Chapter 205

The meeting finished up pretty quickly after that. Talis left the embassy and got in touch with some of his contacts in the city before returning to share the information with Routil's staff. Nealli, Routil's daughter, will be in charge of informing me if the status in the city changes. It seems we'll have to continue to 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. Considering he was friends with Raksha'va, the guild master back in Traehall, he says it shouldn't be difficult to get that information. He hinted heavily that we would need to talk more later about what Cecilia had learned and I promised I'd be available for that later. He also had some other things he needed to 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 alone with 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 Winethorn wasn't it?" I asked.

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

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

Her eyes noticeably trailed across the throats of Morrigan, Torien, Lorriene, and Silva. "I wanted to talk to you about your former slaves." 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 turned to face Morrigan. "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."

Morrigan took a step back and grabbed my shirt. Torien instead took a step in front of her sister with a look of contained rage on her face. "Lilith is like family to us. Back off."

Rather than be intimidated Feylaria's face bloomed into a large 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 place and I haven't known her for long," Lorriene said dryly. "But from what Silva and my two nieces tell me, she barely treated them like slaves at all. If you're here to play hero for us defenseless slaves, you may be picking the wrong battle."

Feylaria looked back at me, with a shrewd look in her eyes. "That's wonderful to hear." She took a step back and leaned forward into an even deeper bow. "My apologies then." When she stood back up she focused on me more fully than she had up until this point. "You see, slavery 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 enslaved here in the Torlimal kingdom. The land in my house's control is in the south-western part of the Northern Greens and many elves 'go missing' from our territory fairly regularly only to be found as slaves later. I don't have much trust for those who keep others' lives on a leash and dress them up like playthings." 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, relax."

"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 back. "Fine."

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

I sighed. "Is that all you wanted? If you're done with this purity test can 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 face and I crossed my arms. "Sickening. I wasn't aware of the scale of slavery in this kingdom until I saw the bazaar firsthand."

She nodded. "I agree. Slavery 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 Slaver's guild, both here and outside of Torlimal. Even if we manage to put Marquis Saffadder in place as king, that will not free the ones already enslaved here without a significant loss in political and economic capital. If they catch wind of his true stance on slavery, 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 place is disgusting, I agree. But what do you want us to do about it?"

Faylaria waved a hand and the familiar feeling of a [Zone of Silence] locked into place 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 slavery or have you just tricked your slaves into loving you despite their freedom? I wanted to see what you were like myself before offering you and your capable friends a task, one that I think you would appreciate based on the company you keep." She looked over at Silva as if to punctuate the thought. "I have friends nearby experimenting with magic that suppresses collars, within the cult of Amphores you mentioned. What would happen if someone took the opportunity to safely remove a great number of collars in the heart of the slaver's guild in this city while those collars were suppressed? I believe you and your group would be strong enough to free countless people from their unfortunate fates if you were in the right place at the right time."

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

I tried not to show any emotions on my face and I'm sure the only reason I had been able to control my reaction at all was because I never turned off the Charisma boosting effect from [Being of Karma]. "And what do these 'friends' of yours want in return for this service?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I'm told they're recruiting for their organization and looking for people with some specific traits for some reason or another. There are plenty of former slaves 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 playthings. 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 working to undermine the slavery rampant in this country and that's good enough for me. I'm principally concerned with freeing as many elves and beastkin as possible in the confusion, my dealings with them are purely transactional. 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 Goldenhearth, a city that doesn't even condone slavery," I reminded her.

She shrugged. "Not my problem. It is regrettable but what happens in this country isn't the responsibility of the elves. Slavery is a regional problem that affects my lands constantly, I'll take any advantage I can to prune this distasteful practice where it can continue to affect my people."

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

She smiled brightly. "Excellent, I don't believe they'll be able to use their magic for the next few days but there is already something planned soon. I will come to talk to you myself before the next time they plan on using the collar suppression magic. I have tools to disguise you, safely open the collars, and ways for you to enter and exit safely. All I need is a group capable enough to fight off anyone trying to stop you before you can free a large enough number of slaves, so they can finish the job themselves. If everything goes well then it'll look like an organic slave rebellion, rather than a group like yours or mine intentionally triggering it."

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

Faylaria shrugged. "Then I'm afraid they'll have found their kingslayers, a group of demi-humans and beastfolk completely unaffiliated with the Northern Greens. It's not ideal but I wouldn't be asking you if I didn't believe your group 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 monetary reward that can be arranged, secretly and unofficially of course. The same goes for your offer to assassinate the Duke of Torquin. While Routil can't be associated with some of the darker realities of the world we live in, I can step in to bridge 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 many beastfolk and elves that we can save if we work together." Faylaria bowed again as she dismissed her magic and 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 we approached she gave me a short bow. "I hope your private conversation with Faylaria went well..." She glanced around for a moment before taking a step closer and whispering, "Be careful of her, she can be much more dangerous than she lets 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 complete, try and stay out of trouble.' to you."

It seems the quest from Sorsette to protect me has been completed, yet I felt like I was in more danger now than I had been last 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 our group was waiting for us. Torien had calmed down but she still looked a bit on edge. Ever since her collar had fallen off she's been acting 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. Morrigan had mostly recovered but she was notably more clingy and she seemed a bit more meek than usual in front of Faylaria. She is normally a little shy with people she doesn't know but that went a little bit more intense than normal.

Raya, Sibyl, and Mimi were waiting for us at the table when we got back. They could sense how we were feeling and shared a serious look on their faces when we entered. They knew something was up. Sibyl looked like she was about to draw her sword but I signaled for her to relax. Raya had a concerned 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 motioned to a crystal embedded into the wall and demonstrated, making the whole thing glow. "I am in charge of guests and will be your main contact here at the embassy. If you need something please don't hesitate to ask and I'll do my best to accommodate you. Unless you need something else, I'll take my leave. I have other work to attend to. Someone will come by in a few hours to talk with Miss Lorienne about transporting the other pantharians to the Northern Greens."

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

She smiled back. "Of course. Based on the conversation this morning, I believe we'll have plenty of opportunities to 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 Silence] up around us. "One of the elves just asked us to 'unofficially' help them free people from the slaver's guild the next time the cult of Amphores uses their collar suppression magic. It seems she's working with them."