Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine was noticably tense when Meesei embraced her, but she exhaled and relaxed slightly in her arms. It was at least a prompt for her to slow down for the moment. Carana finished up her task and stood a few paces from the pair, listening in.

Once Meesei had finished speaking, Sabine nodded slowly, but her expression was mostly unchanged. After wiping one of her tired eyes with her arm, Sabine looked up to Meesei and affirmatively responded. "I can test the toxin safely. Carana and me both know what to do if something goes wrong, I promise." Sabine looked away for just a moment. Long enough to remember to feel comfortable confiding in Meesei. "I'm just...I don't want to get this wrong," Sabine's murmured quietly. "There's only a drop of it. The water skin was difficult. I was thinking about the people here, what might happen if the killer isn't found. I heard about the fight that you stopped."

Carana stayed where she was with her hands clasped together. Sabine had a certain fear in her eyes. "The clan will stay together, won't it?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Despite now breathing more quickly and baring her teeth in anger, Harriet did not so much as take a step, let alone speak, until Meesei had finished and left the room. Meesei's lengthy final word only seemed to exacerbate her further.

The bodyguards sounded agreement with Meesei. They all knew the plan, but they gave sideways glances to Harriet. It could be read on their faces that they were more afraid of her than any intruder. Especially after her furious display.

Sabine was found still working away at setting up the test for the precious drop of poison that had been found in the vial with Carana. She had dark rings around her eyes that she had not displayed since the ritual with the Hist. The stress was even making her posture temporarily regress back to how it used to be. She greeted Meesei with eye contact, not words.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"I'm not wasting my breath until the trial. Your buddies can stay if they have to. I think you have better things to do." Harriet did not shift an inch. Even though she had the courtesy of hearing Meesei out, she was completely unconvinced. Her eyes bored into Meesei, only seldom blinking in necessity of the dust in the room, not for any anxiety.

The rag was passed carefully between the bodyguard and none of them sounded any protest. With nods and serious looks, they agreed that Harriet's scent was on the rag.

It took until the next action that Meesei made for Harriet to reach her wit's end. "OUT!" She shouted suddenly and threw her arm towards the door. At this point it was clear that Meesei was not going to get anything else from Harriet tonight.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Perhaps, but those are the results you got.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Clenching her teeth and curling her hands into fists was all Harriet could do to suppress the rage building behind her visage. She regarded Meesei for long enough that she was able to keep herself from exploding, but in her low, quiet voice, there was a fuse sparking away. "Alright, Champion. I've been patient, I've heard you out. At this point, I don't even care what your objective is, but if it's to piss me off to the point where I strike first so you can say that I'm a traitor, I won't give you that satisfaction." She pointed a finger at the vial, enunciating every word through her simmering anger, "I've never seen that thing before. Right now all I see is you trying to convince everyone here that some symbol of our enemy was found in that little nook in the floor. If you want to lie further, at least do me the favour of waiting until the trial." She closed her eyes and spoke through grit teeth. "It has been a long day. A frustrating day. I...need you...to leave."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The cork was capped with the metal symbol of Clavicus Vile, but I'll say there was some cork exposed for the sake of explanation. It would have about the same effect.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

While there might have been fine traces of Harriet's scent on the vial previously, the way it had been handled and the placed it had been stored left only the glass, the metal of the stopper, and scents of Meesei and Grolak. Upon drawing in the scent of the cork, Meesei's throat was overcome with a coarse and overpowering sensation, as if she had breathed in a lungful of thick smoke. It was undeniably the poison itself that produced the scent, but it was so overpowering that any trace of other people's scents was impossible to perceive.

Harriet was still where she stood. The edges of her shape quivered slightly, containing some sort of anxiety, whether driven by anger, fear, shock, or a mix of feelings. Across her face, though, she held all other hints back behind her narrow eyes and inquisitive frown. She stood still for such a time that it almost seemed as though she would not say anything at all. She turned her eyes momentarily to her new 'bodyguard' and took in a breath to speak. She held it for a moment, then shifted her eyes to Meesei with her head still facing the others. "I'd say it's pretty damn convenient," she answered, her tone seething. "You got something to back yourself up, Champion? Or did you just want to say something insulting for kicks?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Harriet stopped to consider again. Her head and shoulders seemed to cringe forward slightly as she heard the scrape of the stone revealing the hidden hewn space. She dropped what she was doing and turned standing to face Meesei with narrow eyes. She seemed ready to spring to action more than full of any fear. She peered at Meesei's face, and then her hand that was obscuring the compartment. "What is it that you see?" Harriet said slowly in a low tone.

The compartment itself had greater traces of Grolak. He had obviously handled the rag as well as the vial. Harriet's scent was all over the room, but focussed examination found her scent on the rag as well.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The new guards didn't have any discernible reaction to Meesei's curiosity, and at first neither did Harriet. She was rifling through a pile of clothing and took a few seconds to slow down to a stop. She had been quiet for a while now, but she managed to mumble a response after a few more seconds of consideration. "You mean it wasn't you and big boy who searched my room beforehand? There was someone here already, probably last night. Smells of another orc. They weren't all that careful with my stuff."

Harriet spoke with her back to Meesei, but she hadn't made any motion towards the broken tile on the floor, subtle or otherwise.

The Depths of Deception

Is this a new human faction? Sounds interesting.