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The first voice to answer her call was feminine and cautious, asking for her [i]name [/i]of all things, without even providing her own in turn. Sshizna clicked her tongue. [color=#C5AF3F]"Do you not know the rulesss, ssstranger, or are you merely playing the fool? You are not welcome to my true name, but may call me Ssshizna." [/color]

No sooner had she answered than another creature piped up, this one clearly enjoying his voice more than she — or, likely, anyone else in the multiverse — did. Of all the [i]cretins [/i]she had to rely on for rescue, why did one of them have to be a bard?! By Sseth's scales, if she wasn't so desperate—

[color=#C5AF3F]"I ssshould think the circumssstancesss of my capture — and my [i]birth[/i], for that matter — highly irrelevant to the sssubject at hand. Besssidesss, you are many, I am but one." [/color]She did not know how many people had gathered beyond the door in truth, having only heard two voices. However, she [i]had [/i]also noticed the bard refer to someone being optimistic and trusting, and that [i]certainly [/i]wasn't the woman who'd addressed her first. For all she knew, they could've had an entire adventuring party poised to strike the second she stepped out. If anyone ought to have been suspicious, it was [i]her[/i].

Sshizna crossed her arms, a guarded motion, even if only visible to her. Had she been able to see who she was addressing, she would've turned her gaze to the woman who spoke to her first — as things were, she simply stared at a different part of the wall. [color=#C5AF3F]"But if it isss reasssurance you ssseek, I believe the Rule of Reciprocity ought to sssuffice, yesss? Offer me the gift of your aid, and you will not go unrewarded, of that you can be sssure." [/color]

How laughable it all was, that she would be saved by such a foolish, sentimental rule. [/color]