Page 20 of War Mage

“My father. He left when I was a babe, leaving my mother and me to fend for ourselves and my mother to suffer the wasting sickness of a failed bond. She held off longer than most, fighting to be able to raise me, but eventually she succumbed and left me alone.”

“Why is that something you wouldn’t want me to know?” I ask confused. It seems innocuous enough.

“Truly, I don’t want you to know anything about me,” he admits in that same even tone of his. “But your point about us needing to foster some sort of trust before we get to Barakrin is a good one. We cannot remain adversaries and expect to succeed. Now, drink.”

I grumble again as I take a swallow of wine, almost emptying my cup. He keeps getting away with giving the blandest answers to my questions and even if they are the truth it’s not in the spirit of the game. I’ll just need to think of better questions, I suppose, so that he’s forced to answer something juicy.

“Alright,” he says, as I finish my swallow. “My question: What will you do if you survive this mission and gain your clemency and the sovereignty of the Mage’s Tower?”

“That’s easy,” I respond. “Return to the Tower and help rebuild it after our numbers were decimated during the war. Foster its new freedom and seek after advantageous alliances. After severing our soultie, of course.”

Urim stiffens a little at the mention of our soultie, though I don’t know why. His emotions in the bond remain placid and unaffected as ever, so there’s no clue there.

Ignoring his strange reaction for now, I say, “Now drink!”

He obligingly takes a swallow and I eagerly ask my next question. “Have you ever wanted to find your father, now that you’ve lost your mother?”

Our bond spikes for a moment with a cold, murderous feeling shocking me, before smoothing back into calm. The orc answers, “I have never told anyone else this, but . . .”

“What is it?” I ask breathlessly, wanting to understand what just happened.

The orc takes a breath, then continues, “I have been searching for my father for my whole adult life, using my faint memories and my network to find him. I have yet to be successful, but I will not give up.”

“So that you can reunite?” I guess.

“So that I can kill him,” he says bluntly, shocking me again. “My mother died because of him and that is a sin that he can never be forgiven for. ThatIwill never forgive him for.”

So it’s vengeance he’s after. I suppose I can understand that. “What if he’s already dead?” I ask. “What if there’s no vengeance to take?”

“Then I will spit on his grave,” he says, “and know that the gods exacted justice for me.”

I consider his admission and then smile sharply at him. “You know, that actually makes me like you better. You aren’t the heartless golem that you pretend to be. You have feelings like the rest of us.”

“I never claimed to not have feelings,” he replies. “Just that I am not beholden to them. I feel what I want and reject the rest.”

“No one is that good at controlling their emotions,” I argue. “We all reach a breaking point sometimes.”

“Like when you tried to kill Queen Adalind and burn down Undrian Forest?” Urim asks. “That was an emotional decision and not wise.”

“I never claimed to be wise,” I retort, echoing his words from before. “And I think we both know that you are not as buttoned up as you would like to be, are you,commander?”

Urim stiffens again, going totally still, but I feel that dark longing in the bond again at my jibe.

“This is dangerous ground that you walk on, Adara,” he says evenly, even as there is an edge of warning in his voice.

“Why?” I provoke. “Do you want to do something about it? If you want me to stop,make me.”

My challenge hangs in the air between us, a blatant invitation.

“This is not wise,” he finally replies.

“It’s been established that I am not wise,” I retort, rising from my seat and prowling around the table. “And I think you actuallywantto be foolish with me. At least one more time.”

With those words I climb onto his lap, straddling his massive, muscular thighs. He stays still, his eyelids going heavy and assessing.

“What are you doing Adara?” he asks, but I feel his interest through our bond, which he immediately tries to hide, but I know that it was there.

“Teasing you,” I reply, my hands coming up to loosen the stays of my kirtle. “Tempting you.” When the stays are loose, I part the plackets and then pull my underdress down so that my breasts are bare. “Seeing just how far that control of yours goes.”

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