[b]Rurik![/b]

"A tragic tale," said Rurik. "But why are you, Seli and Keli, the ones telling it?"

He is upside down and being shaken by his ankles. He is maintaining a shocking level of decorum despite this. Were someone to visit his home they would find a mysteriously large wheel outside, one upon which the Seneschal was tied and spun while reciting all ten thousand pages of the [i]Dhorma Protocol[/i].

"Do you have some personal connection to Ms. Juniper?" said Rurik. "A particular passion for uniting true love? You are simply extremely invested in changing the fate of Thellamie? Or is there another paw at work here - one that seeks to remove a rival for the Faun? And given the particularly last minute nature of your shakedown, one who perhaps had other plans for Heron and Civelia that were thrown into chaos by discovering that the Dark Dragon was disguised as Heron during that fateful dance and poisoning? It would be very convenient for such a figure to draw Princess Heron out into the open again now that they have lost track of her, with a bait deliciously set with a tale of star-crossed lovers."

He smiled as coins fell out of his pockets and disturbed his mustache. "Look to love, as the wise woman says. But not love of [i]her [/i]- yah?"