Ty watched the red timer drop another number before he moved.
Aldric had survived the spike, but survival had left marks. His smile had come back too quickly. His fingers were still stiff around the edge of the table, and the line of white coins in front of him looked less like a prize than a debt he had been forced to count.
Ty looked at the spike on his side. The metal waited at chest height, polished from use, polite in the way a blade was polite before someone picked it up.
"The spike is too polite for something that hungry."
Aldric managed a thin laugh from the other side. "I would enjoy agreeing if I were not still pretending that did not hurt."
"Your pretending needs better training before the next stage."
"Then stop watching me and let me keep dignity."
Ty stepped to the black half of the table. The timer did not hurry. It had the patience of a room built to outlast people.
