Lethal Reword 5: True Mirage

Ordo's 'Hunch' leads him to believe that the individuals are, indeed, trustworthy.

Rancher sighs, "I am sorry, my very foreign Prince, but I have already stated that we cannot offer more. Seems that your allies will aid while you do not. I'm sure it is enough."

Heldred's words were greeted with a very soft 'whap' to the back of his head, courtesy of a large snake-man. "Don't be an asshole." Cobalt shakes his head with a sigh matching Rancher's own. He crosses his arms, nodding, "I am Cobalt... Cobalt Brave. I will be happy to aid you, as much with duty as it is a personal matter."

The female nods with a smile to everyone who has spoken so far (except for Heldred, whom she ignores). She offers the a grand smile and nod to Dossan, in particular.

Rancher smiles, "I forgot to mention... you've met Ockham and Renard - the man joining them now is Palmer... those three are nearly half of our defenders."

The three guards nod as they are introduced.

Rancher continues, "The lovely lady beside me is Salyssa, who I have known since we were children." The young woman nods, "Pleasure to meet you all. We can't offer much in the ways of healing, our focus is on making sure the guards hit with their bolts, to make use of every single one of them... though if you are injured, we are happy to use whatever we can to have you back and running... save for death. Can't fix that." She chuckles weakly.
 
Heldred hissed a muted "ow" in response to the whap, shooting Cobalt a 'why?!' look over his shoulder before turning back to Rancher. His 'dazzling smile' was replaced with an expression that could almost be mistook for sulking, if it weren't for the slow burn of annoyance in his eyes. "Well, you needn't worry about me; I stand with my companions. Even if they do not stand with me," He added with a thin smile, giving Cobalt a gentle nudge with his elbow. "And I was just checking."

The sheepish grin that covered Heldred's expression at that moment was a little disquieting.
 
Adra hid her annoyance at the revelation of her undead nature well behind the smoked glasses covering her eyes. Everyone else didn't seem to get it, so hopefully Salyssa would get the hint.

"We'll need about a day to prepare, along with all the information you have on the goblins." Adra put a fist in her other palm and bowed slightly.
"I am honored to meet you, Lord Palmer. My name is Adra Mys'Kavval, and I will work to make sure this matter is dealt with properly."

Really, she didn't trust Salyssa...
 
"Yeah, yeah," he muttered, waving his hand dismissively at Dossan's correction. Sacred Duty, Sacred Ladies. All the same to him; besides, Sacred Ladies sounded better. Made them sound like some hot girl-band.

Eyeballing the rest of his companions, he nearly cackled at Heldred's attempt at weaseling more from the young Rancher. He almost felt bad for having offered to help so quickly, before his companion had had an attempt to bluff the young lord. Maybe it would've worked had he not said anything? Ah well...

"I am Ordo," he announced, clacking his heels together and bowing swiftly (albeit in a very shallow bow), palm resting on the pommel of his sheathed katana. "Let me assure you that I will personally make sure this goblin problem is handled to the pinnacle of our abilities!" He had his eyes on Salyssa the whole time, catching her glimpse once or twice (or so he thought).

"And I will personally make sure that no harm comes to anyone taking refuge in the keep, especially you, my lady Salyssa."

This is kind of funny, he thought silently to himself. Here I am, being as brazen and as straight forward with a woman as much as I've always wanted to be, not blushing or stumbling over words, or anything. It's like I really am becoming a whole new me... Or at the very least, a side of me that's always been hiding is coming forward, huh?
 
Adra smacked Ordo's head with the back of her hand.
 
Sanar backed up Adras smack with a boot on Ordos foot and a viscous glance. They did not want to earn the ire of such a powerful local figure unless they wanted to find themselves skipping this tows rather suddenly. Something also made her just want to cause Ordo pain and the reason left her blinking several times.
 
Sighing at the violent admonishment from both ladies of the party, Ordo bowed once more in apology.

"Forgive my being bold or brash," he said with smile, half-humourous and half-irritated. "Allow me to remind the Lord and lady that I am... not from these parts." He straightened himself and retreated to the folds of his cloak. He wasn't going to fall back to the edge of the group, but he was thankful for his brightly coloured, make-shift security blanket.
 
Sven simply stood towards the back of the group, usually facepalming, He wasn't much of a talker himself however so he had no urge to go forward and speak. His place, he felt, was on the sidelines giving aid to the wounded, and helping lost souls find peace.
 
