk. How Edwin longed to lash forward with his oaken staff, forget the power of Fireball to make him and all of the other wretchedly irritating people burn like the fools they were, in this case he would rather something close and personal but the bard was crudely stronger than him—
"Enough! You may have your vulgar bribe, simian," Edwin said. "I shall not forget this."
"Nor shall I your charming company."
Eldoth was whistling a tune under his breath. Even at the city gates at the last, that cursed song echoed through his head; but at last Edwin Odesseiron had shed every one of those pathetic and annoying companions and was certainly well upon the road to achieve his due greatness and the completion of his mission...
—