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Nary's stomach churns when her hair is ruffled, but she tries hard not to let it show how much it bothers her. She's probably as old as Auraelia's grandmother so, being treated like a child by a child was... uncomfortable.
"Isabel is.... a lot like me and also not like me at all. She's kinda quiet," she offers.
Food, a roof over her head, a willing accomplice - Nary had picked a good mark tonight, it seems. Auraelia was definitely the right choice, here.
Aaron seemed... unstable. Ila... Nary didn't want to think about Ila, because that meant thinking about it. Mavarro... also a good mark. But significantly less threatening looking than Auraelia.
Because, seriously. Auraelia dragged a crocodile across Korvosa. Like no big deal.
She turns to Marius, who appears to be a mook of Mavarro proportions.
"Thank you for breakfast! You're a fantastic cook. Who taught you?"
The sword is strapped to her back, still. She wasn't letting it out of touch from her, let alone out of sight.
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When Auraelia looks down and sees she's made Nary uncomfortable, she picks her hand up. She crouches down and looks at Nary. "I'm sorry, that wasn't meant to make you uncomfortable!" she says, looking a bit embarassed. "I'm not used to having someone around that's smaller than Sigrid! I promise I won't ruffle your hair anymore, alright?"
She waits for Nary to finish eating and then heads to the door with her. When they get there, she stops for a bit. "Also, I didn't thank you last night. I don't know if we would have gotten her out of there without you. Bloo would've probably attacked us, and who knows what would have happened if Gaedren had heard us coming sooner. So thank you, Nary, min søskende! You and your sister are always welcome here." She smiles sincerely at Nary and gives her a quick hug before standing back up. "Shall we go?"
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Nary's head reels when she realizes she let her mask slip. It's disconcerting. Way worse than being touched was being seen.
She does her best to recover, giving a reassuring grin. "Oh! It's okay. It's not that. You're very tall, is all. I don't mind it."
Nary listens to Auraelia's thanks - though, internally, she groans.
I did way more than that, lady! I was in Gaedren's head the whole damn time, keeping him from bludgeoning Aaron to death with that damned chair.
But it's okay. The less she knows about Nary's powers the better.
At the door, Nary hugs Auraelia back. She mirrors her body language and demeanor - standard procedure for a con artist. Auraelia was being touchy-feely, so Nary would be too - she grabs her hand like a child.
"It's okay! I'm glad I was able to help. I'm not a warrior like you are."
She had seen the way Auraelia had defended her child. That was the kind of ferocity she wanted to imprint to herself.
Before they left though - they needed to get their story straight. She closes the door.
"Okay. Let's get things straight first before we go talking to the constabulary. Are we going to admit that we killed Lamm?"
"I... yes. Alright." Ila says with a slow nod, but stares off into space for a moment, then furrows her brow. She remembers to go to the door to lock it. Then promptly remembers as she is digging out her house key, that it's likely better not to lock people inside. There were people inside. She opens the door once more, "We're going to go find something for everyone to eat. Do you want to stay here, or come with us?"
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Aaron just stares at Ila for a moment. He can see how she seems to have simply shut down with the revelation of her mother's death. He sighs. "Ila. Look at me. Right now." He grabs her shoulder and spins her around. "I get it. Okay. I know what it feels like to lose someone who's important you you. When... when I lost Catarina... I know what it feels like for everything to just seem pointless. To just shut down hard and try to ignore everything." He sighs. "But I reminded myself of something. Catarina wouldn't want me to shut down again, to let myself become the emotionless a$$ that I was before we met. So, would your mother want you to shut down like this?"
Ila shakes her head, slowly, eyes moving quickly from him to her mother on the other side of him, and back... but she's completely frozen physically, from the shoulders down, having frozen when he touched her. She... hadn't expected to be touched.
After a moment, she exhales. "I... she." and shakes her head. "She's not gone." she finally manages.
"If she's not gone, then why in Pharasma's name are you letting yourself get so thrown off by it that you can barely function. For gods' sake woman." He releases his grip on her shoulder, awkwardly patting her shoulder instead. He's never been very good with this empathy thing.
"Because... she should be." Ila says looking back to her mother. "She's supposed to be with Pharasma now, moving on to wherever she deems is fitting. Instead, she's here." she says after a moment.
She swallows, "There's supposed to be an after," she says looking back to Aaron. "And if there isn't... then..." she shakes her head, deciding to stop where she is, her hands moving back in front of her, one hand encircling the other wrist. But she seems to be coherent, at least... for now.
