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Gronn, for once, actually smiled. It was not a big smile, and somehow, Li even doubted that the dragon\'s underbite and eternally gruff scowl could ever manage one. But regardless, it was something.

A little curvature of the lip that spoke of an understanding that for once, the dragon had a means to get back at the higher blooded dragons that had lorded over him, forcing him to kill those similar to him.

"I understand," said Gronn simply, for simple seemed to be his motto. He immediately stood from his chair, the wooden structure groaning under his scaled and muscled weight. "Then. I go now. I must not waste time."

Gronn put one of his burly, brick-like hands meant for beating and clawing on his other arm, setting the digits around the curvature of his bicep. Without batting an eye, he tore his arm off with utterly unchanging expression.

Sindra reacted, jerking back into her chair as her feline eyes widened, her black pantherian tale standing tall in alert. Cicero looked away and put a hand to his mouth, evidently unused to casual dismemberment.

But everyone else around the table just sat there as if Gronn had done something as mundane as taking a coin out of his pocket. Old Thane even nodded in respect that the dragon could tear his arm off like that with so much ease.

"Here." Gronn put his arm on the table. He did not bleed from his wound, nor did the detached arm leak any blood. Courtesy of the exceptional salamander trait regeneration that exceeded that of even troll kind.

"Dragon heal fast," said Tia wonderingly as she looked at the arm. Half-hungrily, too. "Me dragon too. Can I do that?"

 Gronn looked at Tia, his sloped, slanted brow ridge intensifying his yellow-glinted stare. "You can. With training."

Tia cocked her head and smiled at Gronn. "Then, mister, will you teach me?"

Gronn narrowed his eyes and opened his fanged mouth, his stiff body language evident that he was going to refuse this request, likely understanding he was going on a one way trip. But, looking at Tia\'s wondering face so filled with nothing but genuine curiosity and hope, he said, "Yes. If I come back."

"When you come back," corrected Li. "If you make a promise to her, I\'m the one that\'s going to be keeping you to your word." He motioned to the arm on the table with his chin. "And not even death is going to keep you from breaking that promise now."

Gronn grunted in agreement before he turned to leave the room. "Farewell."

===========

"A being of very few words. A wonder you could get along with him," remarked Sindra to Cicero after Gronn left.

"I quite liked that aspect of him," said Cicero with a shrug. "At the least, there are no underlying machinations in his words. He speaks simply and truthfully. Quite the reprieve from the intrigue infused nonsense flung around among the oratory of the senate."

 "And can he make his way back north without causing some immense disaster?" said Sindra. "He truly does not strike me as the type to cover his tracks."

"You would be surprised," said Cicero. "He can be discreet when he needs to be. And his skin is possessive not only of marvelous regenerative ability, but also of reflective capacity capable of rendering him invisible."

"And you?" said Sindra, going down the list of potential loose ends and suspicions brewing in her head.

Li was thankful she existed, because if it was not for her, he would be the one asking these questions, and he had to admit he probably would not have thought of as many of them considering his power let him be a little less wary than he could be. 

"Was he not your guard? Your means of travel?"

Cicero laughed. "Oh, dear Sindra, do you not remember the stories I bought you when you were a child? A dragon would never allow one he does not respect to ride him. No, I shall arrange one of our spies to smuggle me out of this city when the time is right."

"And I will accompany you," said Meld. "My assignment is still to the North, after all. It would only be fitting."

"Then shall we get moving?" said Cicero. "We are no dragon. By the time Gronn has crossed the northern border, we will barely be out of this city. Ah, how primitive southern transport is. And how taxing it is to my brittle back."

Meld stood up and nodded to Li. "We will take our leave. Expect us on the road north in a few days when the armies have marched out of Riviera and the city has calmed. For the good of this realm, I wish you the best."

"I will trust your judgement on getting north," said Li. "Good luck."

===========

That left the guild council and Alexei around the meeting table.

"I know Old Thane has already briefed you all on what I am planning on doing," said Li, and everyone nodded. That meant that they knew he was going West to fight, and that Old Thane was going to come with him. 

"Good," said Li. He scanned their faces. Specifically, the faces of Sindra, Ivo, and Ven\'thur, for they were the ones that would stay. He wanted to see if they objected to his decision, and he could not read any such feeling.

But he could see other emotions.

"Sindra, you are worried," said Li.

"No such thing," said Sindra, her tail curled downwards in anxious gesture. "But the sheer breadth of logistical issues that arises from your absence is staggering to consider. And in the event of your…permanent absence where you fall on the battlefield, well-,"

"Papa never loses!" said Tia adamantly, angered even at the suggestion that Li could falter.

"Well, there you have it," said Li. "You have seen my strength and felt it. There is nothing that can fell me, and so long as I know that there are lives that I must return to, I will never turn my back. Consider this a necessary absence, for should the threat West not be neutralized, it will only fester with time."

"What do you have to worry for, little cat!" said Ven\'thur with a chuckle. "You worry of the increased workload from the seer\'s absence? And here I thought you were a studious one."

"You know it is not that," said Sindra, sending out a piercing leer to Ven\'thur\'s smiling face.

"But worry not on that end, dear Feli," said Ven\'thur as he tipped his tophat. "For I, perhaps the most knowledgeable scholar left upon this accursed continent-," He briefly turned to Alexei and tipped his hat, saying, "No offense to you, of course, you are a decent scholar too," before returning to Sindra and finishing his sentence: "I will be aiding you all the way. I daresay I may very well take your place as master of coin, too, if you are not careful."

Sindra loosed a small sigh and shook her head. "I suppose your assistance is appreciated," she said, her tail raising in a slight curl – a sign of friendliness.

"If this chattering buffoon proves incompetent, do not shy away from my assistance," said Alexei. "You have a sound head upon your shoulders and an even sounder heart, master of coin. I would not want to see it weighed down by baggage." Alexei looked at Ven\'thur pointedly.

"Dear me, where have we gone wrong, my friend? My fellow scholar?" said Ven\'thur as he shook his head. "Perhaps a difference in our educational backgrounds? We must share a cup of tea to smooth out our differences."

Alexei rubbed his nose tiredly, not particularly receiving of Ven\'thur\'s antics. "Yes, perhaps later," he said, his voice lingering on the word \'later\' quite distinctively. 

"And I\'ve no objections," said Ivo to Li. "Only wish I were able to accompany you, good seer. What I would give to relive my early adventuring days, fighting side by side with the feared Bloodfist once more."

"I\'ll be sure to bring back a demon\'s skull for you, old friend," said Old Thane.

"You never did grow out of your Bloodfist phase, no matter how much Aine heckled you," said Ivo as he shook his head with a smile. "Thane, I need no trophies. Especially those I have not earned myself. If you are to grant me a gift, then I ask that you only walk back here alive. That will do me more good while I am tending the fields and forests than any old skull."

"You tend to far more than that," said Li. "Once the guild is allowed leave of the city walls tonight, you are no longer simply master of ceremonies, but the man upon whom I have invested the defense of this of all my people. Of all of Riviera.

Commune with Iona later, and you will understand."

Ivo nodded, and Li took this as a sign that everything was now in order.

"Gather all the followers into the guild now," said Li. "I must inform them of my departure."