“Yep, sacrifice them to our dragon god twice a week, they’re particularly popular in the summer months when it gets all toasty.”

"Dragon god?" She taps the big emerald orb attached to her armour on her upper left arm. "I wasn't aware you were at the point of calling Nidhogg a god."

His eyes slide to the eye and he swallows.

“Nah, bit of heretic humor for you. Nidhogg’s still kind of just a flying shite that breathes fire.”

"He's also a pain to listen to. All day, yap yap, revenge this, revenge that. Never shuts up." She straightens up and pulls her spear from the ground like it's nothing. "Let's get your friend out of the ice, then, shall we?"

“Uh. No, no, we’re. We’re fine, thank you, she. Sleeps like that. Iceheart, you know. Gotta keep to theme. Uh, listen, Miss uh, Azure Dragoon, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave. We’re really in the middle of some things right now, could you just, uh. Make an appointment for heretic hunting later? I bet we could pencil you in next week.”

She looks affronted. "I'm not here to hunt," she says, and then in the next blink she's in the air and the following blink she's sliced through the icicle from the top to the ground, not touching the Lady Iceheart or her hyur friend at all. "And the name's Jacqueline."

“... Cynric. Nice to, er, meet you?” He edges over to Iceheart’s unconscious form and industriously starts fussing over her. Still breathing? Yep, still breathing. “Sorry, ma’am, I just don’t know what else dragoons of various colors, uh, do. Besides hunt heretics.”

"We also hunt dragons," she points out. "And personally I like long walks on the, uh, ice, and companionable dinners in front of the... fireplace. Those are normal things for a girl to like, right?" She sinks the spear into the ground once more then also steps closer to the Lady Iceheart, dropping to one knee to check on her. "Halone, she's actually alive. Had 50/50 odds there."

“Sure, I don’t judge. Uh. Honestly those odds are not accurate at all, it was like 20/80 for alive and dead coming at it from anything even resembling logic - okay, look, what do you want. Because if it’s drag her off to face trial or whatever, then uh. No. No thank you.”

Jacqueline looks at Cynric with a bitter smile, then taps the eye of Nidhogg on her shoulder again. "Well, listening to this dragon all day every day isn't what I'd call a sweet deal but it hasn't left me short on empathy for the other side. Although I am somewhat surprised that the other side is just, ah..." She looks around at the distinct lack of other heretics. "Just the two of you."

“Oh, uh, no, no my mates are all. Hiding in the trees waiting for an ambush alright fine they all thought she was dead for sure and left already and I was the only one stupid enough to go check, there, happy.”

"Ha. No. No, not really. So you are not organised at all, are you?" She looks at Iceheart again. "The Lord Commander recognised her."

“Our major force for leadership just ate a saint and shat herself back out in a giant projectile icicle, yeah I think ‘not organized’ is accurate right now. And, uh. Wow. Guess he’s good with faces, probably comes with all of the politicking. Lots of practice.”

"If she was trying to keep her identity a secret she is probably not going to." Jacqueline stands up. "Did you have anywhere to take her? I am not particularly skilled at healing but maybe all she needs is water and a nap."

“It’s not a secret, I think she just didn’t want any awkward questions and doesn’t like to talk about it. Uh. There’s a dead end cave over thataway.” He points.

"Let's go, then." And she can quite easily carry the Lady Iceheart, whoever she is, bridal-style in the relevant direction.

Cynric looks affronted at having his charge carried off by someone else, but there’s not really much he can do about it, so he settles for awkwardly hovering nearby. He does put his daggers away, they don’t seem like they’ll do much good here.

There is, in fact, a cave! Cynric gets to setting up a bedroll to put her on. Jacqueline gets many suspicious glances while he’s doing it, like he’s afraid she’s going to run off with Iceheart, but he doesn’t look hostile.

She gently deposits Iceheart onto the bedroll, then stands up and says, "Back in a sec, I need to go grab my lance. Good time to run away if you're inclined to do so." And off she runs.

Well, that's just insulting!

He crosses his arms and huffs at this, then gets to obviously doing the precise opposite of running, which is digging a firepit and setting up camp. In this cave. They still need firewood, which he'll go gather, but he can't do that right now because he has to obviously be not running.

Jacqueline returns in less than a minute, lance attached to her back. "How is she?"

"Still breathing. Chillier than she should be, so we should get a fire going and see if warming her up helps."

"I can go gather firewood, if you want to stand watch here. Or I could stay and you could do that and maybe send word to your friends that she's alive after all."

"That..." he considers what would happen if the other heretics met the Azure Dragoon. That... sounds like it would pretty inevitably turn into a fight. "Uh. Maybe later. You gather firewood. You know how to find the stuff that doesn't give off a lot of smoke?"

"Yeah. Been there, done that." She turns back around and gives him a two-finger salute before flipping her helmet back down to cover her face and heading out.

"Okay. Thanks."

Bit of an overdramatic exit if anyone asked him, but no one did, so he doesn't comment.