"[color=#8b0000]Hmm, perhaps he just didn't like you?[/color]"

Looking up from her book, Elise Montpelier grinned at the boy, self-satisfied smile dancing on her lips. Etiquette ingrained into her since birth mandated that even in a backwater city in the middle of nowhere Elise was the picture-perfect image of nobility, the epitome of grace and elegance...if she kept her mouth shut that is.

"[color=#8b0000]Who knows, us Liberi do need to spread our wings from time to time after all.[/color]"

Snapping her book shut, Elise suppressed the pang of worry that rose within her. While the good doctor had reassigned her to Hisn-ul-Zahra for yet another...acquisition mission, the lack of leads had meant that she had been relegated to loafing around the branch office. Which wasn't [i]boring[/i] per se, the local workers were just so fun to rile up after all. Yet in her quieter moments she had also helped out at the orphanage, her effective immunity to Originium Infection allowing her a greater degree of freedom in assisting with their operations.

It was nice, she supposed, dealing with kids that had a brighter future then her.

N-not that she'll them of course!

Schooling her features as she pulled herself out of her train of thought, eerie red eyes focused on Selim as he made his request. So this would be her first mission since her arrival Hisn-ul-Zahra. Tracking children. The scion of the great line of Montpeliers, nobility for more then a millennium. Reduced to finding orphans lost in the city. This was the price she had paid for her desire. The smallest of inconveniences, to one day manumit herself from a curse of blood. Demeaning for her, sure, but there was nothing she would not do to free herself.

Well, for all she was willing, that didn't mean she'd miss a chance to get under the Iberian's skin.

"[color=#8b0000]Perhaps, perhaps...[/color]" Making a spectacle of contemplating the decision, Elise eyed her partner, the Operator Ash Girl. She'd only cursorily heard of the Taran before; apparently some Columbian mercenary that had gotten Infected through some accident? Well no matter, new targets were always fun. 

"[color=#8b0000]I have decided,[/color]" she said. "[color=#8b0000]Be grateful, for I have decided to help! Fear not, Nur will be home by dusk. So swears Seven.[/color]"