Parity

Anh and Beorg travelled in silence, mainly due to the latter’s unwillingness to talk, despite the tanai initially doing his utmost to provoke him. The nord's response was always limited to some or other version of ‘later’. Eventually the tanai just gave up, and busied himself with cataloguing rock strata along their way and  accumulating a total angle of rotation their winding route took them. There were a few pauses here and there,  when Beorg met two or three agents, listened to their reports and then quickly issued some orders. The hexergist simply ignored most of it, as it didn’t seem interesting enough to warrant putting his very important research on hold.

Then he spent at least several candles accounting for changes of direction they made during their travels. When the counter reached seventy eight quarter and eighth turns in both directions the tanai's companion finally stopped his horse right in the middle of nowhere and signalled Anh to approach.

-”Is it time?" - inquired the tanai, using a conspiratory voice and quickly looking around for would-be eavesdroppers - "Are you going to tell me your secret plan now?”

The ancient aberrant looked at the hexergist and replied in an unnecessary loud voice.

-”We are going to meet an agent here in a scorer or two. That will give us the last piece of information we need.”

-”Right. I see. More waiting then." - And seemed very disappointed - "Any more details?”

-”The agent will simply confirm previous intelligence." - he shifted in the saddle and pointed in a seemingly random direction - "There is a camp nearby, over yonder, in a ravine hidden between the rocks. At least one of the Novikov brothers is currently hiding there with a chunk of the goods evacuated from his main base of operations. Olga and two of my employees are there as well.”

Anh frowned.

-”Two of your… Maanica and Niven? I thought that you evacuated…”

-*he sent them as bait, anh* - casually stated Tow.

-”You sent them as bait?” - Anh relayed Tow’s statement to Beorg, albeit in a much less casual way.

-”One of the scenarios took that into consideration. Arneg's grace, Novikovs sent Olga to apprehend them.”

-”Oh. Right.” - frowned the tanai - We are going to casually ignore this breach of the implicit trust your associates indubitably gave you." - he said, still frowning - "Because, in all honesty, we don’t care.”

-”Not that long ago yous chastised me for being incessantly reckless” - flatly stated Beorg - “One would consider that yous hold yourselves to a higher standard. As a species in general and yours variunity in particular.”

-”Incessantly violent. Not reckless.” - Anh tilted his head a little - “But, after a brief reconsideration, we need to conclude that you, as hoomin say, ‘got us’. In our defense we need to say that our previous claim was uttered in a response to stress, as violence is, sadly, sometimes necessary.” - his tone shifted from theatrically offended to somewhat whiny - ”Currently, and we say so as a tanai who lives in the middle of a Divinul haunted desert, we are under duress caused by Bivos. We assume your machinations will result in the ‘olga’ subject being apprehended and us getting away from here. This heat is insufferable.”

Beorg did not respond, and so, seeing that the conversation was over, the tanai opened his backpack, wiggled out a few sheets of paper and a portable inkwell with a quill, and then floated towards some nearby rocks, jutting from the ground. Once there, he simply started to sketch their strata and structure, occasionally muttering to himself some or other very important facts about them.

They waited no more than maybe a quarter-candle, when a faint silhouette of a horse rider appeared on the horizon. It was blurred by the haze of the afternoon scorch, but it was certainly approaching them. It took the rider another tenter to come within the speaking range.

-”Greetings Khaleen.” - said Beorg, whilst the young man slowed his horse down -”Any changes or new details to the situation?”

-”Beorg!”- Khaleen touched his forehead and then nodded to show respect -”They arrived at the mouth of the ravine. Olga took the islanders inside. She also whipped the horses to get rid of the cart. Martina went after it.” - he looked behind him and then pointed to another silhouette approaching them. This time it was a cart pulled by two horses, with another one in tow - "There she is."

-”I see” - replied the nord. His face showed a hint of appreciation - ”What awaits us inside?”

The agent patted his horse on the neck and then began counting on his fingers.

-”Not much. Alexei Novikov himself, five of his goons, Olga and the islanders. And crates, lots of crates. With stuff. They did not expect to be bothered there, so no defences or even a perimeter set. One guard with a longarm over the entrance, not counting people occasionally taking crap outside.”

- "Guard over the entrance…"

- "Already taken care of." - interrupted the young man - "We have left the body in such a way that it looks like he's still on overwatch."

The tiny hint of approval on the nord's face became slightly more pronounced. In the arsenal of his facial expressions, this was as high a praise as one could reasonably expect.

-”Good." - he nodded - “Very good. All that is left now is to go and negotiate with Mr Novikov. But first, we need our artefacts back”.

The cart came around a scorer later. Martina was driving casually, maybe even carelessly, not really bothered by anything. She waved at them when she was but a stone's throw away.

-”So!” - she yelled - “Ready to close this job?”

-”Yes.” - confirmed Beorg - “Anhs!?”

The tanai didn't respond straight away, but after the second prompt shouted by his aberrant associate, he reluctantly  interrupted his work, stashed the stack of papers in his backpack and then floated casually to the hoomin.

-”Present and accounted for. Let’s go!”

-*and be done with it already* - added Tow - *all this cloak and dagger conniving is becoming tedious* nothing but meet agent here and go there* i half expect beorg to start cackling evilly soon*

Brief pause flew through the variunity at such a preposterous proposition.

-*The heat is dehydrating us at an unprecedented rate* - added Birdekk in a worried tone after the amusement subsided.

-*and the sand is ruining our clothes* - chimed in Greoo - *and our skin* we'll need a long and expensive treatment for our face and the delicate cranium after this feotian sand adventure is over*

There was much mental nodding and muttering.

-*and we didn't even finish sketching that rock* - summed up Thernohh as Anh took off, following the horses -*it was a very nice rock*