Morben chuckles again.

"How about dinner in Wydrioth? I'm sure that Thalanir would be fascinated to hear the adventures of the Acharnost told first hand. Then we can all get to know each other a little better."

 Now Vark really beams.

”Oh wow, that sounds great! I can invite the others? When should we come?”

"Let me reach out to Thalanir and we'll set a date," Morben assures Vark.

 “Sounds good! Thank you so much, Morben,” he says, bringing one hand to his chest in a gesture of gratitude. “I’m looking forward to it. Oh, and some time you’re gonna have to teach me this fireplace spell.” he adds with a grin.

"My pleasure, Vark," Morben agrees. "I'll be in touch."

The flames flicker and the image of the elf's face melts away into the natural crackling of the fire.

Matteo is also up early, the previous evening had been busy and worked late, but still in the morning he was up to help the volunteers prepare breakfast for the orphans, then he would be serving breakfast for the volunteers. But first he needed to visit his small alter in the tiny temple attached to the orphanage.

His eyes would occasionally wander to the shadowy corner where Jex's alter lay, where he knew Nakia would have spent the evening, where the whispers called him from the shadows to release Jex. He remained on his knees though, blocking out the sounds and sending out his own prayer for the safety of the children under his care. A few minutes later he rises again, a pleasant smile on his face as he returns to the kitchens.

Amid the usual morning hustle and bustle of the orphanage, a new excitement could be heard rising from the front. A dwarf known by many, though lacking his usual shimmering armour, entered the orphanage to the pleasure of the several children nearby. The reluctant leader of the town was an uncommon sight, be he welcomed the attention. "S'good t'see all ye lads n' lasses, but I do need t'speak with yer headmaster 'ere. Anybody seen....uhm..."

"Matteo?" a young girl piped up.

"Aye, that's 'im! Wasn't sure if he's about or 'is friend t'day. Can ye let 'im know I'd like a word or two?" The next few minutes were a flurry of questions, then eventually an impromptu tale of the danger and valor of the Archarnost.

A chaotic mess of clothes and pieces of armor lay in the floor of the room. The bed has three of its four legs broken and the pillows are among the belongings in the floor. In the mattress, with just one leg covered, trapped by a twisting blanket would be a better description, lays Val, who starts to wake up at the smell of fried eggs and bacon. 

Opening her eyes she sees an auxiliary table with a wooden tray on it with bread and just fried eggs, bacon and another plate with some fruit. There is a mug with a dark, strong dwarven beverage that the Archanost had came to appreciate. The smell of the food inmediatly turns her stomach upside down, and the headache hits her brain behind her eyes. But before she could even grunt, she feels a gentle touch on her hip, a caress that carry just the hint of the sting of an electrical current and she feels her hangover dissapear, being substituted by a hunger she didn't know she could have. 

"By the Aesir woman" says Thurston as she moves to get seated and enjoy her breakfast " You gave me a night worthy of songs... maybe not the ones you would sing at Jex's orphanage but you understand me..." says the norscan with a smirk. She notices that he is completely naked, as she was. She has no proof, but no doubts, that he had been naked when he left to get the breakfast. 

As she starts eating he sits in the bed, giving her enough room to enjoy the food, but close enough to share their company. 

" How are you Val? " he asks "I mean with all that's been happening to us lately we didn't have the time to talk. To really talk... " 

A short while after Brundir has begun his tales, Matteo appears at the door, two children tugging on the sleeve of his robe and pointing excitedly. Matteo beams and gestures for them to sit and listen. He stands silently but with a welcoming smile against the doorframe and listens along as Brundir finishes his tale. He leads the children in applause as Brundir finishes 

"Thank you master Brundir, for your exciting tale and for your presence here today, we are honoured to receive you. Will you be joining us for breakfast? We are just finishing laying the tables."

The dwarf stands and straightens his weathered doublet, smiling at his old friend who, if unwittingly, appeared a number of times in the tale. Brundir, however, was careful not to draw attention to him for the same reason that brought him to the orphanage. "Aye, I think I will, thank ye. I've come with some business, but it can wait if food's coming out."

Brundir follows the procession of children to a room with several tables laid for the morning meal. The scene was concentrated chaos as children came and went with varying degrees of enthusiasm to the event, but the dwarven guest was amused by it all regardless. It took his mind off the task at hand, and further the issues to address outside the walls as well. 

