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[Blade Master Model 42]

"Well, mine got blown to hell by that guy." Jack brought some shredded bits of cigar from a damaged pocket with one hand and accepted the tinderbox with the other. "Maybe I should get a donkey to carry a stash of 'em."

[Powder Miner]

Lucette idly watched Jack toy with his obliterated cigar pieces, but then suddenly a devilish tone entered her voice, and after a puff of smoke exited her mouth she spoke:
:"Now, now, my cigarillo carrier may be stubborn, but I don't think I'd call him a donkey."

[Blade Master Model 42]

After discarding the remains of his own supply, Jack withdraw a cigarillo and quickly got it burning. "Not while he's listening, anyway." The spy took a long drag from the tobacco, then lowered it. "..."

[Powder Miner]

Lucette was happy just to be silent for a few moments... but it seemed that something was gnawing at her, because she spoke again, but this time with her voice lowered.
:"Jack... do you think I brought him in over his head...?"

[Blade Master Model 42]

"...We're all in over our heads. But I wouldn't have recruited Comtois if I thought he wouldn't be able to handle it." Jack took another drag, eyes on the sky instead of the maid. "...I don't have time to question if I'm making the right calls. I can't agonize over every decision. We make our choices, and we live with the consequences as long as we can."

[I_Like_Pi]

"Ah. So you were here, Sir Calo," Evra warmly addressed Calo's tortured corpse as she kneeled beside it. She hadn't expected that his death had been the least bit peaceful when she'd seen Marcus, but a small part of her had hoped he had at least been able to save himself from such an end.

"You'd hate the sight of yourself, perhaps enough so to fly into another rant," she said with a somber smile. "Perhaps if you hadn't been caught unawares, I'd have learned the reason behind your temper. I wouldn't quite call you a friend, but amongst all the others you were the one that I felt the most comfortable around. We are more alike than you might have realized." She reached out and closed the archer's eyes, Marcus hadn't even given him that small bit of respect.

"I'd like to tell you a secret if you wouldn't mind. You had wondered about my appearance, how I managed to look so young despite my age. I had planned to tell you eventually, if we had become true friends, but it seems that now is my only chance." Evra looked around for any eavesdroppers before she leaned in and whispered something to her former comrade.

Evra laid Calo down and tilted his head forward to somewhat mask the huge gash. She stood up and turned towards the tree and blasted the branches with her light magic, causing the leaves to fall before gathering them into a pile over Calo's body. She looked around for his journal and found a bit of burnt grass. Either the mages had joined in or he hadn't been lying about his journal. She found his bow as well, it's string snapped and the staff cracked. She pondered whether to leave it and let it serve as a grave marker. No, it was still a bow of Bayard make; it wouldn't do to let some halfwit Govitian reverse engineer it, besides... his father deserved something other than words of a fallen son. As for herself, she had stowed his hat in her pouch.

"Now rest, like the many before you." Her rite complete, she returned to the group. She approached Jack, of all the people here he was the most likely to care at all.

"I have tended to Bayard so that he might know peace in the next life."

[Caellath]

Abelard hadn't managed to hear Marcus words properly in the heat of battle, but he had an impression something was wrong. But now things were calmer, and he could hear and listen to the people around him. Almost instinctively, he slowly reached for Elanee's arm, both to console her if she caught the news and perhaps as a bit of comfort of his own.

"...Shit."

He couldn't do much more than curse in mourning. He was a mercenary, and the line of work wasn't exactly a risk-free affair. Other brothers in arms of his had died before. It was always a grim reminder of death, and a good reason for one to be glad just to be alive and healthy.

"And we can't even give him a proper sendoff."

[IamanElfCollaborator]

"He knew the risks, going out here on this mission. We all did. Only a fool would deny that this had risks.

Still, that's one more sin these mongrels must be punished for."

[Blade Master Model 42]

Jack took a long pull on the cigarillo, held it, then puffed out a cloud of smoke. "Opus. I have to ask. Was there any indication that Bayard had lost control of his journal?"

[I_Like_Pi]

"His journal was not on his person, no. There was a small bit of scorched earth nearby, however. But, given the state of his body..." Evra's fist tightened around Calo's bow. "Well, if they had wanted to read it, they had all the time in the world."

[Blade Master Model 42]

"That's not good." He still didn't move. "The journal itself is gone then, so they don't have hard evidence, at least. This doesn't change our position."

[Powder Miner]

Lucette pulled the cigarillo out of her mouth for a moment, exhaled smoke, and then let out a long sigh, holding the cigarillo out of her mouth for a few moments.
:"Fucking hell..."
:"This needs to never be repeated. In the future, we shouldn't be sending lone scouts."

[Blade Master Model 42]

Jack shook his head. "No, there will be times when we need to deploy single man scout operations. In such an event, I'll handle it."

[Powder Miner]

Lucette gave Jack a somewhat withering look, and popped the cigarillo back into her mouth.
:"And what will you do if a large strike force comes out of fucking nowhere around you?"

[Blade Master Model 42]

"Fight. Run. Hide. Bargain. Any of a million things, depending on what kind of strike force is around me, what the terrain is like, what the weather is like... Bayard understood the risks I was asking him to undertake. And he was the best scout we had. Now I am, if only by process of elimination." Jack took another inhale of smoke, bringing the ash of his cigarillo to his fingertips before he flicked it away. "I won't ask anyone else to do it. And I won't take risks."