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‘What’s what like?’

‘Being a coward’

‘What?’ Asper began to rise ‘Did you get me to sit down just so you could insultyou already do standing up’

‘Wait’ Kataria’s hand shot out and wrapped with a desperate fir the priestess back to the earth ‘I htened ‘You’re scared’

Asper opened her mouth to retort, but found precious little to say by way of refuting the accusation, and even less to say to pull her hand back

‘I suppose,’ she said, pressing her back up against the shict’s again ‘It can be a frightening thing, combat’

‘But you don’t run,’ Kataria continued ‘You don’t back away’

‘Neither do you,’ Asper replied

‘Well, obviously But it’s different with ht If I can kill it, and I usually can, I do kill it If I can’t kill it, and sometimes I can’t, I run away until I can kill it and then I come back, shoot it in the face, tear off its face and then wear its face as a hat … if I can’

‘Uh …’

‘But you,’ Kataria said, her body tre ‘You look so terrified, so uncertain … and really, soht breaks out I don’t know if you’ll make it out of this one or that one and I expect you to run I would, were I you’

‘But,’ Asper said softly, ‘you’re not’

‘No, I’m not I don’t stick around if it’s not certain’ The shict leaned back, sighing ‘It was all certain when I left the forest to follow Lenk, you know? I knew I couldn’t stay there because I didn’t knoas going to happen But everyone knohat a hts, screaold and tries to convince hi and hoarding gold is all we’ve done since we left on the Riptide,’ Asper said ‘Come to think of it, it’s all we’ve done since I met you’

‘So why doesn’t it ainst the priestess’ back ‘This was all soaround in furs, talking instead of killing people’

‘And … that’s bad?’ Asper asked ‘I’m sorry, I really can’t tell with you’

‘That’s bad,’ Kataria confir’

‘But you’re not’

‘And why am I not? Why don’t you run when you feel like it?’ The shict scratched herself contemplatively ‘Duty?’

She sed the question, and Asper wondered if Kataria could feel her own tension as it pluht in her belly Why did she stay? she wondered Certainly not to protect her friends I need it et involved at all with them, then? Duty?

That must be it

Yeah, she told herself, that’s it Duty to the Healer That’s why you fight … that’s why you kill It’s certainly not because you’ve got an arm that kills people that you can’t possibly run away from No, it’s duty Tell her that Tell her it’s duty and she’ll say ‘oh’ and leave and then there will be two people who hate themselves and don’t have answers and you won’t be alone any the priestess froht?’

‘Not exactly,’ Asper replied hesitantly, the question settling uneasily on her ears ‘He asks that we heal the wounded and co on the battlefield lends itself well to that practice, no?’

Is that it, then? Are you meant to be here to help people? That’s why you joined with them, isn’t it? But then … why do you have the arod, don’t you?’ Asper asked, if only to keep out of her own head ‘A goddess, anyway’

‘Riffid, yeah,’ Kataria replied ‘But Riffid doesn’t ask, Riffid doesn’t coave us instinct and that’s it We live or die by those instincts’

And what of a god who gives you a curse? Asper asked herself Does he love or hate you, then?

‘So we don’t have signs or omens or whatever And I’ve never looked for theh ‘I’ve never needed to Instinct has told me whether I could or I couldn’t I’ve never had to look for a different answer’

Is there a different answer? What else could there be, though? How many ways can you interpret a curse such as this? How od to explain why he made you able to kill, to remove people completely, to your satisfaction?

‘So … how do you do it?’

It took a moment for Asper to realise she had just been asked a question ‘Do what?’

‘Know,’ Kataria replied ‘How do you knohat’s supposed to happen if nothing tells you?’

Hoould a wood doesn’t tell her?

‘I suppose,’ Asper whispered softly, ‘you just keep asking until so to do,’ Kataria said, pressing against Asper’s back as she pressed her question ‘But you’re not answering What do I do?’

‘About your instincts?’

‘About Lenk, stupid!’

‘Oh,’ Asper said, blanching ‘Ew’

‘Ew?’

‘Well … yeah,’ Asper replied ‘What about him? Do you like hieoned fro heavy cracked against her head She cast a scowl over her shoulder to see Kataria resting the goh in excuse

‘Did … did you just hither head

‘Yeah, I guess’

‘Why did you just hit ?’

‘You were about to ask soerous,’ Kataria replied casually ‘Shicts share an instinctual rapport with one another We instantly knohat’s acceptable and unacceptable to speak about’

‘I’’

‘So you’ve graduated from insults to physical assault and you expect me to sit here and listen to whatever lunacy you spew out? What happens next, then? Don’t tell ain ‘How many times have you been hit in the head today?’

Kataria’s grip eak, her voice soft when she took Asper by the wrist and spoke Asper could feel the tension in her body slacken, as though so It was this that made the priestess hesitate