Samirah gets a dreamy look in her eye. "Ahh, to be warm again."
To Miril's comment, she looks slightly confused. "What do crime bosses have to do with fences?"
"A 'fence' is the person a thief sells her stolen goods to," explains Míril.
"Or so I've heard."
"I have heard the saying 'Good fences make good neighbors' here. Is that what this means?"
"Not quite."
"So the sentence 'I fence with the fence fence' is technically correct in Taldane?" She wrinkles her nose.
"So the sentence 'I fence with the fence fence' is technically correct in Taldane?" She wrinkles her nose.
"Yes. But I defy you to actually find a situation where you'd naturally say that."
Samirah's nose tilts upward slightly and she looks much more serious. "If it takes me the rest of my life, I will find a fence of fences. And then I will tell you about how I fenced with him or her."
"I believe you will," Konstantin says, laying a gentle hand on Samirah's shoulder.
She gives the much taller Konstantin a smile that's all in her eyes in return.
The sound is almost a chuckle, "Don't you know? I'm evil. Born of evil and they were never able to preach it out of me." Her words mocking, and somehow true and hollow.
Drea ... snorts.
"I am literally f!!~ing made of solidified evil, Kyle. That one will not wash with me."
She comes to a decision. "As my friends point out, we are short on time. So. You will have your trial, and I will plead for your life, and you will not burn, and we will discuss this further, because I am not giving up on you."
She hoists the bound woman over her shoulder and turns to the rest of the group.
"Are we ready to go?"
Drea ... snorts.
"I am literally f%*%ing made of solidified evil, Kyle. That one will not wash with me."
She comes to a decision. "As my friends point out, we are short on time. So. You will have your trial, and I will plead for your life, and you will not burn, and we will discuss this further, because I am not giving up on you."
She hoists the bound woman over her shoulder and turns to the rest of the group.
"Are we ready to go?"
Roshan raises an eyebrow. Shrugs and nods.
Samirah looks over and sees the cultist laying over Drea's shoulder, like a sack of vegetables. She laughs. "Yes... I think we're ready." With another brief touch of Konstantin's arm, she begins walking towards the room's exit.
With Kyle trussed and carried the group heads south towards the Kandro Nyserian's manor house - the last of the cultist 'safehouses' mentioned in the note Hosilla carried on her. It isn't even a block away from the remains of the Tower of Estrod when Kyle decides that she doesn't particularly care to be carried towards the fate of a trial.
She has an impressively loud scream, clearly not caring who or what's attention she draws.
Roshan smoothly and nonchalantly as if it wasn't totally unexpected, slices a portion off of his sleeve, balls it up and stuffs it in her mouth. A longer strip secures it in place. He does ensure her nose is free to breathe, then retakes his position.
Drea patiently holds Kyle still while Roshan gags her, and then moves on.
Roshan smiles. His fingers move briefly from his lips towards her for her assistance.
Konstantin momentarily pauses while the gagging goes on. His expression does not change, but that's hardly unusual.
Samirah briefly touches her own mouth, a subconscious gesture, and it's not the same gesture Roshan made.
"Drea... I know you want to have lengthy conversations with this woman... are you going to do that at the manor? Or did you intend on waiting until we were able to get back to the inn?"
"Drea... I know you want to have lengthy conversations with this woman... are you going to do that at the manor? Or did you intend on waiting until we were able to get back to the inn?"
"I think it's going to have to wait until the inn."
"I thought I might hang back with her out of sight until we get a sense of whether the manor is more like the Topaz or more like the Tower, or something else altogether."
"Or possibly if we find a secure and hidden enough place near the manor, one of us could guard her while the rest investigate. Me, or perhaps Corbin, or ... ?"
She seems to be open to any ideas, and looks a bit apologetic that her decision to bring Kyle back to the inn is likely to cause some difficulties.
"Your prisoner, your responsibility."
She seems to be open to any ideas, and looks a bit apologetic that her decision to bring Kyle back to the inn is likely to cause some difficulties.
Roshan shakes his head as two fingers close against his thumb twice. Two nuckles from each hand tap together, then his wrists twist and they tap again. He offers a kind of reassuring half smile, but no additional ideas.
