"Tch!" Kayliss hissed in frustration as the doll's arm just wouldn't quit. The bladed arm impacted against her breastplate and left a gouge in the metal before she managed to twist away, batting the arm aside with her short sword as she did so. In that moment, the commander chose to interject, her magical blade doing wonders in wrecking the doll. For a moment, Kayliss let a surge of jealousy at seeing someone else have such a wondrous toy. Then reality kicked in. Such a blade would barely see its true function used in her hands.

"Acknowledged." The commander's call to finish the doll off was met with verbal confirmation on Kayliss's end. It was practically a sin for an assassin to openly speak in the field, but fighting with a mixed force was a far different reality from a Crownsblade's typical assignments. Adjustments had to be made.

As Urden aimed to smash through the doll's side, Kayliss surged forward from the other flank. Only blunt force trauma would do in shattering wood, and in the absence of a weapon suited for such, she only had one real option. Of course, Kayliss wouldn't have even considered this if the commander hadn't weakened its entire frame with a blow from Starshine. Her feet left the ground, and Kayliss whirled around in a spinning roundhouse kick, aiming to take the doll's head clean off with an application of her foot to its weakened neck joint.

The Hundi's terse question snapped Lirrah out of her anguished reverie, and she jumped in surprise like a cat that had just noticed the world's most terrifying cucumber. She landed on her butt, but managed to catch herself before she fell completely backwards, her arms shaking as if the hands that propped her up were the only things between her and a great fall.

A mountainous fall.

She whimpered as she looked up at the Hundi, her red eyes constantly tracing the room, pupils massively dilated. She wanted to ask if the fight was over, but she knew that wasn't the case. She could still hear the sounds of battle. Could she even speak? Lirrah tried to say something, but her throat closed up. She just looked at the mage, mouth agape like an imbecile, looking for all the world like the coward everyone knew she was.

Then, crying like a lost child, Lirrah desperately grabbed for the hem of the Hundi's robe, and would go on to sob on Gisela's clothes if not pushed away.

The mage gave her accompanying demon a helpless look as her robes were used like some sort of tissue. Not that it appeared to do anything to them, the fabric remaining surprisingly clean and unspoiled. Perhaps one of the benefits of being a mage? Or maybe just the sort of thing that someone whose stock-in-trade was treating the injured and dying would take time to ensure, rather than trying to clean gore and filth out of otherwise expensive clothes.

The demon gave a nonchalant shrug in return, seeming to have no better idea. Who would go to an eight foot tall engine of warfare for emotional support?

"Uninjured, then," she said slowly, looking back at the sounds of violence, "It seems like everything is in hand? The witch just seems to be playing, or testing us..."

---

@Raineh Daze@Octo

---

Life in the rear guard could often be a boring prospect, especially when faced with enemies such as the Lions had just encountered. Not that that was anything much to complain about—had these cultists proven particularly adept, any measure of true threat, then it might have fallen upon the rear to secure the retreat. Heavy cavalry and infantry, routed from shock tactics or guarding the supply lines to instead be the lives that bought the rest of the force time. Something they all knew, but that none of them—nor any full army in history—wished to ever see happen.

All the same, the clean-up duty following behind the main force was never an enviable task either. While the mage's fireworks had simplified the task a fair bit, there were still bodies to gather, ensure that the dead were truly dead, and on the off chance one was recognizably alive, tie them up and drag them away. Tedious work to oversee, but necessary.

"Lord Demet. I believe we're finished here." Cadmon glanced over to the man-at-arms addressing him, giving a short nod. "All accounted for, then? Strip their corpses of anything worth saving and start taking them to their camp, then. I'll go on ahead...see what's taking our Lioness so long." He'd not received any news worthy of worry regarding their main force, yet, but the time they were taking with the camp was longer than he would have expected.

So he did begin to worry, regardless.

At the man's affirmative answer, Cadmon kicked his horse to a gallop, riding into the central camp beneath the rocky outcropping. Destruction like that they'd aimed to cause was seen throughout, but the confused looks on those left to guard outside made it clear this wasn't their doing. The tomb, then. He'd hoped it could be avoided. Apparently, it couldn't, and the splatters of blood around its entrance didn't particularly entice him either. "Gentlemen. Is Lady Velvetica still in there?" he asked the guards still standing at the outermost entrance, who nodded back at him.

