Dresden strolled into Mordha, maybe not long after Elliot had. There was a bit of a bounce in his step. His work had been going well and everything was going smoothly. By now he'd gotten used to his routine as royal guard. The Queen was a much kinder woman than he had expected her to be, and though there had been little for him to report on for Augustus, that just made his job easier. His sister had finally been found though, and as soon as his leave was approved, he was leaving for Wellspring. That was why he'd come to speak with Elliot, just in the case the man had prepared fights for him.

He walked up to the bar with a wave of the hand toward the keep and a smile on his face. "Lloyd, how ya doin'?" He asked of the man, who shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'so-so' and rested his hands against the bar.

"You want somethin' to drink, Dresden?"

"Not today, or at least not yet today," Dresden said, grinning. "I've gotta talk to Mr. Moore, figured I'd check here first since it's on the way from my place. He around?"

"Just came in," Lloyd said, motioning his head toward where Elliot had gone to sit at the back of the room. Dresden lifted his head to look over a couple of other patrons and spotted him, already about to walk away. "Seems kinda off today, though." Lloyd warned. Dresden's eyebrows furrowed, but he remained undeterred - in fact, his smile even grew a little.

"Huh, well, I'm sure he'll perk up," he winked at the barkeep, then headed across the room. In the past week Dresden had managed to track down a few boys he'd known when he was younger, boys like him, that scrapped on the street for a little extra coin when the farm work wasn't paying enough. They were still in dire straights, as he'd expected them to be, and willing to participate in the fights, which was the best news he'd had in a while considering they'd had a hard time finding competitors. But his sister took precedent over it all.

"Mr. Moore, I've got --" he paused as he came up on the man, looking him over. Lloyd was right, something seemed off. "You alright? Ya look a little outta sorts."

The brandy made him feel more relaxed, but not relaxed enough to feel good again. He felt all kinds of emotions. Anger, confusion, sadness and mostly regret. He had never thought about Ikisina like that, and it didn't cross his mind that living together with a beautiful young woman could lead to this naturally. He considered her to be his daughter. But did he really? If he did, this wouldn't have happened, right? She wasn't his biological daughter so he hadn't done anything wrong, and that's what he would keep telling himself.

It was easier to tell himself that it had happened for another reason. What did he really know about Ikisina? She had told him about her gift, but had she been honest? Was there more to it? He had asked her to demonstrate his gift in him, and minutes after they had gotten intimate. There was only one conclusion to draw from that...

Elliot looked up when Dresden appeared in front of him. The young soldier asked him a question, and the owner of the club sighed, shook his head and rubbed his eyes. "I'm not alright, no", he said before leaning his head back and staring at the ceiling for a second.

"She used me, Dresden." He could interpret that however he wanted. "We had sex," he said but before Dresden could say anything he held his hands up, "I am not like that, you have to believe me, Dresden. I have never touched her before. I have never thought about her like that. She demonstrated her gift on me, and before I know it I'm -- you know." He rubbed his face again and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know what to do. I don't know what she did, or why. This is so messed up." He downed the rest of the brandy and coughed.

At first, what appeared on Dresden's face could only be confusion. His eyes narrowed, as if concentrating, and his hands moved to his hips.

Surely, Dresden thought. Surely he's not speaking about Ikisina. The dumbfounded look held desperately to Dresden's expression as he repeated in his head what Elliot was saying. The man looked genuinely distraught, that much was true. But nothing he was saying made any sense at all.

Messed up. Yeah. That wasn't the word Dresden would have used.

Fury. Fury was what he felt, and he wanted to unleash every single ounce of it on Elliot in that moment. He took a step to the side and sat down in a chair opposite Elliot, running his own hands through his hair. He was trying to keep it inside. If he wanted to, he could easily get a few very good hits in before the men around them pulled him off, and even then, he was sure he could get away. Most of them were older men, nobles, not fighters. They could only do so much. Dresden could do some damage. Some real damage. And it was what he wanted to do.

