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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Carnifex" data-source="post: 738405" data-attributes="member: 227">The fire was warm and Mel's limbs had gone a little melty in its heat, not to mention in the blast of anger from Lord Ecurius which could have melted steel. Adamantine, Ebri Zol remained cool, but the more malleable Mel felt slightly devastated. A few hours ago she had been dreamily planning a glorious future for herself with His Lordship playing a pivotal role alongside the mysterious Ak'mun'tep; now all she wanted to do was pack her things and get on the road again with her real friends. A lazy smile curled her blue lips. Friends. How astonishing. Some of them were worse than peculiar (but then, she wasn't one to point that finger), and some she still had doubts about--Burl the friendly necromancer, Kale who seemed to be hiding quite a lot under his jaded rogue disguise, not to mention that... that... pig-headed blade-for-hire--but they had just lived through a literal trial by fire and had come out not only victorious but tested in the flames of righteousness. Mel discovered as she watched the cheery fire in Lord Ecurius' parlor that she trusted each and every one of them profoundly. More even than she trusted His Dreamy Lordship. Her previous plan to go upstairs and fix her hair before requesting audience with Lord Ecurius and explaining the whole Ak'mun'tep affair went up with the weaving sparks in the flue. He would want to know about that, and the sooner it was told the better light it would shed on the group, but Melisande found herself very comfortable in that armchair and in no hurry at all to face the Lord's wrath again, and certainly not alone. Although if it got back to him that she personally had released the ancient seer from his jar-prison and had not bothered to tell him, this would further jeopardize relations. And what was she doing in Naseria anyway, if not to try to find a benefactor and make a new life for herself? Maybe in the morning. Right now she wanted a bath and a long, dreamless, comfy night--perhaps the last for a long while. With a yawn she peeled herself out of the armchair. "I'm going to take full advantage of a bed and a roof while I can," she announced, cupping Pierre in her hands. "I uh--I just think you're all wonderful. What we did today--it was brave. It was the right thing to do, no matter what our personal reasons were. Well, good night!" Indigo with embarrassment, she fled for the stairs in Wolf's wake. Sebastion watched everyone else slowly truck out, smiling slightly at Mel's words, reassured despite the argument of the Ebri and Ecurius. Both of them seemed to be trying to... push away the reality of the slaves they'd found, and turn them into fancy words and high-sounding moral consequences. He'd stood and looked into the eyes of those frightened children, he'd seen the complete absence of hope for a few moments in their dead stares, and he knew that no-one should have to go through that. You didn't have to sign up to a guard to defend people - each and every person that drew breath could do that when the opportunity arose. If it never arose, lucky them. Unable to shift the smile, and trying to convince himself it had absolutely nothing to do with Mel's words, he turned away from the soft beds and warm fires of the guest quarters they'd been assigned. He wasn't used to such places, and he wanted to be sure he was ready for the morning. Slipping through the gardens quite openly, he took his gear to the stables, nestling himself in amongst the horses and the dry hay in the loft to settled down and work his armour and blades over, sharpening out the nicks and unbending the worst of the chain links, all the while wondering what the 'morrow would bring, and whether all the things they'd reclaimed from the slavers would be taken by the guard as evidence...</blockquote>

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