The woman is right about to say something scolding and retreat into her hold, when Burahl simply keeps talking. And talking. And talking. Eventually, she slams her door on him in annoyance and impatience, and the group is left alone in the hallway to continue up the stairs to Trinia's apartment on the top floor.
"We shouldn't come barging in there acting like we want to capture her. We come here to ask her questions, right? And protect her of course, we might want to start with that."
Fredo nods at Burahl's characterization of the situation, and taps his foot through his conversation with the woman. Fortunately, she gives in to her impatience before Fredo does, and they're able to continue on their way. The addresses and flat numbers are confusing here, stacked one on top of another in somewhat dilapidated buildings, so navigating takes up most of his attention.
Thaven stares up at the building, shoulders his bow and begins climbing...
Both Akiki and Thaven look around on the backside of the building, but every handhold they see and try to grab ahold of is either too small and unsupportive or simply isn't there. Of course, the pair of them have some trouble getting up the wall.
From atop his perch, Majenko can see inside Trinia's room. Not only that, his position of one of thousands of pseudodragons in the city affords him a sort of...disguise in plain sight. 'I see her, Goffred. She's in her room, doesn't seem to be doing anything...suspicious. Don't let her know you're there.'
Climbing the stairs more, to the third floor, another suspicious resident pushes his head out of his door. This time, a bald man wearing a white, sleeveless shirt. "Hey. Whatchoo doin' here? You trespassin'?"
"Hardly, citizen," says Fredo, his tone pleasant. The argument he wants to make is fairly shaky, and will rely on the man's goodwill more than its being correct. "We're trying to get to the roof, from where we will continue to our friend's apartment." He gestures at Burahl to illustrate that it is through him that they know this friend. "Unless everything has crumbled," he continues, still pleasant, "we can climb up here, technically in between buildings." Fredo gestures again from the wooden siding that surrounds the man's front door to the brickwork on the other side of the hallway-cum-midair alleyway. He then walks confidently up to the man and pulls a gold sail out of his ear.
"I'm sorry if we've caused you any trouble," he says, pressing the coin into the man's hand and shaking firmly.
Thaven looks at the elf and frowns. "This was easier in training."
Raijinn frowns as he walks up the stairs. How are they to move and protect this girl if everyone will be able to see and identify them? These were the same problems that ended his employment under Gaedren.
The woman would surely remember the rat rambling at her annoyingly. The bald man would remember being given money. Hell, anyone who saw them would remember. Their appearance was so like the opening to a joke. 'A Rat, a demon-spawn, and a wizard enter a tavern...'
Raijinn motions to the others to walk up more quietly, to try and avoid such interruptions.
After their initial failure, both Thaven and Akiki stand for a few moments, examining the wall, and the wall on the other side, and begin to ascend very slowly and carefully. It'll take a few minutes, but they'll manage to ascend the building.
The bald man looks suspiciously at the strange trio in front of him, and then greedily at the gold sail Goffred's pressed into his palm. This alternating look continues for a few moments, the man visibly thinking. Then he pockets the gold coin and puts his hand up again. "You said you were here to visit a friend?"
Thaven mutters to himself as he finds the next handhold. "Going to invest in rope soon. Grappling hook. And rope."
"Actually, I've never met her," says Fredo amiably. "But he tells us his cousin's a perfectly lovely woman," he says, gesturing at Burahl. He's treading a fine verbal line, hoping that the man will think they're going to visit Burahl's relative - the same lie he had told the woman two levels down - without Fredo actually having to say so. "Come with us, if you like, if you don't think some desperate thief in these desperate times will break into your flat while you're gone. She lives only a dozen or so blocks away. The only reason we came this way is that it's easier to climb up here and continue on the rooftops, or so I'm told. How shall I introduce you?" He delivers the invitation with perfect sincerity, beckoning the man to step out into the hall. But at the same time he is sure that he has made the offer as unappealing as possible, his mien notwithstanding. Going to a strange place well out of sight of his home with strange people to meet a stranger, with looters roaming the streets...well, Fredo hopes this fellow isn't stupid enough to accept.
The man's eyes bug out a little bit at the notion of his things being whisked away in the middle of the day while he's away with some strangers."Best not introduce me at all, I think. Perhaps you'd better be on your way."
With that, he slams the door in your face, and leaves you to continue climbing the stairs, to the fourth floor, where Trinia's apartment is. Apartment 22's door is closed.
Outside, Akiki and Thaven have made it up most of the 30-foot height of the apartment building, with only a few feet remaining. They can see the little roof-balcony, jutting out from the wall, is just a foot or two above where they can grasp from.
