[CENTER][B]The following is a collaborative post between Meleck and Salroka [/B][/CENTER]

Cilia moved closer to Fergus to get his opinion on what was going on and to try to learn about where they were going. [COLOR=00FFEE][B]“Fergus...”[/B][/COLOR] she asked quietly, [COLOR=00FFEE][B]“... do you know who he is?”[/B][/COLOR] She figured that Barrister knew anyone who had money and a family name.

After the atrocities they had all witnessed the day prior, Fergus was still on pins and needles. Cilia's question snapped him back from his internal musings about how this guy might be a bandit. Rather than answer right away, he took a few moments to eye over the newcomer. Fergus had seen those symbols before. [COLOR=FF8C00][B]"Well I'll be the spawn of anathema. He's from House Tepet. Mnemon might be the house of the current Empress, but Tepet has the military might. If he's friendly, we may have just lucked out."[/B][/COLOR] Of course... that was a big if. Especially given the past twenty-four hours.

To this, Cilia nodded with a little understanding. Most of the house politics that she knew came from her mother’s work, entertaining the men who came to the port to trade, make deals, and other things men tend to do.  The politics that Fergus talked about was above her. But she agreed that having the military on their side would be good. As the wind started to blow a bit, she pulled her hair around to start braiding it for the day.  She made it look easy as she put it into a tail of sorts.  [COLOR=00FFEE][B]“Fergus, what is the place we are heading to like?”[/B][/COLOR]

While she may not have said much, Cilia at least seemed to agree with the general gist of what Fergus had said. Then she asked about Lord's Crossing, and what it was like. [COLOR=FF8C00][B]"It's actually fairly similar to what the ruins were like before the war, if you happened to see any pictures of it in books. I know you might be too young to remember the old Imperial City, but yeah. A bit smaller, to be honest. Though it is still fairly similar."[/B][/COLOR] He didn't yet want to tell her just how far away it was. Knowing the distance might be a little demoralizing at this point in time.

She looked at him and smiled a little bit. She wasn’t sure if the “fairly similar” was a good thing or not. [COLOR=00FFEE][B]“Hmm”[/B][/COLOR] she said with a little bit of apprehension and paused. She said, [COLOR=00FFEE][B]“I thought those things from yesterday were just in nightmares and stories told to get children to behave. I was glad to have all of you there to keep me going.”[/B][/COLOR]  She pondered, [COLOR=00FFEE][B]“I wish I grabbed some proof so we could show something other than our word.”[/B][/COLOR] She knew that she would not be considered a credible witness on something this grave.

Fergus conceded a little bit to Cilia's opinion on the undead horde. [COLOR=FF8C00][B]" Yeah, so did a lot of folks. Even a lot of survivors from the war figured they were all wiped out by the Fair Folk once we gave them most of Creation. Hell, even I thought that. Shows how much I know, huh?"[/B][/COLOR] Almost as if in response to her mention of credible proof, Snow commented on the Tepet man having met "the enemy" and survived. From this far away, Fergus had no clue HOW Snow knew that... but he doubted the monk would lie about such a thing. [COLOR=FF8C00][B]"Well... maybe we just got that proof you asked for. By all the dragons, this is just... I don't even know what to think about the last day or so."[/B][/COLOR]

Cilia watched Fergus and his reaction to hearing Snow talk about “meeting the enemy and survived.” She said with a little worry in her voice, [COLOR=00FFEE][B]“I guess, there is a lot that we all are needing to learn.”[/B][/COLOR] She knew that Fergus was now going to be drawn into the other conversation. She would follow.