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S o, I already really liked Basselt, but apparently Theran also had really good hearing and he could hear everything Lucy was talking about with Neco and Trevils. I fully planned on abusing this later, but right now, I needed to keep my girl safe.

I turned to Basselt. I needed to keep him safe, too, because he was a friend, but he could help as well.

“First of all, Trevils was a dick for hinting you piss in the house, but he’s a good guy and kind of a hero to Guttertown kids, so please don’t turn into a wolf and bite his arse off.”

“Trevils knew Lucy was talking about a Theran because he’s worked with one before.

Specifically, me. It wouldn’t bring him back or end my banishment, but I helped him out in exchange for looking into the death of my charge.

I needed to know if someone murdered a kid just because he was Theran or they were just hunting and shot an arrow at what they thought was an adult animal.

He gave me closure that it was an accident. Trevils is a good man.”

I mean, yeah, Basselt burst out laughing and had to explain to me why he was laughing. He seemed to think it was funny and not offensive, but I would have been offended if Basselt thought all humans pissed in the house.

“We’re going to have to bring Neco in,” I said. “I’m not telling you his secret and I won’t tell him yours, but if you can point him towards the Ghoul without turning into a wolf, he can take that house and we can keep Lucy away from it.”

“I know Neco Argent’s secrets. I’m not trying to eavesdrop, but it’s hard to tune you out when I’ve been trained to pick up words like murder.

Several of us shift into small animals that can easily slip into a human’s house.

We’ve only been using them to spy. It’s been suggested several times to turn them into assassins and wipe out the Barons in one night in their sleep. ”

“Guttertown would throw you a fucking party,” I said.

“We spy on the last Tempris, too. The only reason we haven’t is because the rest of the humans might take it as an act of war, even if we were doing them a favor.

We can’t do anything while the Princess Lisana is missing and there’s no heir.

If we play anything wrong, we could lose the Tempris altogether. ”

“Noted. Listen, Neco is intense, but he’s a good guy.”

I proceeded to air all of Lucy and Neco’s drama to Basselt.

It wasn’t like it was a secret. Everyone in Guttertown knew that mess.

And they were really messy about it. They could get really unmessy and get our group back together if Neco told Lucy he’d been in love with her this whole time and got a little extreme because he thought they were siblings and Neco would grovel to the ends of Nestran if he found out he hit a girl.

“I think we need to worry about the Ghoul instead of getting those two back together. I trust him if you do. We both have secrets that could get us killed. If you think he won’t react badly to me being Theran, then I’ll work with him.”

“Neco won’t care. You helped his mom, so he’d die for you.”

I ran out to snag Neco, but I had to sneak out the back. I wasn’t stupid. If Lucy caught me plotting, she was going to murder me. She’d be fine with it if I pulled it off, the Ghoul was out of the way, and Caitrin got the cure.

Basselt passed Lucy’s plan on to me and it was a good one. I just needed to make sure if the Ghoul ended up in Lower Cutwart that Neco was the one who found him.