'She's still in her room, Goffred. Looks like she's painting.'
Fredo raises his hand to knock on the door, but closes his eyes and screws up his face before he does. The others can tell he's projecting his thoughts to the pseudodragon. Thank you, Majenko. We're outside her door. Please tell me if she moves. Are Akiki and Thaven where they want to be?
"She's inside, at her easel," he whispers to the others.
Burahl grabs his walking staff with two hands, trying to look like a friendly older rat.
"Well I suppose we should knock on her door, right?"
Raijinn is wary of letting the other two in front of him in case there are traps. He steps forward, holding up a hand to the others. Turning, he uses his outstretched hand to quietly knock on the door.
Majenko's telepathic message comes in right as Raijinn moves to the forefront to knock on the door. 'Just about. They're pretty high up, almost to the roof area.'
As Raijinn knocks on the door, he hears a flurry of activity from the inside. 'Everybody, she's panicking! Looks like she's going to run for it!'
At this point, Akiki and Thaven are just pulling themselves up to chest level on the roof outcropping where they want to be - just outside Trinia's window. Through the window, they can see Trinia drinking one of a few vials while kicking on some shoes.
Burahl hears the voice of Majenko in his head and moves to the door and says so she might hear.
"Miss Sabor, we have come only to talk to you, and act as your bodyguards. We want to hear your story instead of copying the new Queen's words. Unlike some likely brainless gits that live in this city."
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Thaven hauls himself up, leaving the bow slung, and holding his hands out to show he's not currently armed. If Akiki needs a hand, he'll offer.
The thin girl finishes her vial but turns at Burahl's words, muffled through the door and the furniture she has stacked up against it. "Wh-What did you say? If you came to talk, why did you surround the building?"
"Surrounded? Hardly I assure you, our two compatriots are watching out for your safety. We've heard that there might be possible mobs looking for you. We'd rather get your story and our facts straight than see you lynched miss Sabor."
Burahl sounds hopeful that they will not have to scare her, to get her to talk.
Thaven can see the woman shifting about uncomfortably, looking between Thaven, in her window, arms raised, and the ratfolk's disembodied voice coming from her door.
"Are you here with the Guard? Are you here to arrest me?"
Thaven just stands there, looking uncomfortable. "Yes to the Guard. No to the arrest."
Burahl looks uncomfortably at Raijinn and Fredo and then continues, aiming to carefully select his words.
"Well we're not here to arrest you, neither are we with the Guard, technically speaking. We represent a group within them that does not believe the Queen's decree about you."
He pauses for a moment, biting his lip for a moment.
"Miss Sabor, my name is Burahl Narnec, I run a secret alchemist's shop in Old Korvosa. My friends and I hold the truth and Korvosa's interests at heart. I swear to you that we will protect you if you come with us, we do not wish to see you harmed."
For a long time, there is silence on Fredo and Raijinn and Burahl's end. Thaven and Akiki can just see the woman standing still, contemplating.
Now that you have a moment to stand and just look, you get a proper look at Trinia. She's a tall, lanky girl, who's cut her dirty blonde hair short and who still has an adolescent's facial bones. She closes her eyes to think.
Then, there's a screeching noise as she moves the wardrobe away from the door, and a click as she opens her bedroom door. She doesn't pull the door open, though. She just moves back to her easel bench and sits down.
"More to the point, Trinia," says Fredo, just loudly enough to be heard through the door, "it is because we do not wish to see you harmed that we believe you ought to come with us. We got your address from the Guard. If their leadership knows it, the rank and file will soon enough. Once they know it, so will any mob with lynching on their minds." It's a familiar enough story. As soon as Fredo and his friends learned Lamm's address they'd barged in with lynching on their minds.
Realising how delicate the situation is, and how frightened the girl is, Raijinn does his best to handle things gently. "My lady," he implores her, "I am going to open the door now."
If he hears no reaction from her, he'll open the door quietly. Expecting Fredo and Burahl to go up to the girl, he'll stand more in the back, nodding out the window to Thaven and Akiki to yes please do come in rather than hanging out there on the sill.
The girl shudders as Raijinn pushes the door opens, and turns to meet him. As soon as her eyes cross him, however, she recoils in fear. Raijinn is, after all, one of the most strongly-manifesting tieflings anyone will ever see, and he's the first sight she's met with.
Akiki and Thaven clamber into her apartment through the window, and stand beside her.
Looking around, she asks, "Where are you going to take me?"
Burahl walks in casually besides Fredo , leaning on his staff, appearing older than he actually is.
