Does It Matter?

Chapter 24

When Brayan turned back around, he found Bug dressed in the clean clothes and sitting on the edge of the bed. His eyes were firmly fixed on the plate of food in Brayan's hands.

"Well, you've answered my questions and you've earned a reward," Brayan said as he carried the plate of food over to the small table on the other side of the room. "One reward. You can have either the necklace or some of this food. You can decide which."

The look of utter defeat on Bug's face made Brayan feel a little bad. He had no real intention of withholding either, but he would take his leverage where he could get it.

"I would like the necklace, please."

"See, that's interesting," Brayan said. "You claim you believe me when I say that it's not magical, that it's not worth anything, but you still want it very much. Why?"

Bug dropped his gaze. He shrugged.

"If you tell me why, you can have both."

Bug hesitated. "It's silly, sir."

"Try me."

"I had a nice dream and in it I was wearing something similar. That's all, sir. I know it's stupid."

"A dream or a vision?"

Bug was silent for several seconds while he chewed on his lip. Brayan really wished he would stop doing that. It was distracting. "I used to think it was a vision, but there are things in it that just aren't possible anymore."

"Are they impossible or are they just unlikely? With the right magic, many things are possible."

"I guess they're not impossible..." Bug shook his head. "But it doesn't matter. That's not how it works. I've been having this dream for years. Predicting even an hour into the future gets complicated because there are so many possibilities. Seeing something years ahead makes no sense."

"Well, you're the expert, so I won't question you on that. It just sounds odd. Like it should be meaningful in some way."

"That's how I feel, too, sir," Bug said quietly. He let out a long sigh. "But it doesn't have anything to do with what you want from me. I'm sorry if I made you feel like me wanting the necklace was important in some way. I didn't mean for it to be distracting."

Brayan tossed Bug the necklace. "Come over here and sit down. You've earned some food."

Bug clutched the necklace in his hand and approached the table. When he hesitated, Brayan pointed him to the chair on the opposite side of the table.

Before he had found out the truth about Dara he had been keen to make sure he was abiding by his training appropriately, but Bug? Bug wasn't his problem. The more at ease Bug became, the more he would talk, and so far that was working to Brayan's benefit. He didn't need him to be submissive or polite. All he needed was for him to feel comfortable sharing information.

Brayan put an empty plate down in front of Bug and then transferred some of the food from the plate Garrod had brought onto it. It was tempting to just give him all of it, but in his experience people who had been starved would only make themselves sick if they were permitted to gorge themselves.

He did give Bug the nicest cuts of meat and the tiny sugar cake that Garrod had piled onto the side of the plate, though. It was just logical. Bug would enjoy them far more than Brayan would have.

Brayan sat back and gave Bug a nod of approval, and Bug immediately started eating.

"Not too fast," Brayan warned. "You don't want to end up throwing it back up."