[color=lightblue]"A cottage isn't a bad end goal. Wouldn't be a bad way to wrap things up, just vanishing after a long life."[/color]

Urden had considered retiring once age slowed him enough, and nominally didn't just throw all his payment away solely on booze and hedonism for the expressed reason, and if asked he would confirm such suspicions. Of course, the number of mercenaries that got to retire he could name on one hand, and those were just the ones he knew from hearsay and stories. Mages were practically expected to retire, settling into some tower or sprawling manor that they could ride out the twilight years neck deep in books and study. Least as far as he heard it told, once again reminded that most employers with magical powers weren't even a fraction as chatty as Handy and Red here. Speaking of, Red started in on the usefulness of permanent circles for a mage that has cause to cast the same spell over and over again. Guess that made a sort of sense, the usefulness being for taxing or broad effects. He could see healers using something like that, just stick the sick and dying on the circle, wiggle their fingers, and wounds closed, disease banished, everyone's all happy. And the healer's purse is that bit heavier, of course. The mention of such a circle being put in Handy's staff would have gotten more of a remark if it wasn't immediately followed up by the mention that this circle could, in the wrong hands, accidentally bring [i]Merophayal[/i] about. Didn't take a mage to know a name like that, though he did his best to keep a neutral expression.

[color=lightblue]"If even a fraction of the rumors are true, said frustrated mage will have plenty of time to regret his decision. Fortunately Red here seems to be as adept at being a voice of reason as a battlefield menace, who'd have known?"[/color]

For all the aloofness on the mission, Handy certainly was an odd one to try and get a read on. Urden knew she was capable, that much had been made apparent, and Red certainly made that clear as well. Metaphorically reeked of magic, to such a degree that even after expending a burst of it had done little to get his skin to stop crawling. Maybe it was something he would have to get used to, and given his apparent inability to avoid injury, that might just be necessary. But the sheer lack of consideration of long term consequences, even if it was just conjecture, was a concerning point. Then again, he was in a band of nobles, at least one assassin, and a griffon rider to name a few oddities compared to his usual, pre Lions dealings. A mage with more magic than sensibilities was hardly the strangest thing in the world when put in such circumstances, even if her voice of reason was daemonic in nature. And if said duo was going to make it even easier to keep collecting pay until he could also wander off and be forgotten, well, who was he to look a gift Hundi in the mouth then?

[@Raineh Daze]