"She wants to join the winning side rather than die, naturally. It is the law of the chorus to allow foes fealty, but she was being quite annoying about wanting to get a guarantee before we actually heard anything, so we doubt her. We've gotten some information we know is false - a claim that Matani Sybil leads the force in the southern woods, when we know she guards the best bridges over her namesake river. And that Pelox Florian does, and Tarkis Demos who you just released back to them and we sincerely doubt was well-informed. One claim of a site, but we found that one nearly two fists ago and it was deserted; he didn't give up anything more interesting while we punished him for it either."

"My, your sources move very fast.

"...If the information is real, would you be willing to give her that guarantee?  I am not, precisely, a neutral party such that one should trust me to hold escrow, but I'm her best chance regardless."  This is loud enough that she should hear.

"The same chance any conscript gets, at least. Put her in with the circle of knives, and if she's worthwhile she'll earn her place."

"Is that the guarantee she was asking for?"

"I'm not sure she was clear on what she was asking for. It's the one she can get."

"...I am not going to lie to her about that.  Barik, fetch her, if you will."

And then they can adjourn to her tent.

He shrugs and nods. "Good news, Oathbreaker! The Fatebinder has decided to talk to you. Well, good news if you're not a liar." He starts cutting her down.

She doesn't look enormously reassured, but happier to be down than up.

"I won't disappoint her," she says after collecting her thoughts.

"Good decision," says Barik, "This way."

And then they are in a tent.

Ophelia is perched casually against one of the bunks; she wordlessly directs Barik to put the still-a-prisoner on a stool.

Then, she raises an eyebrow and waits, patiently, for the prisoner to start talking about something.

"So you're listening to me? Like I said, I know where you can find Pelox Florian and the camp, but I want to join, not just tell you what I know and then get tortured some more until I die or get fed to the Voices."

She's lying, though the sense you'd get is that it's more exaggeration than confabulation.

"You realize that you are not going to get any more opportunity than a standard Chorus conscript does, if you do.  You could equally well have run off and joined quietly, if this was what you wanted above all else."

She walks a slow circle around the woman.

"And that lying - or exaggerating, which I suspect you to be doing more of, in an attempt to prove your value - is a mark against your worth as a source of information."

She pauses in front of the woman again, looks directly into her scared little eyes.

"So why all this, then?"

"I could have done that a week ago, but I didn't want to a week ago.Three days tied to a pole getting stabbed whenever anyone nearby felt like it made it a lot harder to feel righteous defiance against Kyros."

"...okay, I guess I don't know where they are now; they'll have moved since we were captured. But we had written orders; the sergeant's dead, but he kept them in his boot lining, I can point you to them."

"I believe I will be able to find them myself."

"However - while I am severely sabotaging my own negotiating position by saying this whatsoever - I don't think you should want me to.  I don't suppose you've heard of the Edict of Execution?"

She looks confused, but responds anyway. "I heard there was an Edict coming. Who's getting executed?"

"Everyone in Vendrien's Well, on Kyros's Day of Swords, should the forces representing Kyros not, prior to then, hold Ascension Hall."

She squints, clearly counting days to figure out when that is. "...That's two days ago, isn't it? Same as Churn Fourth Moon?"

"Two days ago, yes.  That Edict was not supposed to be read yesterday.  Though I feel as though the timing isn't quite the relevant thing.

"What's relevant is -

"It's changed the nature of the game the commanders are playing.  It's not about hunting down rebels in the hills, anymore.  It's all about who holds Ascension Hall.

"The Scarlet Chorus suck at stuff related to siege warfare.  Infiltration, yes, sieges, no.  Do you really want to be on their side when the war after this war starts and they're strung out fleeing all over the map to be picked off gang by gang?  Because Graven Ashe and Nerat have a long-standing feud."

"Last week I was planning to die valiantly defending the capital of Apex. This week it looks like my options are to die pretty messily and slowly, which is not very appealing, or to join them, even if they do suck at sieges. Don't most sieges end with someone letting you in the back door anyway? Also, I kind of doubt that most of the gangs will get picked off rather than defecting, if they actually start losing badly. No one ever accused the Scarlet Chorus of discipline."

"Well.  The thing is, you do have a third option, since I am in fact right here and talking to you.  You can join me."

She looks around at the other three. "Is there a catch?"

"I mean, if I don't play this well we might end up pissing off Nerat, but as long as we aren't alone in a room with him, he probably can't eat us.  He needs me alive for now anyway, for the Edict."

...Hmm.

"I'll give you a bit of privacy to find the answer to your question."

She steps outside the tent.

"I do believe we are making progress."

"I think I'll just step out, too, rather than explain."

"As another recent prisoner - the Fatebinder seems pretty decent to me. Sure, I decided I'd stay nearby and probably help her fight, but that's because I'm a chronicler and a little obsessive about it, she was happy to just have me as an employee."

Barik - doesn't really try to be friendly, that wouldn't work, but he can try for 'not excessively threatening'. "She hopes to convince the Vendrien Guard to stand down, awaiting a better opportunity. And was fairly gentle to the parts of the Tiers she had custody over in the past - she tried to keep Azure from turning into the Stone Sea, though she couldn't manage to kill an Archon."