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You are close enough to the nearest hooded guard to see clearly that there is nothing behind the turban save for two inhuman glowing sparks where the eyes should be. It reminds you of the wisps in the fields of Motte-Fallavon, but with all their whimsical capriciousness replaced with a baleful focus. No flesh or muscle moves the arms or tightens the grip around their weapons, you would not be surprised if there was nothing at all behind the armour and clothing they wear. The only explanation for their very existence is magik, an ongoing spell of not insubstantial power.
<span class="mu-i"><span class="mu-g">“Ես հույս ունեի, որ ավելի թանկ արժեմ, քան բարբարոս վարձկանի գինը։”</span></span> The sorceress mutters, though without any of the chill and change in intonation that suggests a spell. Careful to keep the animated guards between you and her, she exits the pool and begins to dress herself. <span class="mu-i">“Tell me <span class="mu-g">Աքսոր</span>, was it the Serpent or the Mongoose that sent you to collect my head? And are you this polite to all your bounties?”</span>
<span class="mu-i">“You speak of the Medusae and the Merchanta castes? In truth neither of them sent me. I have not come here for your head.”</span> <span class="mu-i">“But I believe you have something of mine.”</span>
<span class="mu-i">“Ah, the specimen.”</span> The sorceress’ gaze flicks to Jess, still blissfully unaware of your presence. Or much of anything. <span class="mu-i">“If you have come this far for them, then I assume you know something of their nature?”</span>
<span class="mu-i"> “I have some idea.”</span> You answer cautiously, wary of threats both material and unseelie during your conversation.
<span class="mu-i">“A <span class="mu-g">ֆեյա</span> artefact, imbued in their flesh and blood, that not only glamours the perception of the human eye so that the subject appears anything other than out of the ordinary but possibly actively alters the memory so that the outlandish is forgotten or explained away.”</span> The sorceress speaks to you as if she were explaining the concept to a child, and not for the first time. <span class="mu-i">“Do you have -any- idea, how powerful that kind of magik is? Even I, puissant as one of the Medusae is, had to focus my energies to pierce the deception. That far from the Source should be impossible.”</span>
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