"Okay, so did the brush with death get rid of your sense of self-preservation? I don't have a problem with your conclusions, I'm wondering the logical progression."

"It changed my perspective. Selfishly—it seems I cannot hope to escape the dragons, as we did thousands of years ago. It's in my best interest to cooperate."

"You seem earnest enough, so I hope you'll understand when I tell you there's no way I can agree to this. I can't keep an eye on you at all times."

"I have an idea, Commander," says Marjory. "I'll do it. I'll dig into his claim, and if Lazarus has truly changed, we can reassess the situation."

"I welcome any inquiries."

"Oh, it'll be much more than that," she assures him, a wicked smile starting to play around her lips. "I'm going to be embedded with you, shadow your every move."

Marjory sounds a little bit frighteningly into this (it's... admittedly kind of hot) but, uh, okay. She'll just. Scritch this dragon, then.

Regardless of whether James shares her beliefs about the hotness of this act, he sounds way more concerned than anything when he says, "Marjory, can I speak with you a moment?"

So she follows him to where Vetareh, Caithe, and the dragon are.

"What are you doing? He absorbed the Bloodstone's power. We obviously can't just easily put him down if his story doesn't check out."

"Also, the topic James and I have been dancing around because it might actually start a fight and now is not the time," scritch scritch the baby dragon who is too precious for fights right now, "we just came back from the mursaat's old fortress, powered by tortured souls and guarded by agony constructs, so, uh, be aware of the possible worse than death fail states that might occur here."

"Most likely to have been his followers, if he's speaking the truth."

James has to remove his helmet to give Caithe a look.

To which she just shrugs. "I know what it's like to have made mistakes in the past and then want to make amends."

"It was a mursaat fortress, not a White Mantle fortress, and it was older than I am, so if it were the result of his followers' choices, then it was while he was still alive and giving them divine edicts."

She shrugs again and nods.

Marjory shakes her head. "I think I can take care of myself. Or run, if I need to." She looks at James. "He's touched death, Commander, and now he's back... There's something... The necromancer in me wants to find out more. You know what that's like."

James purses his lips.

"Fates worse than death suck a whole bunch more than you'd expect them to," says Vetareh through gritted teeth, then she huffs and looks away, focused on scritching an adorable little dragon. "It's only fair to warn you."

Crrrreeeeee~

"It could be a trap. It's probably a trap. It's almost certainly a trap."

"There's something about him... Makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. And I can't tell if it's in a good way or a bad way, but I do plan to find out." She smiles. "I'm glad to be part of Dragon's Watch, and I appreciate you looking out for me, but," and she turns her smile to Vetareh, more warmly, "I won't be told what I can and can't do." Then she nods and turns back to the mursaat. "Lazarus, let's move out. We have a lot to talk about, my floaty new friend."

"Hmm," is all he says before following her out.

"Good luck," she calls softly.

Can she just. Flop gently onto the little dragon for snuggly scritches? The little dragon is cute and James is still covered in spikes, so really, this is her best snuggling option right now.

James sighs. "I can't help but feel like I'll be explaining this to Kasmeer shortly..." He turns to Caithe. "Given what happened today, I'd feel a little better if someone I knew was watching the chamber."