Part 7 Part 9
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She turned to him where he stood behind her chair, his face painted with the dying flames of the fire. "And are ye well satisfied with the tale, Jerent?"
He merely looked back at her for a moment, his eyebrow raised in that disbelieving way she had come to know so well. "Let me see if I understand this. This woman tried to draw ye into a duel on numerous occasions -- knowing that one of you would die, since there never was a duel between 'slingers, even apprentices, that didn't end in death. She then fled across the southa'd baronies, and you pursued her for some reason -- you're not even sure what that reason is. She tried once more to kill you, then, when someone took her out first, she acted as if it were completely undeserved." He was pacing again, gesturing grandly as he registered his opinions. "And, what catches me most of all is the fact that ye gave her one of the medallions that you've been so careful of all these years, and promised ye'd find the assailant!"
She interrupted quietly. "I did no such thing. Merely stated the truth - that if it was the will of Ka, I'd find him."
Jerent waved a hand airily. "But to her, it sounded like a promise." He dropped down beside her. "And you don't know why you had to face her? You just blindly followed after, trusting in Ka to keep you alive for whatever it was that you had to do? I just don't understand it, Lil. Is this some gunslinger thing that I'd get if I'd my guns, or is it just something with you?"
She sipped at her chicory before replying, eyeing him over the rim of the mug. "Still trying to analyze me? I thought you'd given up on trying to figure out the human race, and decided it was just inherently mad."
He grinned cheerfully. "Oh, it is, no question of that. I just can't resist a lost cause."
Part 7 Part 9