Tibs looked at the plate Russel handed him as he reached the bar. He then took it, along with the tankard at the cook’s insistence, and made his way to his table. His team was already there and, other than Jackal, were done eating.

He ignored their eyes on him as he sat and started eating. If he didn’t, Kroseph would nag him when he passed by. The thick slab of meat was drenched in a spicy sauce, with vegetables drizzled with sweet oil.

“We need to talk,” Jackal said as he pushed his empty plate away.

Tibs nodded, continuing to eat. He was halfway done.

“I said we need to talk, Tibs.”

“I can eat while you talk.” He replied, and went back to eating.

“I’d rather you focus on us. The food can wait.”

Only, if he waited too long and Kroseph again felt like Tibs wasn’t eating enough, he’d nag and nag about it. The server was getting annoying. By Jackal’s expression, he was going to be just as nagging about whatever he wanted to say. Well, if Kroseph passed by now, he could point at his man as the reason and the server could nag him about how he felt it was important Tibs ate.

He looked at the fighter.

“You have to let go of water. It’s starting to cause problems.”

“Did…” Tibs glanced at Don. “He tell you something?” He then realized Sto couldn’t have told Jackal anything, since the fighter couldn’t hear the dungeon.

“Fine,” the sorcerer said. “Yes, I’m the one who brought it up. I thought you’d listen to him more than me.”

“Why would I listen to him? You’re smarter.”

They stared at him.

“That, right there, is kind of what the problem is, Tibs,” Mez said.

“Not that I’m the smarter one,” Don added, “but that you’re so blatant about pointing it out.”

“That statement,” Khumdar said, “sounds suspiciously like you are wishing you were not.”

Don rolled his eyes. “It isn’t because I’m the smartest person in this town that I think I’m better than everyone.”

“Yes, you do,” Tibs said.

Don sighed. “This is me trying to be more humble.”

The cleric hid his smile behind his tankard. “You will need to continue practicing.”

“Look, there’s only so much awesome I can hide, okay?”

“Hey,” Jackal exclaimed. “I’m the awesome one here. You have to settle for being great.”

Don raised an eyebrow. “I don’t settle,” he stated. “So that man of yours is going to have to get used to his man not being all that awesome anymore.”

Jackal snorted. “You are going to have to try a lot harder if you want my man to think you’re more awesome than I am.”

“Your man’s going to have to keep imagining you’re so awesome then, because even to prove you wrong, I’m not getting in bed with him.”

“That’s good,” the server said, putting tankards down and taking the empties. “I’m starting to like you, and I’d rather not have to punch you.” The server looked at Tibs’s half finished plate as he stacked the empty ones, and Tibs readied himself for the tirade.

“It just means there’s one less person in the lineup,” Don replied, taking the server’s attention away from Tibs. “It’s not like I’m going to notice.”

It also caused the others to stare at the sorcerer instead of him.

“What?” Don asked.

Kroseph patted his shoulder. “I think I like you a little more after this.” It took the plates in a hand and tankard in the other and headed for the kitchen.

Don stared at the retreating back, then at the others at the table. “What did I say?”

“If you do not know,” Khumdar replied, “then you can be assured it was the correct thing.”

The sorcerer looked at Tibs.

He shrugged and went back to eating. He might have escaped the tirade because of Don’s actions, but Kroseph wouldn’t let it go if the plate wasn’t empty soon.

“We still need to talk,” Jackal said.

Tibs weighed the fighter nagging him against Kroseph’s, and how likely they would turn on each other if Tibs pointed out Jackal was the reason the plate wasn’t empty yet. He sighed, Jackal had to have cleared this with his man. Which meant Kroseph would add that to his nagging.

Tibs looked at the fighter.

“You have to—”

“No.” Tibs didn’t see how Jackal could even consider that. There was too much work to be done to deal with the chaos it could cause.

“Tibs, your actions are affecting the town.”

“Everyone’s actions affect the people in Kragle Rock,” Tibs replied.