But no. He wouldn't. He would walk away toward the bar and order a whiskey from Lloyd, who would hand it to him with a still-concerned look on his face. Then Dresden would return, sit down again, and drink half the whiskey down. "That's not like her, and you know it. Maybe she - well she still ain't very good at usin' her gift. Maybe she did it on accident, ya know? Got...caught up." The words tasted terrible in his mouth. He didn't believe a word he was saying, and he was disgusted, but it was best not to let Elliot know that just yet. Not until he spoke with Ikisina.

"I mean, did ya...did ya talk to her after?"

Elliot was too busy with his own feelings to take notice of Dresden's facial expressions. He focused on the drink in his hand.

Dresden walked away, and for a moment Elliot thought that he was just gone. That he didn't want to have this conversation. He wouldn't blame the man. But the soldier came back and sit down.

"Is it not like her? She falls in love easily. Astor, you, what if she was in love with me all along?" He shook his head. "You say she's not good at using her Gift, but what if she actually is very good at using it?

Did he speak with her after? "No." Short and simple. "I don't want to speak with someone who has been living in my home for the past year, and would do something like this." It was obvious that Elliot didn't take any of the blame. It must have been her Gift.

Well, Dresden couldn't argue with Elliot about his first point. Ikisina was the type to fall quickly, and fall hard. But the logic still wasn't there, and the man seemed to be refusing to see it. "Yeah, but if she was in love with you all along, why wouldn't she have done this a long time ago? Why wouldn't she have started with you, instead of skipping from Astor, then to me, then to you? You were there the whole time. If she just wanted to use you...I mean, shoot, she could have not even told ya about her gift. Coulda just been using it on you the whole time. You'd know. You can feel it...when she uses it on ya."

He had acknowledged that Ikisina had demonstrated her gift on Elliot, so then Elliot would know. It was not a subtle gift, in that you would know when it was being used on you. It was sudden and jarring the first time she'd used it on Dresden. But apparently, he wasn't a weaker man, like Elliot.

"There must be another reason, is all I'm sayin'. Maybe she just got caught up, you can't really believe she did it on purpose. What would she gain from it?" He took another drink of his whiskey, nearly finishing it off.

Dresden's questions annoyed him, but he wouldn't make it obvious. He just pretended to listen and made a plan to report Ikisina in the morning. He had hoped that Dresden would listen to him, but it didn't seem like he would, so it was best to tell someone who would actually do something. "Yes Dresden, I'm aware that you can feel it when she uses it on you", he said, looking at him as if he had just said something incredibly dumb. "If not, I wouldn't feel like she used me."

He had felt it in his body that she used the Gift on him. His dexterity had been improved, but his whole body just felt... Different. And then his judgement had been clouded. Something he also attributed to the Gift.

"What other reason?" he said, annoyance Shining through now. "What would I gain from it? I have never even laid a finger on her before today." He was starting to slur his words. The alcohol was starting to work.

What would he gain from it? The question soured Dresden even further, though he continued to remain calm and collected. Men weren't like women in that way, at least not as Dresden saw it. It wasn't that women didn't like sex - Scout had proven that theory to be untrue. It was just that it rarely seemed to be their driving force behind things. If Ikisina had been using Elliot, sex would be a good way for her to do it. But she wasn't. Dresden knew she wasn't. Men, on the other hand, were driven toward sex. It could be the basis for everything they said and did, and Elliot was no different. The only reason he needed to want to have sex with anyone, especially a young, beautiful woman, was sex itself.

"Look, I get it's all...fucked up right now," he said, being a little more frank. "And trust me, I ain't too happy either. But it sounds like it was just a mistake, ya know? A misunderstanding."

Elliot looked at Dresden with disappointment in his eyes. "A mistake, yeah", he sighed before looking away for a moment. His eyes slid over his surroundings, nodding at Lloyd who was looking at the two men with a questioning look on his face.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to sit here by myself for a bit", Elliot then said, which sounded like he gave Dresden a choice but really it was just a nice way of asking him to go away. He wasn't in the mood to talk anymore.