He always wondered if her smiles, rare enough as they were, were genuine or merely a polite gesture, but this one put him at ease at least for the time being nonetheless. Her general presence put her at ease, to be honest--at least one of them had practice in remaining calm. "You should smile more," Desi remarked in passing.
Desi listened quietly as she revealed her master plan. It wasn't an infallible plan, and perhaps describing it as a master plan gave it a bit more glory than it deserved, but as far as Desi could tell, it ought to work provided nothing went wrong. He briefly considered what might go wrong--in short, everything--and set those concerns aside. Without opening up with magic, which would be not just violent but also stupid, they didn't have a host of options sitting before them. Braining the templar was probably the only way to getting to his phylactery without bloodshed, though probably not without some enthusiastic bruising. Of course, if Desi failed to land one good hit, they'd likely have to pray (but to whom?) that they could pound the templar down with spells before he drew his sword. Right next to the angry templar really was not an ideal place to stand under any circumstances, not even just for an apostate mage. "Alright," he said. "I hope I won't fail you then." And himself, of course. Desi really didn't want to fail himself, especially not as the last thing he ever did with his life.
He surveyed the sticks laying about. A few were possibly worthy material for a small club, but most of would've been fantastic for a campfire but less suited for knocking out a trained warrior, not unless they had an incapacitating fear of twigs, though you'd never know. Desi figured a rock would work, but while he'd received plenty of combat training as a boy, never had he been taught in the fine art of wielding a rock. A hole in his education, perhaps, maybe he'd file a complaint about that one day. "A heavy stick such as a staff? Because I happen to have one of those," Desi said.