“But not everyone had a house burned down,” Don said, and Tibs wondered how he’d known.

“Or set up Runners for cell time,” Jackal added.

“They’re fine,” Tibs said. “They were released before their runs. And there’s plenty of other houses for that family to use.” That was if they didn’t want to stay at their tavern, the way Kroseph’s family stayed at the inn.

“Are you going to buy them a new house?” Mez asked.

“What?” Why would Tibs have to spend coins on that? Staying in a house couldn’t be that much more expensive than Tibs staying in the housing building. A house had more rooms, so it would be what, three or four silver every month?

“Unless you buy the house for them,” the archer said, “they can’t just move into a vacant one. They have to own the house,” he added at Tibs’s frown.

“No, they don’t,” Tibs scoffed. “All these recent people just got the houses that were built.”

“Those were paid for by their families, so even if they don’t directly own them, it’s still theirs while they are looking after the Omega Runners.”

“There are still plenty of people in houses no one owns. Don lived in one before moving to our room.”

“Just one floor,” the sorcerer corrected. “And I still had to pay for it, every month.”

“They can do the same,” Tibs said.

“I doubt they can afford to pay for the house you had burned,” Mez said, “and rental on another place.”

“Why would they have to pay for the house if they can’t live in it anymore?”

Mez shook his head. “You have no idea how housing works, do you?”

“People spend coins to live in a house. When they move, someone else moves in and pays the coins.” It was pretty simple, as far as Tibs was concerned.

“It’s more complicated than that,” the archer said.

“Then they can live at their tavern.” Fine, it was more complex. Why was that his problem?

“And what happens to the money they aren’t making because they can’t have people pay to sleep in them? They aren’t like Kroseph and his family. They didn’t build their tavern, so they’d live in it. The rooms there are so people can pay to have their fun, or because they drank too much to make it home. They need every coin they can get to pay what they owe.”

“They can make it work,” Tibs stated. They all were, so why should it be any different for that one family?

“And your reaction is why you have to stop.”

“I can’t.”

“You can,” Jackal said. “Just let go of it.”

Tibs narrowed his eyes at the fighter. “You’ve seen how dangerous that is.”

“I’m not saying you have to do it now,” Jackal replied. “Next time we’re in the dungeon.”

Now Tibs knew Jackal and Sto were in league. The fighter wasn’t smart enough to have come up with that on his own. Which meant Sto had lied about only being able to speak with Tibs. He was going—

Or maybe not.

Jackal wasn’t smart, but he had seen Tibs unleash fire inside the dungeon and how Sto had been able to survive it. So it wouldn’t be that hard for him to come up with this.

Now, how to handle this?

“I can’t. I can’t risk hurting him like that.” They knew how much he cared for Sto.

Jackal studied him. “Tibs, I’m not asking you. I’m telling you to stop.”

“I’m telling you I won’t.” You idiot. “It’s too dangerous.” I have too much to do and I am not bothering with distractions.

“It cannot be any more dangerous than where we can see your current behavior taking you,” the cleric said.

“Fell like correcting him?” Tibs asked Jackal.

“I already told them what you can do. Not everything,” Jackal added at Tibs’s raised eyebrow.

“But enough,” Don said. “I can see what you’re afraid of, but I’m telling you, Tibs. Where you’re heading can be much more destructive. I’ve gotten a book that—”

“I’m working toward freeing the town,” Tibs cut him off. Like he had any use for something the sorcerer read. By his own admission, most of them were just words people who didn’t care about the world wrote to make themselves feel important. “That isn’t something that happens without some people getting hurt. I’m sorry it’s happening,” he added as he saw the frowns forming, “but I’m not stopping just because you don’t like it.”

“It’s more than is not liking it,” Don said. “You are becoming so focused on your end-goal you can’t see how much destruction getting there is going to cause because all you care about right now is winning.”

“It’s not going to be anymore than what the guild caused,” Tibs replied, annoyed any of them thought anything he could do would be worse than letting the guild go on.

