"The necromancer abducted one of your citizens," gesture at Lily, "for his own purposes. We found and retrieved her at the request of her employer. We didn't suffer any casualties."

"Good, good. Dark magic is nobody's friend. We saw the smoke earlier but our orders are to maintain the town defense in case it was a distraction for an assault." He looks vaguely guilty. "The necromancer is taken care of, then?"

"Yeah, there's a small forest fire out there, you might want to keep an eye on it but as far as I know it is unrelated to the dark magic," Ame deflects.

"We'll have to send a cleaning crew in the morning to confirm there's no threat, but thank you for your service. I don't think there's any bounty on that, it's new as a rumor... Last week or two..."

Someone with a shinier badge is coming over, a woman in leather armor.

"Sergeant!" The guard repeats what has been said so far.

"Well, let them in, then, Rolf," she waves smilingly. "Always good news to hear that trouble's been snuffed out for us. Yeah, there's no bounty for him if you were hoping for that, you should probably just report whatever loot you gathered and call it a day - though," she makes a subtle winking sort of facial expression, but doesn't actually wink, "I don't think you'd have found much with that fire going, and the Adventurers Guild can't tax you if you didn't collect any loot."

Ame makes a noncommital noise, but then realizes: the guards don't work for the Adventurer's Guild. In fact, this sounds like they're making a point about not working for the Adventurer's Guild.

"True," Ame says after a moment. Slowly, she smirks. "Fortunately for us, the Guild already declared that they had no wish to be involved or consulted. Their representative was very clear that this matter did not qualify for their attention."

"Right. We'd best not bother them with it and just consider the whole thing resolved, then. Do you two need any further assistance?"

"No, thanks. You boys have a good day."

With a little bounce for the sake of jiggle, Ame smiles her way past the guards.

Lily can take the lead, now, but Ame goes with her back to the tea-shop brothel.

Rose and two other girls rush out and practically drag Lily inside. Rose lets them pamper and console her in a back room, then walks over and hugs Ameron before stepping back.

"Thank you. I'm going to be buying better security - I've gotten complacent with the boom in business. Is she hurt, do you know?"

Hug, with a completely sincere smile.

"I healed her," Ame says simply. "As for whether she's alright other than physically... I think she will be."

Ame lowers her voice slightly. "That's why he took her. A professional, I mean. It wasn't random. He needed someone who could handle... well, I'll let Lily tell you."

That gets an eyebrow-raise. "What kind of depraved-" Huff. "Men. Ahem. Right, would you like to come in for tea?"

"It's ironic, but I think the evil necromancer in the woods was actually showing respect for our line of work, in his own twisted way. Way more respect than the Guild showed, anyway."

Ame shakes her head.

"I can spare a few minutes for tea, but my party is waiting for me so I shouldn't stay long."

"...I won't keep you, then. Good fortune to you."

Camping supplies: Are easily bought even as late as it is.

"Likewise."

After acquiring everything they need to camp out with a depressed, listless prisoner, Ame loads herself up and heads back out to the forest. Is everyone where she left them?

Their prisoner is now actually tied up, arms and legs, glaring at the ground. And there's a firepit that's not yet lit, and Elizabeth has grown a blueberry bush nearby.

"He woke up and tried to sneak away," Bys says, annoyed.

"I'm going to be optimistic and call that an improvement," Ame deadpans as she unloads the camping stuff.

She drops to a crouch in front of Theodore. "So. You wanna talk about it?"

"What is there to talk about. It didn't work, and I made everything worse by being incredibly stupid."

"Why'd you try to run off, then?" Ame asks, gently curious. She reaches out and runs her fingers through his hair, pushing her Axiom into him, focusing on his head like before.

"I get it, alright? You see something wrong with the world, an intolerable deficiency in the story of life that everyone else just accepts, and their apathy just makes you want even more to rend and break all the rules that say you can't fix this..."

Ame sighs.

"In your place, I probably would have been more paranoid, more cautious. But I can't honestly say I would've been cautious enough," Ame admits. "So I kind of feel for you, y'know? I want you to understand your mistake and learn from it, because if you can tell me how you'll avoid repeating it, maybe I'll know how to avoid making it in the first place."

Why is she touching him. It makes all the bad feelings well up, sharper, with a spike of anger at the indignity and small violation of it.

"That's easy. Don't fuck around with Dhar. You're not special. You're not careful enough. You're an idiot for thinking you are. It will fuck you up and it will be your fault and you will more feel childishly petulant that your clever idea didn't work than guilty and ashamed at what you've done, like you ought to be."

"It wasn't dhar that I was talking about in my own case, but I think the lesson here is that dhar isn't special. Well, it is. But separately."

Ame stops and sits on her heels, shifting to a different tack.

"I don't think you ought to be. Ashamed, I mean. You fucked up but maybe telling yourself you're a bad person is easier than facing the fact that, yeah, your clever idea didn't work and that sucks rocks through a straw. The very laws of reality kicked your hope in the dick and," Ame pauses. "Well, hope is important, even if I usually don't think of it in those terms."

Saying that doesn't change anything, though? She's right. It was stupid to try to do anything.

"Mm."

...that seems kinda like he took the opposite of the point she was trying to make. Damn it, Ame is not good at this kind of thing when it's not about sex.

"My point is: I don't think it's childish to be mostly upset that your idea didn't work, because that's the part that matters. Breaking the rules makes a mess but sometimes that mess is worth it. It wasn't this time but now you know that. A thing has been struck off the list of possibilities instead of remaining an unanswered question you aren't allowed to ask. That matters. Dhar-is-dangerous is not the only thing you learned today. Or am I wrong?"

"...I - agree that sometimes the law or whatever is stupid? And that's just how it is because of the politics of power? And all you can do is skirt the edges cleverly. But it's kind of hard to think or do anything right now."

"Not what I meant," Ame sighs.

"Look, if I untie you are you going to try to sneak off again? How did that happen? If you've really given up on yourself, why bother?"

"I was - going to find a strong monster."

"Ah."

(Ame glances to Liz and Bys for confirmation, here. She believes him, but.)

Ame starts to say something else. Stops.

"If that's really what you want. I can do it. Quick and totally painless. Right here. But I'm not gonna do it for free, and you're gonna have to convince me it really is what you want."