"Aye. Her and most of the war council." Eyes narrowed beneath his helmet, Cadmon nodded—and stepped off his horse, short halberd in hand. "Watch her. I'm going to see if there's anything untoward happening."

It wasn't long before entering, progressing through the chambers of the tomb, that he eventually heard the sounds of combat, before stumbling across the few not taking part. Gisela and her demon, and...

Ah. The merchant. Not that he could entirely blame her for her reaction, given that she wasn't a professional fighter like the rest.

"What's happened in there?" he asked the trio, glancing once more down at Lirrah. "Should we, ah, return you to the fresh air, miss Lirrah?"

The doll was weakened by their strikes, and another blow should be enough to finish the job. Velvetica ordered them to strike the final blow just as her sword powered down from an attack that had obliterated its waist. Meanwhile, it looked like the others had the smaller dolls taken care of.

Even with such grievous damage, however, the doll could still be dangerous. It likely did not feel any pain or peril from its dire position, and would not hesitate to make more attacks with its appropriated weapons. There would still be the matter of its immensely powerful creator, but she had told them to fight this thing- surely she wouldn't hold it against the Lions for doing what she asked of them. Besides, these dolls lack of fine detail further suggested to him that it was little more than a replaceable weapon to her- assuming, of course, that the witch's mind was less inhuman than her body.

The Steel Princess' sword was quite the impressive weapons, Roger thought as he moved to obey her command. The griffin knight stepped behind Urden and moved into position for a final blow. pulled his spear back, then swung it in a half-circular arc, building as much speed and momentum as he could before its head would crash into the front of the doll's cracked torso.

The doll's cracked, crumbling frame could not withstand further abuse.

Its torso fracture, shattering, pieces of porcelain and wood scattering to the ground. Kayliss's kick knocking the head clean from its shoulders, its neck joint shattering from the impact.

But even then, it seemed something was happening.

From the base of the head, spiderlike legs unfurled, curling outwards, each tipped with a needle-like blade. Indeed, the construct didn't seem to be quite finished. Its head might have been crackled and fractured, but it could still attack.

Its mouth opened, and-

"No more."

Its damaged structure was no longer so sturdy.

A flash of Starshine's blade split it cleanly down the middle. In an instant, Velvetica's blade cleaved it apart, slipping into the cracks and cutting its structure again and again, leaving nothing but scattered fragments to hit the ground.

The lower half of the doll collapsed to the floor with a faint creaking noise. When it landed, it let out no further sound. What remained of it was entirely still.

The Steel Princess lowered her sword at her side, her sky-blue eyes shifting from the doll's remains to the witch.

"I believe we've passed your test, Witch."

A waste of time. A waste of time that could have been spent searching for the prisoners. Searching for evidence of where they could have gone. While the Witch seemingly had no ill intent in spite of sending killer dolls after them, at the same time Velvetica could not hide her frustration.

And yet there was Tabitha, clapping cheerfully.

"You did, you did~! Congratulations~" she declared, cheerfully, entirely unbothered by the destruction of her constructs, "You deserve a reward~"

Velvetica sighed. On one hand, she wasn't particularly interested in a reward from the Witch, so much as she wanted to find the prisoners. On the other, it could be valuable, and it was possible that the Witch would become annoyed if the prize was rejected.

"First~"

Reaching behind herself, Tabitha produced another doll. This one, however, was not one of the blank automatons they had done battle with thus far.

It was far more like the Witch herself, albeit more appropriately-sized for a doll. She had blue hair of a similar shade to the Witch's, and her bright eyes held a similar sign of life. But she looked far more childish, and wore a black-and white, frilled dress as opposed to the gray outfit adorning Tabitha.

"This little one will be assisting you and your forces," she said, gently pushing the doll's back. The doll anxiously peered over her shoulder, before approaching Velvetica curiously.

"... What... I... why? She's-"

"Questioning a gift from a Witch? Surely you can guess what use she may be, hm?"

Velvetica couldn't help but sigh again, as the doll came to a stop in front of her, peering up at her. She was even smaller than the nem, surely she didn't have any direct combat application. Perhaps Gisela could figure it out.

