“That’s true.” Lux narrowed his eyes at Gula. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, since Valefor is set on seeing you dead and him marrying your girlfriend, I thought you could use some help,” Gula said. He still held his hands up, looking more like mitts than actual appendages.

“You’re going against Valefor to help me?” Lux asked, and Gula nodded. “Why?”

“You’re my friend,” Gula shrugged.

Lux thought about it for a minute, and the answer seemed to satisfy him, so he nodded. He stepped away from Wick and patted Gula on the back.

“It’s good to have you on my side,” Lux smiled.

“Wait.” Wick shook her head. “What?”

“What?” Lux glanced back at her.

“You’re just taking his word on that?” Wick asked dubiously and gestured to Gula. “He could be a spy for Valefor! He could mean to sabotage us!”

“You don’t know Gula,” Lux shook his head.

“I’m Gula.” He stuck out his hand, meaning to introduce himself to Wick, and she crossed her arms, refusing to take it. “I’m gluttony. I just eat and drink. I don’t really like messing with people.”

“No. I’m not doing this.” Wick shook her head. “It’s bad enough that I have to trust you, Lux. I’m not taking on another peccati. That’s just dancing with the devil.”

“Wick,” Lux sighed. “I don’t have time to argue with you. But you don’t know what we’re up against. Having someone of Gula’s … stature might be the only way we get into the gates of Valefor’s lair. If you still want to rescue Lily, this is our best chance.”

Wick considered it, but she took too long.

“Fine. Don’t work with us. I don’t care.” Lux shook his head and started to walk away.

Wick didn’t want to follow him, but she also knew she didn’t really have a choice. He knew Valefor’s lair better than she did, and if he was right about needing Gula to get past the gates, then there would be no way she could do it on her own.

Sighing, she followed them, but she kept a few steps behind. Just in case.

“How did you know where I’d be?” Lux asked Gula.

“Avaritia told me he found you in the Necrosilvam,” Gula explained. “The quickest way from the Necrosilvam to Valefor is through the Weeping Waters. I couldn’t manage that swamp myself, so I thought I’d wait for you on the other side. Nice job with that dragon, by the way.”

“You saw me fighting a dragon but didn’t step in?” Lux raised an eyebrow.

“You had it under control,” Gula shrugged. “And I hate dragons.”

“So do I,” Lux muttered. “Where did you see Avaritia?”

“He tracked me down at the bar just to gloat about how awful you were doing. He said that Ira had beaten you to a pulp and you were working with a hag.” He glanced back at Wick. “Sorry. Those were his words, not mine. I personally think you’re much too lovely to be a hag.”

Wick snorted at his compliment, and Lux laughed.

They walked on, but things were much easier past the Weeping Waters. Gula and Lux talked some, and Wick listened but didn’t add anything. She kept her pace a few steps behind them and couldn’t wait for all this to be over. Working with peccati made her edgy.

They reached a clearing with a clear stream running through it. Jagged rocks stood on the other side, and above that, the red tower where Valefor lived. The air smelled thickly of brimstone, and Wick held a cloth in front of her face to stifle the scent.

“That reminds me,” Gula said when he glanced up and saw Wick covering her nose. “You need to get cleaned up.”

“What?” Lux asked. “We’re almost there.”

“But you stink like the swamp,” Gula said. “If you expect us to get past the ogres at the gates, we’ll need have the element of surprise, and you reek like fish and sea dragons.”

“Fair enough.”

Lux was still covered in muck from swamp. His hair was even caked back with mud. Gula sat on a rock near the brook, and Lux waded down into it to clean himself off. He went a ways out into the water, where it was deep enough for him to really get washed up.

Wick stood off to the side of Gula, watching as Lux scrubbed the soot from the dragon’s fire off his skin.

“Lux was never really that bad,” Gula said, his voice quiet so Lux couldn’t hear.

“What?” Wick glanced over at the giant man sitting on the rock next to her.

“Lux. He was never really cut out for this,” Gula elaborated. “Not really. He liked nice things and pretty girls, but that’s about as evil as he gets. And he’s loyal. He’s stood up for me to Valefor many times.”

“He stood up to Valefor?” Wick raised an eyebrow.

“Well, nobody stands up to Valefor,” Gula admitted. “But when Valefor would think of doing away with me, Lux would point out all the things I had done, and he would ask Valefor to assign me on missions with him, so I’d have something that made me look useful.”

“Why?” Wick asked and turned to face him. “Why would Lux do that? Why would he do anything for anyone that besides himself?”

“He’s my friend, and he has been for a very long time,” Gula said. “We joined Valefor about the same time, and we’ve always had each other’s back. We’ve seen a lot of other peccati come and go, but we’ve both remained.”

“How long have you been friends?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Gula thought and shook his head. “Centuries.”

“Centuries?” She gaped at him.

Both peccati and virtus were immortal when in the service of their masters. They would not even age. The only way they finished their duty was if they were killed or bowed out, but bowing out was not an option for Valefor. Nobody left him.

Wick knew that, and she’d even known that Iris was over a century old when she stepped out of her role as the castimonia to marry Lily’s father and start a family. But from the way Lux had acted, she hadn’t thought him more than a few decades as the luxuria.

“And he doesn’t say it, but he had his heart broken,” Gula said. “That’s how he ended up here. He does have a heart. He’s just been trying not to use it for a few hundred years.”