Coldeven 5: About B.B. (Day 3)

I've alluded to this already, but I think that B.B. is getting a raw deal. She's willingly taking point on our explorations. In part, this is because she has a number of advantages that the rest of us don't enjoy. Her people, whom I've heard called the whisper gnomes, are by nature silent, stealthy, and have a caution that borders on paranoia.

However, even among her people, I suspect that B.B. is an exception. Her reflexes are as good as mine, which surprised me a great deal, because I'm faster than anyone I've ever met. I don't know where she learned her trade (or, to be honest, exactly what she would claim her trade to be) but she has exceptional skill with locks and traps. Twice now, I've seen her throw herself clear from lethal traps before I'd even had a chance to register them activating.

But as much as I admire her talent, I have to question her judgement. We've only been in here for two days, and already she's saved our lives by endangering her own at least twice. We all owe her, and thus she's put herself firmly on the wrong side of one of my favorite little rules.

Spike's Exchange Axiom: Pay slowly, collect quickly.

Let's face it. Circumstances change. If you owe someone something, maybe you'll never have to pay. They might die, forget, move out of town, or accept some sort of lesser or alternate payment in exchange for the debt. Waiting as long as reasonably possible to pay someone back is just good policy. Likewise, people who owe you something are subject to the same changing circumstances, so collect what they owe you as quickly as possible, to make sure that you don't lose out on what you're due.

She's going to die, of course. This place is going to kill her. The debt that all of us owe her is one she's not going to get to collect. I'm not feeling particularly inclined to point any of this out to her, of course. Because if she wises up and starts refusing to take the lead, I'm likely to have to do it, and my mother didn't raise a fool.