>>5143412“’I am beholden to something greater than all of us’,” he quotes you. “You said you had something you had to do, something secret… And then, AND THEN, the Endless Fountain exploded, and you were just… GONE!”
Your hands unconsciously ball to fists, fingernails digging into your palms. ‘Oh’ indeed. You have miscalculated.
“And then you stay gone, for a day, while the Inquisition and Paladins are being sighted all over town, scrambling, and there are rumours of demons and devils from the Southlands…
Word spread fast, it seems. Perhaps Lithobathius deserves a commendation? It is a rueful reflection, but it fails to distract you for long, because Edwin comes to his point:
“So I admit it—I snooped. I looked inside your bag, and under your bed. I was hoping…” he pauses, voice breaking slightly. “I was hoping I was wrong. But I found… Well, you know what I found.”
Yes, you do; a cache of magical items, including stolen Inquisition glasses and a Serpent priest staff, a dwarven relic taken from the Engelson Storehosue Company’s own property, a vial of poison, and a dagger with the faintest stain of blood along the edge… In addition to a book on Reptilians.
‘Babe,’ Irinnile interjects. ‘He knows. He KNOWS.’
“I know,” Edwin says grimly, sadly. “I know what you really are.”
You should be reaching for your hidden frost-dagger. It should be automatic at this point! For the Grand Design, for the Dark Gods, you have to plug this leak. This is your mother’s failure all over again! You can’t repeat her patterns, you CAN’T be a failure out of human weakness. Not now, not after all this! You try to will your body to move, to KILL, but… But…
<Affection: 100%>
…But you can’t. You fear tears welling in your eyes, and you know you can’t. This is Edwin—YOUR Edwin.
‘Lispy!’ Irinnile hisses.
Edwin speaks up again, quietly, as if afraid to give voice to it, and says:
“You’re a southern demonist, aren’t you?”
You blink, once. Then again. You take a moment to recalibrate. You mean he… DOESN’T know you’re a Reptilian? Well, this might change things…
What do you do?
>’Admit’ to being part of a southern demon cult, and plead for mercy and secrecy, out of love>Build upon this mistaken belief to create a sob story of being forced by demonic Southerners to help them attack the Tower, against your will>Appeal to Edwin’s own grievance with the Tower—they cast out his mother, rejected him—to corrupt and recruit him into this world, and to earn his confidence>Enough of the lies—he’ll just catch you in them again, so you’ll tell him the truth, insofar as you can>You cannot bear to lie to him—take your things, apologize, and go>Mesmerize the man and wipe his memories>Write-in [no murder allowed, per pic related] 