"Before we begin," Hyran said, looking up from his desk and fixing Serena with the level gaze of a mage whose patience for near-death experiences had been exhausted several missions ago, "let's establish some ground rules for this retrieval."
Serena looked at him.
"Rule one. We are going to attempt, with whatever collective discipline this group can muster, to complete an artifact retrieval without any member of this team being stabbed, impaled, speared, or penetrated by any object that is sharper than a dinner knife."
"That seems reasonable," Serena said.
"It seemed reasonable last time too, and you were stabbed. In a lake. With spikes. While I watched." Hyran's voice carried the specific irritation of a man whose protégé kept almost dying in bodies of water. "I am done watching you get stabbed, Serena and I am done with lakes entirely. If this artifact is near a lake, I am vetoing the lake."
