and that he had set out to lay his fallen to rest when he found me and came to my aid. If it is not my place to offer, then I will press no further, but I would like to assist you with this in some way."

Silence from Knox, and his deference to Sybella is the last connection to confirm, in her mind, that this is the woman he spoke of earlier.

On her best manners, then. It's easy enough to fall back on old lessons.

"I believe Knox mentioned you had need of him,

The world isn't kind. | No. Not yet.

You've both helped us more than you may know, and I'd like to repay that, if I can."

"Not a lady – just Kee, if it's all the same." Her words are gentle as the smile she offers him, but just as fleeting. When she answers the woman in rags, she offers the full attention commanded from her.

"We hadn't much time yet for a proper introduction, or for me to offer my gratitude.

She wants to help, if they have such a need. She clears her throat and approaches the pair, offering an brief bow to the woman she hasn't yet met; she still knows the social cues of nobility well.

"Pardon me, Your Grace - and Ser Knox..."

she understands why she couldn't find them alone.

She's not quite sure if she should interrupt this moment. She could hold back, silently ensuring their safety...

But she hadn't really thanked them, had she? They had come to find her in a dark hour, and now, it seemed, they faced theirs.

But after a handful of weeks here, she's learned to move as quietly and subtly as she did on any plain or dirt road. Stryke helps her find the pair.

She'd looked for the massive silhouette of the quiet knight. When she reaches them, awaiting at a distance,

She's grown accustomed to the tides of Waterdeep crowds rushing through the city streets; so many missions along her road had been in frontier towns or barely-populated villages, and her life before [that] hadn't afforded her the chance to rub elbows among the common folk.

She doesn't linger, but turns nimbly back to the crowd as if she'd taken no injuries of her own. A sharp whistle brings Stryke back into pace far above her, and she calls back before she vanishes,

"Thank you, Ser! I'll be back before nightfall!"

Be careful with him, we'll need a good, thorough check to make sure there's no lingering effects!" That... or a full removal from the field until any more powerful curses could be broken. It's a thought for later, when contact can be made with their benefactors and action taken.

In the hands of any other, she'd either refuse, or feel deep guilt at leaving the pair alone after so terrible an ordeal. With Aronion, she knows they'll be safe, and that he will be an even stronger leader should anything go awry in her absence.

"Well, I do see your point.

It almost defies belief, how much he can still surprise her. Perhaps that's why she offers no argument, only two raised brows and a mouth slightly agape with how suddenly she's stopped in her tracks. She glances up at Hestor, who offers no more argument than Morris does.

"I was shocked to see him, but glad you didn't join us in that mess alone.

I think there's a room or two upstairs that we can lay this one down in. I can't believe we got him back so easily."

He doesn't need the help, but she pushes through the door and holds it for him, ordering her thoughts as best she can.

They keep returning to that man, once a stranger, twice coming to her aid...

"He mentioned that he needed to lay old friends to rest, I think," she adds abruptly.

"I think it would be better to wait, Aro... but when we've all taken a breath..." She hangs back at the footpath to the front door, though she watches the pair retreat until they're out of view.

She's tempted to have Stryke watch over them – but she's tread upon enough of their time already.

Her eyes turn to the man who managed such a feat, her question for him rather than the innkeep.

"We'd just need some nails, no?"

"Could it be fixed?" Her voice chirps from somewhere near the knight's elbow. She'll have a question or two about that story later, details perhaps lost in the beginning of its telling, but now her wide eyes watch the table being carried away.

It took three more men to move it than it had to break.

and leaves her room to see what the day might bring.

The morning after their fateful meeting still found her footsore and bleary-eyed, but she was sure she would be needed today, to lead the way to the cave's entrance if nothing else. It's nearly two hours after dawn when she finally wins the battle out of bed, carefully dons her novice gear,

Years ago....

[Starter for @honorbound.sunder.my]

For the first time since her arrival some days prior, those around her laugh and cheer, rather than whisper their worries over meager dinners. The town's sole inn was loud that night.

Yet she sleeps deeper than she ever has before, retiring early.

It's one of few places in the city Sybella and Knox might recognize, in fact, and practically underfoot from where she had met the latter in the first place.

"Well," she offered quietly, a hand held out to the very door the pair had left on their way to seek her out, "welcome to Dwoemerheart."

and though the odd member of the market crowd stared, the sight of a man with another slung over his shoulder wasn't enough to stir a commotion in Waterdeep. She leaves it to Aro to lead them as his memory serves, with only occasional directions from her as needed.

It's not far at all.

and when they reach the market, the attentions of the crowd.

If asked, she couldn't say why she trusted that oath so soon after meeting. But as fate would have it, he would not need to fulfill it just yet; their travel through the alley passes without further incident,

I guess we'll have to hope it's open."

With the knowledge of help at hand, should they be attacked, she felt secure enough in her immediate surroundings to focus on all those distant little hidden places a city held, the shadows that might jump in an instant,

"With this lot?" she answered, referring to those her organization had allied with - & its leader's well-known paranoia. "I think you could throw a dart at a map and hit a safe house, but you remember right. I haven't had time to see that it's free for us to use, of course.

She won't question the silence they find, but she must wonder - do their adversaries retreat to lick their wounds, or merely lie in wait, watching for a prime opportunity?

She falls naturally to the group's rear, thanks to her diminutive stature and short stride, but that allows her to better watch their backs, anyway.

No threat finds them, even as they approach the heart of the shopping district after a fair hike spent watching for another ambush.

When the others are ready, she's quick to follow suit. When they set off, she directs them towards the nearest thoroughfare, where crowds will provide safety and streetlamps will soon ward off the growing shadows of late afternoon.

"They will take far more than a life, if they can find greater use for it.

Keep an extra-sharp eye on our new friends, Stryke, and tell us if you spy trouble ahead. We shouldn't linger." She pays her mount with a familiar scratch, satisfying the nudge he gives her before soaring again.