Neron watched Adam with what might have been amusement, or a close cousin of it, but that was mainly due to the spectacular failure of what the stranger apparently thought was attractive. Interest flashed through his eyes, however, at mention of the Queen - Neron also new a Queen of the Hollowed Grounds. Funny, that. “She couldn’t make it,” he echoed, a sharpness to the words that very much suggested that he was making a judgement on said Queen for sending these two idiots in her place.
“Look around you, Adam Pikely, and you will see ‘what’s going on’,” he invited. “You are standing in a cave in the middle of a howling blizzard, at spear point, miles from civilisation. You’re about fifteen minutes away from frostbite. Does that sate your curiosity?”
And then the big guns spoke, and Neron very nearly let a laugh bubble up in his throat at the absurdity of the situation. “Complications. Oh, I can only imagine.” Loren the confident. Loren the diplomat. Loren the Captain. This was all getting more and more absurd, and Neron thoroughly enjoyed it; a handsome grin spread across his face as he listened to his twin’s offerings and treaties. And really, his business head told him that this was, indeed, a valuable opportunity. One he would not pass up. At all.
“And what would you have of Halo in return? Do tell me, little brother, all that you know of the land in which you find yourself. I’m dying to hear it.” Another flick of the wrist and all but two of the soldiers were dismissed to their duties, to tend their fires and scout the caves. “The walls of the citadel are high and sturdy. They are as close to a border as we have, and they open for hunting parties and scouts, nothing more.”
“Look around you, Adam Pikely, and you will see ‘what’s going on’,” he invited. “You are standing in a cave in the middle of a howling blizzard, at spear point, miles from civilisation. You’re about fifteen minutes away from frostbite. Does that sate your curiosity?”
And then the big guns spoke, and Neron very nearly let a laugh bubble up in his throat at the absurdity of the situation. “Complications. Oh, I can only imagine.” Loren the confident. Loren the diplomat. Loren the Captain. This was all getting more and more absurd, and Neron thoroughly enjoyed it; a handsome grin spread across his face as he listened to his twin’s offerings and treaties. And really, his business head told him that this was, indeed, a valuable opportunity. One he would not pass up. At all.
“And what would you have of Halo in return? Do tell me, little brother, all that you know of the land in which you find yourself. I’m dying to hear it.” Another flick of the wrist and all but two of the soldiers were dismissed to their duties, to tend their fires and scout the caves. “The walls of the citadel are high and sturdy. They are as close to a border as we have, and they open for hunting parties and scouts, nothing more.”
