Hells Take My Hand

Didn’t want to include this in the previous post but did want to share it.

We sing louder When we should be quiet We won’t bow our heads Before we’re six feet under

No harm done, he would have said to her apology, if he’d trusted his voice. Would it have been true? He wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter anyway, because he wasn’t sure he could have gotten the words out even if he’d tried. Instead he just nodded mutely, unsure if she would even notice, but considering himself largely incapable of doing anything more. Golmore. Rabanastre. He had to wonder how much she knew of the former, when he himself didn’t know much about the latter. What was certain was that they, the each of them, had... Something had gone wrong, somewhere. Something in Golmore for him. Something in Rabanastre for her. He could guess what about it even if he didn’t know for certain—considering what had happened to the city. Maybe it was something of a surprise he now worked with Garleans all that considered, but life was strange like that, at times. And despite everything... He wasn’t going to lump all of them together. No matter what his knee jerk reaction was. Not like that hadn’t taken some doing, though. A lot of doing, conscious effort on his part. Yet, he was proud of himself for far he’d gotten in that area, in many areas– And she was about to benefit from all his effort, as well. She wanted protection? She would get protection. They were almost in an agreement as it was. But oh, she thought he might be joking about giving her an opportunity to see real, actual voidsent, right before he’d undo them? Xandrian’s smile eased to that near-constant but mostly meaningless upward quirk at the corners of his mouth—his resting face, really—and he shook his head. “No jest.” That bit... Aggressive, unhappy demeanor of hers didn’t look to have much effect on him, just rolling off him like water from a duck’s back. He could be perfectly professional when he wanted to be, of course, but for something as long-term as this was sounding to be? Well, she could go hire someone else if his attitude and personality weren’t to her liking. For whatever reason, it didn’t look like she was planning to do that, which was fine by him. Yes yes, she was on the prickly side of things, but she was still Viera, and someone who wanted a bit of adventure on top of it. He could deal with the downsides. “We can do it whichever way you prefer,” he continued, referring to the two of options of leaving her behind or taking her with him, danger be damned. He leaned back as he said that, planting his back to the chair’s blacklist in what became not quite a slouch. He nodded too, to her receptiveness to the idea of learning a bit more combat. “I couldn’t help you with chakrams to any capacity, but...” A shrug as he trailed off. The offer would be there if she ever opted to take him up on it. And was anything else he would have her know? Xandrian gave it a few moments of thought before he shook his head again. “Nothing beyond ‘do you want this arrangement in writing?’ Some of the jobs I take on are simple verbal agreements, but if you want an actual contract to show for it, that can be done.” Overall, then, that was a, “Yes,” wasn’t it? Spoken with a grin, Xandrian nodded without any uncertainty. “I am willing to take on your proposition. You said you were fine with covering the expenses, yes? Food, travel whenever we’re not simply footing it, lodging if we’re not sleeping outside... We’re less likely to need to worry about bribes, at least.” Always a bit of a concern in Thanalan especially. After listing the more unavoidable money sinks, Xandrian named the price for his personal bodyguard services as well—a bit lower than what he usually asked, perhaps, but he’d take this whole experience, adventure, as part of the payment, as much as he didn’t say that. “As I said, my services come cheaper than those of the adventurers here—and if they don’t, they likely weren’t adventurers you’d want protecting you anyway,” he added, then jerked his head towards the leve counter. “You can check with the levemete what jobs similar to this generally cost through them, if you want to make sure.”