<~> Chapter 205The meeting finished up pretty quickly after that. Talis left the embassy and got in touch with some of his tacts iy before returning to share the information with Routil's staff. Nealli, Routil's daughter, will be in charge of inf me if the status iy ges. It seems we'll have to tio put the trip to the adventurer's guild with Raya and Sibyl off for now. Tarklin says he may be able to find information about the cartographer I'm supposed to train with and bring them here for me though. sidering he was friends with Raksha'va, the guild master ba Traehall, he says it shouldn't be difficult to get that information. He hinted heavily that we would o talk more ter about what Cecilia had learned and I promised I'd be avaible for that ter. He also had some other things he o take care of so he was quick to leave despite apparently wishing he could stay.

  Before we left the room ourselves, the woman in the red dress shirt stepped in our way before bowing slightly. "Miss Baphomet, may I have a moment, dear?"

  I looked around, all of the other elves have already left the room, leaving just me and my friends aloh her. I was a bit hesitant after some of the looks she had given me and my friends but I suppose the elves were helping us, I probably shouldn't be too wary of them.

  "Of course. It was Miss Wihorn wasn't it?" I asked.

  She grinned. "Just Feyria is fine, dear."

  I nodded. "Then please call me Lilith as well."

  Her eyes noticeably trailed across the throats of Man, Torien, Lorriene, and Silva. "I wao talk to you about your former sves." She put a lot of stress on the word former.

  With a frown, I sighed. I already felt a bit defensive. "What would you like to know about my friends?"

  She paused and turo face Man. "Has your Mistress treated you well in your time as her servant? If you wish for me to take you away from her, she will not be able to stop me here."

  Man took a step bad grabbed my shirt. Torien iook a step in front of her sister with a look of tained rage on her face. "Lilith is like family to us. Back off."

  Rather thaimidated Feyria's face bloomed inte smile. "Excellent then." Her eyes skimmed over the rest of my friends. "Does that go for all of you?" she asked.

  "She wasn't my mistress in the first pd I haven't known her for long," Lorriene said dryly. "But from what Silva and my two ell me, she barely treated them like sves at all. If you're here to py hero for us defenseless sves, you may be pig the wrong battle."

  Feyria looked back at me, with a shrewd look in her eyes. "That's wonderful to hear." She took a step bad leaned forward into an even deeper bow. "My apologies then." Wheood back up she focused on me more fully than she had up until this point. "You see, svery is a rather sore point for me. In addition to how I feel about it personally, it has historically been elves of my house that have been the ones most often taken and ensved here iorlimal kingdom. The nd in my house's trol is in the south-western part of the Northern Greens and many elves 'go missing' from our territory fairly regurly only to be found as sves ter. I don't have much trust for those who keep others' lives on a leash and dress them up like pythings." She looked up and down Torien's maid outfit as she finished speaking.

  Torien looked like she was going to snap so I gently put my hand on her shoulder. "It's okay Torien, rex."

  "What do you know? Lilith honored us with these outfits so she could treat us like people rather than tools. Don't you dare insult her for it," Torien spat out.

  "Torien, it's okay. Please calm down," I said.

  Torien stood there with narrowed eyes before taking a step babsp;"Fine."

  The woman raised an eyebrow before turning bae. "Allow me to apologize again then, I do not know your full circumstances and it looks as if I've jumped to some unfortunate clusions. Your friends seem to value you a lot and it's rather notable to me that they have not called you mistress o."

  I sighed. "Is that all you wanted? If you're doh this purity test we leave?"

  Rather than answer she asked me another question. "If you've been here in the capital for any amount of time, I assume you've seen the bazaar. What did you think of it?" she asked.

  I let the disgust show on my fad I crossed my arms. "Siing. I wasn't aware of the scale of svery in this kingdom until I saw the bazaar firsthand."

  She nodded. "I agree. Svery is like a rot in this kingdom that should be cut out. Now that the King is dead there is a lot of room for improvements but there is still the key issue of the Sver's guild, both here and outside of Torlimal. Even if we mao put Marquis Saffadder in pce as king, that will not free the ones already ensved here without a signifit loss in political and eic capital. If they catch wind of his true stan svery, they will pack up and ferry away all of the people held in that garish building outside the bazaar, beastfolk and elf alike."

  I scratched the base of my horn. "Walking through that pce is disgusting, I agree. But what do you want us to do about it?"

  Fayria waved a hand and the familiar feeling of a [Zone of Silenbsp;locked into pce around us. "I don't have all of the details ironed out but now that this kingdom is headless, there's a lot of room for things to happen in the chaos. I admit that I provoked you on purpose just to see how your friends would react. Would they defend you? Are you actually against svery or have you just tricked your sves into loving you despite their freedom? I wao see what you were like myself before you and your capable friends a task, ohat I think you would appreciate based on the pany you keep." She looked over at Silva as if to punctuate the thought. "I have friends nearby experimenting with magic that suppresses colrs, within the cult of Amphores you mentioned. What would happen if someoook the opportunity to safely remove a great number of colrs in the heart of the sver's guild in this city while those colrs were suppressed? I believe you and yroup would be strong enough to free tless people from their unfortues if you were in the right pce at the right time."

  Arm bells were ringing in my head and through the bond and I could feel that I wasn't the only oo freeze up at the mention of the colrs being suppressed. Would it be worth w with the cult of Amphores, even ily, for something like this? Even though they had tried to kill us before? Even though they have killed is before? If we helped them would our as lead to more suffering or less?