"She will have her after, Ila," Mavarro says with certainty, having spent the past few moments simply listening. He had not been sure what to say to her before. Her predicament was... unique. Moving away from the table, he approaches the phantom.
"If she is still here, then there must be a reason. Right, Maria? You said you were going to explain something to us last night. We were too tired to listen, then."
Auraelia smiles at Nary, but lets go of her hand, wanting to avoid slipping into treating her as a child again. "I don't have a problem with saying I killed him. He kidnapped Sigrid and was in the process of feeding her to gobblegut. Both I and Sigrid have the wounds to show for it, and we have Gobblegut as well," she says, sounding significantly more serious. She turns and starts down the street, determined to help return the favor now. "We'll need to drop by Ila's afterwards, I wanted to see if I could talk her or Mavarro into paying Sigrid a quick visit and healing her some. And I promised to take away the crocodile."
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Aaron sighs. Religious types. They make even less sense to him, if that's even possible. "Well, as someone who's sent a fair number of poor souls to the lady of graves' judgment, I don't think your mother sticking around is normal. I'm sure that once her... unfinished business is done, she'll be able to move on to whatever happy bunny filled after life with all the golden light a harps and what not." Good people expect an afterlife with golden light and harps and sh*t, right?
"No... you don't understand. Necromancy is..." she shakes her head emphatically. "I don't know if 'sin' is the right word." she says, looking to her mother, to help her describe the issue. "I don't know what will happen to her... or me, now. I... didn't mean to do this." she says, her jaw tightening.
"Wait, so you did this on purpose then? Because I don't even know how you can be guilty of usin' necromancy by accident"
Ila would normally have a clever quip for that, but under the circumstances... she doesn't have a mind for it. "I don't know. I just... don't." she shakes her head. "Death... is natural. I do not like that it is. Just as I dislike suffering, but they are all part of life. This... is not." she says, shaking her head.
They were going to tell the truth? To the town guard?
Hah! That's a new one.
"Well, okay. We can do that." And if that didn't work, she had some ideas.
It wasn't going to go that easy, of course. But she shoves her nervousness somewhere deep inside of her, and leads the way down the street towards the Citadel. She twirls her walking-stick in front of her like a baton, as if she were leading a parade. Because it was - a parade just for Isabel.
"Death is natural. Cosmic order of the universe. Blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, we can go down to the Pantheon of the Many and find one of the priests of Urgathoa. I'm sure they can give you a speech on why undeath is fine better than I can." He sighs. "There's a lot of different things people think are just a part of life. What I've learned is that it's better to just accept what's right in front of your eyes as part of life and roll with it. The world makes a lot more sense then."
"Maybe that is what the dream had intended for me to understand." She says, closing her eyes and chewing on her lip. All of this was so very, very complicated.
Aaron perks up momentarily. "Yeah. Dreams can be weird sometimes." Why was Ila having dreams the same night he had that... unusual dream? This was starting to get to that realm of weird sh*t he tried to stay away from. Great. Just great.
As the group (both groups, really) walks through the city streets to the market, a lot of things about what happened the previous night become clear. Many buildings are burned out, many more have been invaded and looted, with broken doors and windows, with sad-eyed residents peeking out into the streets.
A thin layer of blood lays between the cobblestones beneath the walkers' feet, which is probably a lot of why there is a very small number of people out and about right now. And the absence of people is unusual for Korvosa. Normally the streets buzz and hum with activity.
Maria mostly tries to let Ila explain herself, but when she struggles she hops in with just a few words of wisdom. "Necromancy - the destruction of the soul and the re-animation of a corpse - are very different from what appears to have happened to me." he says, gently. "You are no more a sinner than I am."
"Aaron is right about a lot of things here. Something stirs in Korvosa. Something wrong. Like... like that." she says, pointing to an immense pillar of infernally-styled armor standing in the market. The sight is strange. Casting a baleful, judgment-filled eye over the few people daring to use the marketplace at this hour is an Order of the Nail Hellknight. He has a greatsword drawn, and he hasn't bothered to clean the bloodstains from its blade. Perhaps that was purposeful. He watches everyone carefully.
As long as no one is up to any law-breaking in the marketplace, though, the group is able to get a few choice food items from the scant number of vendors and scamper back to Ila's house.
