...For some reason she feels nervous about answering that — oh, probably because she'd be admitting to the sort of crime you get tortured to death for. Well, she just did that, it's not like she's really making things worse.

"One of the old lord's sons," she says, letting her satisfaction slip into her voice. "Guifré. He was — he used to—" why is her voice not working right "—he didn't like to be refused."

Wow, that was a terrible explanation. Can she make her mouth cooperate here, this shouldn't be hard— "He — I was thirteen—"

That was... an even worse explanation. She did not actually think it was possible to do this badly at not sounding like a pathetic child. For all she knows the Eagle Knights are going to decide she killed him because she got mad at him for ordering her to, like, clean the floors.

Maybe she's just making up lies to impress the soldiers, or something. If she repeats it to herself enough times maybe she can believe it.

She got Tea killed over that? What an asshole.

Treason grins approvingly. "Say, Joy-"

"We're not taking her with us. Leaving aside the fact that I prepped spells without expecting a fifth rider, the Asmodeans would learn we had her with us as soon as they showed up here, and then we'd have to fight off one of the teleport hit squads." Or use his emergency teleport scroll, which would be almost as bad and which he is absolutely not going to mention where someone can overhear. "And before you bring up that she's a cleric, the girl has lived here for years. We'd have to burn this place to the ground to stop them from having a focus, and it probably wouldn't even work."

"Oh, come on, we both know you leave spells open every day for emergencies. Just prep another Phantom Steed now! She wouldn't even have to ride with us if you're so worried."

"I'm serious about this."

"So am I!"

"I could — cast spells for you? If it would help? I doubt I could get new ones today but I think I've still got the ones she gave me the first time I prayed for spells, I didn't use them up—" 

That's not going to work at all, is it, they already have a priestess, they don't need a second one. She wants this very badly and she probably can't get it but that doesn't, actually, make her not want it.

"Exactly! Weren't you just saying we could use more spellcasters and fewer meatheads? We could put her in your bag of holding, you can't teleport there, problem solved."

"I don't have a bottle of air on me, she'd asphyxiate - die from not being able to breathe. Air goes bad in closed up spaces. Besides, I've got valuable stuff in there."

"Then just open it up every so often, and close it before they can see enough to teleport off of. Easy. Even I could do it."

"Could you? Or would you get distracted by something, lose track of time, and then turn your new friend into a corpse? I know you, Treason, which is why I don't make plans that require you to stay focused for eight hours straight. I'm putting my foot down here."


Treason turns back to Asmodia, and murmurs sotte voce. "He says that, but he's already thinking of ways to try and make it work. We've just got to talk Liberty into it so he's outvoted."

Montserrat has some ideas (or rather, some half-remembered rumors from wizard prep school), but there's treason and then there's treason, and helping a Calistrian cleric flee the country would definitely be the latter. ...If she believed Asmodia really were a Calistrian cleric, of course, which would be quite implausible for her to be.

It's not like dying from not getting enough air is worse than being tortured to death by the Asmodeans, even if they don't Maledict her. Well, unless she managed to take some of the Asmodeans down with her when they tried to capture her, that'd be worth it, but she's not strong enough to fight a team of teleporters.

She nods back to Treason. And — smiles? It seems like they do a lot more emotions with their faces than basically anyone she knows, and it's not like she ever liked having to pretend she wasn't burning with anger at Guifré, or wasn't delighted when he died.

Treason will smile back, and then - after the silence stretches a bit - take a bit of a more active role in securing the room so Joy can focus on leafing through his spellbook.

It's about another twenty minutes before Liberty finally finishes preparing spells. She's not quite as tall as Treason, and a bit less muscled, but clearly still fit enough to casually tote around a metal breastplate and a heavy Morningstar at her hip. She's got a necklace with the same rose design on it that Treason has.

...She doesn't have any idea how people in places that aren't ruled by Asmodeus introduce themselves to new people. She's pretty sure all her instincts for how to do it are wrong, but that doesn't tell her how to do it right. 

She hesitates for a moment, then says, "You're — Liberty? A priestess of Milani?"

"Yes, that's me. And you are?"

She glances at her party members. Treason... seems to like the girl? Which is probably a good sign.

...Asmodia, but she doesn't really want to say that. But she needs to say something, she can't just not have a name, and she hasn't decided on anything better yet.

Maybe she can just say that, maybe that's the sort of thing that works when you're talking with foreigners. 

"Uh, Asmodia, but I'm going to pick something else, I just haven't decided on what. ...I'm a priestess of Calistria."

