Trust no one

He felt the full force of her emotions, letting it wash over him.
How could he tell her his faith in his fellow mankind had been irreparable damaged by what he had seen that Winter?

When people were forced to eat the dead flesh of their own kind. How some had preyed on the weak to murder them for sustenance. How could he tell her about the slow spiral into madness that came from spending too much time alone in the dark caves of the Ypogeios.

He couldn't. He had been lost a long time ago. And the only thing that kept him going in the empty hope he would one day find himself again. A hope that would dwindle to become nothing more than an ember with each passing day.

"Perhaps." He told her. "Perhaps I could have gone about things in a different way." He spoke softly almost apologetically. "I decide long ago to take no chances." He reached out to the fire moving his fingers across the flames, as if wanting to grasp it.

"Maybe in another life thinks would have been different." He said. "I would have conducted myself differently. But it is what it is. I will bear the price of my actions."

Nearby an owl's hoot sounded across the silence that stretched between the two. He did not answer her question on why she would join him on the final leg of quest. He did not know why. But he could tell Alexis Greyriver was not someone that like thinking she had no choice.

"This friend of yours, Tarmen." He said moving the conversation along. " Do you think he will be successful? And if he isn't can you get us into the Keep?" He asked.