Qorro looks up from his feet, his face lighting up in hope.

"...if I wanted him dead by sundown and the entire structure looted by strangers," she continues. "Or aflame." She raises an eyebrow. "Or I could hire someone that's actually competent."

And Qorro sags again at that.

This doesn't make sense. She looks at Salimeri and tries to figure out the puzzle in front of her.

"But you're not hiring me. You're trying to leverage me." She furrows her brow. "And I think that actually I'll call your bluff."

"...I beg your pardon?"

"You were dying to know what my sire was up to. Half of your relationship with them was trying to get information about what sort of weird puzzle that they were working on, because you didn't know and that drove you up the wall. And now here I am, castoff with knowledge and key to anything they might have made to only respond to themselves, and you... want me to go tramping down to solve your problem for you? No you don't.

"You want to see what you can extract from the little baby castoff before she gives you what you want. Well, I'm not playing. I don't need you. You will save me time. That's it. But if you're inclined to waste it, then I will go elsewhere."

...instead of focusing on the part of his emotions that is reacting to the castoff he will focus on the part of his emotions that is directed at Salimeri. That sounds safer.

And Salimeri, for her part, looks—taken aback, shocked, and more than a little aroused. This castoff is indeed one of Adahn's, of that there can be no doubt. "No one else would know as much as I do about your little project," she says, which is true enough, for all the good it does.

"Not by themselves, no, but I bet I could ask around. Besides, I could say the same about myself, and you know it. Do we want to keep stating the obvious or do we want to work together?"

Salimeri laughs, at that. "Very well. I fibbed. I don't know much. Adahn said the chamber was built with living crystals from a world called the Ascension. They were remarkably resistant to telling me what it was for, though, regardless of the interrogation methods I employed." At least the interrogations were... exciting. "They said that it would stop the Sorrow, and that none of the castoffs could know about it. Which seems odd to me, but they were ever the odd one." She snaps her fingers. "Seek out the castoff who helped them build it, that surly artificer whose name escapes me at the moment. He has machines and circuits embedded in his flesh, those little cultists in Circus Minor might know him."

“None of the castoffs could know about it…” she muses, frowning. That sounds nice and ominous. “All right. Thank you. And here is a sample from the resonance chamber. Which I broke. By falling on it.” She hands over her shard of crystal, then glances at Qorro. “… Sorry. Self defense.”

Qorro splutters and opens and shuts his mouth many times like a fish out of water.

Salimeri laughs even harder and accepts the crystal. "You really are your parent's daughter."

Eugh. Now she feels dirty, and wants to do something her sire wouldn’t ever do, just out of principle. Oh, she has a idea.

“Well, if you mean that, then surely that’s not enough reason to remove Qorro from your payroll. It wasn’t a fair fight. Though, for the record, Qorro, I think you deserve better.”

She scoffs. "This was just another in a string of failures. ...but maybe, if he was up against one of Adahn's." She eyes Qorro appraisingly and says, "You're on your last chance. You had better impress me next time."

"I will, you won't be disappointed, I promise!" he says, to which she scoffs again.

She kind of wants to help him, but she doesn’t think it would actually fix anything. Sort of like trying to save a drowning man, except he keeps diving back into the water every time she pulls him out. It’s not really her problem, and she has enough on her plate already. Besides, Qorro’s go to method of inviting her to talk to Salimeri was going to be intimidation, followed by violence if she refused, so. Maybe these two actually deserve each other.

“Let me know if you figure anything out from the crystal sample, and Qorro knows where what remains of the resonance chamber is. And I’ll go ask the cult for details about the sibling in question.”

"Good luck with your project, little castoff," she says, already focusing on the crystal and no longer looking at them.

"You too," she replies, dryly.

And then they can leave! Hooray. Though, she still feels like she could use a bath, again, from being favorably compared to her sire, and certain memories that she is conflicted about having.

"So, back to the cult. Yaaaaaay."

He can wordlessly lead her from there to Circus Minor, so that she has a better idea of where she is with respect to everywhere else.

There's a reason he does not like Salimeri.

"Yeah. I can see why," she mutters, on the way there. "... Actually. Can I um. Have a hug?"

"...what."

"... A hug. Where two people put their arms around each other and, um. Hug. Salimeri brought up... some memories and I feel complicated things about them. And I think I'd like a hug over it."

He knows what a hug is, just.

Uh.

Whatever, sure, he can uh. Take a step closer to her and...? Hug? He guesses?

She hugs him and kind of clings, leaning into him and closing her eyes.

Right now she would like to drown out the complicated touch memory of a life she didn't live in favor of this life, now, that she is definitely living. ... Upon reflection she kind of wants to go make her own sex related memories to drown out her sire's, but, uh. Probably she should have some chill about that, and think about things first. Especially since her most obvious partner would be Aleks, and. That might. Make things complicated, somehow, and that sounds scary.

"Thanks," she mumbles into his chest.