Elyos studied Alpheo for a long moment, the light in his tired eyes flickering like a dying candle as he gazed at the man on the opposite side of the bars.
"Why are you doing this? Why sit here in this wretched place, sharing words with a man about to die? Why entertain such foolishness?"He narrowed his gaze, trying to understand a reason that was not simple amusement, he did not.
"Do you take pleasure in seeing a man's final acts of dignity wither into dust? Do you find delight in watching what a soul clings to as the pyre awaits?''
Alpheo inhaled slowly through his nose, the kind of long, deliberate breath a man took when confronted with a question he had half-expected but still found uncomfortable to answer.
For a while he said nothing, the sounds of dripping water and distant steps the only noise between them.
At last, he spoke, his tone quiet, almost stripped of its usual sardonic edge.