"And secondly..." the Witch continued, "You'll find the prisoners to the southeast of here. They aren't far~ Ah, and they were purchased by strangers from across the sea."

Strangers from across the sea? This information was far more immediately valuable. Across the sea...? As far as she knew, the Asharaadi did not keep slaves, though she supposed mercenaries of Asharaadi descent could turn away from the law in the same manner as those of Velt could turn away from the Goddess's will.

But that was not the only possibility.

Unfortunately, the Doll Witch didn't seem to be inclined to offer further information. Indeed-

"I'll see you around~ Take good care of the little one~"

-With a fading blue light, she was gone.

@Raineh Daze@AzureKnight@Psyker Landshark@The Otter@VKAllen@Eisenhorn@Crimson Paladin@Conscripts@HereComesTheSnow@Octo@PigeonOfAstora

"Of course its going to...."

Urden was ready to start swinging again when the strange needle blades blossomed out of the slaughter doll's head, the exasperation was apparent in his tone before Boss decided to finally split the thing cleanly down the middle, finally sending it to the ground in a mess of bits and pieces. Urden prodded the pieces with the tip of his boot, half expecting another weapon to pop out of the rubble and try to skewer his foot. Nothing though, seemed the damned thing was finally and properly broken. The applause brought his attention back to the Witch who had decided that she was going to reward them. Reward them, for breaking her stuff? Hell he wished all jobs were 'Break my stuff for a reward', he'd be filthy rich if that was the case. Granted the reward proved to be fairly peculiar in the best sense of the word. A...doll. The reward for smashing a bunch of dolls was a nicer doll. Smaller than the Nem, like the merchant who had, albeit understandably given the circumstances, ran for help and then stayed the hell out of the way. Who was also currently sobbing up a storm, not the worst response he'd seen to the first time thrown into the deep end of a fight.

The second reward was at least much more overtly useful. Turned out their missing people had, in fact, been sold off after all. Strangers from across the sea had purchased them. That...was not terribly helpful in identifying them, but that didn't matter much either. They go out, Boss does the talking, and if need be, strongarm the strangers into giving the prisoners back. And if that meant cracking even more skulls, well what else was he paid for really? Besides, it would be easier to deal with even seasoned warriors again instead of more slaughter dolls. While thinking, the Doll Witch went and faded in a blue glow, and was gone just like that. To say the mercenary was befuddled was an understatement, but it wasn't like he was going to understand most wielders of magic, let alone a Witch who didn't even play by any rulebook most folks knew. They now had a...friendlier doll? Hopefully one of the other Lions could puzzle that one out, though he wasn't keen on having a Doll that, knowing their luck, the Witch could use to track their general movements. Could maybe even listen in on them, not like he knew whether or not it was possible, but it was a thought. He still should watch his words around the small Doll for the foreseeable future.

"Never a dull moment for you, is it Boss? I reckon this is the part where we hurry off into the night, ready to play the big damn heroes? Especially now that we're done playing with dolls, at least for the moment."

The mercenary cast his gaze around the cave one more time, looking for any last minute surprises before he shouldered his axe. Seemed to be all quiet, which meant it was up to the Boss to decide what to do next.

Lirrah only cried harder as the emotionally unavailable Hundi answered her distress in a dismissive deadpan. Her tears and snot seemed to magically evaporate before they even reached Gisela's robe, as if the woman's garments were a symbol of her inability to be phased by the little Nem's plight.

Ila-Nem, she was the worst at emotions.

Lirrah shook when she heard a voice address her from outside of her magical cocoon, and turned quickly to regard Cadmon with a pathetic teary-eyed, snotty-nosed, hiccupping countenance that she would show to no person by choice, but there it was. Even the lethargic noble that felt fit to use her as bait was concerned for her well-being, if he wasn't being sardonic. Could she get any lower?

"I... I..." Lirrah managed to choke out before she heard a loud CRACK from the other room. Then, the sounds of battle died out, leaving only an eerie silence. A good deal of the terror animating her body with the nervous rigidity of a scarecrow left in an instant, and her limbs turned to gelatin as she collapsed in a mess on the cold floor.

"Some fresh air... would be nice..." she croaked.

