milliways_bar | (no subject)

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At some point today, a certain small man with a long nose slipped unnoticed into the bar.

How does the narration know this? Because currently, he is sitting at a table with a good view of most of the room, and enjoying an after-dinner ale, with a faint smile on his face.

Come on, you know you want to ask.

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"Tell me something pleasant."

He sits with a thump.

"Please."

"I came out ahead in the fur market, this winter," Silk says, with a very self-satisfied note to his voice.

"That's nice for you. I was hoping for something a little more..."

He doesn't actually have what he'd want, so he just sort of grumbles and sips on his ale.

"I haven't heard anything out of Karanda, if that's what you mean," he adds, a little more soberly. "Ale? On me," he offers generously.

"Of course you haven't. They've been called to cause trouble elsewhere," he says with a longer pull on the ale.

"Though I could do with another one. I won't turn the richest man in the world on a free drink."

Silk gives a casual wave to a passing wiatrat.

"Another round, for both of us," he says.

"...Do I want to know?" he asks, after a moment. "Don't answer that; I don't want to know. I know I don't want to know. I could probably live my life without knowing, and be happier for it. That said, Garion... Is there something I should know?"

"No," he says patiently. "I'm pretty sure this is going to be my pain in the backside."

He rubbed at his temples.

"Will you do me one favor, though?"

"What is it?"

And he turns, blue eyes very very full of... something.

"If anything happens, and this is a standing request, of course--"

He breathes out, takes a long sip, and gives Silk a tired, crooked smile.

"You'll make sure Ce'Nedra and the children are all right, could you?"

"Of course I will, Garion. As all right as they can be without you, that is." He smiles slightly in return. "You don't even need to ask."

"Well, you know me. I worry," he says with a smile. Mostly because he didn't, usually, worry.

"Of course you do," Silk replies, perfectly straight.

About then, the rat arrives with their ales.

Garion's finishing his as the rat comes up, so it's perfect timing.

"Thanks."

For more than the drinks.

Eventually a man build like, and carrying the sword of, a Tolnedran legionaire appraoches, eyebrow lifted. "Normally I don't walk up to total strangers sitting in corners unless they're women, but I have to ask: what does a man have to do to look quite that smug?"

"Well my good man, it would be both a lie, and false modesty to say that I didn't have a monopoly on the fur trade from Tolnedra, clear across to Melcene," he replies, making a broad gesture to describe the distance.

Max's eyebrows rise and his lip twists up in amusement. "And with all the money that must give you, you choose to dress like that?" Says the man wearing a still-serviceable but clearly worn tunic.

"Travelling, my good man, travelling. It's a task best undertaken incognito, as they say."

"Who says that?" Max laughs. "I much prefer to travel in style!" When he's not, you know, spying... Oh. Right.

Right.

"Well, maybe in Mallorea," Silk concedes.

"Never heard of the place, but I'm pretty sure I hate it already."

"Oh, no, it's great fun there," Silk replies, his nose twitching a little. It's true, Mallorea is fun, so long as he's not tromping thorugh demon-infested mudholes.

"'Great fun' means women and alcohol," Max suggests. "Is Mallorea full of both of them?"

Silk gives a despairing sigh.

"Such a narrow view of fun you have. Granted, both of those should certainly be included in the definition of fun."

"Please tell me you're not about to try to explain how Mallorea can be both completely empty of women and alcohol and still be a fun place to be." Because people have tried that before with Max, and they're always lying.