Once all was done and tables were being cleaned, Brundir addressed Matteo once again, "I've got a few matters t'go over with ye. Acharnost matters." He leaned over the table to speak lower, "Matters involvin' yer friend with th' mask. I come as a friend, so all said may's well be said at th' end of a mine shaft. Still, I'd like t'know fer my own peace o' mind an' so ye know there's trust among us."

Matteo serves food to the children as they arrive, sitting amongst them opposite Brundir, he has a smile on his face the whole time, engaging in conversation with the children and telling them stories about where the food has come from. At the end of the meal he sits, a slightly more serious look on his face, but welcoming none the less.

His brow crinkles as Brundir speaks. "Go ahead and ask, I'm not sure I have all the answers but I know what Jex does. I had thought him dead, but part of him still seems to be held within the thing. Truth be told, I have a serious mind to having it destroyed."

Brundir's reaction may as well have been to whether Matteo should wear blue or green for the day, "I'm not one fer tellin' others what t'do with their own things. What I do know, though, is I've known Jex longer'n that mask. Never said much about where he came from, an' seems you're the same. In fact, it seems like yer both two sides of a coin. Nothin' alike, stuck t'gether, an' never shows everythin' at once. If ye don' want t'show me th' full coin, that's fine, but at least tell me if yer true or fool's gold. First time I met ya - Matteo, that is - it seems like ye got in a bad scrape. I figured it'd pass once ye had time t'sort yerself out. Now it seems there's more to it." 

Matteo sits back a moment, considering carefully what Brundir has said.

"I'm not sure I follow your meaning exactly. But I try to be open with you all. I can also tell you this with all sincerity." He leans forwards, hands on the table as he galnces to the side. "Jex has told you more about himself than he ever has anyone else, except perhaps her." He nods down the table to where Nakia is laying out some wooden beakers and filling them from a jug of goats milk, apparently pointedly ignotring them both. "Though she'd never give you a straight answer about him, they care about each other deeply, that's why she hates me so much I imagine."

He sits back. "For my part, Jex has told you he came from an orphanage in Saramei, he may have been light on the details, but thats where he was trained to be a killer, a thief and to survive amongst the rich and the poor alike and make a living from it. So I suppose that's where I'm from too, a very sad place for a child to come from and perhaps says a lot about why he is who he is. He probably didn't tell you that he wanted to be a wizard, but the elves turned him away, because he was only half one of them. After he left the orphanage, he travelled around with some entertainers, that you know too, but ultimately he ran off to Breanne, joined a different cult." He coughs, looks to the side and makes sure Nakia isn't listening. "Or guild as they would call it, made a good living for himself, he is good at what he does, just a shame its such an unpleasent business he chose to follow. Then he joined you." He takes a deep sip of a drink, seemingly reluctant about the next part. "Now I suppose what you are really asking is about how Jex and I came to not be the same person, and honestly I can tell you little about it except that Jex did something unspeakably terrible. I don't remember it much, I don't know if it was part of me pulling apart from him, we were no longer sharing the same consciousness or what, but I woke from that horror with it done and the evidence around me and Jex gone." Matteo is white as a sheet, he looks for a second as though he may vomit, but recovers himself. "I thought he was dead, but I returned here and suddenly he starts speaking again." He taps his head. "And I put the mask on in the camp and then in the battle, so I wouldn't have to hurt anybody, and each time he took control, it was like I was watching it all from my own shoulder, I didn't recognise the things he was doing with my body, but I saw them all." He shudders. "I suppose if I was him, then the part of him that held back from the violence is no longer a part of him and now he acts without mercy which is why..." He holds up the mask... "We should destroy this."

Brundir sits back and folds his arms, nodding along as details progress. "Matteo is Jex, Jex is Matteo. A bit confusing, but I understand the idea. I won't ask ye what happened that made Jex disappear, but it seems strange that he's hidin' in that mask now. Ye say it's like sittin' on yer own shoulder when he acts, right? Is it the same fer 'im? What happens, then, if ye destroy that mask? Does Jex die? Do ye both die?"

Matteo shakes his head

"Not hiding, he wants to come out. He's trapped. Or at least partially. Maybe he was peeled off to protect me from the guilt. You know we weren't born with the name Jex? It was given by the orphanage. It was the name given to the killer we were turned into. Now that's been pulled off of me, why not destroy it? Give me back the life I could have had?"

