Auri heard his breathing. She'd expected him to rip his hand away the moment she touched him. Just like he'd removed her hand from his thigh when they rode. She'd placed it there to heat his skin to help heal the infection she smelled on him. Now, he simply stared at her and nodded.
'Good, the room is second on the left, the door is a bit rusty so ya gotta force it. I'll be in with food when you're settled, and I'll send our stableboy to tend to your horse.'
'Thank you, lady.' Auri said and smiled at her. Her husband's eyes had not moved from Mawr since he saw him. Auri knew the look. He was calculating. He'd recognized something and it could be dangerous.

'What did you do that for?' Mawr asked when she let her pack fall to the floor. The lady had been right about the room. If it could be called a room at all. Cold air blew in through the cracks in the wall and the window refused to close properly, hanging on squeaky, rusted hinges. The bed creaked so violently when she sat down on it Auri feared she might end up on the floor. Smelly straw stuck out of the mattress and the skittering of rats under it made her squirm. They'd be better off in the woods.
'He recognized you.' she said and looked at him.
'What? Who?'
'The man behind the counter. He stared at you for five minutes straight. I figured if he thought we came together he'd ease up a little.'
'We did come together,' he said and looked at her.
'You know what I mean, and I tell you now, I am not sleeping on the floor again.' she said and pointed at him.
'Neither am I, so you better behave or I'll make you sleep with the rats.' he said and unbuckled his sword belt.

She watched him as he removed every dagger he had and placed them in a pile on the rickety dresser by the door. One was shoved into his boot, one on each hip and one from the inside of his tunic. He still moved his right arm painfully slowly, taking great care not to bend the joint and not to move it too fast.
'How is the arm?'
'It's not black. It hurts but I can live with it, and before you ask, no it doesn't smell.'
'Good.' She knew he was lying. She'd smelled the arm for hours. She'd look at it once he fell asleep.
Mawr unfurled his bedroll and draped it across one of the three-legged chairs.
'I'll go check on the food. Stay away from my knives.' he said and waved a finger between her and the weapons.
'Scared I'm gonna steal them?'
'No.' he said and opened the door.

Auri waited long enough for him to shut the creaking door before she got on her feet and tip-toed over to the dresser. How many weapons was it possible to keep hidden at one time? She'd noticed the daggers by his hips and his sword, but not the rest. Then again, she herself had a dagger stuck down into her boot and one strapped to her thigh.
Auri picked up a silver dagger with a jeweled handle and turned it over in her hand. It was light and nicely balanced, it was perfect for throwing. Which was why he probably had it, silver also killed monsters.

Auri left the dagger in the pile of others and turned to sit down on the bed again when she saw something in the corner of her eye. His bedroll hung across the chair and a sliver of something stuck out at the end of it. Parchment.
She walked over to it, quickly bent down and pried the damp parchment out from the furs. Auri froze. But- He'd said he'd given the contracts to the soldiers to make them leave? Why did she stand here holding them? Auri's eyes darkened. He'd lied to her. Again. If the soldiers left simply because he told them to without being bribed- They'd bowed to him. He had said he threatened them, but they had bowed. Deeply. Soldiers only bowed if they were out-ranked-
'Auri? What are you doing?'
She forced her eyes away from the contracts to find him standing in the doorway holding two bowls of stew.
'What is this?' she said and waved the contracts between them. One of them ripped slightly as she curled her fists.
'My contracts?'
'You said you gave them to the soldiers to get them off our trail!' Auri hissed and walked over to him. She took one of the bowls, and the movement made some of the hot broth overflow and Mawr cursed when it hit his hand.
'For fuck's sake. I'm tired of being burned by you. I did give them the contracts. Did it ever occur to you that I might have more than three? I told you I needed coin, I gave them the contracts on the three ghouls by the Yaruga-' he placed his own bowl on the dresser and reached for her hand. He swiftly ripped the parchments from her.
'You're gonna learn to trust me eventually. If you have to go through my things to do so, be my guest. I have nothing to hide.'

Auri stared at her bowl of stew and sighed.
'I'm sorry. I have a suspicious nature.' she said and grabbed her spoon.
'I noticed,' he replied. 'Are you done being mad or do I need to duck out of the way of flying daggers or flames?'
'I'm not mad. I'm tired.' she said and sat down on the bed. There was a definite squeak this time. 'And I think there are rats inside the mattress too.'
'Well, if you lie still they won't bite you.' he said and huffed a laugh. 'Not much meat on you anyway.'
'Running for your life living off of moss, nuts and the occasional deer will do that to you,' she said and smelled the stew. 'What kind of meat is this anyway?' she stirred a piece of gray, soggy meat around with her spoon.
'I didn't ask. It's hot. That's good enough for me.'

