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Hang on, had he misremembered something?  The king had sent for them, hadn't he?  He was certain that's what the captain said, and this lady had said much the same to the guards at the gate.  Hadn't she?  If it had been the scenario that they had managed to hear about the king's son through some sketchy back channels and arrived to offer aid our of the blue, then suspicion would be perfectly reasonable.  As it stood, you hardly asked someone to help you then later demanded that they prove themselves to you first.  The outright hostility that they had so far encountered was so strongly at odds with the plain facts of the situation that it left Sarathai with a sense of unease.  Maybe he would have been better off hanging with the necromancer?  Okay, definitely not.  But still...

It didn't help that, from the sounds of things, his companion was apparently some sort of high profile murderer.  Not entirely what he would have expected from that whole thing about her being the best healer, but everyone had to have hobbies right?  Some people collected toenail clippings, others stabbed people in their spare time.  So long as she kept to the job at hand, he couldn't care less what she did in her free time.  Frustratingly, it did give at least a little credence to the suspicion the pair of them were met with.

Soon enough it was Tarasynora's turn to talk.  While she made her speech about oaths and noble influence, it occurred to Sarathai just how out of his depth he was in this conversation.  He never exactly had circumstance to find himself enmeshed deeply into the political affairs of anything grander than planning a festival at his local village.  Hopefully her speech was a good one and would mollify the king and his council, but Sarathai was still worried.  He didn't really have a strong sense of the political state of things, but he still felt like he had to do his best to contribute in his own way.  "[color=6ecff6]My apologies if I'm speaking out of turn, but when you ask about trust I assume it is with the subtext that we might be assassins or otherwise sent to cause some form of mischief?  Frankly, that scenario makes little sense to me.  Or, if so, then we are incredibly incompetent at what we do having already identified who we are and the order we fight for.  Additionally, I am certain that, in your wisdom, you have probably already sent to your dock-master for the ship's manifest that we arrived on to double check that everything is in order there.[/color]"

It seemed reasonable enough in his mind.  Even if they hadn't thought to double check records, they probably would be doing so now and make a pretense that they had done so from the beginning- nobility were like that.  Hopefully it would be enough to get at least a slight benefit of doubt on their side, since he planned to forge into uncharted territory.  Knowing very little about the Order he could only hope that he wasn't, in actuality, somehow caught up in some big assassination scheme.  If so, he would likely feel like the biggest fool all the way to the gallows.  "[color=6ecff6]I would also assume you know even more about the Order here than us newly arrived recruits.  You are appropriately cautious, so I'll assume you've kept meticulous records on the comings and goings of supply ships for the order and thus have a better understanding of their setup here than we ever could.  I'm an apprentice healer with no mind for military strategy, so you would know better than either of us whether the Order seems to be arraying their camp as though readying for some sort of preemptive strike against your city or if they seem to expect eventual amicable relations.[/color]"

"[color=6ecff6]But for what it's worth.[/color]"  He added, deciding it might be best to try and emulate Tarasynora's manner in his own clumsy fashion. "[color=6ecff6]I can swear that I would forsake the Order long before I every assented to carry out something as underhanded as a political assassination.  I can't speak on the Order's behalf, but I can speak to my own designs.  To that, I would pledge my skills in whatever way would help your people most.[/color]" [i]And you know damn well you wouldn't have asked for us in the first place if you hadn't already exhausted your other options, ya bunch of dirty old men.[/i] he thought, exercising extreme prudence in not voicing that last bit out loud.

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