Notes on 'Hollow Words'

I didn't realise how terribly wrong this chapter was until I came to post it here. Here's the original as I found it, the end lopped off as it's unchanged:

HOLLOW WORDS

“So, Pretty, what do you do that makes you so worthy?”

Wrathwrought was a talker. You wouldn't think it to look at him. Tall, muscular, beard clipped, leather and plate armour in muted shades of brown, eyebrows wild as anything, battered swords crossed over his back: he looked like someone who put effort into being the rugged, mysterious hero. The sort of person who probably hit those swords against a rock for a good few hours to get the well-used effect. The sort of person who'd hear that useless council's praise and pump his ego with it.

No, in retrospect, maybe I should have expected the blather.

“My job,” I ground out.

We were halfway through Elwynn from the border with Redridge. Tame place. Paths lined with neat wooden fences. Sunlight meeting the thick foliage overhead and dappling everything gold and green down below. In the sunlight and the weak, harmless shadows, my heavily armed tag along grinned a soldier's grin. Fleetingly, I smelled the wraith of a specific metallic tang.

“You must be good to impress all those men. Do you charge much extra for a dance?”

The most infuriating part about it was that I didn't stumble into red-haze fury. The hate was there. So was the indignation. But I felt that little flicker in my chest that wondered at his choice of quips and irritating compliments, that little compartment outside the anger that kept itself free to house confusion after years of being an asexual wound-binder and little else. I stomped it.

“Shut your mouth, Wrathwrought. Don't bother opening it again.”

THE WHOLE POINT IS THAT WRATHWROUGHT CHOOSES HER HENCE HE KNOWS HOW GOOD SHE IS AUGH AUGH IDIOT OBSIDIAN AUGH.

That said, Wrathwrought teasing that she's a whore amused me so I had to try and keep it in whilst editting out the main point of the conversation... ahaha. Uh. Not so hard once I came up with a basic conversation starter for him to use.

Still being vague with places. Shall have to either draw up a map or never define stuff. The latter makes my skin creep, so maybe not, but as the north is the only important part for this story there seems precious little point in defining the whole world.

I like the idea that company changes Calysia's thoughts a bit. Wrathwrought's presence has already directed her thoughts from previous acts to previous relationships. Woot.