[b]Nahla![/b]

“And will you return?” The Vizier is studying you carefully. She thinks little of you; thinks you a barbarian toy. She thinks that you would run off, foolishly, from the lap of luxury. Because you, little delight, do not understand your place in the grand order of existence.

But beneath that, she is very interested in what you are offering her: a way to control the Sultan elegantly, passively. A dream come true. All you have to do is assure her that you really can make it happen.

[hr]

[b]Soot![/b]

You have a choice to make, Soot. Do you run? You can. It’s probably a good choice. Safer than trying to rally a group of barbarians.

But if you wanted to try? Rosethal has been a [i]bad sport.[/i] And you just made her look like a fool. What will it be, Soot? Push your luck further? Or run while the getting is good?

[hr]

[b]Silsila Om![/b]

Hai Lin is, for a moment, speechless. Perhaps because you have forced the air right out of her lungs; perhaps because your presence, o Host, is intoxicating.

Around the two of you, guards tense, but they know better than to interfere in a duel like this. It would be a disgrace for their commander, one her reputation might never recover from.

“Where was this,” she finally manages to force out, looking you defiantly in the face. “When I told you to accompany Birsi?”

Her words are searing, for all that they’re whispered. You failed her, Silsila. For all of your strength, for all of your hotness, you cannot fight your way to her heart unless you make things right. 

Or, rather, you cannot do so without shaming her. Hai Lin is no stranger to having her heart betray her. You can feel it, fluttering under your skins. Push harder.

[Mark a Condition under the shame of Hai Lin.]

[hr]

[b]Birsi![/b]

“It is wrong.”

The words slam into place. She is watching you carefully, her eyes like embers beneath her lids. If you make a wrong move, she will be on you, for all that she seems to be at rest.

“She has brought you here, rather than to see justice be done. She hides in her palace while her people starve. I am not threatened, little Fire Wheel. I know that I will live to see that palace on that hill opened up and then, if your priestesses are right, the Almighty will install someone who is better for this city. Let us all hope they do, no?”

Honor demands her punishment. It will blow your cover, you are almost certainly going to lose, and you cannot carry back word of revolutionaries here, but… do you follow your oath, Birsi? Even if it means your doom?