Really? [i]Really.[/i]

No, no. Makes all the sense in the world. Set up a smokescreen to stun the [i]beast[/i] and trust your officer is capable of extricate themselves. After all, the only thing that matters here is that the princess remains unharmed and unbothered. Absolutely paramount. You've got to have the right sort of mindset for this work. It's to Redana’s advantage that she can set aside such [i]sentimentality[/i] in the heat of the moment. Lucky her, to work under such a marvelous princess.

The stinging gas billows thick around her; the rest of her tactical assessment would have to wait. Without a word she slips off her perch and floats down to the chaos below. Her weapon is already in her hand. She has nothing to reach out for. With such blessed freedom, she can spare a hand to glide a hair's breadth from the wall as she smoothly falls. If she's granted a warning, at least she can push herself away from instant death.

She holds tight to that vigilance as her vision burns and the room dissolves into muffled cries. Falling, falling, draped in a chemical cloak, she falls yet further down...

*****************************************************

Dolce offers no resistance as she takes the nearly-empty pot from him. A disturbance might spill some, and even a stain in the servant’s corridors is a stain on the palace. “Ah. I understand. I was far hastier then I should have been, and I've given the impression of insult. Believe me, it was not my intention. Only a short while ago I was a chef, and not a captain, and it would be terribly unfair to assume you knew.” But assume she did. Quite a few assumptions, really. “The change was not [i]just[/i] my decision, nor was it particularly simple. Though I did have to choose to take up the role in the end, a good Captain thinks to their duty, not standing.” Unlike the implications that certain individuals had just made.

“But I would not forget the work of the waiters so easily.”

He offers no objection to pot or behavior. His smile is true, as true as lamplight, without a hint of mockery. Not even with a certain ring now dangling precariously from a little horn. “Come, let us go to the kitchens together; the soup must take a precise dash of seasonings before it is brought back.” No, not even taking the opportunity to excuse himself as she continues the work she willingly took on. His steps, too, are true. “I wish I had known we would have such dedicated waiters today. It is not every day one gets the chance to work alongside someone who loves their work so.”

And how can the praise, the curiosity, be anything less than true, too?

[Rolling to Speak Softly: 6 + 5 + 1 = [b]12.[/b] Why does Jill carry such courage and commitment to Bella? Bella, who does such awful things?]