“Tibs,” Don said in exasperation. “You’re already dismissing—”

“It’s not going to work,” Jackal cut him off, studying Tibs. “He’s too far gone to care about that.”

Tibs watched the fighter back. Jackal wouldn’t say something like that without thinking he had a plan.

“Here’s what’s going to happen, Tibs,” The fighter said calmly. “Unless you promise to let go of water once we’re in the dungeon, We aren’t going to have another run.”

“You can’t stop the runs,” Tibs replied, amused at the stupidity of the fighter’s plan. He’d thought him capable of at least a little better. “The guild won’t let you.”

With his point made, he returned to eating. The food was cool, but that wouldn’t stop Kroseph from nagging.

“Well, yeah,” Jackal agreed with a chuckle, and Tibs paused, dripping meat almost to his mouth. “But if I’m in a cell when the run’s supposed to happen, we can’t go.”

Tibs stared. That was almost decent as far as plans went. Except for the fact that Tibs knew the fighter too well. “Are you going to tell Irdian about the pit? That’s what it’s going to take for them to throw you in a cell, because all the guards know you only fight assholes who deserve it outside the training field. You’re not going to deprive the other fighters who need the pit to endure being here.”

Jackal nods. “I’d never do that to them.”

Tibs smiled and almost moved the meat closer, but the fighter had that glint in his eyes.

“What I would do, instead, is walk into the Drunk Worm and start a brawl there with one of the many guards who call the place home when they need a break from the chaos us Runners cause. Doesn’t matter if I pick one of the assholes to start it. They’re going to have to come to their defense, just on principle.”

The reasoning wasn’t bad. But again, Jackal wasn’t paying attention to how well Tibs knew him. “You won’t sacrifice the loot you can get in the dungeon over this.”

Jackal leaned forward, eyes locked with Tibs’s. “Try me.”

That was a look Tibs hadn’t seen often. Jackal was attempting his ‘I’m done messing around and it’s time to punch things until they break’ look. It would work on someone else.

“You would never sacrifice loot for anything short of Kroseph asking you.”

“Which you seem to forget that is something my man might ask of me if it comes to it. But he didn’t,” Jackal added as Tibs looked away to locate the server. “This is something I came up with all on my own.”

“He did,” Don said before Tibs could glance in his direction.

“Then I know you’re lying. There’s nothing you’d put above getting loot if it isn’t your man.”

“You are so wrong, Tibs.” Jackal’s smile was as nasty as Tibs had ever seen it. “There is something that comes a very close second to my man, and that isn’t loot.” He leaned forward more and lowered his voice. “And that is my brother. For you Tibs, I will sacrifice everything the dungeon offers.”

Tibs swallowed as he filled the spiderweb that formed. “I don’t need help,” he finally said.

“I don’t care what you think you need, Tibs. Until you promise to let go of water once we’re in the dungeon, the day before our run, I’m going to end up in a cell.”

The lack of light on the words made Tibs realize there had been no light on anything Jackal had said. He ground his teeth at his miscalculation. He didn’t care about loot, but he needed the runs to get stronger. He hadn’t expected the fighter to be so abyss stubborn.

Maybe it was time his team got itself a new leader.

The crack nearly shattered his control. The knuckles turned white as he filled and iced it until he was back to himself.

No. What he needed was a way to show Jackal he was fine.

With a heavy sigh, he slumped forward. “Fine,” he said, sounding defeated. “I’ll do it.” He couldn’t show the fighter he was fine unless they were in the dungeon.

“Promise it.”

He sighed again. “I promise.” It was a good thing none of his teammates had light as their element, or had thought about bringing a Runner with it. Once they were in the dungeon, Tibs would be able to demonstrate that him in control was better than him out of it.

And if Jackal didn’t see reasons?

He filled the cracks as they formed.

Well, the dungeon was a dangerous place. And even at Lambda, surviving it wasn’t guaranteed.