As long as you have possession of it and Maria is manifested, you can use the following spell-like abilities (At CL 5th):
3/day - cure light wounds
1/day - augury
1/day - prayer
These magic effects manifest either as Maria casting the spells or as you consulting the rings themselves for the power of the spells.
Aaron nods, though he doesn't quite get it. Honestly all he knows of necromancy is fragments gathered from the preaching of the priest down at the Pantheon during his infrequent visits. "Your mother's smart. And you're not helping yourself by agonizing over doing what needs done. And there's bigger things going on today. Much bigger, if the king's really dead."
As they enter the market, he puts on a blank calm expression. Hellknights are the last people he likes to see. They were like every kind of law enforcer amplified to make them more dangerous. Aaron breaks off from grabbing food to go looking for someone selling alchemical items. He still needs some basic ingredients to try out his new book. He hesitates as he walks near the jewelers stall. "I'll be back for your ring Catarina. Just hang on a little longer."
Queen Ileosa must have invited them to quell the riots.
The walk to the Citadel is a long and soul-draining one, as the signs of devastation and destruction turn around every corner. Patrols of Hellknights supplement the patrols of Korvosan Guards, though there are fewer of those than might be expected. It's likely that many of them are injured.
The Sable Company Marines still flap overhead every once in awhile, though those are reduced as well.
Very few people are out and about at this time. The pair do spot a cleric trying to channel enough water to wash the blood pooling in the streets down a drainage grate.
The Citadel's big gates are closed, and only one guard is visible in the watchtowers above. The small doors for regular people are open, and a long line of people waiting in line to have issues resolved by the guard wait in the antechamber beyond. Nary, being a gnome and also carrying what is obviously a holy sword that is much too large for her, draw many eyes.
"Hellknights? Here?" Mavarro remarks with quiet disdain, eyeing the imposing figure warily. "They haven't been in the city since Domina's reign. Our new queen is leaving quite the impression so far."
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Ila files away the bit of knowledge that she did gain. She'd be much more capable of helping Sigrid and Auraelia, after all. She nodded along as the others spoke... if Ila had not intended this, nor had her mother, something, or someone else obviously had.
"What in the wo-" she starts, then notices that Aaron is already gone, and moves to simply buy food for the several children waiting in her home. She was leaning heavily towards eggs. Eggs were inexpensive and easy to cook large amounts of quickly. She didn't know a thing about nutrition at the end of the day, though. Regardless, she headed into the market to gather food. Her mother probably had some vegetables in mind, as well.
Wow. People got really upset over the new Queen, didn't they?
Nary frowns at all of the horribleness that apparently went on last night after she fell asleep. Particularly the Hellknights - she didn't like the looks of them. A hand slips into her pocket and she fidgets with her coin, but otherwise, aware that a lot of people are looking at her, Nary attempts to act like she should be here.
But really, all the awfulness was starting to unsettle her. Why was there so much blood?
She glances up at Auraelia and feels a twinge of worry - or maybe it was protectiveness? She thinks about her dream. Maybe it was an omen.
She focuses, psychically linking herself to Auraelia.
She murmurs under her breath, somewhere not right next to scary hellknights - "Hey! Don't freak out. If you whisper back, I can hear you."
"This is all really scary. What do you think?"
Aaron nods slightly, equally unhappy to see the armored figure. "It's strange. I guess Ileosa couldn't quell the riots with just her guards. She must have called in extra help. I have a bad feeling that things are about to get very interesting in Korvosa."
Auraelia's fairly good mood dissipates as they wander through the streets towards the Citadel. The damage that had occurred in but a single night was hard for her to process. For the first time since she had come to call this place home with Marius, she found herself fearing that she might lose her home for a second time in her life.
Auraelia notices Nary fidgeting nervously and looks down at her sympathetically. When she whispers to her, Auraelia looks a little surprised, not having thought Nary was particularly magical beyond being a gnome. "It may sound odd, but it's scary to me as well." she says, looking around as they wait in line. "When I came here to be with Marius I thought this would be my home from then on. If things get worse, and we're forced to leave..." Her voice trails off as she gets lost in memories of her exile from the Quah and her desperate trip to Korvosa to find Marius.
Nary smiles at Auraelia reassuringly.
"Moving somewhere new is an adventure. It'll be okay!"
She groans when she sees the line. Nary didn't like lines. Especially ones that were in-between her and her sister.
She heads up to the back of the line... but she looks around for any guards that might be around to mind control become her new best friend...
