Her eyes flickered down to her plate, and he saw a glimmer of sadness in her that he'd spied all too often before. It made something inside him ache painfully to see that in her, and when she put herself out there Like that, it was difficult not to see her point. He hadn't been paying that much attention to the relationships between his Lovers, and had been merely thankful that they seemed to get along for the most part. Still, even he knew how important honesty was in his strange situation. It really was important to know exactly what you meant to someone when sex was no Longer the final arbiter in such matters.

“Alright, Jan." He nodded. "If you think it's that important then I'UL do it. And you're at the top, by the way. Right beside Algra. And there's no one else there with the pair of you."

“Really?” she Looked up at him; almost unable to believe the words.

"Really." He nodded; his expression firmly resolved.

"Oh. Ok then. I suppose I didn't really expect..." Her voice seemed very small all of a sudden. She stopped herself when she heard it and cleared her throat to look back at him. "Thanks, Greg. There's a Little more to it, but it can wait until Later."

“That would be great. I think that's about as much awkward as I can stand for the night."

“Aw, but I wanted to talk about your feelings more!" She perked up considerably and took another smaller drink of her wine before getting back to her dinner.

“Actually, I was wondering about something else."

“May The First help me.“ He visibly braced himself.

“Ha! No, nothing about your web of kinky relations, promise. I was actually wondering about the ring."

“You mean the-"

“The thing that transported us into another dimension and burned my ex to cinders? Yeah. I mean, a lot of the stuff we've been doing lately has been important, but that thing's our endgame, right? You get proven as a member of the orc world and you officially get your stuff back.

Including the trinket of doom."

"Yeah, that's the plan." He nodded whilst looking philosophically at a slice of fruit.

“Ok, so what then? Are you just going to put it on?"

“Are you nuts?" He popped the fruit into his mouth and after swallowing it down, he took a quick drink. "I was thinking of maybe heading off into the human Lands. Everything I've heard says that whatever the hell the ring is, it's not remotely orcish. So maybe someone up there might be able to tell us more about it and hopefully figure out how it works."

“Are you sure about that? I mean, sure, orcs might not have much interest in finger jewellery, but Valise knows a hell of a lot about magic and she's got no idea what the hell that thing is."

“Do you have a better idea?"

"I... uh..." She clearly hadn't been expecting him to offer her the reins quite like that. "Well, actually I might have a suggestion."

“I'm all ears." He finished off the last of his dinner, and immediately stood up to get a second helping.