Nathaira put a hand on Rumer's shoulder and clenched perhaps a little too tightly. The protectiveness was not new, but it was still difficult to understand. Was it from love, an emotion so novel and so uncomfortable? Or was it guilt, and feeling responsible for a life she so recently tormented? She felt an uncomfortable coiling in her stomach and was glad for Kasimir's joke to break her out of her thoughts.
It was less the humor and more the fact that he was telling a joke at all that surprised her and brought a smile to her lips. She quickly made sure that those same lips stayed firmly shut along her cheeks so as not to reveal the too-wide predator's maw that she carried.
She forced her feet to move and released Rumor from her clutches. She resisted every urge to peek at whatever the men were looking at and instead focused on what on Arethil she was going to say to the smithy's wife. She had already identified three different ways that they could leave no witnesses and flee this place... but forming a single pleasant sentence to a stranger she did not intend to kill was somehow a struggle.
She approached the smithy proper and rapped on the door. When no response came, she reluctantly cracked it open.
"Hello? We are Kasimir's... family. We were told to come up front?"
It was less the humor and more the fact that he was telling a joke at all that surprised her and brought a smile to her lips. She quickly made sure that those same lips stayed firmly shut along her cheeks so as not to reveal the too-wide predator's maw that she carried.
She forced her feet to move and released Rumor from her clutches. She resisted every urge to peek at whatever the men were looking at and instead focused on what on Arethil she was going to say to the smithy's wife. She had already identified three different ways that they could leave no witnesses and flee this place... but forming a single pleasant sentence to a stranger she did not intend to kill was somehow a struggle.
She approached the smithy proper and rapped on the door. When no response came, she reluctantly cracked it open.
"Hello? We are Kasimir's... family. We were told to come up front?"