The mage gave a few consolatory pats on the head, unsure how to proceed. She could heal every physical injury that you could possibly encounter, so long as you weren't already dead, but dealing with emotional turmoil and fright? That wasn't something that healing magic could solve without other involvement.

Fortunately, being a Hundi also meant having excellent hearing, and with the sounds of combat stopping, Gisela was able to overhear the Witch's parting words. If this witch had left something behind, it behoved the nearest magical specialist to determine that they hadn't been handed some magical retribution waiting to happen. This gave her every excuse to, very apologetically, help the Nem merchant to her feet and then hand her off to the noble.

Naturally, with the combat over, Krysia waved goodbye and disappeared once again, leaving her to arrive to their leader alone.

Oh, this one was smaller than she was expecting. And it was even looking up at everyone with a worried expression, which was far more than she was expecting from a magical construct. Not that you couldn't have one that was in all practical regards just another person, but the idea of making someone so small was baffling.

"Lady Velvetica, I'm going to ensure this isn't some kind of trap," the mage said, kneeling to pick up the doll with both hands before rising. It was definitely bizarre for something so tiny to be knowingly looking back at you, even more when she kept wiggling at the sudden grabbing. But once the doll realised what Gisela was planning to do, she calmed down... although her tiny face still looked rather resigned to all this.

Diagnostic spells weren't the most interesting thing to watch being cast, nothing more than watching someone mutter an incantation to themselves, wait, and then keep babbling away some more to refine the results. This sort of general examination wasn't her ''normal'' specialisation, but there was enough overlap between divining curses and any other magical exploration to come to a conclusion about this doll's intended purpose.

"Her intended magical purpose," the Hundi stated, turning the doll around and hugging her closer--which was entirely practical, her arms were starting to get sore holding her out like that, "Is to detect changes in the ambient mana flows and any anomalous patterns... ah... to detect something magical happening nearby? There are spells that can do the same but they require constant attention and investment, but she can do it constantly.

"Her secondary function appears to be to provide magical enhancement, but to what extent or application, I can't say..."

The doll also didn't appear to be wanting to volunteer information, just looking slightly pleased by her current position.

---

@Octo

---

He'd barely received an answer before Lirrah was hoisted to her feet and passed back to him; he did have to question the wisdom of that decision, as he wasn't likely to be any more helpful to the merchant in her present state than Gisela would have been. Not that he had much choice, either, as he couldn't just leave her there on the floor to go and see for himself what was happening. Two strikes, that; not only had she pushed the Nem over to him, Gisela had completely ignored his first question.

"Mages," he muttered under his breath, leaning his halberd against the wall and pulling off his gauntlets. With his hands free, he could easily reach into one of the pouches hanging from his belt, pulling out a rag. Usually it would have ended up used for one of two purposes—cleaning his weapon, or to tourniquet a bad wound. "Here. It's not much of a handkerchief, but it's clean." He held it down to the pink-haired merchant, looking back up in the direction Gisela had left in. At least her more relaxed demeanour, and the prompt disappearance of her demon, had made it clear that the fighting was over, rather than simply experiencing a small lull as the sounds of combat ceased.

"Can you walk, or do you need carried?"

The Lions were victorious over the dolls, and without taking casualties. Lirrah was sobbing, but she didn't look hurt- probably just shaken. The Witch didn't appear to begrudge them for it- in fact, she seemed entertained at the spectacle. This whole ordeal was probably just entertainment for her, Roger thought.

With the immediate danger concluded, the knight brought his spear up and hefted it over his shoulder.

As a prize for passing the test, the Witch produced another animated doll and bequeathed it to Velvetica. For his lack of magical knowledge, Roger could tell this one was quite different. Superficially it appeared like an actual doll that one might buy in an upscale shop. A great deal of effort had been put into the doll's details and outfit, especially compared to the expendable minions that now lay in pieces around the room. According to the Witch, this doll would assist them, although it wasn't clear just how it'd do that. Either way, Velvetica couldn't refuse the gift, not without offending the Witch.

It looks like the Lions have a new member for the time being.

The Witch departed using her magic, but not before giving the Lions the information they sought on the whereabouts of the prisoners. She didn't give any more information on the doll, but Gisela was able to scry the its purpose and abilities. According to her, it was a...magical detector of some sort.

