The Masquerade

I whistled, impressed, at Engel's list, before turning to answer Auryon.

"Only this, Atlantis, Wilson's bar, the same childhood forest adventure as Engel, would you believe it?" I recounted cheerfully.

"That was the first one. I'm telling these all horribly out of order. It gets far too easy to muddle them up, after the third time." I lamented.

If it wasn't for the lively dance between Boris and Damascus, or the strange way it ended, Taber would've jumped right into his own dance. However, he instinctively let go of Kartiel and moved in the direction of Damascus. Couples doing things like that was never a sign of a good relationship, and he wanted to make sure Damascus was alright.

Eremia, however, tapped Kartiel on the shoulder. "The party as you wanted it?" she said, glass in hand.

James grinned. "Well, at least you grew out of it."

"James, if I'd grown out of it, I wouldn't be hunting saber-fanged wolves that get twice the size of my horse for a living," she answered with a sly grin.

James scoffed. "Fair point."

"Sometimes I wonder what it'd be like to settle down," she mused. "But then I remember what happened to the last Guard Dog and what happened to Kolvar, and then I think I'd really just rather fight it out. Can't live forever, ain't that right?"

James responded with a little shrug. "Death is inevitable, but for those like us, it tends to come sooner rather than later. We can't know for certain when it will come, but just because you can't live forever doesn't mean you shouldn't allow for the possibility of settling down. It may be unrealistic to hope for such things, but sometimes our short and fleeting lives can surprise us."

"Well, all I can say is I'd rather live a short life where I make a difference than a long one where I merely stand with the herd," she answered. "If I must die, then my death will be for a reason, be it futile or otherwise."

He nodded slowly. "Had I a drink, I would drink to that."

She grabbed an empty cup and raised it. "To going down in a godsd*** blaze of glory." She proceed to mime drinking out said cup and plopping it back down on the table.

James grinned, and mimed an imaginary glass of his own in his hand, pretending to take a drink as well. When he set it down on the table he gave her a bow of his head.

"Or if not in glory, at least knowing we did something worth doing."

"Or something that was at least valiant and the right thing to do, if completely and utterly futile and debatably not worth it," she said with a somewhat rueful laugh.

Damascus shook his head quite frantically, his blush deepening behind his mask. "No, no, I meant... I don't know if I like him or not, but I do know that I can't like him, because if I did..." he let out a shaky breath, desperately trying not to think too hard about this.

"If I did, it would only end terribly." He said in a small voice, looking pointedly at the ground. he didn't trust himself to look anywhere else. "for a grand number of reasons."

James raised his brows beneath his mask and found himself smiling, even if it was somewhat pained due to the subject at hand. That hit a little too close to home.

"Sounds like my life," he said with a dry chuckle.

"Yeah, well, that makes two of us. But what's life if it's got a point, eh?" she said, leaning against the wall. "Kolvar told me once that, in the end, it's not the effects one's actions have had that matters so much as the intent of those actions and the sacrifice made to better the world, regardless of how successful it was. If it was genuine, and it was real, and it was pure, then...in the end we all wind up in the stars anyways. I hope he was right," she said with a short, dry chuckle.