He holds out the mask to Brundir.

"You take it, when you trust me enough, you destroy it. Or keep it away so that he can't take back the body at least until I figure out how to destroy it."

Bründir takes the offered mask and looks it over. After a moment of consideration, he handed it back with a smile. "Didn't take long, did it?"

The Dwarf leaned back and folded his arms on his chest. "If we're honest, which I hope we are, Jex never struck me as honest. Never lied, but never told it all, either. I like what you've done 'ere, Jex or Matteo, an' I'd like it t'grow. 'Fore we can get there, though, there's more trouble comin'. I need t'know: Can ye help us in th' fight? Can Jex? I ask 'cause I've seen how ye come t'fight." Bründir gives a chuckle, " No offense, friend, but I don' think a staff's gonna take down a sealed God or two."

Matteo laughs.

"Oh, he lied. No need to be nice about it. It's how he was taught to get by. But you know, it doesn't always have to be fighting, there are better ways than drawing blood."

"Never lied 'bout anythin' I knew about," the dwarf corrected further. "As fer fightin', that's a tricky one. Sure, there's ways t'go without blood, an' I'd like it so. Ask me where I'd put coin on odds, an' I'll say there's at least one person gettin' hurt or dead in it all. I'm not askin' ye t'be what ye don' want, but I'm askin' if we can count on ye if things get messy. Have ye seen what Jex's been through with us? Sure, there's ways he didn't 'ave t'kill, but there's warlords, dragons, an' devils that would'a killed us all 'fore we had a word in. I jus' don' want t'lose anyone over tryin'a talk down a threat."

Matteo takes a deep breath.

"Truth is, after the road, I don't trust myself, or Jex even less, to decide who should live or die." 

He shrugs, "it's as simple as that, who are we to know who is right? Vark has made a deal with perhaps the most evil being to ever exist. Val's anger is scary, Thurston believed Jex was a priest of his own god and you all believed he was more than a murderer. we're just people, deeply flawed and not the best judges of character. How do we know we're on the right side? And if we don't, who are we to kill those who took the opposite view?"

He sits back. "So I suppose no, you can't trust I'll fight when it comes to it, and I surely won't let Jex out to make that choice for me."

Bründir sighs and tilts his head back, staring at the ceiling. If he had a pipe, he might look sagely to an onlooker squinting through one eye while laying down. Then, he bobbed and weaved his head side to side as though trying to agree and disagree simultaneously. 

"I can't argue with ye. S'not right t'say who lives an' dies. Reminds me of a story, one you yerself missed by a fortnight 'r less. We jus' came outta Sheercleft, headin' west hearin' trouble on trade roads. Well, wouldn't ye know it, we go lookin' fer trouble an' it bloody well finds us." Bründir rocks forward, landing his crossed arms on the table, staring across the table in another one of his tales of daring.

"We're in with this caravan an' hit some poor 'scuse fer a toll. Blah blah, blades draw, an' we're in it. So 'ere I am, bloody miner with an antique sword an' some han'-me-down armour, tryin' not t'get another hole in my arse." The dwarf spreads his arms wide in an exaggerated show, "Along comes this 'uge.....f*** - can't call'em much else'n he was, right - swingin' this nasty metal club. I'm top o' my head t'yer chin away from gettin' that extra hole, then somethin' happens. Blade goes up," Bründir shoves his thumb up, seemingly enraptured by his own appendage.

"An right in'a this mean bugger's gut. I remember it wasn't quick." His eyes stay wide as he recalls the sight. "He groaned, an' moaned, an' even crawled a bit. Then...thud." Bründir taps the table with an open hand, "He was done. First time I killed a man. I'm no killer. I'm a miner. Thought we'd come make a brave show, show some steel, an' be home by next evenin'. I've killed some more since, but I never hit any of'em 'fore they hit me or mine."

Bründir rocked back into his meditative posture once again, "Point is, we don't kill fer a lark. Not sayin' any killin's good, mind ye. But feels like it's better knowin' yer in it t'stop a fight than start an' win one. I'm sorry fer all of'em, but I'm not sorry I fought. I never killed anybody who gave up 'r ran. I'm not askin' ye t'let Jex loose. I'm not askin' ye t'kill, either. I'm askin', when ye come with us 'cause I'll be damned if anybody gets left back, if ye'll jus' do enough t'stay alive when shit goes arse-up?"