"Maaaaah." He sits up. "I'll gut your stupid fish, give me a minute."

He wobbles off towards the river and comes back a few minutes later. He cleans the fish with the practiced ease of a coastdweller, then performs the arcane processes of cooking them.

"How did you get so good at cooking, anyway?"

"Herbalist's training, orphanhood, and a strong stomach." He pokes a filet. "The herbalism meant I didn't have to survive on grilled rabbits, cook actual food instead. The orphan thing meant nobody was going to cook for me, so I'd better learn. And the strong stomach meant I could keep down what I'd fucked up."

"When did your parents die?" Arrobeða asks.

"Never knew 'em. I was raised by a witch. Hence the herbalism."

"And she died as well?"

"I should damn well hope so, with the hole I put in her head. But, you know. She did the cooking. So I learned to do my own."

Timelines, timelines...

"How old were you?"

"I would love for you to tell me how I should know."

"You said I was four years older than you."

"Why did you think I knew how old you are? It was an estimate! You're a teenager and I'm not yet!"

"...how many winters ago did you kill your foster witch."

"Ech. Math. ..............four? I think four."

"That's not math, that's counting," she says, as she tries to process the concept of a child four years younger than this already tiny child putting a rock through his caretaker's skull, presumably under threat of death.

"Makes my head hurt either way. Have some fish."

Fish.

Fish!

"So how'd your parents die?" he asks. "Since you got my sob story."

"How. Did you know that."

"Basic context clues? Your voice did a thing when you were asking about mine."

"Orcs. Um. Six months ago."

"Shame," Aḥyl says. "Did you kill the orcs?"

"I was away. In the city. By the time I got back..."

"Do you want to kill the orcs?"

"Yes. I... thought I couldn't. Because they'd killed Father, and, and he knew what he was doing with a sword."

"Kind of looked like you knew what you were doing with a sword. Back there, with the chimera. And I don't think orcs have bullet-proof hides."