Pieter shook his head slowly. "Lord Verloren's dead. So's Mr Waite. No news from Hans Suster, but..." His voice trailed off, and he left unsaid the grim truth: if Suster had gotten away, he would be back by now.

"For the details, we'll have to wait until Lothar's in a better state. I'm eager to hear his story, too."
Hanna seemed to deflate. Seeming very small, the innkeeper's wife nodded.

"Hm... If it's not too much to ask, Mrs Hofstadter, could you please get us a bowl and a ladle?" he asked, more to send her away for a moment than anything else. "Lothar must be starving."
"Ladle. Yes." Moving slowly, she shuffled away.

~

They were not to be left in peace for long. Soon enough, the door-latch rattled, and a figure entered in a narrow crack of pale daylight.

"Hello? Anyone here?" It was Leo's voice. "They're saying..."

He stopped in mid-sentence as he saw Lothar. The soldier lay motionless on his side, one hand still pressed over what had been done to his face. His other eye was closed; if not for the slow movement of his chest as he breathed, he might have been taken for dead.

"...well," said Leopold, recovering a little. "They're right."

He paused.

"Just him, then," he said, his voice flat and hollow. "I thought... I mean, we left him for dead." He looked down at the man on the table. "Talberg's been telling everyone. It's got a way of getting your hopes up, you know? Hearing someone else made it back." He paused again. "There are going to be questions."

OOC:
Spoiler
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The break in the middle represents the passage of some flexible time. If you want to have a bit more conversation before Leo appears, feel free to split your posts; Brenton, if you're waiting for a suitable time to pass before Lothar starts doin' stuff again, feel free to consider that tilde the better part of it.