Snippet #2212070

The first thing Shade did upon being reunited with the group was to reclaim Midnight, who had faithfully tagged along after Rain. Now the bard sits in a tangle of roots at the base of a tree, rubbing his cat between the ears. Midnight, for her part, seems unhealthily intrigued by the crow that has taken to hovering around Shade's person, although occasionally she swivels her head and points her pink nose at Ral's entourage of small gods instead with the same whisker-twitching expression - the one that says, 'I'm not hungry enough to try and catch you... yet.'

Shade, on the other hand, looks at Rain, Neil, and Rivers.

Eventually, when the prophet has spoken his piece, Shade rises to his feet. He is about a yard away from the others and faces them all at once. "Rain," he says. "One correction. Fate didn't threaten my life. Evil ninja assassins led by some kind of undead dwarf did." He raises a hand to pick Rivers out of the trio with a curt gesture, two fingers pointing. "Steven Rivers, I didn't ask you to save my life. I'm not responsible for what happened to you, and I don't owe you a damn thing. Just so we're clear." Anger flickers under his voice like the fire in banked coals.

He takes a breath, closes his eyes and opens them slowly. The anger is better hidden after that, only his usual sarcastic vitriol immediately evident in his tones when he speaks again. "Now, this fate thing. I think I've pretty well established that I hate seeing people coerced or restricted. If Fate is some kind of sentient entity and not just the result of people's previous actions, then yeah, sounds like the kind of bastard I'd want to kick in the balls. But Rivers and Neil both make good points. Point A: This Renji thing has to be dealt with first. The gods are meddling in people's lives just a little bit more obnoxiously than Fate at the moment. Point B: I, personally, have spent the past two days getting continuously dragged out of danger by and at the expense of the people around me. That's not gonna fly. Neil, you have to learn control? Fine, I have to learn strength. We can have training montages together. Maybe Rivers can hook me up with whoever he learned wind magic from so I don't have to worry about being dropped out of the sky on him again." He pauses, pushing ink-black hair out of his eyes, and takes a step forward so he becomes part of the group, instead of a separate individual addressing them from an imaginary stage. "Anyway, since we don't really know where to go next anyway, I'd suggest staying with Dekar's company for the time being - if he doesn't mind. They're mercenaries. They go places, they hear things, and maybe they can help us out with the training thing. I'll take other suggestions if anyone has them, though. I still kinda like the band idea." His smile as he says this is crooked, ironic, acknowledging that a lot has happened since he initially proposed that cover story.