Craftsdwarf
Fairly There
Elvish Heart
Despite Princess Easel’s best attempts, after Nero’s biting words she couldn’t completely hide her reaction. Her smile had frozen awkwardly, eyes flitting to and from the taller woman’s face, hand remaining stretched out even as Nero released it.
“Ah...ahahaha, perhaps I have forgotten myself,” the princess stated, words stilted slightly.
Before she could fully pull away, Ratnik moved in, taking her hand and quickly recouping the situation. As she regained her composure, Easel replied, “Your diligence is very much appreciated. I’m feeling safer as we speak.”
“If I may,” spoke up a voice from behind the princess. Among the guards (many of them still flustered from Nero’s words), a stern faced one, on the younger side and wearing thin rimmed glasses over his eyes stepped forward. Crossing one arm across his chest, he bowed lightly before continuing, “I believe your desire to seek additional aid was misguided, and frankly, disrespectful to my men and I. You sought them out with no input, and to have found out through outside inquiry and not your words… I am disappointed in the lack of trust, your highness.”
Face strained, Easel asked, “Could this not wait until later, Cholkin?”
Adjusting his glasses, he took a step back, “My apologies.”
Things clear for the moment, Easel took a deep breath, before glancing around at the party of town delegates, her bodyguards, and the members of Elvish Heart. “If we may proceed?”
At her words, the group continued through town hall, the princess making a few more greetings before they returned to the mayor’s office. A bit roundabout for the guild, but within moments they were finally inside: Princess Easel, Mayor Wioux, Cholkin, and the four remaining members of Elvish Heart. There weren’t many chairs to go around but Easel did take a stand by the desk, angling herself to face everyone.
Relieved to not be in the presence of so many, she began, “Now, I’m aware the mayor and I should be organizing my speech, but there’s the matter of my bodyguard detail that should be addressed first. You have your mission conformation?” Easel looked expectantly at the guildmembers.
Dwarf Spirit
Eyes narrowing at Circe as she shed bandit blood, the leader apparent began, “I’d question why you assume we want something, but we are bandits, not human traffickers. And you could stand to calm down now, we barely did anything.”
As he finished, Hina began to glow with magic, hopping to her feet in spite of her bindings. As she called to Circe, the bandit blew into his pipe, a single grape sized bubble forming. Glistening lightly, the bubble floated for a moment before the bandit pointed his finger at Hina. In an instant, the bubble accelerated, shooting towards Hina and crashing into her forehead. Despite the size and nature of the projectile, it hit Hina like a stone, knocking her flat as if she’d been punched. While she crashed to the ground, welt forming where it landed on her forehead, the bubble still floated, unbroken for a moment before popping of its own volition a moment or so later.
“Well that was unnecessary...” the man chided. Before he could continue, however, a man came in from outside.
“Kotaro!” he called to the leader, who craned his head as he listened.
---
Outside, as Sam still worked his way to the hideout, back from where he came, a red flare had been fired into the air, pulsating in its role as a signal.
---
“Another one of them then?” Kotaro replied, before turning back to his captives. “Hmm, are you lot lucky or unlucky? All I want is for you to crawl back to whatever town you came from, but the more you make this difficult for us...” Sticking his pipe into his mouth, more bubbles appeared, bigger than the last by a fair margin. “The more difficult it’s going to be for all of you.”