[h3]Jaelnec, Freagon, Irah, Lhirin, Nabi, Yanin, Jordan and Madara – Forest north of Borstown, Bandit Farm[/h3]
There was a slight twitch in Freagon's brow as he shot a brief glance back at Irah and Bren when the deigan spoke. “Feel free to kill them immediately next time,” she had said, and as soon as he had looked through the now-open door into the farmstead and confirmed that the remaining four armed and mostly-armored men in there were all currently catatonic, he allowed his mind to busy itself with that statement for a moment. Previously Irah had seemed rather opposed to killing – in fact he recalled her specifically uttering the words “I would prefer no more lives be lost” – so the obvious interpretation of her words now did not seem likely. No, he did not think that she was giving him free reign to murder whoever he pleased in the future.
So it probably pertained more specifically to the current situation and referenced their enemy taking a hostage. So in essence, what she actually meant was “next time an enemy takes a hostage, feel free to kill the enemy immediately, regardless of the danger it poses to the hostage.” If that was true, then he found himself severely disagreeing with that as a mode of operation. Though he personally could not care less if some random fool ended up as collateral damage during a fight, he did follow a code that promoted the protection of innocents... and on top of that, a big chunk of the reward they had been promised was conditional on the healer's survival. He also figured that several others in their current little group, particularly Yanin, Jordan and Jaelnec, would find such a sentiment morally objectionable.
Given how outrageous he figured most people would find the idea of disregarding hostages, Freagon also mostly disregarded that interpretation. Could she mean it even more specifically, then? That “next time an enemy takes a hostage and we have immediate access to a powerful source of healing, feel free to kill the enemy immediately, regardless of the danger it poses to the hostage.” It was somewhat more palatable if interpreted that way, if still somewhat callous – about as callous as himself, as that had been his own reasoning earlier – but it also seemed like a rather worthless instruction to give. Just how often did she expect this specific combination of conditions to all be true at the same time?

Deciding whatever Irah had meant was nowhere near important enough for him to ask for elaboration on, Freagon instead allowed his focus to shift to a more thorough visual inspection of the interior of the farmstead. It mostly seemed like a fairly normal space for rural farmers to live: a one-room structure with one end – the one directly in front of him as he looked through the door – serving as kitchen and dining-area, and the other, off to his left, being part-storage and part-bedroom. There were three proper beds in there and another four straw mats, all of which were currently unoccupied. One of the beds had bloodstained sheets, so it probably belonged to the brute Freagon had just killed.
He also noticed a large wooden chest in there, nestled in between the beds and mats. It looked somewhat out of place there and had probably been moved there by the bandits for some reason.
“There's another four inside,” the nightwalker told the others. “Looks like they're still immobilized. Want me to kill them?”