2017-07-01: Sponsorship and Training
- Log: 2017-07-01: Sponsorship and Training
- Cast: Alisha Diphda, Rose
- Where: Lacour - Adventurer's Guild Headquarters
- Date: 2017-07-01
- Summary: Rose announces to Alisha that she's being sponsored, followed by training. And absolutely nothing else.
==================<* Lacour - Adventurer's Guild Headquarters *>================== The Adventurer's Guild Headquarters in Lacour is the largest outpost of its kind on the continent. In theory, it reports to the central headquarters in Guild Galad, but for all intents and purposes, it controls and coordinates all Guild activities and outposts throughout Ignas more or less independently. Located in the western half of the castle town, the Headquarters occupies a three-story building far from the chaos of the Market District. The first floor is a receiving and processing area, much like a bank, devoted entirely to the receipt, posting, and paying out of Guild contracts. The second floor is rarely seen by anyone who does not work there - the employees of the Guild responsible for sending and receiving messges from outposts across Ignas. The third floor is occupied by the Guild's local head, a woman few can name and fewer have seen. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ0Idh3dz3g
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
The Shepherd's party arrived in Lacour, and everyone promptly split up to have a good look around the city.
Alisha is the only one who entered the tournament proper. Thus, she has spent some time getting ready. Some of that involved practice with her spear, making sure she was at the top of all of her forms. She owes it to Lady Maltran to give a good showing in the tournament. She was just doing that, in fact. In the practice yards of the Adventurer's Guild headquarters, Alisha steps to the fence, and leans back against it.
She has a black, sleeveless shirt on -- a little snug, in contrast to the long and loose pants, save where they're bound to her legs at the ankles. They almost look like a sarouel, suitable for practice. The princess's hair is less made-up today, and hangs in a looser ponytail. She sighs.
Then, she looks up at the coliseum. Her second match will be soon. Her first ended in a victory -- but it wasn't that much to be proud of. It was only the first round.
She wipes sweat from her brow, while she looks up at the coliseum.
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
"Alishaaaaa!" comes Rose's voice, as she casually strides towards the training princess. She's carrying nicely wrapped, thin boxes, the kind of you'd fold clothes in for a gift. That might be the first warning bell indicating Alisha should run.
The second is that Rose isn't wearing her usual red, black and white getup. She's in Sparrowfeathers colors today, meaning she's wearing black pants, a cyan and aqua blouse, and a white long-sleeved bolero on top of that. It would fit in quite well with most of the merchants (except Eguille who wears red and brown), and it's the clothes Alisha first met Rose in when they were on their way to that plagued town. This is Business Rose, not Adventurer Rose.
"Isn't it lonely practicing on your own? Having someone to hit is usually better! Congratulations on the first round, princess! Gunning for the finals? I hope so, I've got money on the line!"
Rose isn't much of a gambler but she did put some on Alisha. First round already paid off, what could go wrong?
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
Alisha turns when she hears her name called out, then she smiles brightly when she sees who calls her name out. Even the sight of a merchant-assassin bearing gifts can't stop her from smiling. "Oh, Rose!" the princess calls to her, as she turns to face her.
She notices the different, but not new, outfit immediately. It surprises her a little, because it brings back memories of a time before she knew who Rose really was -- when she thought she was a simple merchant, much less a complicated merchant, and much less an assassin and companion. She shakes her head.
"It--" Actually, it is a little lonely. "Oh, I didn't want to trouble anyone," she says. She smiles, then, and nods. "Thank you. I hope that I do well. I wouldn't want a loss to reflect badly on Sorey or any of my friends."
She pauses. "You bet on me?"
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
"Of course I did!" Also on a couple others. But she doesn't say that. "Because I'm confident you'll get far!" And win her some money too. Rose grins, extending the pile of several boxes towards Alisha. They're even giftwrapped!
"I'd meant to get this to you before your first round but it took some time to make. Of course, now that it IS done, I'm going to expect some proper thanks, princess!"
What IS in those boxes?
If Alisha braves them, unwrapping them one by one, she'll find a mostly perfect copy of her standard outfit in there... only, it's blue and white! Also the Sparrowfeathers insignia is on the shoulders and back.
"I figured you could use a proper sponsor! Most participants have one, you know? Besides it'll get our name and wares out there, which means more travelling money for the lot of us!" She does sponsor Sorey too, after all. Or so she claims.
"Well, whatcha think?"
She hasn't forgotten to reply to the comment about training. That's for in a moment.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
Alisha isn't that surprised that Rose intends to make money by betting on her. This is Rose, after all. She likes to make money. You don't need to spend long with her at all to realize that.
"Oh... why, thank you, Rose. That means a lot. I--oh?" She takes the boxes as they're pushed into her hands, and she starts unwrapping them in that neat and tidy way of hers. When she looks down, she brightens to see a familiar sight: her outfit, albeit blue, and -- when she unfolds it, a little -- with the Sparrowfeathers emblem, rather than Hyland's, on the back. She smiles down at it.
