>>6112650The Whispergrain sweeps into a bow and leaves. He did not attend this short meeting to listen to the prattling of doomed men and women, and he wanders off with a flick of the hand to his people - who roll their shoulders a little and prepare their weapons. If there was something we could have done to convince him to treat us different is hard to determine. Diplomacy is always a give-and-take art, and men with weapons and you in an inferior position seldom negotiate entirely fairly. Perhaps it was always going to end. this way. Perhaps not. The Operative watches him head away warily. She's keeping one eye on a mad pet she doesn't quite trust not to get into trouble.
She tilts her heard a little and glances at the group. Montosi throws her a rude gesture. The Operative rolls her eyes. Montosi makes another rude gesture. The Operative sighs.
" That's hardly in keeping with your office. Can you at least surrender with some dignity? "
Montosi sticks out her tongue but one of the troopers nearby shove her with an elbow and she grunts and puts on a fairly diplomatic expression instead. Fine, fine, she can be polite. Probably no call to make this tense stand-off tenser than it needs to be.
The Operative offers a little gesture, a sort of "Oh, what can you do?" and a slight, tense smile.
" It's been a pleasure. If you'll excuse me, I have to go plan a kidnapping. Unfortunately for you, I can neither desist in my attacks nor take it on your word that you do not know anything about my quarry. "
She wanders off, unbothered by the corpses below her feet or the armed men at her back. Montosi watches her go. Scarlett smiles at the Windswonr guards. Zivka and Edward are a bit too occupied planning a break-out. Perhaps if they only came in through the front, the traps would slow them such that the group could dash out the back?
But they seem . . . competent. It's likely they'll do a two or three pronged strike. Through the roof, through the door, through the back door. Void take competent enemies, the dumb one are easier to fight.
Still, if they all charge into a smokey environment they might be confused and in the chaos, one could break away? It's not impossible, though the trick of it would take timing and tools.
--
Montosi quietly closes the door to the outside world again. Leans against it. Takes a swig of cactus juice. Offers a brittle smile.
" I really can't tell which is worse: The insistence on how right they are, or the smug arrogance of insisting they're the good guys. I loathe Theurgic Rebus agents.
Windsworns' alright though. Don't usually get so many of them in one place - they make this cactus-water soup with beetle meat that's to actually die for. It'll kill you if they prepare it wrong.
Oh, I just remembered another fact about their Knifegame - hah, sorry Edward, slipped my mind - we're not fighting them.
We're fighting each other. Whoever isn't cut by end gets to walk away with a waterskin and a map. "