Runelords 03.1 - None of Your Business

The three Pandemonium soldiers, accompanied by Luna, walked back towards the Rusty Dragon Inn in the dead of the night. The woman’s hair was wet, sticking to her face and dampening her shirt and scarf; most would suppose she had, for whatever reason, taken an unseasonal late-night dip in the ocean, but no one was likely to guess she had just been down in the well within the ruins of the old lighthouse. She lingered slightly behind; after a moment, she called out to Virgil who, after hearing his name, fell back a few steps to join her, looking expectant. Luna pursed her lips and said flatly, “So. When I bought the rope I spoke to Mr. Vinder.” This didn’t seem to provoke an immediate reaction, so she continued, “He was upset that, apparently, you moved on to propositioning his younger daughter, after he told you to leave his other one alone.”
Virgil grinned, “Hardly. She practically threw herself on me in the street, and took me back to her place. Considering she took her top off herself, going to say that she propositioned me.” He looked slightly more serious as he added, “He did walk in, but I smoothed it over. Did he take it out on you? I’m sorry if he did; that’s uncalled for.”
“He didn’t take it out on me; he’s upset!” Luna retorted. “And he has every right to be: he told you to stay away from them, and further, what on earth do you think you’re doing?!”
The man was anything but remorseful as he replied, “I think that I’m not turning down a pretty girl who wants to get laid. She’s an adult, she knew what she wanted and went for it. I’m not going to say no, especially not for a controlling old man who wants to keep his daughters on a tight leash.”
“He’s trying to protect them from people like you!”
“Protect them from what?” he said, a frown colouring his expression. He was quiet for a few beats before he leaned over slightly to look her in the eyes, his face and tone quite serious. “I don’t care what Mr. Vinder thinks. His daughters are women. They can make their own decisions about if and who they sleep with, and Vinder will have to deal with that. I’m not acting for his benefit, and neither should his daughters. Katrine has a boyfriend, apparently, so I don’t think either of them are. Good for them. Now, I know that you’re trying to help temper my behaviour; it’s what I asked you to do, and I thank you for your concern. But I didn’t hypnotize her, I didn’t charm her, hell, I didn’t even ask her. She asked me. And there is nothing wrong with two consenting adults having sex. I’m not leading her on; she’s only looking for a quick lay. We aren’t pretending this is something that it isn’t, and I’m not going to break her heart when I leave town in a week. I’m not doing anything wrong, she’s not doing anything wrong and you, I’m sorry to say, are a bit of a prude, and I think your judgement on this is biased. So,” he added with a cold note in his otherwise-polite voice, “if you would, please keep your nose out of it.” Luna stared at him, her gaze as defiant as his. When he reached his final request, she pursed her lips, a hundred retorts obviously barely contained. She glared at him for another few seconds, then broke off her eye contact, turning away. Virgil smiled, “I really do appreciate your concern.”
“...You are a terrible person,” she muttered. “You’re a terrible person, who’s going to keep hurting people.”
He made a snorting noise, frowning again, “What am I doing wrong, Luna? Explain what’s so wrong about it.”
She was quiet before turning back to him, her expression resigned, “Nothing. Objectively, nothing. You’re right. There’s no one black-and-white ‘wrong’ thing that you’ve done, if you admit to not respecting Mr. Vinder and what he wants in the slightest. She can make her own decisions. You can have casual sex with someone who’s barely an adult, that can’t possibly understand anything about you. You can both tell each other there’s nothing between you, have your fun and go on your merry ways and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. Everything is justified.” Virgil looked at her through narrowed, disdainful eyes as she added towards the ground, “The fact that you can’t, for a second, understand why it could be wrong, is why you’re a terrible person, and why you won’t ever be anything but one.”
Virgil blinked. With a muttered grunt of frustration, he turned to rejoin the others, “You had no trouble telling me off when you had a reason to, Luna, so unless you can explain why something is wrong, please keep your opinions to yourself.” Luna watched him join the other two men and followed quietly along behind them as they returned to the inn, her melancholic gaze downcast.
Category:Rise of the Runelords