Maria and Ila go around the marketplace, exchanging a few coppers for a few small food items until they both have little baskets of eggs, vegetables and a few potatoes. Maria still leaves little sparks of blue when she walks but stranger things have been seen in Korvosa than a slightly-blue woman.
The Hellknights (there are two in the square - they seem to be paired up) glare at everyone through the slits in their intimidating helmets. The shape of eyes flashes from the darkness within as each person passes, but they seem to be satisfied by the results and do not act.
Mavarro, of course, has fewer than 5 HD.
Aaron only has to pay a couple of copper for a few instructional pages and a few herbs that he can use to conduct alchemical experiments later in the day. The merchants seem to be wanting to get their wares off of their hands and get out of the square as early as possible. As Aaron is purchasing from the herbalist, though, she (a matronly, grey-haired and overweight woman) warns Aaron, "Don't forget to be home before dark, young lad. Curfew. You don't want to get caught out by them," she says, nodding knowingly at the Hellknights.
There's about twenty people in the antechamber, and there's benches and things to sit on. One of the two of you (likely Nary) is directed forward to a desk, where a bored-looking attendant tells you to take a number from a pile of cards.
Yours reads '112', in carefully-legible script. There's a large pile of cards beside the attendant, and each group of people in the antechamber has one.
There are four guardsmen in the room, to ensure no funny business and to ensure that nobody goes into the Citadel before their appointment.
It looks to be about a eighty minute wait, after a few minutes of observation to see the frequency of people going in.
Aaron can practically feel the Hellknight's gaze on him, but forces himself to ignore it. He wants as little to do with the damned group as humanly possible. He's rather thankful that the reagents he needs are cheap enough to get without a fuss and fairly easy to find on top of that. At the herbalist's warning, her nods slightly. "I couldn't agree more," he mutters, sliding his supplies into his belt pouch. "You'll want to make sure you're closed up in time to make it home too."
Ila finds herself watching the Hellknights whenever they aren't actively doing something else. It was a sort of macabre procession, the way that they just stood... and watched. It bothered her no small amount that their weaponry was covered in blood. It was... honestly disgusting, and filthy. It would also ruin their swords before long... but otherwise she mostly leaves everything alone, and just stays out of the way, as they gather food for the small horde of tiny people.
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Nary takes in her surroundings.
This is possibly the worst place I've ever been!
Nary can't really handle sitting around an hour. That went against everything being a gnome stood for.
She sits and looks at her paper, appearing to scrutinize it. She understood numbers - understanding numbers is important to understand money and growing up, money was all that really mattered. But really, all she is doing is scoping the room. In her right hand she palms her coin, mentally applying one last dash of prestidigitation - she needed to keep it shiny, after all.
Rule number one was to never try and talk down more than one person at a time. People who were alone were more vulnerable.
So Nary approaches either a guard who is standing alone, or at maximum, two standing together. She focuses on one, quickly making eye contact. Her strange, blue eyes seem to swirl and suck a person in, making it hard to break away.
"Hi! I'm Nary, and this is Auraelia. We're here to report some really big crimes - drugs, murder, child slavery - whoo-whee!" She shows off her enormous sword of holiness and glowing-ness. "And he murdered a paladin and framed my blameless, angelic sister for it. Anyway, I spoke to Sargeant Soldado last night about it, so why don't you just move me right along?"
She smiles charmingly. No need to bring her talents into this if she could help it.
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Auraelia follows Nary when she heads to the guards, not entirely certain what she's up to, but deciding it's best if she stays close to her. When she starts talking the guard up, Auraelia is confused for a moment at first, but then manages to catch on to her game. She looks at the guard sternly, striking as imposing a presence as she can manage, nodding along with Nary's tale. "Yes, we were told to come here and that you would be able to help us. Didn't he say something about promotions, Nary? He sounded pretty excited."
The guard frowns at Nary and Auraelia's appearance, though he and his buddy appear fairly concerned by the allegations. "You say drugs, murder and child slavery?" the first guard looks at the second guard and the second guard takes a look at the sword. "And you've got this sword..."
The first guard says "Hey, if Grau's vouching for them..." the second guard nods and takes Nary's little numbered card. "Come with me." he says, and leads the pair further into the Citadel, much to the chagrin of everybody in the waiting room.
