“Sagittarii Katar, you have someone requesting your presence,” Shafir listened as one of the academy advisors called out to the short instructor, who blatantly ignored the two of them. Shafir now understood what Eliqinor meant when he said that talking to the sun elf might be something he would need help with. After the advisor tried to get Katar’s attention for the fifth time, he clapped his hands together and the squires lowered their bows. 

“It seems I will be busy, my dear students. Go take a brief break and then do five laps around the archery field.” The squires nodded and ran off to do as they were told. Katar didn’t move and seemed like he was going to be a pain in the ass. Shafir could already see how this would end up. If he could grab that cocky man by his long braid, he would tug until his orange hair ripped out. How dare he be so uncouth in such a situation? Shafir walked over to the other as he could tell the other would not be cooperative. 

“Katar, House of Choices. I am Vice-Captain Shafir, House of Honors.” Shafir bowed his head quickly. The other elf didn’t even look his way, and Shafir felt his temperature rise as Katar inspected his nails. This man was extremely disrespectful. If he had been one of his subordinates, he would’ve-

“Who hasn’t heard of you? You truly are the talk of the town.” Shafir couldn’t say the other way particularly wrong. Whenever he did something, it felt like the entire city knew. “Besides, you are all Eliqinor talks about, annoying really.” Shafir clenched his fists. So that's how Eliqinor saw him. As an annoyance, if he had been such an annoyance, why would he allow Shafir to work for him? Just as entertainment, more than likely. 

“Captain.” Shafir corrected Katar. The least he could do was call him by the proper title. One of the first things they learned in the academy was to call someone by their title. They earned it and thus received the honor of being called by it. 

“He is not my captain. So I shall call him as I please.” Shafir felt his jaw tighten and Katar smirked. He wasn’t wrong, but he still should be called. The least he could do was address Eliqinor properly, especially if he didn’t know him well. “I can see the gears turning in your head, Shafir. Did you perhaps not know that I am intimately acquainted with Eliqinor?” 

“Of course not. I do not pry into my captain’s love life.” Shafir looked away from the idiot sun elf and crossed his arms. It indeed wasn’t his job to pry into Eliqinor’s love life, not that he would want to, anyway. Though he wondered what Eliqinor found attractive in the shorter elf, was it his petite stature? Or that he looked like he was soft? If Shafir pinched his cheek, he would have some in his grip. 

“Love life? Do you think we are in love? Oh, no, nothing of the sort!” Katar gripped his stomach as he laughed behind his hand. So if they weren’t a couple, they were only sleeping together? To think his captain would dishonor himself in such a manner, and why did it bother him? It still made no sense, but that was the least of his concerns. Some time passed before Katar calmed down once again and that was when he opened his mouth to speak, “So what honor causes you to grace me with your presence?” 

“The mission the Empress sent you on. Involving the orc. I need to know about it. We are continuing the investigation.” Katar nodded, and his eyes shifted as he thought about what he saw. His body seemed relaxed as he thought. When recalling such an odd incident, Katar had witnessed should not be as if he saw these things every day. 

“I had written everything I had noticed in the report, but I guess you would like a more in-depth consultation?” Shafir nodded his head. He had learned everything he could from the report but would like to ask his own questions about the orc. Sometimes he could ask questions that might jog some things that someone overlooked. 

“I need to know about some things you might have missed. In the report, you said the only thing you noticed was the dead bodies of the animals and the smell. Being an archer and scout, how much do you know about dead bodies?” Shafir crossed his arms and Katar’s hand went to his chin, thinking. 

“I know about as much as the next man about dead bodies. I’m an archer, so I rarely have to get close to them. Though I know what dead bodies smell like… My companion, though, he knows a lot about dead bodies.” His face contorted into one of confusion before Katar tapped himself on the head. “I remember! There was one thing we forgot to add to the report. We didn’t think it was important at the time because the bodies had all been in different stages of decomposition. We just assumed we had carried the smell of the bodies with us, but it seemed like the smell was at all the sites of death, including they all had blackened edges near the wounds. Though Val, I mean Valneiros, concluded that it hadn’t originated from poison or magic from what he could tell.” 

Shafir nodded and had to think about the implications of that. Dead bodies that didn’t match their smell and blackened edges. Neither was from poison or magic from what the two could tell. It seemed there wasn’t much more he could go on and Shafir doubted the other elf who was there would come up more than his short companion. “I’ll let you know how it goes. I appreciated your help.” Shafir turned to leave, but the sound of Katar calling out to him stopped him in his tracks. 

“Hey, you know you aren’t as bad as your name makes you seem — the Mad Dog of Eliqinor, that is. I just hope you learn to be more warmhearted for your captain-” Shafir scoffed and ignored the comment. The sound of squires returning to their post drowned out the rest of whatever the little sun elf was attempting to tell him.