Claude watched as his sworn brother let out a breath that seemed to draw out for centuries.
"There is much you don't know, now that you've left His Majesty's side," the Mad Dog finally said, a weak explanation that caused Claude's ire to jump like the flames in their shack's fireplace.
"Don't say that to me when you know - when you both know - why I distanced myself. And I haven't left!" Claude snapped. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have been so easily summoned to go fetch your half-dead carcass."
"All for a woman," Rusella suddenly said, no longer content with being a spectator to the burgeoning argument.
"Excuse me?" Claude scoffed.
"You left us, for a woman." She looked a bit smug, a sight that prompted Claude to toss out the recent instructions his brother had just given him.
"Don't be so bold as to include yourself in this 'us', witch."