The inside of the Citadel's a bit of a sorry sight. As much as it's a grand, well-built stone fortress, it's operating on a skeleton crew and very few of the guards here look like they've gotten any sleep. One of the guards leads Nary into the citadel proper, down a few hallways, and knocks on a big, important-looking wooden door. The door opens, and inside there is an office containing little more than a leather chair and a big mahogany table. On the far end of the table is a handsome red-headed guardswoman wearing red plate armor. She's got dark circles under her eyes as well, though she appears alert. A common man sits at the closer end of the table, and they appear to just be finishing up a meeting. "I'll send a man to your house to investigate the theft next week, sir." says the guardswoman. "We're low on time and men, though. Be safe." she says, dismissing him. Obviously dissatisfied, the man gets up and leaves the office. The woman looks up and asks, "Yes?", and the guard with Nary and Auraelia says, "Field Marshall Kroft: These two have something... serious... to report." and ushers them into the office.
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Nary grins, and offers a bow, settling into her eclectic gnome merchant persona. "Hi! My name is Nary, as in nary a care cuz I don't have any! And a week ago your fine guardspeople wrongfully arrested my gentle sister Isabel for the murder of a paladin, based on the words of a fisherman. Well, I knew that wasn't true, so I talked to the fisherman and after some jabberjawin' he admitted he was framed into it by the actual killer, Gaedren Lamm, a guy who owns a fishery."
She pauses and thinks. "Anyway Gaedren Lamm is actually a big-time criminal who was on the radar of a couple of people that were brought together by Ila Indigo.. Let's see... he sells drugs. And he killed Ila's mom." Kind of. "And he killed this other guy, Aaron's fiancée . And he also kidnaps kids and forces them to steal things for him. He stole this lady's daughter," she gestures up at Auraelia. "And then when she didn't steal things for him he tried to feed her to a crocodile. Anyway when we found out he had kids on the line that was too much so we busted in there to save them. The kids are all right! But Lamm ended up dying. Anyway, I found this here sword in his things, which shows he killed that paladin, right?" She offers it to Field Marshall Kroft.
"Hmmmm... did I miss anything, Auraelia?"
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Auraelia watches with admiration as Nary launches into her spiel, amazed at her natural talent for speaking. When Nary finishes her explanation, Auraelia is still watching raptly, and fails to notice, leaving an awkward pause.
"I... umm... well... You see..." She sighs after a moment and tries to start over. "My daughter Sigrid disappeared a few weeks ago. I looked everywhere for her, and finally managed to get word through a friend that she had been kidnapped by Gaedren Lamm. When we found her she was chained up above a pit with a crocodile. She was badly mauled by him and is still unconscious at home. I managed to slay the crocodile, but was wounded badly myself." She pauses, lifting her tunic to show the scars coming down from her shoulder and along her side from where Gobblegut bit her. "I still have the crocodile if you need it as evidence? I was planning on dressing it when I returned today."
While Nary hopes that she comes across as disarming and likable, she thinks on what she knows about the woman from keeping an ear out for gossip. Was she strong-willed? Or just some dithering fool?
The Field Marshall shakes the hands of both Nary and Auraelia - to Auraelia she presents a strong grip and to Nary she shakes delicately - before introducing herself. She carefully takes the paladin's sword and lays it on the table in front of her, inspecting it.
She listens impassively to the tale as it is told, listening carefully without interrupting either Nary or Auraelia. Then, she says - "You must forgive me, but your tale is both far-fetched and rather higher in magnitude than the average story I receive on the daily basis. I will need you to replicate it in a moment."
Then, she casts a spell before asking Nary and Auraelia to repeat themselves.
Assuming both repeat the same, honest tale, she smiles warmly at them.
"Well, we've been chasing Mr. Lamm here in the Guard for a long time now, and... though we look poorly upon vigilante justice... we've had a very special couple of days."
"I also know of the alleged murder of which you speak, Nary, and will be sending a guard over to Lamm's place to look it over and verify your story... but it sounds like you're telling the truth and we should be able to get your sister released soon."
"I understand. I'm not sure my husband would have believed me had I not come home with both Sigrid and I mauled," she says. "I will repeat it as often as you'd like if it will help Nary's sister freed. It's the least I can do to help her after helping save my daughter."
After the Field Marshal finishes going over their stories, Auraelia shakes her hand again and thanks her. "Isn't that wonderful Nary? Isabel will be with you again shortly. I think we should get everyone together and have a feast to celebrate when she's freed! What do you think?"
