This afternoon Jilia is not in her office, but looking around the palace's surrounding neighborhood for a suitable location for what she's tentatively calling the Augustana Tavern. She's not waiting for anyone, and her network of problem-finders isn't in high gear, but she is hoping for a visit from someone. Both that she's alive, and that she comes to ask.
"Lady Jilia?"
She's not wearing her badger jacket anymore, but she has saved it. She will wear it again.
She has some of the other girls with her, hanging back. They're not the right material for what She wants to do, but Lady Jillia might have a use for them.
"Oraneta, right? I'm glad to see you still well. I wasn't sure if you might be hurt by the attack on Eriape."
Oraneta bites her lip. "No, we were all in the warehouse. Was what you said to Paloma...a warning?"
"A little. Eriape angered a lot of powerful people, and the adventuring nobles attacking was going to happen. I was mostly warning her you would all be without jobs soon, and apologizing that there wasn't anything I could do to stop it."
"Eriape was very prepared, but from what I heard they were just too many, and too powerful. I'm sorry too."
She pauses, and looks up at Jilia. It's not that far- she's quite tall for an urchin, and the tallest in her group.
There's a fountain nearby, and Jilia takes a seat on the edge to be shorter.
"It happens to almost every lich soon enough. They do terrible things to become liches, and so society does not trust that they will stop. Being kind enough to you and the other urchins that you are loyal to her is... so rare almost no one really believes it."
"I mean, we were- valuable to her, as skilled and trustworthy- and so she treated us well. But I think she only really cared- cares- about the Badgers. I had the sense that the whole thing- the Badger" meaning the publication. "-and everything around it was just a means to- entertainment for them? Oh, perhaps there was a plan to influence the Constitutional Convention, but- you wouldn't do that this way, right? You'd just bribe or send thugs or use magic."
"That sounds more like what I've heard," she agrees, "And yes, particularly for something unpopular, you'd want to make bribes, or use magic if you thought you could get away with it. Not a pamphlet that a quarter of people reading thought was a very long very committed joke."
"So that leaves- us. The Urchins. We have the warehouse to live in- and Haria gave us all some money before she [Teleported] away, and Paloma, she's a true believer, and she's going to try to sue the Queen or something- but-"
"But you need something to do. Fortunately, I have work for young women like you. Probably not pamphlets, but I think you know the city well, don't you? How to get around, how to be noticed or not be, where people gather, and where they talk?"
"Well, the other girls do. They would be very suitable. I have slightly higher ambitions. I'm going to be an adventurer."
"Adventurers die young, usually," she says gently, "Don't let that stop you, if you're determined, but don't ignore it. Power and wealth for one, death for fifty more no one remembers, just to get to the point where aura sight can see your alignment."
"And yet Eriape cleaned out tombs, and the Queen killed the Tarrasque. I have goals of my own, you see. And we- Sutge and I are ready now. Do you need adventurers?"
Thousands of people died trying to become them. But that's... she lets her hand brush the hilt of her sword... wrong to say, probably. It's her choice, even if Jilia wishes she'd wait. "I don't. I wish you well, though. And may Cayden and all the other gods smile on you and Sutge."
"If you visit the office every couple days, I'll keep track of rumors that might be a good fit for a new adventurer," volunteers a woman dressed as a clerk but with an unusual number of hidden knives to a trained eye.
"Zoè was an urchin in Kintargo once herself." And does not always do what Jilia expects, though rarely anything she actually actively doesn't want.
"That sounds good. This is Violant," Oraneta says, and gestures forward a girl.
"Violant will introduce you to the other girls. Thank you for everything, miss Jilia."
Oraneta pulls some leather armor from her pack, and puts it on,
And Oraneta stalks away with her animal companion.
It's not quite perfect, but she has the walk of an adventurer pretty well down.
Well, she's off to a better start than it looked, at least.
"Hello, Violant. There's no need to be shy; I hire staff, not servants."
"I've been trying to pay attention to the mood of the city, whether people are nervous or angry or mostly content, through the help of my scouts and listeners. I think you'd all be very helpful with that, with a little guidance from them for what to do. But before that - you're all fine? Content living in 'the warehouse'? Well enough fed?"
Also, what range of ages are these girls? And how many?