Neverwinter Forest Are you tired of unexpected guests in your villa of villainy?

Mal committed what Stickhead said to memory.  If the boss showed up wanting his tithe, Mal would have a verbal weapon to use against him -- to put it simply, it wasn't in the base contract.  At least out of this he knew they were there and though he wasn't planning on ever using their services, maybe in a pinch.  At which point, he better be ready to sacrifice just about anything... No.  It probably wouldn't be worth the cost.  Whatever.  In the end, Mal was pretty sure they were just the local goon squad.  Hopefully they'd do everyone a favor and evaporate soonish, along with anyone else who existed to cause trouble.  Anyway.  He nodded.

And honestly, Mal wasn't exactly helping make sure the pair got along, was he?  Nah, he was quite happy to drive in that wedge.  No matter what happened with this trial period it would be in his favor -- if they fought among themselves and collapsed then that was good, if they successfully left him alone then that was good, if they caused trouble then he knew that they weren't to be trusted and it wouldn't happen in the future.  Where was the loss?  Meanwhile what did they get out of him?  Probably less than they were hoping, honestly.  I'm Mal.  You are?  Stickhead was a great title and probably distinct enough that everyone would know who he was talking about, but if this was just some sort of getup to see if Mal would make a dumb comment or something, it'd be a useless moniker.