These guys really give me the creeps, Mavarro thinks as he passes a Hellknight, only catching a glimpse of the armored hulk's eyes. For some reason, it felt like the man could look right through him. The thought alone was enough to make him shudder. He mostly spends his time idly wandering the marketplace, letting Ila and Maria take care of the shopping. Perhaps it was for the best that he hadn't brought any of Gaedren's things (well, their things, now) to sell.
Ughhhh, magic? Lame. Nary groans internally. She sticks to the exact same story, and offers as firm of a handshake as she can manage.
At least the woman was agreeable. Even though she's a little miffed that the guard hadn't already taken care of them before it got this bad. Wasn't that the point of guards??
But she stays friendly all the same - she wasn't sure if she could manipulate her at all. "Great! I'm so excited to see my sister again."
She pauses. "How long is soon?" She sounds a little desperate. It isn't faked.
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Auraelia is aware of the spell somewhat, but doesn't seem worried about it at all, though mainly because she had no real knowledge of magic. She just had some innate ability to use it, and not much else.
"I'm sure it won't be long Nary," she says sympathetically, "After last night they have their hands full." After saying so, she gets a look like she's had a brilliant idea. "If I could get work through the Marshall maybe I could spend more time in the city," she thinks.
"Field Marshall Kroft, ma'am," she says, trying her best to be polite, and looking a bit nervous. "Calm down. You yelled down the entire council of elders of the Quah, this can't be any worse." She focuses and continues, "with things the way they are, maybe you could use additional help? My friends and I were able to handle a problem like Gaedren, we might be able to help out with other things. You'd have less vigilantes out there, and we could free up some resources for other things, like maybe expediting Isabel's release? I don't know about the others, but I could use the extra money honestly."
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Marshall Kroft raises her eyebrows at Auraelia's question, having waiting for their exchange to continue talking. "I was going to bring that up myself, actually. Let me answer the first question first."
"Your sister must remain incarcerated until we're sure that Gaedren or one of his cronies did the deed, which means that I need to send a man over to his house - you have his address, yes? - and then wait for him to report back with any findings. If what he finds is consistent with what your story is, then Ms. Ne'er-do-Well will be released."
She then turns to Auraelia. "I was going to wait until we got word back from the guard I'll be sending - I don't want to be employing liars or criminals - but if you can get your people in here for me to meet, and I approve of them I can't see why I can't take you on. You seem competent and strong, and having deputies outside of the actual Guard payroll can be valuable."
"And while we have good funding, we're lacking in manpower so I know I could use you and I could pay you well. So we'd better hope that man comes back with good news!" she says, smiling and shaking a finger.
"Speaking of..." she says, and calls in a guard from outside the door. She instructs him to go over to Gaedren's house and have a look around, and then come back to submit a report.
"Unless you've got further questions, I've got what I hear is a long line of people to see and you've got an hour or two to wait. One of my men will show you to somewhere you can wait."
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"Oh kay! Well, thank you ma'am!" Nary salutes Marshall Kroft. She pauses at the door on her way out. "And it's Naerdowil. Why do you humans have such trouble with gnomish names?"
She goes to the waiting area - she is far more patient now that the prospects of getting Isabel were looking so far up. She hadn't really expected it to be this simple.
The mesmerist tries to not get ahead of herself, though. She doesn't trust no uppity paladin woman. Stomping around and keeping her Isabel from her. The nerve!
She tries to distract herself by talking to her bodyguard. She grins mischievously and whispers, psychically manipulating her sense of hearing... "I can't believe you volunteered me to work for the town guard. What are you getting me into?" She's grinning widely though - she doesn't mind - she'll do anything for cash.
Okay. Almost anything.
"Thank you for your time Field Marshall," Auraelia says, showing her respect for the woman by placing her arm across her chest with her fist flat over her heart. She turns around and moves quickly to catch up with Nary.
When Nary asks what she's getting her into, Auraelia laughs a little. "I think I'm getting you into the opposite of trouble, Nary! Will you be ok with that?" she replies teasingly. Her tone turns serious after her joke, and it's clear that despite the relief she felt at retrieving Sigrid, the kidnapping and wounding of her daughter actually weighs heavily on her. "But... well... Sigrid was kidnapped when I left to go hunting for food because I had been unable to find work for a while. I can't leave again now, not with Sigrid like this, I don't know if I could take it if something else happened to her while I was gone. So if the guards will give me work and pay me regularly, then they're who I will work for. It's that simple, really."