LOREN
At the long list of trials Remi had faced—and Loren had missed—the Launceleyn sighed. There’d been more than he expected and it hurt, briefly. Still, he didn’t let that hold him back for long. Somehow, he found the momentum to keep the lighter banter going. ”Too busy to attend the bestowal of a noble title? Some queen you are. I thought you were supposed to be better at managing your social calendar. Isn't that basically your one job?”Then the Launceleyn frowned as he thought about the last word in the list. ”Cloister is new to me though.” He managed to make that sound thoughtful somehow, so hey, improvement. At the mention of Zariah and what she might’ve done, Loren rolled his eyes. ”It sounds like her. And she certainly left more than a few other problems for me to clean up.” Well, it wouldn’t be the first time Loren had ignored a noble title.
The rest of Loren’s family was coming up far too often for his liking; he wondered idly if this was part of Remi testing him, to see if the librarian really was capable of leaving the past in the past. Or maybe it was just the sad facts of the summoner’s life continually coming back to haunt him. ”I see.” He smiled sadly. ”Well, I guess I’m happy to know she found at least one person.” Before she died, but he couldn’t quite finish the sentence. Idly, he wondered if he should reach out to the Queen (the real one, obviously, not the pretender Remi), but honestly he didn’t know where he’d begin with that one.
Luckily the other man’s discomfort turned out to be music to Loren’s ears, and drew him out of his brief lapse into depression. ”Well I don’t, but alright, fine I’ll settle for Grand High Alchemist. If you’re worried about the length, we can shorten it to gahhhhh, but that’s my final offer.” He smirked, quite proud of that one. ”Just think of the people’s cheers. Gahhhh, gahhhhhh!” No doubt Remi would hate that.
There was a lot to pick from, and Loren was surprised the usually chatty alchemist didn't come up with something. ”Curses, blindness, cave-ins, cloisters, fae, political unrest, LongNight, other assorted and sundry problems on your plate, take your pick.” The Launceleyn ticked off every item on the list using his fingers and then gave the other man a patient stare. ”Or, you know, life?” Pausing for just a moment, Loren gave Remi a considering look. ”That’s what friends do, tell each other how they’ve been?” Seeing as Loren could count his friends on the fingers of only one hand (and that was before his disappearance)—and seeing as this situation was anything but normal even if he’d been a social butterfly—he honestly didn’t know what it was supposed to be like. But he was trying.
A beggar's book
outworths
a noble's blood
