Shamiq is beginning to look slightly exasperated. "I never asked for any of your souls, neither yours nor his. I asked for your word-- sworn on your souls-- to free the Maeldur." It snorts, "I assure you, if I was trawling for souls, I certainly wouldn't have let the lot of you get away with all the sloppy swearing I heard."
The fiend peers at the kobold detachedly, then suggests, "Perhaps you should ask your scaly companion what he thinks. He seems to be under the impression he has a bond to you, not I."
Rupert looks confusedly first at Shamiq, then back at Burrow. Hesitantly, he tries to repeat his thoughts. "Yous saved my life. *yip* Yous say 'be good', watch and follow, I watches and follows, and try to learn. Yous very strong, even stronger than Fanatrax! *yip* Yous no fear ghost or slimy fiend... yous barmy enough to go to Abyss! *yip*" The kobold looks down, tail twitching agitatedly. "But I's only little runt. I follows to Abyss, I wind up in dead-book, yes, yes. *yip* But yous said, repay life by learning...."
On the other side of the portal, while the party is pondering their options, Blade remembers that her compass ring may help point towards a proper portal once they returned to Sigil. Failing that, there are always faction archives to sift through-- well, not counting the Xaositects-- and Vlad needed to check up on the magical conditions for the Abyss anyway. Moreoever, Lissandra the Gate-Keeper is a well-lanned blood on the dark of portals, and Kiaros knows she can sometimes be found at the World Serpent Inn-- that's where he first ran into her a few years back.