[prompt] masquerading as a man with a reason
Silence is a comfortable enough thing for Martel; he doesn't mind Koleika's tendency towards it, the expected pauses between threads of conversation. They meet when time permits - for casual discussion, for back and forth on Martel's training designs, but most usually for a drink and Martel's continued immersion in his new home. It's nice to know who your neighbors are, and whether or not they're likely to lay siege to you.
These are the things he thinks about, shut up in his castle. Some habits die hard, and he had an analytical mind long before he developed fairly understandable paranoia. A man who's fought wars for gold (not gods; Martel appreciates the Arums' matter of fact pragmatism even as he can't quite wrap his mind around the idea of living that way) all over this world is a good man to know, as far as he's concerned. He might be a recluse now, but who's to say how things will stand in a few years' time? No, he's always preferred to know what he needs to know before he knows he needs it.
Martel's been asking questions again - always asking questions - and it's late one afternoon while they watch the dusk settle on the mountains and ponder in that relaxing quiet a man who married a goddess that Koleika observes, "You have the mind of a politician."
"Bite your tongue, Koleika. I haven't swindled you yet."
prompt: talk about politics [#249]
word count: 240