Markus did not know why he was following her, but clearly she felt it important, and he had come this far. He also did not want to make an enemy of an Aes Sedai or anyone associated with one, and so he followed her through the streets and entered the Choir Tree. He had never been in the building, but the Outrider had seen it from afar a few times. It was nice and lively. Next time Markus was in Barsine he might come here rather than his usual haunts. 

The comment about the warder flummoxed him and had almost had him bark a warning at the inn keeper. You might as well have called him one of the loudly extravagant Tuatha'an and he would have had a similar incredulous reaction. He was so nonplussed he found himself whisked into a room awaiting tea before he knew it. Women had a way of making you do something before you even realized it. A pretty girl had a power few things could match, his older brother had always told him. But she was an Aes Sedai, and he wasn't going to fall for anything. She sat like for all the world she was in control of Barsine and its affairs. He wondered yet again why he was here. He truly did not want to offend, but damn, she was not taking a hint. 

Markus was just turning around when what he could only describe as a monster stepped into his field of view. He was so wide and burly that he filled the borderlander's vision, and Markus himself wasn't the smallest man in Jaradime. Markus didn't hear the chuckle or the even the words. He heard speech, which some Trollocs were able to give. He heard the thing's breathing. He had heard all he needed to hear. 

"No!" Lysabel cried with surprising authority, despite the clear despair in her voice. Markus had drawn his long knife so quickly, the Ogier, for indeed he would find out that was the creature, had barely blinked before his waistcoat had been pierced. Markus would have pierced him with the blade to the hilt if she had not cried out. Her voice alone stopped him, if only for it reminded him of someone else, long and far away. The Ogier, he supposed, looked down at him aghast. 

Markus pulled the blade back slowly, and Lysabel let out a sigh of relief when she saw no blood on the steel tip. The rugged borderlander looked at her, and then at...Kadal. The Outrider felt two parts ashamed and three parts annoyed at this whole affair. Why wouldn't she bloody warn him of that? He walked passed Kadal and into the common room without another word, intent on leaving Barsine then and there. A big hand fell on his shoulder with surprising gentleness, and Markus turned to regard the new creature. 

"No harm done, friend. Please, come sit." Kadal bade him. He gave an expression Markus guessed was a comforting smile. 

A long moment rolled by them, and with clear apprehension, and to escape the wide-eyed onlookers of the inn who had heard the scream from within the tea room, Markus turned around and walked back into the room and let Kadal close the door to join them. The two males sat down, the borderlander unsure of how to proceed. The Ogier cleared his throat, and it sounded like a heavily laden cart rolling down hill. 

"As I was saying, I am Kadal, son of Mavaam." He said once more. 

"I am Markus. It's fortunate we can meet," was the Outrider's response, considering what Lysabel Sedai had said not an hour ago about the symbols on the Trolloc's arm. He still had the appendage tightly wound up, lumped on the floor. 
[@Penny]