#thread x breadcrumbs

[ @houseofreglay​ ]

[Labyrinth 2021 - Plateau]

“Matthew, why there you are.”

The sage found him after the group scattered from the docks, tackling their respective investigatory leads. Unusually, Pent appeared almost sheepish, glancing down at a neatly folded slip of paper in his hands. Wrinkled, as if he had been fidgeting at the corner for the entire trip into Caledonia.

(The contents scrawled in Pent’s shorthand were simple, outlining the time, place and circumstances of their arrival. If the spy could still decipher some of the notation used by Etruria’s elite–he shouldn’t, but Pent wasn’t going to pry if he didn’t probe too much either–he might have even been able to make out some of Pent’s own thoughts and notes leading up to the mooring of their boat.)

“I have.. A favour, of sorts, to ask of you.” He offered Matthew the folded page, fingers lingering on the creases. “Not confidential by any means–there is nothing you or any one of us don’t already know also–but seeing as you deal in information, I ask you keep this safe until we leave again.”

It was the kind of greeting Matthew would never get used to. No matter his line of work, people looking for him by name never failed to set the hairs at the nape of his neck tingling - especially when it was people he’d not been quite expecting to be looking for him in the first place.

He met the mage with his usual ghost of a smile - certainly amicable enough to fool any who didn’t know better, albeit guarded behind a wary interest. And yet, seeing the Etrurian in the flesh, the spy’s posture relaxed some. He trusted Pent… to an extent. Heart-to-hearts had the odd tendency of affording a certain confidence.

“Here I am,” he echoed, his tone the very picture of ‘casual.’ The other’s countenance wasn’t lost on him.  Brow quirked in question. His curiosity burned all the brighter.

Eyes cracked wide, betraying a mote of surprise - and, perhaps, a tinge of amusement. Without much fanfare, Matthew plucked the proffered paper between index and middle fingers, before tucking it carefully away.  

“Well… Suppose I might still owe ya a bit.” His smile rang genuine. “I’ll look after it, yeah. Thanks for entrusting me with it. Or, if that’s not sappy enough for ya,” a chuckle interrupted the thought, “I could wax poetic and offer that I’d lay down my life for it… But I suspect you’d know I were lying.”

Even still, some part of him was rather tickled to have been approached. He’d have to do that trust justice.