There were still some questions that remained unanswered, but the most prudent ones- the fate of the necromancers, the purpose and capabilities of the Witch's gift, and the location of the necromancers' prisoners- had been answered. There was no more reason to stick around in the tomb.

"Commander, would you like for me to perform reconnaisance of the southeast, where the witch claimed the captives are?" he asked Velvetica. While he was outwardly taking it better than poor Lirrah, Roger was very eager to get away of this creepy place and back outside. Even without the witch and necromancers, some of these tombs were associated with some pretty ominous beings.

@VitaVitaAR

That was that, then. The Lions passed the Witch's asinine test, and...she handed out an equally asinine reward. At least the mage they had on retainer decrypted what exactly the little doll was supposed to do. More useful than Kayliss would have assumed at first, but it still wouldn't have killed the Witch to actually describe what it did. Cryptic wench.

With no further orders for the moment, Kayliss slipped away from the main gathering. The rear-line forces could handle rescuing the prisoners. The Witch's mention of them being bought from across the sea was interesting, but it was doubtful one mention would lead to much without further evidence. A problem for the commander and her officers to deal with. And speaking of officers...

Kayliss raised a brow as she beheld Cadmon trying to comfort a sobbing Lirrah. Years of conditioning kept Kayliss from automatically rolling her eyes at the sight. What was the merchant doing? Was she trying to be a liability? Though considering she'd just struck a deal with the nem for poison ingredients, best not to antagonize her too much. Instead, Kayliss glanced at Cadmon.

"Have a word with the commander later, would you? About the...suitability of bringing civilians into the field."

@The Otter @Octo

---

Finally. Fucking finally. The Lions entertained, and now the host provided this weird doll that surprisingly had a more useful and benign purpose than expected. Was it worth all those battle for, his lingering annoyance still made it quite hard to decide.

But whatever, results are in and it was basically a tiresome test with extra marks and they succeeded. Irian was just waiting for orders for the final home stretch, but he remembered that even though no one died or was injured, there was still Lirrah who was still sobbing back there, even after the terror of battle had subsided. No, it was actually this time of the battle that trauma would settle in - The quietness, when there are no longer the sounds of clashing steel to distract oneself from confronting with what just happened.

Quietly, Irian slinged the bow behind his back before heading back out, the same opposite direction the Nem had guided him. He did tell her that everything would be alright, the best he could do was follow up with it.

"Lirrah." The elf waved at the pink-haired merchant as he emerged from the room with a huff, but when neared raised both palms up. "Everything is alright. She's gone." Seeing Kayliss's nudge to Cadmon regarding Lirrah made him recall the countless scrutiny he had under some uptight boss. It took a lot of thickening up to get used to it. "Let us get out of here, shall we?"

@Octo@Psyker Landshark@The Otter

The Hundi patted Lirrah's head, helped her to her feet, and then wandered off. Lirrah would marvel at her lack of social grace if she was in any mind to, but she really wasn't. Still in shock, she wordlessly took Cadmon's... wound rag? He was right, it certainly wasn't a nice handkerchief, but what else could she expect? As she dried her tears and blew her nose, staining the rag with blood from the raw tips of her fingers, Kayliss approached. Before she could reply to Cadmon, the woman interjected with something about bringing civilians along to battle. A small slight against Lirrah. She knew it.

Lirrah bit her lip. Even if she wanted to list all the things she had helped with, every last accomplishment would be dwarfed under the words "desertion" and "cowardice". She had been huddled over crying, and nothing she'd done before and nothing she might do after would change that. As far as her latest client was concerned, she was a poison supply.

As Lirrah was searching for words, which for once wouldn't come, Irian approached as well and tried to reassure her.

Lirrah wanted to be reassured. She wanted to feel better. But she was feeling crowded. Usually she thrived on attention, but now it felt patronizing. Her eyes began darting again, from person to person, wondering what they were really thinking on the inside. It was hard to feel like they weren't all really looking down on her, even if they weren't. Even if they were only trying to be nice. Lirrah started breathing heavily again, and then shook her head roughly.

"I... I have to get out of here," Lirrah choked, turning to bolt. She was an excellent runner. Even the Juyuem could scarcely keep up with her. It was something she could normally take some pride in, only not now.

