Lily couldn't fix everything, but there was no denying that she helped. Silky ears were a sovereign remedy for many ills, and as Tal stroked them he lost some of his simmering frustration. The memory of pain was likewise fading as he ranted, but things might have begun to calm from there if Sah's fuse hadn't reached its limit as the courier's was winding down.
The pure vitriol on his friend's voice combined with the blatant blasphemy actually froze Tal in his tracks and he turned his head to watch Sah approach with something between shock and wonder in his expression as the other man stood up for him with a lot more fire than he'd ever expected. As the flood of questions and defenses - defenses for him he noted with a faint flush of warmth in his chest and ears - slowed he reached out squeeze the other man's shoulder gratefully.
"Not t'Ludo," he admitted. "But t'Mort." News that still felt a little fantastical on his tongue, and helped him calm down a little more even as Sah grew more incensed. "I guess it's not... not forcin' me," he admitted, reluctant to let the words leave his mouth even if they were technically true. "I could say 'fuck it' an' walk away. But then my Dagger wouldn't get any stronger." He gave a helpless little shrug. "Th'poison on th'blade is Ludo's. Special nightmare poison. Packs a hailuva punch," he added ruefully, thumping his leg gently with his fist. "But th'only one who can make it stronger is, well, Ludo itself. So I gotta jump through its hoops or give up years o' workin' on it." Literal years, since he'd been working on that Dagger since before the War.
He grimaced and shrugged, pulling a rag out of his Bag of Holding so he could start cleaning the blood off the blade. "Almost done with this quest. Then one more t'Master it an' I'll be clear o' th'Trickster," he assured the Wild Thunder. "But with all th'Void shit goin' down, it's not like we have time t'start shit from scratch right now. Gotta work on our weapons an' our armor an' ourselves, yeah? Otherwise we'll be fucked when th'shit hits th'fan."
The pure vitriol on his friend's voice combined with the blatant blasphemy actually froze Tal in his tracks and he turned his head to watch Sah approach with something between shock and wonder in his expression as the other man stood up for him with a lot more fire than he'd ever expected. As the flood of questions and defenses - defenses for him he noted with a faint flush of warmth in his chest and ears - slowed he reached out squeeze the other man's shoulder gratefully.
"Not t'Ludo," he admitted. "But t'Mort." News that still felt a little fantastical on his tongue, and helped him calm down a little more even as Sah grew more incensed. "I guess it's not... not forcin' me," he admitted, reluctant to let the words leave his mouth even if they were technically true. "I could say 'fuck it' an' walk away. But then my Dagger wouldn't get any stronger." He gave a helpless little shrug. "Th'poison on th'blade is Ludo's. Special nightmare poison. Packs a hailuva punch," he added ruefully, thumping his leg gently with his fist. "But th'only one who can make it stronger is, well, Ludo itself. So I gotta jump through its hoops or give up years o' workin' on it." Literal years, since he'd been working on that Dagger since before the War.
He grimaced and shrugged, pulling a rag out of his Bag of Holding so he could start cleaning the blood off the blade. "Almost done with this quest. Then one more t'Master it an' I'll be clear o' th'Trickster," he assured the Wild Thunder. "But with all th'Void shit goin' down, it's not like we have time t'start shit from scratch right now. Gotta work on our weapons an' our armor an' ourselves, yeah? Otherwise we'll be fucked when th'shit hits th'fan."
