Ruby discarded Lucrezia into the ether. She looked down at the ground. Instead of supporting her friend, she burst into laughter. She would never admit how much enjoyment she got seeing him brought down a peg.
“You know, despite you being a perverted and insidious individual, you ain’t half bad.”
“Thanks luv,” the tiefling said. Even Junior, who relented in his haunting of the bard, looked promisingly at the matriarch.
“Don’t get comfortable with th-” she began, but Duffy cut her short.
“-you bloke my noose!” he whelped.
Ruby rolled her eyes, and finally turned to help him up. She held out her hand, half-yanked him to his feet, and sidestepped the trail of blood that fell in his rise. It left a line down his left cheek and a pool on the city streets.
“I’ll break something more precious than your nose if you don’t stop moaning,” she snapped. Her scalding did not help the bard’s ego, or his mood. For a brief moment, he almost cried.
“What’s 'is game?” Aurelianus said with disgust.
Ruby had to wonder herself. She stepped close to Duffy, rested her hands on his shoulders, and caught his gaze so he had to look at her. Instantly, she recognised a loneliness and suffering she had almost forgotten he dwelt in day in, and day out. She frowned.
“Let’s just say he’s had a rough week,” was her natural reply.
Duffy gave her a curt nod, and bit his bottom lip to prevent himself from tearing up. It would not help the rising agony in his shin, his bleeding nose, or the continued presence of the Tap in his body. Only in the heat of pursuit, the madness of purpose, could he forget what had happened to him. He thought he had lost Ruby, for just a minute too long.
“Ain’t it ‘alf,” he nodded grimly. He looked at Duffy, shrugged, and then took another drag. Given they had just hounded him not just through a cityscape, but through planes and portals, he was not one to fall for sympathy. Ever.
“Let’s get to the castle, I daresay we could all use a little refreshment,” Ruby said softly.
“That’s the first good thing you’ve said all day,” he said with relish. He took one last pull and flicked the dog end away.
Duffy conjured his cane into his right hand. He snorted blood, and steadied himself as best he could. His stomach rumbled, his limbs shook, and his breathing was strained, coarse, and pitched.
“Don’t speak of this agreement to anyone,” she warned. “Most of all don’t even look at Luned.” She remembered a promise Duffy had made, and covered their tracks. Only the scribe scared Ruby more than Aurelianus. “Shall we?” She held out her arm.
Aurelianus looked at her with distrust. Whatever the pikin’ wankers (his go to title for the duo from here on in) were up to seemed far too wholesome and quaint. He frowned, but took her hand anyway.
“Is there whiskey?” he asked absent-minded.
“Oh, count on it. Will you have a dram with us? We put on a warm welcome to newcomers,” she chirped with hospitality drilled into her after decades of domestic platitude.
Aurelianus grinned from quill to quill.
"Well, seein' the 'warm welcome' you sods are givin' me 'ere…I'm goin' to get absolutely cunt drunk, luv."
They vanished from Salvar’s streets in a trio of turquoise thunderstorms.
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