But at the very least, her legs would carry her away from her shame.

...If they didn't still feel like gelatin.

Lirrah got only a few paces away before she tripped over herself and set to skid across the rough, dusty stonework.

---

@Octo@Psyker Landshark@Conscripts

---

Before Lirrah could even give an answer beyond trying to clean her face, some of the others started slipping out from where the fighting had been going on. He'd barely raised a hand at Kayliss before she made her thoughts on Lirrah's presence fairly evident, albeit more tactfully than he might have imagined. Irian didn't waste time coming out to greet them either, and for the proud little merchant, the growing attention at this particular moment—or even the possibility of it—seemed to quickly reach a point of being too much.

He gave a small nod in recognition of what Kayliss was saying, turning on his heel and snatching his halberd from the wall with one hand. In two strides he reached down, catching Lirrah before she was flat on the floor once again. Heaving her up as he continued along, he was quickly carrying her like he would a child of similar size. "We'll meet the rest of you outside," he bade the others just behind.

"Sorry about the armour," he muttered to Lirrah as an afterthought. "Don't worry about this overmuch. István told me once that nobody came out of their first battle unscathed, even if nothing ever touched them. Foolish me didn't realize what he meant. You managed to survive, so you're handling it far better than some ever managed."

"I... see."

Velvetica took a deep breath. At the very least, that explained the doll's purpose, and it seemed as if she was no longer struggling in Gisela's arms. While she couldn't really fathom the decisions made by the witch that lead to this outcome, she was not about to reject her gifts.

Not the doll, nor the information they had been given.

The doll was particularly strange, given how small she was. Yet in spite of being so tiny, it would be easy to mistake her for flesh and blood if not for the presence of the clearly artificial joints. More than that, the fact there was life in her eyes, the fact that she expressed emotions, if she hadn't seen the Witch with the doll body do just the same it would have been even more jarring.

As it stood, it was just rather surreal.

Starshine returned to its sheath.

"If there are no injured, then we have no time to delay," asserted the Steel Princess as she began to make her way back to the entrance, "If we are to find the ones responsible for purchasing-"

The word was spat with no small amount of contempt.

"-the prisoners, then we need to act quickly. We have no reason to doubt the Witch's words, which means at the very least we know what direction to start with."

She paused for a moment.

"Sir Roger, you will take to the skies and scout for the presence our quarries once we return to the surface," she ordered. As much as she would have liked to give her forces a rest, there was no telling what their targets would do in that time.

"After receiving word from Sir Roger, I will take a division in order to pursue our targets and free the prisoners."

Velvetica paused for a moment. The merchant... why had she come down here in the first place? She certainly hadn't requested such a thing, she was terribly suited for it. The thought had crossed her mind earlier, but now...

"... Lady Lirrah, it's best if you remain with your wares. You will not be alone. Lady Gisela, try to find somewhere where the doll will be comfortable before we depart."

@Raineh Daze@Psyker Landshark@The Otter@VKAllen@Eisenhorn@Crimson Paladin@Conscripts@HereComesTheSnow@Octo@PigeonOfAstora

Urden walked over to where he had discarded his torch, picking it up while Boss issued orders. They were waiting for Hector to go and find where the slavers have wandered off to with the prisoners, on the information from the Witch at least. Meant most of them were waiting, which meant it was time to collect his bonus the old fashioned way. By rifling through the pockets of the dead and stealing anything that wasn't nailed down. Well, not from the hallowed dead, that was begging for trouble, but the recently dead, cultists and such, they might just line his pockets. Especially if they had just sold off a bunch of prisoners, better in his pockets than gathering dust in here. He remarked casually as he walked over to the first of the dead cultists, kneeling down to start rifling through the pockets of the dead. Good news with how cleanly they had died, was that it wouldn't be a case of looking around the corpse nearly as much.

"Tell you what, while we wait on our illustrious scouting efforts, it's high time I pick through the recently dead. See if I can't find anything interesting about their apparent business dealings prior to getting what they deserved. At least until its time to depart."

