Mallory blinked. Was that… Doradrassil? She thought the Warden had left already, but there she was talking with Sergeant Konse. Doradrassil saluted Konse crisply and turned away.
"Dora?" Mallory called.
She saw Doradrassil cringe. Mallory remembered, belatedly, that the Warden hated that nickname. Doradrassil slowly turned toward her and simply said, "Yes?"
"Um… I thought you already left to check on Surwich."
"I did," Doradrassil answered, and Mallory felt like a fool. "I'm back. About to leave again to go and defend the town in case the Iron Horde tries to take it."
Mallory's embarrassment quickly gave way to questions again. "Huh? You against all of…?"
Doradrassil merely arched her eyebrow in reply, the same challenging look Aertemis sometimes shot her. Doradrassil against all those Iron Horde invaders was exactly the sort of match-up the Warden preferred. "I need to go," she said simply. "The town only has six or seven guards. You should follow up with Zen on his theories about the Portal. He sounded like he was onto something."
Mallory went slack-jawed. Zen, Mallory, and other Templars had discussed their theories practically in the shadow of the Dark Portal itself! Doradrassil hadn't been there though… "How'd you know about that?" she asked.
"I was there," Doradrassil said, already walking away. She looked back at Mallory for just a moment and smirked. "Don't look so surprised. No one could have missed the explosion I set off under one of the tents."
The scene flashed back into Mallory's head. The explosion that had cued them to leave! "But…"
"And even before that, you noticed me."
Mallory blinked again. "I… I did?"
Doradrassil chuckled lightly. "You said you couldn't believe your team hadn't been spotted. You were right… You had been spotted."
Mallory stammered dumbly, not quite getting Doradrassil's point, until the Warden stopped and turned back toward her with a satisfied smirk.
"Who do you think was keeping them off you?"
Comments
No Comments