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chapter five. tree's embrace
"What is the meaning of this? Actually, you know, it doesn't matter. Call off your dog. Now! I won't ask twice."
Fallon couldn't deny her delight, watching Dalaia tackle Astarion to the ground. She came to a stop above them both. Astarion's eyes narrowed as she blotted the sun.
"What are you hiding?" Fallon said.
He made a face, as if to mock his own confusion. She saw a flicker of knowing in him. Ah, the upper hand. The scroll was in her back pocket. She produced it as the others gathered around them.
"What is it? Is that ... Blood?" Marth said. He made to wipe the fleck on her cheek. Fallon twisted away from him. He cleared his throat. "There's a better way to ask him to leave."
"Such a command isn't yours to make," Astarion spat. "I invited you here, this is my home!"
Dalaia snorted. "You? Here? Forever?"
He glared at her boot, which she proceeded to dig the heel of into his chest. Astarion grunted and shook his head. "Not how you're proposing it, no."
"What is the meaning of this?" Orikas swiped the scroll before Fallon could stop him. He scanned it. Then, without pause, he tossed into the water channel. They watched as it disappeared from sight.
Fallon shoved him away from her. "Are you mad?"
"That was none of our business."
"It was entirely our business. That was on the person of a monster hunter!" She swiped her cheek with the back of her hand. The blood smeared against her knuckles. "Presumably that would make him a monster."
"We don't know that."
Marth had gone grey. "Well, I mean, now that you mention it, he is rather ..."
"Rather what?" Astarion twisted beneath Dalaia. "Go on. Don't turn tail now. Say it."
"You're perhaps, unnatural in your appearance?"
"As you will be, when I remove several of your toes."
For all his noise, he couldn't cover the panic rising in his tone. Fallon managed to swallow down her frustration toward Orikas. Crouching, she met Astarion at his level.
"He was coming here to kill you." His gaze dropped from hers. He knew her words before she spoke them "I disposed of him, but there'll be more. Unless you wish to face them alone, you'll explain yourself."