More importantly it kept his mind off recent events. Overseas slavers, Witches, brushes with death that were all a part of his line of work. The merchant, from the sounds of it, was sobbing and trying to recover from a near death experience from the sounds of it. Why had she come down here, again? Not like she'd be cutting deals with anyone, and cut throat business only worked in a literal sense in these sort of situations. As for the others they kept their heads on straight, typical of professional warriors and assassin. He could consider the ramifications of events later, over a strong drink, for now he focused on making sure he didn't miss anything important, or more critically, valuable to the right pair of hands.

Lirrah quickly found herself saved from yet further humiliation by Cadmon of all people, as the young noble snatched her up before she could take a blubbering spill on the ground. Given that the man had only a few hours ago suggested using her as bait, she found it something of a surprise that he was attempting reassurance. He'd always struck her as the aloof, everyone-is-beneath-me sort. Self-importance and nobility tended to go together like fruit and cheese. What did he have to gain by being nice to her in this instance? Lirrah was, by her own estimation, among the least important people in the camp.

If he thought this would get him any discounts...

Ah, but even this train of thought was too much work for the exhausted Lirrah. The Nem merchant found herself slack and lifeless in Cadmon's arm, wishing only that the night could be over sooner. Though when the day came around, she'd have Yrrah's flame to deal with. Brutal taskmaster, unruly Sun. In whose hand was her awful whip held? Could Reon give her no respite?

Lirrah looked up at Cadmon, the tiredness plain in her half-dead eyes.

"István said that?" Lirrah asked wearily, taking some comfort in the implied sympathy of the scary-looking coffee fiend, "he doesn't seem..."

But what could Lirrah say? All she really knew about the man was that he liked coffee and apparently relished bloodshed to some degree. Perhaps her prejudgements were unfair. Lirrah shook her head as Velvetica came up behind her. Velvetica's disappointment had been expected, though being referred to as a "Lady" caught Lirrah off-guard. If it was anyone else, Lirrah would assume she was being made fun of. But if it was sincere, then that meant Velvetica respected her on the level of nobility. Given her recent cowardice, however, that was difficult to reconcile. What could one make of her words?

All Lirrah could do was nod in shame.

"Y-yes, Lady Hraesleg. My apologies for causing trouple."

But wait, something she said to Gisela struck her as odd.

"Um... w-what doll are you talking about?"

No rest for the weary, then. Fine. She had no room to complain. Kayliss turned and wordlessly followed Velvetica as she began making her way back up towards the surface, giving orders all the while. At the very least, it seemed that merchant following them below ground hadn't been sanctioned by the commander. That was something, at least. There had been no need to drag an untrained civilian into this past her bit role to begin with.

"My lady," Kayliss nodded towards Velvetica, taking a position behind her and to the side in a bodyguard role for the moment. In the absence of specialized orders, she was best off here right now. An attempt on her employer's life was unlikely, but still entirely possible. Bodyguard work wasn't exactly Kayliss's favorite assignment, but often times, it took one assassin's expertise to suss out another.

"By your leave." She murmured to the commander, staying where she was unless ordered to otherwise.

@VitaVitaAR

"Yes commander, we'll begin searching right away," Roger replied to Velvetica. He wasted no time rushing out of the tomb and heading up to the surface. He was all too glad to get out of that eerie burial vault. Enclosed spaces were such a bother to fight in for Roger- no easy means of escape, less room to maneuver, and most importantly, he couldn't have Shortclaw watching his back.

Speaking of Shortclaw, where was the griffin? Roger didn't see him in the camp, and for a moment a feeling of worry came over him. He might have been tamed and trained, but an unattended griffin could potentially get into a lot of trouble.

"Shortclaw...Shortclaw!" he shouted, calling for his mount. He wouldn't be able to perform his scouting duties without the griffin.

A few moments later, the griffin seemingly dropped out of the sky near Roger, landing on his feet with feline grace and producing enough wind to scatter debris and nearly knock the startled knight off his feet. Evidently, Shortclaw had been sitting on the outcrop that loomed over the tomb.

I really must remember to look up more, he mused, relieved that his worries were unfounded.

Once he regained his balance, Roger hurried over to his mount and climbed into the saddle. The griffin took off, scattering more of the shattered barricades and broken torches beneath them. The search for the foreigners had begun.

@VitaVitaAR