"If you're willing to repeat that under a truthspell, I'll be out of your hair shortly."

"Yeah, you got people to protect, makes sense. How's that work? The truth spell."

(Cressida Kroft has heard about thirteen sentences from Weiss Faron and she is either positively enamored of the not-a-kitsune else enamored with the character that the not-a-kitsune is playing. It's probably the first one.)

"There are spells which suborn the will and compel certain behaviors, among them Abadar's Truthtelling, which compels honesty--to my sensibilities, it's the least offensive compulsion bar none. But if you've never heard of truth magic before, and have only my word that the spell is harmless and only lasts a minute, I can't ask you to let us cast it--and you would have to allow us, I don't anticipate that you'd have any difficulty resisting."

One more deep breath. The adrenaline is steadily ebbing away. She feels tired.

"...All actions seen so far make considerably less sense from the perspective of attempting to land hostile mind control, or some other elaborate conspiracy going on. It would have been much more likely to, like, try to dogpile me and apply it anyway five minutes ago if that was your goal. Anyway. Been enchanted before. It's not fun but not so scary in hindsight. Let's do it. Also, paid? You paid for the translation magic?" She asks Hunter Guy. "How much?"

He tries to wave the question off. "The taxpayer paid it, and got their money's worth. You'll pay them back a thousandfold in dead gribblies."

Fiducia Falco is having none of it. "I charged the Commandant twelve Korvosan sails. The spell you needed, had you not needed it, could have, and would have, instead granted one day's relief to a sufferer in the throes of infection or flu. It might have enabled their productive labor, and society would be richer for it. Or it might only have increased the joy they gained through living, and society would be richer for that. If you kill a 'gribbly,' collect a bounty. If twelve sails seems steep, learn Taldane."

This guy's annoyance is probably aimed at the ranger more than her, but it's still annoying in turn. Some part of her wants to cross her arms and pout: I was GOING to be all financially responsible, but now I don't want to!

Whatever. Annoyed ear-flick.

"I have at least twelve gold talents, from past gribble killing mostly," She jangles the coin string, then stuffs it back into her tail. "So... Whatever. Figure that out later. Let's get the interrogation over with, please? Also, I'm Weiss Faron."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Faron. I'm Field Marshall Cressida Kroft."

The spellcaster in robes is "Fiducia Falco," the quiet guy in the gleaming armor is "Knight-Sergeant Garundicus."

"And my friends call me Marcus."

Falco casts a spell and extends a hand for her to take.

Grab.

-Yeah, she can feel how this would be resistible. She doesn't, though.

"All you really want to do today is to not be menaced by the hippogriffs, and to buy pies?"

"-No, that's too strict and glib a phrasing. All I want to do today is peacefully and un-criminally do... City things. Shopping, finding an inn, talking to people. I don't want to hurt people. I don't want to steal things. I don't want to break the laws unless they're really stupid laws, also I don't know them."

It turns out that the red-armored captain-type can in fact smile!

"Welcome to Korvosa. You're free to come and go as you please, although I'll advise you that it'll raise fewer questions the fewer legs you choose to have--up to a point."

"Thank you, all. I'm... Really glad I didn't just keep running, actually. Anything else? -Fiducia Falco, you seem concerned about money, would you know where I could find a bank?"

Oh yes, he knows the way to the bank. He seems chuffed to have been asked.

"I work at the Bank of Abadar," he says, tapping the stylized golden X hanging from a chain about his neck. "As I intend shortly to return to it, and as you could quite easily tail me whether I willed it or no, I couldn't charge a copper pinch for the service of guiding you."

"I'd be glad to tag along," says the hunter-cop, "if you wouldn't mind it."

"I don't mind. I do want those twelve sails, plus the truthy thing's cost unless the cop budget covers it, and local coin for shopping... But we probably have stuff to chat about?"

"The cop budget covers the translation spell as well, to be clear. The Fiducia here is asking you to make a donation to the city treasury."

"I mean... He's kind of got a point, though. There's only so much magic to go around. If I had naught but sticks and strings I'd probably feel different."

Everyone present is Abadaran and/or Good enough to find this delightful.

(She's feeling kind of lousy about hassling Weiss earlier. It's her job to treat powerful Good adventurers well, and to treat quadrupeds that fall out of interdimensional rifts with suspicion, and she succeeded at the latter by failing at the former. Which--she endorses, to a point. It's the more important duty. But if you fail at keeping powerful Good adventurers happy, they stop hanging around and/or cooperating with the Law, and the symptoms of that disease are as manifold as they are hard to quantify. She once tried to make the general point to Eodred by saying that the number of reefclaw attacks reported on the River Jeggare trends up or down from year to year purely as a function of whether this one monomaniacal adventurer winters in Korvosa or in Magnimar and Eodred rolled his eyes like she was Feebleminded and said, "If that one man is so important, cater to him in particular!")

"If you find yourself looking for work--especially of the 'gribbly' kind--there's no shortage of it known to me. I'm not a difficult woman to find."

"The reward for doing good work is more work?" She asks wryly. "Sure. Tomorrow, probably."

Kroft is still a cop. And so is the surprisingly soothing Marcus. But being on good terms with the cops will make her life easier.

And they set off for the bank!

The gates to Korvosa are guarded by a much larger group than one would hope necessary--but the reason for their presence is as obvious as the fact that most of them are the people Marcus told to go away the first time they stopped her on the road. They salute Weiss's group as it approaches, and burst into excited babble once it's close enough to hear. In response to their questions, the Field Marshall informs them that Weiss "isn't evil," and that she's "a heroic sort from another place or plane." 

This is objectively the most interesting thing that's happened today; does it stress Weiss if they crowd a little close and ask what sort of magic she has and if she's a druid and whether she uses weapons and goggle at her ears and tail?