"Well, now, it depends. Am I allowed to thump him next time he comes up with more aristocratic witterings?" 

"I'm not the boss of you." She is maybe arguably the boss of Woljif but. She doesn't love that situation! She is definitely not the boss of Lann, though. 

"In that case, the more healing the better, I say. Besides, if he's as annoying to the demons, they won't be nearly so gentle."

"I agree."

Nenio completely ignores the question, instead taking some kind of notes about a particularly dismembered demon corpse. 

"Hauling this guy around sounds like going through a back alley with a diamond tiara on your head. Not my favorite kind of attention."

"Which leaves me to tiebreak, I guess, so--sure, come along."

"Capital. Good acquaintances that begin and end at just the right moment often leave the most pleasant memories, wouldn't you say?"

"I don't have the experience to say. Unless you mean an acquaintanceship with a demon, beginning with stabbing them and ending with them dying, which does seem preferable to the available alternatives." 

Snort. Well, no, more of an elegant snicker, but same difference. 

The rest of the survivors of the attack, being much less useful than--well, actually--

"Hi," Lusilla says to the song-sorceress who had been covering them just before, "I'm Lusilla, who're you?"

"Aranka. Thanks for the save! What was it you turned into, back there?"

"Maybe I should write up a pamphlet--no, I don't expect to only confuse literate people. Um, I don't know what I am. I'm a--that--that can take human form, though, not a human who can turn into a that. My mother is human, though. When she had me she ended up fleeing into the forest so people wouldn't kill me for being some kind of spawn of Lamashtu, but I'm not--I don't hurt people. Except demons and demon cultists, now, I guess. I don't like it, though." 

"I assure you, the demons will have no such tender feelings."

"Which is why I do it, distaste aside. Anyway. I don't suppose you'd like to come gallivanting around the city with us."

She looks tempted, but: "No, I think I had better not. Sorry." 

"No need to apologize." 

There are enough surviving guests that it's ultimately decided that they'll hole up in the most defensible part of the manor. Lusilla is sure that has nothing to do with the fact that it's a wine cellar. She makes them take actual food in there, too, and also makes sure each of the dancers has at least a dagger in case any of the nobles try anything funny that the dancers don't want. 

"I think I could stop anything like that," Aranka murmurs to her, "but it's a good thought."

Nod. 

Having a Bonus Healer turns out to be very useful when they run into a squad of cultists in the street. Their archer manages to put down Woljif and Lann before Lusilla can squish him, and while she and Seelah and Camellia are attempting to do that while a handful of melee-er cultists attempt to fend them off, Daeran turns out to have the extremely convenient ability to channel positive without healing the enemy. 

...Lusilla isn't entirely sure how; she didn't see a holy symbol on him anywhere and she thought only clerics could channel...? But there are a lot of things she isn't familiar with so it's not that weird if he is one. 

They encounter a couple of dretches not long thereafter. Lusilla quickly discovers that she HATES DRETCHES when she has to collapse into her human form because the enhanced sense of smell of her natural form is not as unalloyed a benefit as she thought. 

Also demons have damage resistance and she is not made of cold iron, which is not new or anything, but is still kind of rubbing salt in the wound of how obnoxious dretches apparently are. 

Radiance is cold iron! Among other things. 

Yes Seelah we appreciate you Seelah.

Actually the worst thing about dretches is they run around naked and attack with their claws so there is literally nothing you can loot from their bodies. ...But the nausea thing is pretty bad too, yeah.

They sneak past what looks like a group of cultists and a group of looters committing violence against each other instead of anyone doing anything constructive, for once, and then fail to sneak past a completely different group of looters. 

THESE they can loot! Hooray!