Ah, that explains why Treason was enthusiastic. She'll flash detect fiendish presence anyway out of principle, but she's unsurprising when it comes up negative; Joy would have caught a lie that obvious, and she doesn't actually have any reason to doubt the story

"It's nice to meet you. I assume you're going to be evacuating, then?"

Huh, do people in other places just say that sort of thing? It's... kind of nice, actually.

"Nice to meet you too."

She's not actually sure what she's supposed to say here. Maybe she can keep just... saying things she thinks, rather than trying to find the exact right way to say them? Maybe that actually works when you're talking to people from other countries? "Treason was, uh, trying to figure out if there was a way to put me in Joy's bag without me dying from not having enough air."

"Or another way of bringing her with us. I mean, we can't just leave her here. They'd maledict her if they catch her."

"It's not worth the risk."

"If we're not going to take a risk to do the right thing, then what's even the point of being here?"

Joy falls silent at that, and instead gives Liberty a look pleading with her to be reasonable about this.

Liberty closes her eyes and frowns intently, lost in her thoughts for almost a full minute. "I think Treason is right, at least if we have a way to mitigate the dangers."

Joy shoots Eric a look, but sighs when he predictably doesn't want to get involved.

"I suppose I'm outvoted, then. I've got a few ideas, none of them are great. We could give her a status and have her riding separately from us, and only meet up again at a time of our choosing when we're ready to go in a rope trick immediately after. They'd have to have a scry up on her all day or get lucky to catch us at it, but if they did we'd be boned, and they might just jump her anyway. Or I could draw a bunch of shadow energy to imitate Sepia Snake Sigil, and hope it works properly to keep her alive in a bag of holding as long as she doesn't resist."

He also thought about prepping water breathing and then giving her a bucket of water, but the spell is all wrong for it to work that way; he's pretty sure the bucket would also run out of breathable air and then she'd still be dead. And Air Bubble is even less helpful, it would give out in a matter of minutes even if he knew how to extend it.

She'd thought about how she'd be in danger, before, but she hadn't really been thinking about how they'd be in danger. 

It feels kind of absurd that they'd be willing to risk their lives just because of her. They'd never even met her before a few hours ago. It feels like the sort of thing you'd have to be a stupid child to believe, only she does believe it.

......She's been trying out saying things she thinks but she doesn't think she wants to say that.

"I don't, uh, know all that much about magic, I'm willing to go with whatever you think is best."

"If your shadow magic fails, what goes wrong and how likely is it we'd notice?"

"Easiest way for it to go wrong, the spell doesn't work if you make it out of shadows and we can tell instantly. I think it should, but I'd need a few hours to work the math out properly and we don't have that. Second way it works, but it doesn't work well enough and she needs air even after I cast it. Call it... seven to three I would be able to tell?"

"Seven to three?"

"Shadow magic is finicky. I wouldn't want to count on it always working even if I tested it first, but even if it fails I should be able to dismiss it after."

"That's a lot more qualifiers than I'd like, but it's still better odds than the other way. Let's hope we have fifteen minutes for you to prep it."

"I already did, I was pretty sure I knew what you were going to say."

The other three eagle knights help get the halflings situated for their own escape. It's inherently inadequate, even after they looted the entire manor for its stocks of food and handed out all the weapons suitable for people of their size, but it's probably better than staying here. They don't have anyone that can read a scroll, so that's out, but Treason comes up with a couple of potions from somewhere for emergencies.

Joy spends his time writing something down on a piece of paper. "You're going to need to read this, and try not to resist the spell. There's a decent chance you can throw it off if you try, and I can't prepare a second one if it doesn't work."

She knows how to let a spell affect her on purpose. She nods, takes the paper, and lets the spell slip over her.

The halflings are still not talking but they will take food and weapons if they're on offer. They might be slightly less terrified after Treason gives them the potions, it's hard to tell for sure.

A black serpent leaps off the words of the page, and crashes into Asmodia.

...The dark field around her looks right. And she doesn't seem to be breathing; he can't hear the sound of inhalation and exhalation, or spot the rise and fall of her chest. It's more likely than not that he's not about to have the blood of a teenage girl on his hands, but somehow that doesn't feel all that reassuring. They put her into the bag of holding anyway, set the halflings on their way, and ride off into the metaphorical sunset on their Phantom Steeds.

When Asmodia comes to, the first thing she notices is the smell of salt, and the sound of the waves lapping against wood. She's on a small sailboat, out of sight from land. 

That was incredibly disconcerting!!!

She looks around the boat for the Eagle Knights.