  I tried not to show aions on my fad I'm sure the only reason I had been able to trol my rea at all was because I urned off the Charisma boosting effect from [Being of Karma]. "And what do these 'friends' of yours want iurn for this service?" I asked.

  She shrugged. "I'm told they're recruiting for their anization and looking for people with some specific traits for some reason or ahere are plenty of former sves who would be happy to work with them for the opportunity to get some revenge on the kinds of people who treated them like tools and pythings. If you are ideologically against them then this would be an opportunity to take advantage of the timing to take some of their recruits from them. I don't care what kinds of things they get up to in this kingdom, they are w to undermihe svery rampant in this try and that's good enough for me. I'm principally ed with freeing as many elves akin as possible in the fusion, my dealings with them are purely transaal. If you came in and freed more of them than the cult does, thus undermining their recruitment, I would be all the happier."

  "These people murdered hundreds of people in Goldeh, a city that doesn't even done svery," I reminded her.

  She shrugged. "Not my problem. It is regrettable but what happens in this try isn't the responsibility of the elves. Svery is a regional problem that affects my nds stantly, I'll take any advantage I to pruhis distasteful practice where it tio affect my people."

  "I... I'll have to discuss this with my friends before I give you an answer," I replied.

  She smiled brightly. "Excellent, I don't believe they'll be able to use their magic for the few days but there is already something pnned soon. I will e to talk to you myself before the ime they pn on using the colr suppression magic. I have tools to disguise you, safely open the colrs, and ways for you to enter a safely. All I need is a group capable enough to fight off arying to stop you before you free a rge enough number of sves, so they finish the job themselves. If everything goes well then it'll look like an anic sve rebellion, rather than a group like yours or mientionally triggering it."

  "And if things don't go well?" Lorriene asked.

  Fayria shrugged. "Then I'm afraid they'll have found their kingsyers, a group of demi-humans afolk pletely unaffiliated with the Northern Greens. It's not ideal but I wouldn't be asking you if I didn't believe yroup to be the most capable of getting away with it."

  "What do we get out of it?" Silva asked, speaking for the first time since she approached.

  "Hm, well. I had assumed you may want to participate purely based on the fact you killed the King. But if you need an additional moary reward that be arranged, secretly and unofficially of course. The same goes for your offer to assassihe Duke of Torquin. While Routil 't be associated with some of the darker realities of the world we live in, I bsp;step in te that divide."

  "I'll keep that in mind," I told her. "If there's nothing else, I'll have to go and ask everyone how they feel about your offer."

  She smiled. "You do that. I do truly hope that you'll help us, there are mafolk and elves that we save if we work together." Fayria bowed again as she dismissed her magid left the room, leaving us there alone. I could tell that everyone was dying to discuss what we had just heard but we couldn't do that here, not yet.

  "Let's go back to the guest house," I said.

  The four of us walked into the lobby where Nealli Tangleleaf was waiting for us. When roached she gave me a short bow. "I hope your private versation with Fayria went well..." She gnced around for a moment before taking a step closer and whispering, "Be careful of her, she be much more dangerous thas on."

  I let out a sigh. "I got the same impression."

  She nodded. "For now I'll take you back to the guest house. After that meeting, I'm sure you and your friends have a lot to discuss. Your friend Talis has already left the embassy... he told me to pass on the message, 'My quest is plete, try and stay out of trouble.' to you."

  It seems the quest from Sorsette to protect me has been pleted, yet I felt like I was in more danger now than I had been st night. The threat has just moved a little bit further away for the moment.

  "Thank you," I replied.

  "Of course." She bowed her head again before turning around.

  Nealli led us back to the guest house where the rest of roup was waiting for us. Torien had calmed down but she still looked a bit on edge. Ever since her colr had fallen off she's been ag a little unstably, I hadn't seen her act that mad before and it was about something I don't feel like she would normally defend me over so vehemently. Man had mostly recovered but she was notably more gy and she seemed a bit more meek than usual in front of Fayria. She is normally a little shy with people she doesn't know but that went a little bit more intehan normal.

  Raya, Sibyl, and Mimi were waiting for us at the table whe back. They could sense hoere feeling and shared a serious look on their faces wheered. They knew something . Sibyl looked like she was about to draw her sword but I signaled for her to rex. Raya had a ed look on her face as all of us shuffled in.

  Nealli bowed again. "If you need anything please push some mana into this crystal by the door." She motioo a crystal embedded into the wall and demonstrated, making the whole thing glow. "I am in charge of guests and will be your main tact here at the embassy. If you need something please don't hesitate to ask and I'll do my best to aodate you. Unless you need something else, I'll take my leave. I have other work to attend to. Someone will e by in a few hours to talk with Miss Lorienne about transp the other pantharians to the Northern Greens."

  I smiled at her and gave her a short bow. "Thank you for your help this m."

  She smiled back. "Of course. Based on the versation this m, I believe we'll have plenty of opportuo get to know each other better. I'll return around lunchtime unless you need anything sooner. Until then." She looked to see if anyone would ask her anything before turning around and walking out of the door."

  "So, what has all of you on edge?" Sibyl asked as the rest of us sat around the table.

  I snapped a [Zone of Silenbsp;up around us. "One of the elves just asked us to 'unofficially' help them free people from the sver's guild the ime the cult of Amphores uses their colr suppression magic. It seems she's w with them."

  Saine

  Hello! Lilith and friends are finally put into a position to attack the svery in the capital and possibly deal it a critical blow, but it means w with a group that's tried to kill them and has already killed many i people. Quite the drum. How do you guys think they should ha? I'm curious.

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