Rutger turned willingly enough, though his expression gave nothing away as he looked at me. I wondered what he saw when he looked at me. Something about Lavender's softness had shaken some of his apathy in that regard, and I wondered what Rutger thought. Was he like Tyr? Nahawi? Would look at me, living as the Lagoon was designed to allow me to live, and call me a villain? Or as he like Garmr, practical and in tune with what it meant to be a part of the brotherhood?

I offer no reaction to his attempt to soften his words, trusting that I could handle whatever he had to say. He mentions coming back for his father and I nod minutely, well aware of the bait I had dangled in front of his face.

"You can thank Garmr for your father." I say evenly, my head tilted. He could also thank him for the opportunity to even be Boss, but there was something in the way he was speaking now that led me to believe that something fundamental had shifted in Rutger. Why it hadn't upon his arrival, or upon his fleeing, or upon his initial return here, I had no idea. But it was reshaping the way he spoke to me.

"Wechuge is a loose cannon." I say bluntly, not bothering to soften the truth. "He tried to bring back a girl I had placed outside of the Lagoon without speaking to me." Izumi wasn't my daughter, but placing her had been my right as the Lagoon's Marauder. "You at least understand the concept of the brotherhood, although your decree has me wondering if I misjudged you there."

My eyes darkened as I watched the roan stallion, still unsure whether his decree had been born out of ignorance or greed. The Lagoon had limits on how often they could gain new members through challenges and were - as all creatures on the islands were - bottlenecked by the arrival of new souls in claiming them from the Commons. Setting a limited number of options before men who were - and had always been - promiscuous was a recipe for disaster. Those who wanted families would have to defect. No more would this be a place for brothers to be brothers and to raise their sons, but a dog-eat-dog cesspool. The very thing the islands always believed we were.

"Or is it simple math that escapes your grasp?" The words are more challenging than I had initially meant them to be, but I do not soften them now. I am the reason he is Boss now, no matter how you look at it. Not only did I bring him here, but I was the final vote that secured him his title. "It's a greedy decree to make after freeing two brothers, three trinkets, and three foals for the sake of two votes... one of which you didn't even actually receive." And there, we had reached one of the main reasons I had not turned away from him. This had galled me deeply. Not only had Abraxas offered his vote, knowing he would not be sticking around to see it, but he hadn't even voted for Rutger.

And Rutger still let his family go.

Stallion - Adult - 15.2 - Brown Overo