Auri ate her soup in silence. The meat wasn't that bad, she still couldn't place the taste and she found herself hoping that it wasn't rat. The potatoes were mealy and seasoned with salt, it dampened the taste of the meat enough for her to keep it down. She reached to place the bowl on the floor when her sleeve caught on a splinter on the bed frame. Mawr noticed.
'Your arm?'
'What about it?'
'I thought I felt sweat before. Did you check your own wound or were you too busy having fun singeing my arm to care?' he said and stopped eating. Auri rolled her eyes. She'd been cut before, this was no different. She needed to keep the arm covered, rinse it with alcohol and that would be that.
'It's not that bad. I'll live.'

Mawr said nothing as she finished the last of the broth. He had to be tired too. He'd been riding for days before he found her, and he didn't look like he'd slept well in the cave, and with the infection on top of it all-
'About Oxenfurt,' he said suddenly, dragging a hand through his hair.
'Yes?'
'You called him Jaskier last time and not the Sandpiper. You know him?'
'I do know him. Which is why I also know he will help us if I ask. He was the first person I saw when I got here in the first place.' she said.

'Speaking of, how did you end up here?'
'I got here by ship. Rowed the last little bit into Novigrad and then ended up in the water because the fucking dinghy capsized in the waves. Jaskier found me on the beach, and he convinced himself I was a selkie, so he kept offering me my cloak. I think he was drunk.' she said and laughed. She'd be so confused she'd laughed him off, wandered with him back to the city and followed him to Oxenfurt.
'A selkie?' Mawr asked.
'Don't you know? Selkies in human-form have shining green eyes and if you return their cloak it's a vow of engagement. They're highly vulnerable without their cloak and I assume he saw my eyes, and being the poet he is, decided I was one.'
'Sounds like him. Did he sing too?'
'He did.'

'Do you have selkies in your family? I've read the legends, all Skelligers with green eyes are said to be descended from selkies. It's the only trait that's passed down, except the shape-shifting seal business of course.'
'My great-grandmother,' Auri said. She'd heard the stories in Fayrlund. Her great-grandmother had ended up in a fishing net, naked as the day she was born. Her husband-to-be had graciously offered her her own cloak of seal-skin and found himself with a wife by the next full moon.
'-if it is to be believed. I've never been able to turn into a seal at all so I think it's just fanciful tales. But my eyes are green, and old fish-wives usually ask me if the sea is calling me home at regular intervals, so I don't know.'

Mawr turned from her and stuffed the contracts back in his bedroll.
'Stay here,' Auri said and grabbed her bowl from the floor. She grabbed his on the way out the door. She'd return the bowls to the lady and grab the extra blankets, she'd never be able to sleep here anyway, but she'd try. Auri walked into what she assumed was the kitchen to find the plump woman stirring a pot, most likely containing the remnants of the stew she'd just had.
'Thank you for the stew, madam,' Auri said and placed the bowls on the messy counter next to the only window in the room. The woman turned from the pot and smiled, a sweet, gap-toothed smile that reached her brown eyes.
'You're most welcome, love. Name's Ila, my 'usband's Fern.'
'Thank you again, Ila.' Auri said again and smiled back at her. 'I came for the extra blankets,'
'Ah, right,' Ila let go of the ladle and walked out of the kitchen, 'follow me, love.'

She wasn't joking about the blankets. She piled a multitude of wool, cotton and burlap blankets in Auri's outstretched hands.
'That 'ougtha keep you warm enough,' she said and waved her off.
Auri turned after yet another 'thank you' and had just reached the hallway when Ila called after her.
'Sweet 'usband you 'ave, love!'
'What do you mean?'
'He came to make sure I gave you most of the meat. Said you needed it more than 'im. Night!'

Auri tried not to smile down into the blankets. For a stuck up, secretive, annoying former commander- It was nice of him to think of her, she hadn't eaten much and though the mystery-meat still plagued her she finally felt full.

Mawr sat on the still squeaking bed when she shoved open the heavy door. The cold draft from the holes in the wall immediately made her skin crawl.
'There are definitely rats in the bed,' Mawr said and reached out a hand for her blankets. 'I'll do you a favor and sleep next to the wall. They'll have issues gnawing through my leather.'
'Thank you, I guess. Very eager to be rat-food?'
'No, but I'll do it for the wool blanket.' he said and grinned.

'Acceptable,' she agreed. She wasn't going to tell him she didn't need blankets. She'd keep herself warm with her magic. She needed to let it out somehow, if she didn't it would consume her like it did her mother. This was the second time in the span of hours he had been nice to her. It made her wonder what he was hiding. There had to be something. It made little sense to her that he'd just tag along with her because she'd bring him monsters, plenty of them would find him if he just walked through the wilderness by himself. She wasn't really needed, even though she had patched up his arm-

'You can have the blanket and the rat-bites if you tell me something about yourself. Something true, and something that makes me trust you. No more secrecy. If you are to follow along to Skellige I want to know who I'm bringing home with me.' she said and held out the blanket. 'Deal?'