Alice chuckled gently as Mustafa made his pronouncement, and the other two agreed with him. This was what she had been expecting. Money first, and if you get left behind, too bad. “And here I was, thinking that you three gentlemen would drop everything the minute one of us,” she indicated Espen with a nod of her head, “ got a scratch to help us bandage it. Silly me.” Her eyes grew brighter as the food was given to her, and she started eating it without even bothering to check what was inside of it. After all, food was food, and none of her companions seemed to be choking to death. At the mention of baths, her eyes positively gleamed in anticipation. So she wouldn’t have to wait for a cold river to come along after all! Blake was positively soaring in her regard. She hoped he wouldn’t die or try to kill her or have some other unpleasantness happen to him. That would be disappointing. The soup was better than some things she had had, and for the duration of the conversation, before Blake and Jagred both left for the rooms, she concentrated on her meal. After all, there would be plenty of time to get to know her companions while they were hunting down this thief. Plenty of time to know which she could trust, and which she should take care to keep in front of her. A small smile crossed her lips. [i]No trust among sell-swords.[/i]

As Blake and Jagred both left for the rooms, she finished her meal and then stood to leave as well, picking up her spear along the way. A thought popped into her head. “You know,” she mused, “no one has thought to ask what makes the thief or the Tome so dangerous that the Baron felt the need to hire five mercenaries to track it down and kill the thief. It’s just someone with a book, right? So why send five mercanaries? You only need one to track him, two if you want to be safe, three if you want to be cautious. But five? That seems…excessive.” She shrugged. “Maybe I’m just overthinking it. As long as I don’t die and I get paid, I don’t care what his reasoning is for sending the five of us.”Thanking the serving maid with a cheerful call, she made her way up to the rooms and then a direct beeline to the bath. As soon as she was by one of them, she set her spear down next to it, and began to strip. There wasn’t anything to set up to block anyone who might be looking from seeing anything, and besides. She had very little shame. However, she kept her back to the other occupants of the rooms, until she was entering the water. And she kept her dagger on the edge of the tub. Just because she had little shame, didn’t mean she was going to encourage anything.

After luxuriating in the bath for perhaps longer than necessary, she got out and dried herself, dressing quickly and then finding the nearest sleeping spot. It didn’t matter where. Floor, couch, bed. Just as long as there was somewhere to sleep. Her knife went beneath her pillow, and her spear on the floor next to her. One could never be too careful.