[sylvanSpider]

“Again, more useful information. You know, I really should be writing this down,” Arabella said, a mischievous grin blooming. “So you come from the north then, Deadwaltz? What brings you midland? Kastivi here is from the southern coastal nations, I'm sure she can tell you a thing or two about sweat.”

Kastivi had been focused on her feet as if looking at them would prevent her from dragging them, but she looked up hearing her name, “Well, yeah, but you can sweat in any climate if you work hard enough, and Ara can tell you a bit about that.” Arabella chuckled. Her apprentice thought she worked her hard; it was cute.

“Could be worse, Kastivi. I could make you carry my bag as well. The Goddess knows you could use the training, and the young knight over here is taking it without complaint.”

Kastivi kept her mouth shut after that. Percival would be lying if he said he wasn't at least mildly entertained. What a rag tag group of people they had going with them this time. Sure, he'd been with many groups. But two pyromancers, a knight, a barbarian, and a dark magician? All with these personalities? They blended together in a strange, but satisfactory, way and despite Watlz's bad breath and lack of personal boundaries, he would be okay with traveling with them. Which was good, because he didn't have much of a choice. “Ah, so you base everything on appearance, young knight? I will keep that in mind when I am determining the severity and therefore priority of wounds...”

Kastivi raised her eyebrows, biting back a laugh. Never a good thing to be threatened by your healer. After all, when the quest turned into a nightmare, one's life was in the healer's hands. She made it a point on every quest to be kind to the healers as she knew how rare a breed they were. It seemed she needed to be still kinder to the dark mage who she seemed to have offended. She gulped with the dark mage's offer, sheepishly shaking her head. She did not want to see dangerous. “I'm sorry,” she squeaked, turning her eyes to the ground.