“What happened?”

“He decided he deserved another lesson,” I said grimly.

Realizing he was outnumbered again, he made a dash for the door. Kanesha tripped him on his way past and he went flying, hitting his head on the opposite wall and going limp.

“Oh dear. I think you broke him.”

She moved to check. “Still alive.”

Unfortunately, I thought. “Maybe we should feed him to that dwarf.”

“That dwarf is coming back with friends.”

I nodded. “Then I vote we leave him here, tied up, and let them deal with him.”

We tied him to the bed, not because we wanted to be kinky, but because it was the best place in there to put an unconscious loser. Then we closed, but didn’t lock the door behind us and left.

If maintenance wandered in they’d probably think it was a BDSM tryst gone wrong. I hoped they wouldn’t, though, because they’d untie him.

“What did he do to make you so angry?”

“The n-word,” I said, finally.

Her face fell. “Oh.”

“And trying to speak for Odin, and calling my father and I demons, and…put it this way if he’d been any good with a blade you’d be my second in a duel.”

At that she laughed. “That might have been entertaining.”

“I don’t fight the handicapped.” My anger was starting to fade, though. At one level he was just a kid who had messed up. At other levels, though, he was a racist, homophobic dweeb.

A raven landed on a nearby lamp post. “Thank you for dealing with him,” Hunin said.

Kanesha looked startled. Apparently she’d heard him to.

“I didn’t. I left him for the dwarves to deal with.”

“The dwarves will probably let him live,” the raven mused. “Probably.”

“I’m not sure I care.” I let out a breath. “I know, I should…”

“You have no need to be above beating up mortals who insult you,” the raven pointed out, then started preening.

I shook my head. “Maybe I have a desire to, though.”

Through his wing, a little muffled, “Just be who you are, Siglaugr.”

“Which one was that?” Kanesha asked.

“Hunin. Don’t worry, it took me a while to tell them apart too.”

“I hadn’t really realized how big ravens are.”

“I’m pretty sure they’re even bigger.” But then, how big was a raven? I wasn’t sure.

Either way, the dwarves could deal with the racist dweeb and I didn’t have to listen to him any more. That was good enough for me.