The dancing girl's mouth opened slightly, jaw dropping in surprise at the revelation of the possible executions.  This Vatikar was a monster, but a horribly effective one, taking the actions necessary to preserve his life, the lives of his men and in this particular circumstance her own.  Assallya had to admit the large oafish and ogrish man suddenly looked quite attractive. There was no cunning or guile, just brute force.  The way he dominated a room with both word and deed was simply intoxicating.  While she could have garnered the same results she had to admit that it would have taken significantly longer to do so via carousing.

Turning her attention back to the silvered tray Assallya concentrated, searching the faces of the escaped person's friends or comrades and committed them to memory.  At first, when she spied what she thought was a warrior for Octa she almost wept for joy.  However then her thoughts went back to the ambush.  What were the odds that in the ambush that single warrior might have dropped something personal and more importantly, why wouldn't he have returned for it if it were quite so close.