Joie stands.
"That's enough. We need to turn this in." The force behind her words makes it clear that it's not a suggestion.
It's a demand.
"Um...to whom?" Daerokh asks politely.
"The Nexian Embassy, of course," snaps Joie. "Alkenstar has proven they're unable to handle something of this much... importance."
Jase listened to Tuco talk to his mirror and Faithe, trying not to snicker at the whole situation. He wished he knew more about magic-type stuff than he did, but that's the way life had gone. "Um, ok, so it's a heart? That's weird...but fitting. Bloodstone, right?"
When Joie made her demand and then answered Daerokh's question, the young man did start laughing. "Oh that's rich. Tuco and I stole that fair and square, and we aren't even sure what it is, at this point. The whole reason we were brought in was because the bureaucracy can't be trusted, or at least that was alluded to. The Nexian Embassy is just another bureaucracy. We need to get to the bottom of this before we turn it into anyone, let alone your folks."
Addressing the group, he continued, "How about we go back to the college and make some inquiries there? Surely someone there would have a better chance of nailing this down?"
Faithe felt the magic begin to move and swirl around them leaving a faint metallic taste in her mouth. It was the way magic had tasted since she awoke in this strange place of color and light. That the feeling grew stronger as the séance proceeded and she tried to read as much as she could from the increasingly turbulent eddies around her. When Tuco asked if she could feel the stone pushing the magic away Faithe considered the question.
As she did so Faithe heard Joie demand that they turn the ring in to the Nexian Embassy. That the woman thought she could order them around rankled Faithe a little, she was too used to being in charge of only herself and that tone grated on her nerves. Still she tried to ignore it for now and instead focused on the sensation of magic in the room.
After a moment's thought Faithe realized that Tuco was right, the wildmagic was being pushed back. She looked at Tuco and nodded as she said, "Yes, I feel it as well, at least the magic being pushed back. This is both fascinating and useful to us."
Her gaze shifted then to Joie and Faithe said, "If this does indeed push back the wildmagic as it seems to it is very valuable and, yes, dangerous. However," she kept her strange eyes looking into Joie's, "if we are going to continue looking into this we should keep this ring for now. Having the ability to use our magic without fear in wild magic zones would be incredibly useful to us." Faithe's eyes narrowed slightly as she continued to hold Joie's gaze, "While I agree that keeping it out of the hands of Geb is important I don't have a reason to trust Nex either and as we are working together I do not believe any one of us gets to demand we all do things their way. Can you give us a reason this would be better kept at the embassy than with us for now beyond it being your duty as a loyal Nexian officer? Remember that most of us hold no loyalty to Geb or Nex and maybe not even Alkenstar."
Joie snorts; she had expected resistance, but clearly found it to be foolish.
"You have seen what Geb does, even here, outside of their own territory-- murder and necromancy. Nex is the country fighting them. If we put this into Nex's hands, it could help keep people-- actual people-- safe."
The Tailor listened. He learned how to do it easily in his years of patching people up, and knew when people were scared and bullheaded... Wondering how best to handle this, he spoke up finally.
"'Dis ain't just 'bout no government and peoplefolk in it. Yous really thinks that they ain't gonna just tie up loose ends? A god. A part of a god. Crusades been started for less yeah?" Walking around the room he looked at each of them, "Not going to mean much to yous but whatever eldritch power is teaching me has been tellin' me what needs to be done. They be an agent of devotion, and I owes too much to thems to just lets this fall into the hands of some folks who might jus' use it to blow a whole nation away."
At the thought of the college the half-orc sighs, "That might be Jase, but unless Joie 'ere plays in 'da sandbox all nice-like, we can't be doin' such things."
Joie snorts; she had expected resistance, but clearly found it to be foolish.
"You have seen what Geb does, even here, outside of their own territory-- murder and necromancy. Nex is the country fighting them. If we put this into Nex's hands, it could help keep people-- actual people-- safe."
"Or it could restart a war that devastated these lands and would wipe Alkenstar and Dongun Hold off the damn map!" Daerokh exclaims. "I may know little about spellcraft but I know lots about history, and history shows Nex has just as much blame for the state of the Mana Wastes as Geb did."
Jase huffed at Joie's comments, "Please, spare me the self-righteous crap. Nex and Geb's war is what created this whole mess to begin with, and Alkenstar right at the center of it. Neither side is the 'good' side, no matter how good the soldiers might be." He hoped the nod of respect to the woman herself would ease some of the harshness of his statement.
The young man chose not to comment on Faithe's statement, as she didn't seem to favor giving the stone to Nex, either. He disagreed on one point, though...he was fiercely protective of Alkenstar and its independence. If they could use this stone effectively, it could become the tool that could finally broker true independence for the city-state.
To Tuco, Jase shook his head, "No, I won't allow one member of our rag-tag team to bully the rest into a course of action. If four of us say the college is the best start and the other dissents, they can sulk quietly while we go to the college."
Daerokh gives Joie a concerned look. He empathized with her situation. Torag knows he'd heard many a lecture on "duty to clan and kin above all but the gods," but the whole reason he was out here and not back at Dongun Hold was because he was his own dwarf, and would do his duty as he saw fit. He hoped Joie felt the same way about her duty, rather than stubbornly clinging to following orders.