Samirah shrugs in a noncommittal sort of way, after giving Roshan a gentle smile and shake of her head after seeing his concern. To Drea:
"I have no love for cultists, but hoisting one over your shoulder bound and gagged is just as much a burden for her as it is for the woman carrying her. I also don't imagine there's anything you can say or do in the space of one afternoon to change her mind." She shrugs again.
"You speak well, but you've taken on a difficult task. She's had years to hear and absorb the things that Hosilla tried to get me to believe in the space of a day, and as you can imagine, I was not so receptive. You have that same kind of work ahead of you."
Konstantin falls into step next to Samirah. After a moment, he takes her hand.
He doesn't look at her, though.
The tension leaves her a little as she squeezes his hand.
She doesn't loosen the squeeze; she looks more relaxed but funneled whatever it is she's feeling into her grip.
Once again being able to move quietly through the streets, the group continues south untill they come to a wide swath of destruction. Some creature, more than a block wide, had moved straight through, a line of battered buildings heading straight from the Kite at the western edge through to where the outer wall of Kenabres once stood.
What was once surely a stately manor is now nothing more than a pule of rubble and gouged trough of ruin.
"I have no love for cultists, but hoisting one over your shoulder bound and gagged is just as much a burden for her as it is for the woman carrying her. I also don't imagine there's anything you can say or do in the space of one afternoon to change her mind." She shrugs again.
"You speak well, but you've taken on a difficult task. She's had years to hear and absorb the things that Hosilla tried to get me to believe in the space of a day, and as you can imagine, I was not so receptive. You have that same kind of work ahead of you."
"An afternoon? No, that seems highly unlikely at best. My plan," she says in flat tones that suggest she knows exactly how ridiculous what she's about to say sounds, "Is to convince a trio of people I barely know, the most important one of whom is married to someone who actively distrusts me, that an unrepentant cultist somehow merits a stay of execution, so that I may stand guard over her in a basement room, or, if they refuse that as they did before, somewhere out in a demon-overrun city. As Konstantin says, I have taken her on as my responsibility, and that requires considerably more than an afternoon on my part."
"I think I've got about two hours or so to figure out how to pull this off."
Konstantin lets Samirah's hand go to poke around the ruins. "It appears to have been empty," he says,
"I think I've got about two hours or so to figure out how to pull this off."
"For what it's worth, I fully believe you're capable of pulling it off." Samirah offers, along with a sympathetic look.
After Konstantin's observation and a little bit of her own exploration, she looks back toward the street. "I'm glad we were not here in the path of whatever did this."
"An afternoon? No, that seems highly unlikely at best. My plan," she says in flat tones that suggest she knows exactly how ridiculous what she's about to say sounds, "Is to convince a trio of people I barely know, the most important one of whom is married to someone who actively distrusts me, that an unrepentant cultist somehow merits a stay of execution, so that I may stand guard over her in a basement room, or, if they refuse that as they did before, somewhere out in a demon-overrun city. As Konstantin says, I have taken her on as my responsibility, and that requires considerably more than an afternoon on my part."
"I think I've got about two hours or so to figure out how to pull this off."
"Good luck," Konstantin says, not unkindly.
"Thank you," Drea says to both Samirah and Konstantin, quite sincerely.
Konstantin lets Samirah's hand go to poke around the ruins. "It appears to have been empty," he says.
She frowns. "False flag, maybe?" she asks to the general group. "I remember Horgus seemed very surprised when the place came up."
"Maybe..." she looks around, half heartedly pushing some rubble around with a foot. "We could ask around, see if anyone knows where Kandro might be?"
She says this and moves back towards the street. "I think we're almost done for the day, Corbin, then we can get you situated at the Defender's Heart."
"I'd like to poke around. Maybe there's secret passages or clues or something?"
Míril starts examining the area.
"I'd like to poke around. Maybe there's secret passages or clues or something?"
Míril starts examining the area.
"I'd like to poke around. Maybe there's secret passages or clues or something?"
Míril starts examining the area.
Miril searches very carefully and find the scene is as it presents itself. A frustrating dead end.
