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[incaenstrix]

Comments

[inkindled]

Erm. Gra-- [hang on, not grand] --eea. Great... Mage.

[incaenstrix]

[ She bursts out laughing. ]

For a moment I thought you were going to say grandmother.

[inkindled]

Ha ha. [though not really resentful] I'm not good at naming things, but I'm not that bad.

[incaenstrix]

I know! I know. I don't know why my mind went there. It just sounded like it.

[ Cheerful and happy: ]

Great mage is pretty good. Or what if we had names after specific animals? The Fox and the Bear and that sort of thing.

[inkindled]

That's not bad. They'd have to be the best animals, though. Fox and Bear and Wolf and... Lion, maybe. Things like that.

[incaenstrix]

Dragon might be a bit too close to the Old Gods.

[inkindled]

Ooh, yeah. We don't want that. Nasty. Ooh, but a quillback, though--those're a good sort of nasty, that might be good.

[incaenstrix]

What's a quillback? I've never heard of that.

[inkindled]

They're Orlesian. They're fairly massive--they look like they've been flayed, right, like they've not got any fur or skin or anything, just what's underneath all that--the meat--all out in the open. And they're colored like that as well, like meat colored. And then they've got this nasty little beak, like a bird--and then they've got these massive spikey quills on their back.

It's as I said. Nasty.

[incaenstrix]

Okay, well - you can have that rank.

[inkindled]

[He laughs.]

What--d'you think I'm that hideous!

[incaenstrix]

No, no!

[ Oh no. Even though he's laughing, she doesn't want to offend him by accident, or leave him wondering later if she meant something unkind. ]

You're very nice-looking.

[inkindled]

Liar! You think I look like a gigantic flayed nug stuck full've spears.

[incaenstrix]

[ Torn between anxious apology and helpless laughter: ]

No! I don't! You're handsome!

[inkindled]

[So serious he's obviously joking (and so joking he doesn't yet have time to get stuck on handsome)--]

A handsome gigantic flayed nug stuck full've spears, oo-er, lucky me. The best-looking gigantic flayed nug stuck full've spears. Which is sort of like being the tallest dwarf, innit.

[incaenstrix]

I didn't say any of that!

[inkindled]

It was implied. I can read between the lines, y'know.

[incaenstrix]

No, I - [ She’s starting to actually get flustered, worried that he really is hurt. ] I’m sorry if…

[inkindled]

[Oh, well. Relenting, a little--]

Nah, don't be sorry. You know I'm only joking, yeah? I'm not actually hurt or offended or anything.

[incaenstrix]

[ A relieved, frustrated puff of air. ]

You sounded serious!

[inkindled]

S' called teasing, Tertia, has no one ever teased you.

[incaenstrix]

Of course they have, just -

[ Eurgh. ]

Not for that long, usually, okay?

[inkindled]

Well, you'd better get used to it, mate. If you're going to hang around me, anyways.

[incaenstrix]

[ Shyly: ]

Okay. I'll try.

[inkindled]

Good. 'Cos I don't want to stop hanging around you. Eventually, I mean, when I'm allowed back at the Gallows. Or if you're ever in Kirkwall over the next week or however long and you've not got anything better to do.