"It's cheap, that's all that matters to the generals." Darian commented dryly.
"The generals don't want to spend more money than the can get away with, so when someone shows up offering to do most of the job, it's no surprise that they all nodded their heads and went along with it."

He said with a rather unimpressed voice, seemingly no more enthusiastic about the prospect of there being a mostly privately owned fort at the harbor than Liaena herself.

"As for private armies, they're definitely not the first. There are quite a lot of merc outfits in the city. The White Hands have just been the most successful lately. These armies usually come in trends, with fleeting popularity and success. Or at least that's the way it has been so far. It figures the bureaucrats simply see the White Hand as just another temporary outfit."

Darian took another sip from his mug, which he had barely touched. Pausing for a moment, the mercenary lieutenant looked distantly into the empty air for a while, before his gaze shifted back to Liaena and Kathlin.

"The man you saw on the outside who commanded the lillies was called David Portwright, a mage of some sort. He is the guildmaster himself, or "Archon" of the White Hands as they call him. Although we have been quarreling for some time, I had not expected him to show up in person. Especially not during the night to merely gloat."

"The twat has galls, imma give 'im that!" Frarn scoffed, before the dwarf gazed at Kathlin.
"And what's this talk of undead? Ye mean me father was struck down a zombie?!"

"Let's not draw any hasty conclusions." Darian commented, slightly raising a hand in the direction of Frarn.
"For all we know, Doin's axe blade could have stopped in the space between the plate and skin, despite the penetration. It could explain why their Champion was able to fight on. Although I don't like them, I'm not ready to accuse them of recruiting the walking dead to their side for one isolated incident."

"What?! Ye were out there, Darian!" Frarn exclaimed, jumping up from his seat as he looked down at Darian, waving his arms as he talked loudly!
"Ye saw the bleeder stan' up and stab me pa like nuthin' had happened to tha bastard! By all me hairy ancestors, ah swear that any other man woulda been lyin' in the ditch given the same!"