"You can trust him, miss Sabor, he may look imposing, but he is a very good friend of mine." He indicates Raijinn with a nod of his head.
He casually looks around if he sees any of her paintings hanging in the apartment.
"Well, we were gonna take you back to the barracks to see Marshall Kroft. She made it quite clear she wants to talk with you and not serve you up to the mob as the Queen intents to do."
Burahl looks up at Fredo who is beside him.
"Shouldn't we disguise her or something? Some people might recognise her if we don't."
"A disguise would be a good idea," agrees Fredo, "but I don't think we have any of the necessary materials or tools. Unless you yourself can supply them, Citizen Sabor." He looks at her promptingly.
"I know how we must sound," he says. "I had my doubts about Field Marshal Kroft too, but she has conducted herself with principle despite her position. I believe her when she says she does not want to see you hurt."
Trinia's apartment is a simple affair, two rooms, a main room and a bathroom, with only one painting present in the main room. It's the one she was just painting, a half-completed piece of a pseudodragon and an imp locked in mortal combat, their bodies poised in just the right symbolic pose.
The little woman squirms in her chair. "No, sir, I'm afraid to say that I don't have any disguises...although I can make some simple illusions or render myself invisible, I'm no real master of either of these things, and for the illusions to be useful, we'd have to overlay them on my body and keep them there precisely. That'd be hard." Looks up fearfully, she says, "I believe you about Marshall Kroft, but how are we going to actually get there?"
Raijinn frowns, wondering why we hadn't thought of this sooner. He doesn't have anything for disguises either, and nor does he believe himself capable of that kind of magic. And in a crisis is certainly not the best time to find out. But the point is not to be noticed. "What if Majenko scouts from above for us? He could direct us on which streets are empty and safe for us to take? It may take considerably longer to get back, but we should be able to avoid the mobs."
"Even if avoiding everyone proves impossible," says Fredo, talking to Trinia, "between your magic and mine we should be able to hide you from sight for a few minutes at least twice, and to cover our escape or impede our pursuers at least a few more times. We should also try to stay in the Shingles for as long as possible; it is difficult for masses of people to congregate on rooftops, especially when there is danger they might fall in." Fredo's attempts to avoid using the word "mob" are almost ostentatious by now.
Trinia sits peacefully for a few moments before asking a simple question, almost to herself. "I really have no choice but to trust you on this, do I?"
She stands up from her bench, a resolute look forming on her face. "Listen, if you all think we can avoid being caught by people we don't want to be caught by, and you're trying to get me cleared...I'll go with you."
On cue, Majenko flutters into the now-open window, alighting on the sill. 'I can certainly keep an eye out. For Hellknights, Korvosan Guards, and Sable Company, is that right?'
'For anyone, I'm afraid.' Raijinn replies. 'With the city in such turmoil, even the average citizen may want to harm her.'
To Majenko's specific question, Raijinn thinks quietly for a minute before answering. 'I don't believe that taking her to the Field Marshal is necessarily aiding her. Besides, isn't the alternative risking the death of an innocent girl at the hands of an angry mob?'
Majenko's question, 'What does that make you?' sticks in Raijinn's mind, as he knows quite unfortunately that regardless of what happens with the painter girl, he has no answer to that question.
Thaven peeks in from the balcony. "Maybe if we wrapped her up in a carpet?" He looks unused to the sneaking side of life...
"I'd say give her a cloak from one of us, hiding her face and complexion might be a good first step. Adding a few more paddings at the shoulder to make her appear like a young man might also work."
Burahl is just throwing out some random ideas as no one seems to know what the best course of action is.
"Whatever we do, we'd best hurry. For the people might track her down as we did."
With a wry look at Thaven, she says, "I do hope you aren't serious about that. You do want me to LIVE, right?"
Then she sighs a very small sigh and begins to hop from foot to foot. "If we're going, can we get going? I'd like to get things over with. I'd like to move on."
'What happens if she does turn out to be innocent? Won't the riots simply continue, as the people continue to look for another scapegoat? How many lives are you saving then?'
Realising that the voice sounds very different from that of Majenko, Raijinn narrows his eyes and begins glancing around the room for the source, finding nothing.
'Could one death end the riots? It would not change how uncertain the future is.'
Thaven shrugs. "Sorry. Not used to this side of the law." He blushes furiously as the pretty young lady speaks to him.
Burahl shifts uneasily on his feet.
"Whatever the case we should move now, we don't have much time to linger here. Let's head up the Shingles and go down to street level at another building. That would be our safest bet."
He goes to the hallway and looks around.
"Which way is up and out to the roofs Miss Sabor?"