[ That really is it. As Strange has already discerned, happy endings are in short supply in Lambert's line of work, a luxury only afforded to those who have the option of pretending not to see the world as it is. Even the successes are bittersweet: laying a ghost to rest, destroying a monster nest, finding the bodies of the lost. Nothing will bring back the dead. ]

Something like that. [ Lambert drawls. ] I managed to track it down and kill it, all right. Pretty damn unusual finding a beast like that up north. While I was carving it up, I saw scars on its legs -- like it had been shackled, once.

[ He traces a claw on the edge of the mug, then takes a drink before he finishes. ]

By the time I came back with the trophy, the baron was dead ... and his wife survived. You wouldn't be able to call her beautiful again ... but she survived. [ He pauses. ] Not a lot of tears shed over that death.