Camilla found her mind drifting during the escape. She knew, at an intellectual level that she shouldn't but it was hard to focus. This woman was certainly a friend and maybe more than a friend. Each time Elspeth looked at Cydric she felt a surge of jealously that threatened to sober her but the intense emotion cooled once the blond turned her attention back to Camilla. 

She had a vague notion that they were in a coach and the next thing she knew they were sitting in an elaborate parlor. The place was decorated in shades of red and gold with occasional silver accents and had a subtle feeling of aged splendor. Handsome men, each handsome enough to give Ricardo a rival, stood in livery of red and gold. Many of them wore weapons but they seemed to Camilla to be more ceremonial than practical.

"Cydric," Camilla whispered as she watched the servants. There was no response, his eyes following the roll of Elspeth's hips as she laughed at some jest Ricardo had just made.

"Cydric," she repeated. Still no response. Camilla very deliberately and very firmly stomped on the Ostlander's foot. For a moment she thought that it hadn't been sufficient but then, several seconds after the blow, his eyes cleared and he turned to look at her.

"Cydric something is wrong, look at their eyes," she said with a gesture at the servants. Indeed, their eyes shone with an almost religious devotion, but they were empty too, somehow conveying that there was little behind them other than a blind desire to serve. Before he could respond Elspeth turned back to them and was gesturing them into plush chairs.

"To bussiness then," she said languidly, her smokey gaze promising there would be time for pleasure afterwards.

"You have come for the Scarrab, I confess my Mistress does possess it, but no force you could apply will recover it." The words were matter of fact but absolutely final.

"Still we are not unreasonable, I can provide you with gold and with... other things," her gaze drifted across the trio and Camilla felt the 'other things' was distinctly different for each of them.

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