The Sword and The Shadow

"Darn it! Eibron you dog, you dare tie me up?!" Londo roared. As he was far too noisy, he had to be left tied up alone in his tent. Even so, he never stopped cursing as if that was the only way he could vent.

The guards felt like laughing when they heard the insults. All the officers of the unit, including the commander were far from normal. Only Eibron appeared to be the more serious, orthodox kind. They were just barely holding themselves back at the insults Londo fashioned for Eibron.

However, the fellow continued on for a few hours. It was now three in the night and he didn't show any sign of stopping. Even so, the guards were more or less used to it. Perhaps because Londo didn't have a good education, his vocabulary was quite limited. So, he only had a few variants which he repeated to no end. Eventually, they managed to drone out the monotonous ramblings.

Plop! Plop!

As Londo continued cursing, the guards standing outside the tent blacked out.

Seeing what happened, Londo was dumbfounded. "Did I yell so much they fainted?"

Then, he saw Lamir sneaking into the tent.

"Second Maam, why are you here? I'm a big fellow now and I don't need no girl staying with me. I'm not afraid of the dark."

"Londo you idiot, can you be more quiet?" Lamir really wanted to tear that mouth off the face.

"Oh, okay. Second Maam, what are you here to do?" Londo only just noticed Lamir's arrival to be a little odd.

"What else? I knocked them out with my divine miracles. What do you think I'm trying to do?!" she said with a contemptuous glare.

"As expected of our leader's woman!" Londo cried.

"Shut up!--" She pressed the dagger against Londo's mouth. "--Yell again and I'll cut your tongue out!"

"Uh… huh…" Londo nodded as his sweat formed. It only just occurred to him that Kurdak had to live with a fierce woman like Vera, and now, Lamir seemed to be the same kind of person as well. It seemed he had tough days ahead of him.

"Want me to let you go?" Lamir asked.

"Of course! Second Maam, faster! I have to go save our leader!"

"Then answer a few questions of mine," Lamir said, her eyes glued to him, "What is this about? Hasn't Kurdak gone back to Melindor for a meeting? Why's he a convict all of a sudden?"

"He was lying to you. He said he had urgent matters to attend to, so he left us to watch the unit after going out himself." Londo had no choice but to reveal it all for the sake of his freedom.

"Then why's he a convict now?" Lamir asked.

"I'm not too sure. He didn't let us know anything and left after giving Eibron and me some instructions."

"What's going on…" Lamir furrowed her brow and thought of something. "What about Vera? Where is she?"

"Didn't Leader send her to look for Sir Dark Requiem?" Somehow, Leguna managed to beat him up so bad the first time that Londo always referred to him respectfully from then on.

"That's it!" Lamir's expression changed immediately. She finally understood why Kurdak left camp. It definitely had something to do with Vera! She recalled she was sent to look for Leguna, but he wasn't hadn't been with her. It wasn't even certain whether they'd met!

"What's the problem?" Londo asked, his simple mind oblivious to the connections, "Second Maam, are you letting me go or not?"

Lamir ignored him, still in deep thought.

"Second Maam?" Londo called out again. Since he found out about the relationship between Lamir and Kurdak, he kept on referring to her as such. Initially, the priestess was quite put-off by it, as 'second' made her sound inferior to Vera. But no matter how much she tried to correct him, Londo persisted in calling her that, so she stopped trying and accepted it.

She finally looked up. "Londo."

"What is it?"

"I can let you go, but you have to promise me something."

"And what's that?"

"Take me away. I want to look for Kurdak too."

"This…" Londo hesitated for a moment. Bringing along a woman, one bad at physical activity at that, would bring him quite a lot of trouble.

"No deal? Then goodbye!"

"Deal! Deal!"

"Good. Don't lie to me! If you do… you're… you're a dog!" As she had lived most of her life at the church, her cursing vocabulary was quite limited. That was the best she could come up with after much thought when she recalled Innilis using a word like that.

"Alright!" Londo promised as he motioned with his chin, "There. Just cut that part off and my impetus can work again. This knot is a special army one, so let me tell you how to undo it. First, pull that…"

Lamir felt quite annoyed at the instructions and merely spoke a few incantations to undo the knot.

"You fellows with nothing but impetus are so troublesome!" she said with pride and contempt.

Londo felt his eyeballs about to pop up. He had to try so hard to barely master the knot, yet Lamir was able to undo it so easily. Was she too smart, or was he too dumb? No way, it couldn't be the latter.

"Let's go!" Lamir said after some thought. She handed Londo the dagger. "Here, you're more suited to use this."

Londo received it quietly.

Just as she turned to leave, Londo stretched his hand out and gave the back of her head a chop.

Even though Londo wasn't that well mentally developed, he was far above average when it came to physical activity. His chop was incredibly practised, so it had just the right amount of force and struck the perfect spot. Lamir only felt a dull pain before a warmth caused her to blackout.

He knew how to lie as well?! The thought flashed across her mind before she fainted.

He caught her as she was falling. Thanks to his large palms, he accidentally brushed her full breasts, causing him to pull back in a hurry.

"Aiaiai… Leader, you know it wasn't on purpose… it wasn't… it wasn't…" Londo muttered as he carefully laid her to the bed in the tent.

Before he left, he turned back and said to the fainted Lamir "Umm… Second Maam, I know I didn't do what I promised… But it's for your own good. Where I'm going is far too dangerous. If he sees me taking you along, he'll definitely have me killed. So, stay here!"

He suddenly paused and blushed. "Since you said I'm a dog if I lie…"

Londo kept silent for another moment before barking like a dog.

"Now, we're even! I'm only a dog this once!" He left after all was said and done.

……

The scene in the tent was only discovered the next dawn. The soldiers there for their shifts noticed the mess inside. More shockingly, Lamir was on the bed prepared for Londo's use.

Noticing that something was off, they hurriedly called for Eibron.

"Londo you dog! You actually lied to me!" Lamir's shriek rang throughout the camp ten minutes later.

"Miss Lamir, what happened?" Eibron walked in with a furrowed brow.

"What else? Londo promised we'd leave together last night and that dog knocked me out when he got free!"

She was daring enough not to hide the truth as the general's daughter, but people found it weird why she called Londo a dog.

"Gosh! How could you let Londo go?!" Eibron yelled, losing his temper.

"I said I was going to leave with him! He knocked me out, what could I have done?" Lamir didn't relent at all. Ever since that time she parted with Kurdak at Seatide, she had been missing him ever since. Sometimes, she felt she was too soft and even tried her best to act like Vera.

Eibron waved his hands helplessly, as if it was foolish to even try reasoning with her. He turned to a guard and said, "Go write a letter about Londo's escape."

Lamir furrowed her brow. Would Londo be considered a deserter because of this? She was angry him, so she didn't care.