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Even with the daggers tucked away in his backpack, Hrassi manages to draw attention to himself by looking and acting distinctly out of place in the less visitor-focused areas of Barter. Despite his slender build and developed athleticism, he lacks the acquired ease of a Barterite slipping through the often cramped and crowded passages. And he pays attention to far too many things.
Also, he actually tries to turn down a free meal once you reach the tiny, back-corridor diner you made your destination. No true, working class Barterite would ever do that! You have to actively cajole him into ordering something - a process further extended by making sure his digestive system is compatible with local fare and he doesn't have amino-acids or proteins pointing off in weird directions.
But finally you dig into your order and the lizardman picks away at his, and it's time to get to the actual reason you decided to snub a noble's invite for a greasy, high-calorie slab of meat between slices of bread. Because, despite appearances, it wasn't just a weird power play on your part.
Alright, fine, it totally was a power play on your part. Because you certainly didn't bring Hrassi here in the hopes of getting some actually useful information about his employer - any attempt to fish for dirt would be instantly shut down by his handler.
However, there is another purpose to dragging the discomforted lizardman around with you - an opportunity created by the fact that you know (or at least strongly suspect) that the Marchioness is monitoring your little act of rebellion, and that she knows that you know. Because it means that she can use Hrassi as her proxy while at the same time you both pretend she's not doing that - which allows you the opportunity to express yourself in a way that, in a formal audience setting, would be considered impertinent, if not outright insulting.
More importantly, it lets you have a conversation that you can exit at any time without having to fight past a small army of heavily augmented bodyguards.
"So what does the Marchioness want with a nobody like me?" you open with the most obvious question.
(cont)