Adra glared at Ordo. Dumbass.
She sighed and glanced back over everyone present. "Well then, now that that's all out of the way, I'll be off to do some meditation." She adjusted her glasses slightly. "Ordo? If you don't mind, please come along with me for a bit."
 
Blinking, Ordo looked back to the gathering of people, then to Adra, then back to the group. Shrugging, he addressed them all. "If you'll excuse me and Adra, we'll be, uh... Meditating on the... Upcoming... Events. And discussing."

Bowing as respectfully as he could, he turned to Adra and asked in a fierce whisper as they wandered off together: "What do you want, woman?!"
 
Sanar looked at Ordo, then at Adra then back at Ordo and then at the floor. "We have had an eventful day and are worlds away from home. Perhaps we should all retire to reflect on the matter." her voice had a hard quality to it and her gaze lingered mostly on Adra though no one in the group was left out of her gaze. She seemed to shift closer to Ordo without moving and suddenly looked at the floor again her lower lip being drawn in between her teeth.
 
"oh, I just want to talk with you for a bit..." Adra led Ordo away from the group, talking to him as she walked. "We're new here and all, and I can understand that you want to get to know people better, especially romantically.." They rounded a corner, and suddenly Adra switched to a rushed whisper while pressing Ordo against a wall, her arm spines at his throat. "But if you can't learn to keep it in your pants around important dignitaries in this world then I will make you regret it. Am I clear?"
 
Ordo flushed with anger and embarrassment as Adra both admonished and attacked him. While she had every right to do so, the way she had done it, well...

"I hear you," he said gently, carefully choosing his words. "But we are here for them. They'll respect our... quirks, and besides, whilst being forward, I wasn't being overly... Disrespectful." He breathed slowly, carefully.

"Also," he began, looking down past Adra's bladed forearm, below them, to the drawn knife pressed gingerly against her belly. "You might want to be very, very careful in who you attack."
 
"Tch.." Adra eased up on the spines, noting for a second the dagger at her stomach. "Cute." She backed off a bit, turning around along the way. "But do try to avoid messing around with strange women too much, especially important ones. Besides, I think she's evil."
 
"Evil? Her?" He blinked as he relaxed, taking his weight off of the wall and putting it back onto the balls of his feet. He carefully slid the knife back into it's sheath along his right hip, but he kept his hand loosely on the hilt. Be it from a new-found habit, or caution still at a high, neither he nor Adra knew.

"Why would you say that? She's a trusted friend of that Rancher fellow, childhood friends, even. She's an acolyte of her church, and those really nice goddesses. I don't think they'd grant boons and answer the prayers of an evil bitch."
 
Sanar followed Adra and Ordo, not consciously, she just wanted to get outside, she didn't care where they were going right? It didn't matter anyway because whatever her reason for going the same way as them she walked around the corner to see Adra walking away from Ordo why had his back to a wall. "Oh hey I thought... you talking about that woman? WELL!" she felt relief washing over her "I think shes got more power here than Rancher, he could say one thing and shed do another with him never knowing." She spoke fast her eyes looking strait ahead afraid to look at either of the others.
 
"Eh...call it a hunch." Adra turned back around to face Ordo. "Something about her just rubs me the wrong way...and if I were in charge of this, I'd have her be evil." Adra nodded as Sanar walked up, though the girl was acting strange.
"So there's that too. Got it?"
 
"Hmm, I suppose. But we can't really do anything about it now, and without any proof, well... I think her goddesses might strike us dead. Artemis may like me, but I don't think she likes me that much..." He took a few steps to the opposite side of the hall, leaning against a nearby window sill.

"All we can do is get rid of those gobbos, and I suppose, keep an eye on her. And if she does anything stupid..." He turned to face them again, this time his cloak open wide and his hand resting on his katana. "I have no qualms about striking her down. I don't like mean chicks."
 
Sanar nodded, hunches was all they had, but they had been chosen by the gods perhaps they were their vengeance.. she stopped that train of thoughts, but the distraction had done its job. "Thats all we can do, and I don't think its a good ideas to tell the other our suspicions until we at least have a shred of proof."
 
Dossan watched the others go off on their own. Not having any real plans, having just arrived here in this dimension...plane...world...what-have-you, so, in the name of making friends, and lending a hand, the treant turned to face the three guardsmen. "While my companions might not be up to a late night, I certainly do not feel tired, so I was wondering if you might allow me to help with the watch. And while I might not be any good with a crossbow, I can at least be a second pair of eyes. So, what do you say, my good men?"