"Please, as if a Healer like Quylla wouldn’t check the babies a hundred times a day just to make sure they are fine." Morok snorted. "As for the names, we are still discussing them. At least officially."
"Between us, I was thinking about suggesting something starting with ’ph’, like Phreesia. Quylla still misses her sister dearly and I want to honor Phloria’s memory."
"That’s unexpectedly thoughtful of you." Lith narrowed his eyes, speaking in between morsels of meat. "Phreesia is a girl name. Are they both girls?"
"A boy and a girl." Morok tutted with pride. "At least I’m beating you at this, Lith. I’m doing in nine months what is going to take you more than two years."
"That’s a weird thing to brag about, but okay." Lith shrugged. "What about the boy?"
The question was innocent, yet the Tyrant almost choked on his beer and stared at Lith like he had poisoned his ale.
"What?"
"One second." Morok bit his own hand until it bled and then had his friends heal one tooth wound each, paying them one copper coin for the job. "Everything we say from now on is covered by patient-Healer confidentiality. Remember that."
"You have just redefined the concept of going overboard!" Nalrond was flabbergasted. "You could have just asked us to keep this discussion for ourselves."
"Yeah, right." Morok scoffed. "Then one of you lets it slip during sex and I’m screwed in the not-funny way. Women talk. No matter how much they assure you they will keep your secret.
"They will tell it ’in confidentiality’ and in five minutes everyone knows."
"I can assure you that you are never on my mind whenever I do something even remotely intimate with my wife." Lith emitted a retching sound. "Also, you’re wrong. Kami kept my identity as a Tiamat secret until Meln exposed it.
"She never mentioned that or my tower to anyone, even after we broke up."
"That kind of secret, I believe." Morok nodded. "Do we want to talk about the Dragon and the Maiden? The Demon Lord and the Princess? The Healer’s Kiss?"
It was Lith’s turn to choke on his beer and spit most of it all on the floor while gasping for breath.
"How do you know those names?" A look around the table revealed that his friends were staring at the sand or the sky, playing it cool while holding in a laugh. "How does everyone know them?"
"As I said, women talk." Morok said. "Isn’t that right, Mister Longclaw?"
Nalrond went pale and held his throat as a piece of meat blocked it. A blast of darkness magic cleared his windpipe and saved his life.
"What about you, Big Bad Wolf?" Morok spoke casually, but Ryman turned paler than moonlight.
Yet he knew it was his turn next so the Tyrant found the Skoll prepared. He had stopped eating and drinking as soon as he understood where the conversation was heading.
"I heard you’ve given the dear old riding hood a whole new meaning." Morok played with his keg, keeping his eyes on Protector without a hint of humor in them or his tone.
"I get your point." Ryman nodded. "Patient-Healer confidentiality it is. Not a word will escape my lips."
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