All Along.

"It turned out to be her, huh?"

Aldric's eyes shifted from the elf to Blindfold, seeing him shaking his head in a mocking show of pity. Then his gaze assessed the expressions of the rest; not a single glimpse of shock or surprise could be seen on their faces. Then again, no shock could be found on Aldric's face either.

Since young, his face had been unable to betray his true emotions.

Al did not need an explanation for what had happened. They had been dead set on eliminating the dead weight, and it seemed Purple Eyes was the unfortunate soul they deemed as such. By the looks of it, Muscles and Purple Eyes were convinced into an alliance with the elf, and she simply used that as an opportunity to see who needed killing.

Her defending Aldric, the disagreement with Robes, all of it from the very beginning was a charade for the elf to lure him, and if things had gone differently or Aldric didn't see the elf's facade from the get-go, he would probably be the one dead right now.

"And this one?" Blindfold glanced at Muscles as he asked the elf.

"He's useful," the elf gave a simple answer.

Aldric always knew, but this just further showed him how worthless a life can be deemed, based on how weak it is judged by others.

"Now that we have this out of the way, let's quickly get the trial over with... You all must know the history, but I'll inform us again. One of the Lost Men, Hariga, the creature tamer resides in The Black Post, and if we are lucky and were sent to the right time, his brother, Sinus the Arcane, is with him."

Blindfold paused a moment, as if to assess the faces of all of them, and it was gestures like this that made Aldric wonder how the hell he could see.

"Although they are the originators of the three main sources of power, like he had pointed out earlier," Blindfold gestured to Muscles, "It is yet to be significantly developed. This in no way makes it easy, but at least we do stand a chance against them."

"So what's the plan? Go in there and throw whatever we can at them and hope they die?" Asari questioned, a slight irritation in her voice. She did not seem fond of Blindfold.

"Yes, precisely. We will use our Markings to the best of our ability and hope it's enough, since we are suppressed."

'He's not as smart as I thought.'

"Don't you think we are still a tad bit more than necessary?"

Aldric spoke glancing back down at the body of Purple Eyes; she had ceased movement, and she seemed to have finally succumbed to a slow and painful death.

"What?" Robes beckoned clarification with a raised brow.

"If we are going to eliminate the less useful of us, then we should be thorough about it. After all, the less we are, the higher the First blessings we get each, right?"

A tension hung with Aldric's words; the night's breeze seemed colder.

"Who do you suggest?" Blindfold asked with his usual stoic composure.

'A chance at revenge?'

Well, it would be, but Aldric already knew there was something between them.

"Him," Aldric pointed to Robes, in the same fashion Robes had done to him. "I remember he said his Markings allow him to see the strength of others, and correct me if I'm wrong, but that's quite useless against the Lost Men. We have an estimate of their ability, and even if we didn't, knowing it doesn't really help us against them."

Aldric turned to Robes, continuing.

"So you are quite worthless to us, and quite frankly should be bleeding out dead along with her."

A silence settled for a moment; Aldric's words were logical and true, and perhaps if Blindfold were the slightest bit keen on eliminating dead Weight as he was when Aldric was suspected as such, Robes would be dead.

"That's a good point, however his Markings are more than just seeing strength. He sees weakness as well, in defense, in abilities. He is still quite useful."

'Of course, you have an excuse.'

"For people who seemed like strangers not long ago, you seem very well informed on his Marking."

Blindfold smiled, a tug of his lips that couldn't be read.

"And what makes you think I wasn't informed about it by him on our way here?"

Aldric chuckled.

"Because if that was the case, you would have killed him yourself from the start. Like me, you would have assumed the uselessness of his Marking from the moment he said it. After he pointed out the supposed deadweight, he really had no further use. You would have eliminated him then, but you didn't."

Aldric clicked his tongue, as if reminiscing.

"And after I proved his accusation wrong, that would have made him completely worthless as he couldn't even rightly point out who would die with him. Yet, you still didn't kill him. So either you already knew all about his Marking, or you were reluctant to end your buddy's life... Or, good God, could it be both?—well, it has to be."

Then, in that moment, the smile on Blindfold's face could be read; it was bitter. In stark contrast, a satisfactory smile adorned the faces of Aldric and Asari.

Aldric glanced at Robes, who looked slightly annoyed.

"Calm down, it's not that you made a mistake and I saw through all your acts," Aldric shrugged with a mocking tone.

"I just never bought any of it from the start."