Danny listened intently to Vigdis while hungrily demolishing the piece of delicious fish he’d been handed. He nodded and his eyes widened or narrowed as the story progressed. The engineer had been working pretty much solidly, so much of this was new to him.

“Sheesh, fairly basic stuff then eh?” He laughed.

“Trade is good, as long as I don’t have to trade my Havaianas for some potato sack foot coverings or some shit. I still need those for inside. What are we giving them in return? More pens?” 

[hr]

Esedel stared into Shirik for a few moments, her throat rattling curiously. Then she lifted her snout and laughed, spraying a couple of bits of fungi and fish across the table. The sound was like a burning log cabin falling apart, deep within the forest fire. The Warden slammed a gauntleted fist down on the wooden table, causing mugs and cutlery to jump.

“I like this one!” She pointed a giant clawed finger at Shirik, as if the super conspicuous burning tree was somehow invisible and needed signposting.

“You should recruit it for your retinue, Kvarr. They can reunite you with your family’s legacy, so you can finish burning it to dust.” Esedel grabbed a mug of beer - who knows whether it was hers - and chugged it back, draining the contents.

Zey came over and questioned General Kvarr about Kerchak’s whereabouts. Esedel didn’t turn around from her seat at the table, as she was still looking at Shirik, but she replied in turn.

“I’ll have my own Damage prize investigate. Sh’vetza!” The manacled S’tor Thought mage looked over at Esedel.

“Take my guards and yours to find the Life mage, please. See to it they are alright.”

It was a subtle cultural cue that most in Mythadia and the Ascendency were oblivious to, but influential S’tor occasionally sent their guards away on fabricated errands in new social situations. It was essentially to demonstrate ‘I’m a big enough deal to have people to send away’, ‘I’m the biggest and best in the room so I don’t need guards to be in charge’, and give the green light for an assassination attempt from anyone in their ‘court’ who wanted to seize whatever power they possessed. The S’tor used this to quietly take stock of loyalties and motivations for large groups of people they didn’t know well, but it came with risks. Occasionally there actually was a fight, so you either had to be reasonably confident you’d win, or bold enough to take on a more powerful adversary for personal gain.

The main person Esedel was monitoring in this particular situation was Kvarr; he was the one she’d need to do a deal with to keep these ‘Humans’ safe. However, there were a few other unknown variables present, the burning tree being one of them. Best to get any insurrection out of the way early on.

“Thanks. We’ll go too.” Zey replied. Kvarr’s assessment of Kerchak’s actions was concerning, to say the least. She felt it her duty to investigate. She got on comms with the Bridge.

“Mallory, it's Zey. The life mage who offered to heal our wounded is drunk. I’m heading over to assess the situation with Darnell and Ezra. Where are we up to on the cremation? This lunch is burning valuable daylight we could be using to search for the shuttle. Seems like some burning bodies could help wrap things up. Over.”

With that, Zey headed across the clearing with four S’tor guards (two of them Inquisitors), one Thought mage, Darnell & Ezra to try and find Kerchak. It seemed like the sort of mob that anyone could join if they were so inclined.