Once they are certain of the fact though, the group is able to head back north, moving from what had been Old Kenabres to the Ring District and, eventually, the area surrounding the Defender's Heart. The wariness of the guards is no less on this approach, although the weapons aren't actually pointed in your direction - just ready in case you prove to be different than you appear.
The same commander as the day before, who waits for the quiet word that you were given just that morning to prove your identity. Even before you come through the protective barricade, you hear him sending one of the kids who has been acting as part squire, part messenger for the on duty crusaders being sent off to fetch the same trio as the day before.
Samirah approaches the commander with Corbin in tow. "Do you have any work for the young man, here? He's adept with a bow and could use a task to keep him busy." She smiles at him. "Assuming, of course, that you do want to stay and help, still? The choice is yours and the world is your clam."
Samirah approaches the commander with Corbin in tow. "Do you have any work for the young man, here? He's adept with a bow and could use a task to keep him busy." She smiles at him. "Assuming, of course, that you do want to stay and help, still? The choice is yours and the world is your clam."
"The shellfish of your choosing," Konstantin agrees.
"Do you use shellfish in your soups? Are there mountain shellfish?" She asks as an aside, possibly interrupting any answer from the commander.
"Do you use shellfish in your soups? Are there mountain shellfish?" She asks as an aside, possibly interrupting any answer from the commander.
"You can put anything in soup," Konstantin says. "A fact taken to ridiculous extremes in some quarters."
He makes himself available for the eventual trial, checks on Anevia and Aravashnial, and adjourns to the common room. "Samirah? Would you like to join me for a drink?"
"I'd be delighted. My head is still a little fuzzy from earlier encounters, and I suspect a drink would clear it." She allows Konstantin to take the lead in finding a good place to settle down.
She takes her drink, tapping the glass lightly against his. "შეიძლება თქვენი სასმელი შენარჩუნება თქვენი შიგნით თბილი როგორც თქვენი გარეთ."
"I wished to discuss the party's policy of prisoners with you. It seems you share my distaste for the practice."
"I do. In theory, taking prisoners is merciful." She taps her fingers on her glass. "We have already seen there is no place to house prisoners here, at least not anymore. It seems almost more cruel to drag someone along with us in the hopes they will change in a meaningful way before they are, inevitably, pronounced guilty and killed in front of us. And we have also already seen that we travel with those who cannot stomach what justice actually looks like. And it is fortunate for them that they did not have to see justice before now."
She looks into Konstantin's eyes, as if searching for something. "I would prefer to execute them myself, than have the blood on someone else's hands. Maybe I am too harsh."
He nods to himself. "I am pleased that we are agreed in this. Though if we disagreed, that would not change... other matters. Between us. For me. I find you far too delightful, I think."
He sips. "That is one of my problems with Drea, in fact. She does not seek to minimize death. She prolongs suffering so that it is not her hand that wields the blade. It is an abdication of responsibility. And that... that I cannot respect."
"I suspect there is very little we will disagree about. Perhaps just the minimum or maximum acceptable temperature. And with regards to Drea... I think her intent is good, but unfortunately, intent counts for nothing as the axe is swinging. She mentioned, to me, a past that she does not remember... and I think the fear of what she may have done is what drives her to save others. Atonement."
She shakes her head. "We cannot take on the task of attempting to talk everyone into our way of seeing the world. There is a good action with evil results, and evil people with what they see as good intentions. Like Hosilla. I suspect she truly believed it was good she offered me a chance to join the cult." A short, and harsh laugh. "I'll stop bringing it up, eventually. It's been a long time since someone like her caught me unawares."
"Truly, there is something about witnessing a person being held against their will that unsettles me more than witnessing death. I understood the need to do it to Kyle, for Drea to achieve what she wanted, but..." she chuckles a little, "then we go back to disagreeing with that in the first place."
Samirah and Konstantin are easily findable in the bar, a bottle and pair of glasses between them. They are sitting at a largish table and having a conversation.
He hesitates, then reaches over to take her hand. "I don't think you weak, Samirah. Even the strongest need others... I would just hope to be the one you look to."