“Is that a twinkle of genuine awe I detect in your eye, Coddy? Or are you just pleased to see me?” The woman that swept up to Codswallop was attired like an adventurer, her outfit bristling with pockets and pouches, her long and wild hair braided and bunned into place.

“Verity.” Codswallop, looking out over the airship’s railing as he sipped his tea, made no other motion, even as the Lightwind‘s altitude sapped away the drink’s heat before he could properly enjoy it.

“I haven’t seen you since the last all-hands meeting of the Association,” said Verity, leaning backwards on the guardrail with a stein of mead from the commissary in one hand. “Have they got you babysitting again?”

“I go where I’m needed and do as I’m told,” said Codswallop, sipping at his increasingly lukewarm tea. “Are you also escorting someone? I’d thought that the AoP had pulled you from the field.”

“Why, whatever gave you that idea?” said Verity.

“The circular entitled ‘AoP Member Verity Pulled From Field Duty‘ may have planted the seed in my mind,” said Codswallop. “But clearly they have reversed their position, if you’re here.”

“I am indeed escorting,” Verity said. “Who do you think has the more interesting ward this go-around? You start, I’ll see if I can match you.”

“A young boy,” said Codswallop. “He goes by Rags.”

“Ooh. Ouch. Not even a grown-up this time?” Verity said, clucking her tongue.

“Have you a grown-up as your ward, then?” Codswallop said. “I doubt that you’d take another child after what happened in the Mire.”

“That’ll just have to be my secret, then, won’t it?”

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