Rohaan scoffed, waving a hand as if shooing away some unseen fly. "Usually employers like to tell their mercenaries all that they can, so that information can help them in their efforts...what else haven't you told me, Valdemar? A good deal more, I'm sure..." he grumbled. Information was cheap, though the lives of people like him seemed cheaper in the eyes of Valdemar. Rohaan had to remind himself that, to the Emperor, Rohaan was a disposable resource to be used and burned when expended. Typical royal bastard.  And speaking of royal bastards, he could see now that Ash was not what he'd pictured her to be. Sure, Valdemar had mentioned she was no debutante, but she seemed of better moral fiber than her father, and Rohaan had a chance now to perhaps influence the future Empress. If he could show her that shifters were not all that the nursemaid's fireside tales made them out to be, then perhaps his people might enjoy better lives in the future. 

The shifter gave a slow, knowing smile, as if he knew something obvious that Valdemar was not seeing. "You might call yourself 'Dragon of the North'," He spat to the side at that. "But you likely know very little of dragons. Cyradan, for example, can fly very fast and very high. Far faster than the swiftest horseman. I'm sorry to say the return journey will not be so quick. I am not a mule, nor could I carry someone else that far if I wanted to. We'll have to find horses." That would be an endeavor. Rohaan was an excellent thief, but he could not steal horses. They reared and screamed and bit when he came near, no matter what shape he was in. Finding one that would bear him at all would be more than difficult. He had a plan for that, but it would take a bit of time and some traveling, so he'd need to make sure Ash had a horse, and he'd just find a way to follow along on his own for now. 

Rohaan rummaged a little through the girl's pack and found a water skin, which he helped himself to. He tried not to just drink it all, but it was hard. He hadn't realized just how thirsty he was. For some time now, he'd been meaning to get himself a water skin, though he had yet to find one he could fit on his person comfortably, for he carried no pack. Everything in the world that Rohaan Ja'aisen owned was on his person at all times. He was opportunistic about the rest, obtaining what he could when he needed it and could find it. He was pondering the water skin still when Karl instructed them to get into Durgan. Rohaan actually choked on the piece of cheese he was eating. 

"Hey now!" He wagged a finger accusingly at the Emperor. "That ain't what you paid me for, and I'm not a servant to be ordered around! You want me to go getting my hands in weird culty shit, that'll cost you! Sorry Ash--can I call you Ash?--I know I said I'd help you out there, and I did mean it, but there's a difference between precision meddling and just painting the whole fortress in fire. Believe me, there's no one who'd rather see that filth up in flames than me, but I also prefer not to be shot out of the sky, and especially not ensnared in whatever magical garbage they've got brewing up in there. There's a lot of magic in the air, even from here I can taste it. Smells like a metal foundry. No, Valdy, if you want me to go in there and get involved, you've got to pay up." 

Rohaan considered. "I'll do it if you free every elvish slave you own, or that your court owns. Give them the option of leaving, but give them also the option of a paid position instead. And pay them well. Enough to live by." Rohaan knew he couldn't ask for too much, and he'd already secured the future freedom of his own people. He couldn't viably demand the liberation of all elvish slaves, but the ones within Valdemar's court seemed a reasonable enough price. Though the elves in general had never exactly welcomed him and his people with open arms, they also had not been historically unkind to them either. At the very least, they recognized on the whole that vokurians were a culture, a semi-unified people with a semi-unified language that had traditions of their own. A culture and people they didn't really love, but it was better than the humans. If Rohaan could throw them a bone, and hopefully improve the elf-vokurian relations, then he would.