[h2]Tyaethe[/h2]

"Well, I was sure someone was going to suggest torture, or get pointlessly violent," Tyaethe answered, reaching up to tap Sergio's arm as an example, "So I thought that [i]tickling[/i] would be the easiest way to tell if she was going to respond. You don't do any harm you have to fix, it doesn't make it impossible to respond, [i]and[/i] you get to see if they respond to physical sensation. Plus, I've met [i]way[/i] more people who can ignore any amount of pain but will flinch at being tickled."

And it was kind of fun.

Of course, the revealed neck made it clear that shouting and demanding questions wasn't going to work. Hm, was this going to become a game of charades, or was their would-be assassin literate? The damage might be healable, but from everything she knew about healing magic (not that it was a huge amount, since it wasn't something a vampire really needed), fixing an old injury like that would be a laborious process if it was doable at all. Not great for getting an answer now.

Hm, some random noble was still standing by the captain. He'd been trying to say... oh, something about tongues or checking for teeth, which wasn't [i]entirely[/i] a bad idea until this point, but he really wasn't necessary or contributing. "If you're going to stand around, you might as well bring the drinks over. No point letting the party food go to waste."