Then, she looks up at Rose, and nods quickly. "Oh, Rose, it looks fantastic! Thank you! I--of course, I would be happy to have you sponsor me!" she says, excitedly. "Is there--is there anything that I need to do? I haven't had a sponsor before..."
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
"Nope! You just go out there and look amazing! And win! But I'd be asking you to win regardless of whether I was sponsoring you or not, so really, just do what you'd have done anyway!" Rose answers, cheerful, to help Alisha feel more comfortable in the role. She knows how easily the princess worries and we can't have that on the battlefield.
"I know it's not in your favorite colors but we had to make you fit in! I don't expect you to wear it after the tournament, but if your clothes ever get torn up you'll have spares!" Which is never a bad idea.
"Also I might have signed us up for the team tournament," she says quickly, without explanation or further details. Instead, she points at the princess' spear. "Say! Show me how you train, I want to see. I've never actually seen knights do their drills and I figure you probably train like a knight would, not a princess, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"Look amazing?" Alisha asks, with a blink. But, she nods, and smiles a little besides. "I certainly do intend to do well. I shoud hope I do, though... the other contestants are talented."
A princess's worries, it seems, are never far away.
She smiles, though, and shakes her head. "As much as I love pink, I am happy to wear your colors for this," she says. "And have a spare change of clothes! I've had to have this uniform repaired several times, now. I--" She catches, then, how Rose slips that in. "--You did? Rose! You should have asked! But..."
She smiles. "...I would be happy to," she concludes. "And I suppose I can show you some of my drills." She steps back from the waist-high fence. "Want to come into the practice yard?"
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
"Please! I know you'd love to form a team! That's why I didn't ask, since I was so sure you'd be in!" Rose is nothing if not assertive. And confident to a fault. It probably wouldn't be such a positive trait if she wasn't so cheerful about it all the time.
"But, we'll worry about that when it starts! For now, let's make sure whoever crosses your path in the ring doesn't even stand a chance!"
That doesn't sound like JUST watching Alisha train.
Nonetheless, Rose follows Alisha to the practice yard all too eagerly. She really does seem to have more on her mind than just wanting to see some knightly drills.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"W-Well... you do know me," Alisha relents, with a smile. She nods, then she steps back a few paces. She blinks a little at the wording as Rose crosses the fence.
But, she steps into the practice yard, and picks up the spear she was practicing with from a rack. The boxes are laid down and stacked, neatly, besides the rack. Alisha turns, then, and swings her spear around in a few arcs.
Then, she turns and looks at Rose. "Would you like me to go through forms?" she asks. "Or do something different?"
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
"That I do! You can't be a good merchant if you can't read people!" Maybe it was less that she knew Alisha and more that Rose can be incredibly impulsive and reckless. We may never know the answer. Her smile remaining tall and wide, she follows Alisha, and settles to the side as the princess grabs her spear and begins making a few arcs.
"Forms? Sure, let's see those forms! I'm only familiar with mine, and they don't even have formal names. Actually, Brad never told me where he learned to fight, or even where the style comes from. He just said it's old. Not like I can ask him now," she says, maybe a bit sad about that. She'd not encountered anyone else who used the same style - bar Eguille, and he too was in the dark about its origins, having learned it from Brad, and to a far lesser extent than Rose did.
"Say, what IS your style called, anyway?"
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"Ah... I'm sorry, Rose," Alisha says, her own voice a little sad. If Lady Maltran died, she could only imagine how she would feel. 'Crushed' wouldn't even begin to describe her emotions. She nods, then, and she looks towards her friend. She swings the spear out in front of her.
"The Azure Lance Style," she says. "It is practiced by many of Hyland's knights, though... most only know the basics. Lady Maltran developed this particular variant, and taught it to me. I, ah, I am too young to add much to the style yet."
She starts to move through some of the motions. She sweeps the weapon down, and she slows it down a little, at first. The broad, sweeping strokes and stabs are slower so Rose can see her better practice. She does glance at Rose, as she works. Then, she asks a question she always wondered about, but she isn't sure that she should ask.
Still. "What was he like? Brad, I mean."
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
"Figures it'd be named after a shade of blue! Ahaha, well, it's a cool name! And I don't know about that. Sometimes a young inventive mind is better suited to improving a style than an old one who's mastered it. Besides, unlike most of Hyland's knights, you're out there fighting weird monsters and magical people and ancient terrors! They just fight other people. You have way more experience than most of them do. More than me, probably! I'm mostly used to fighting people too."
That's why she asked Ragnell to spar, sometime.
And not AT ALL because she wants to beat on her.
Nope.
At the question, Rose brings finger to her chin, tapping it. "Well... you and Sorey would probably think of him as a killer. He was very kind, and he really wished for the world to be a better place, but he didn't have any delusions about saving or redeeming people. If he thought someone was bad, he put them down, simple as that. I was... seven or eight when he made me kill my first target. Some corrupt nobleman who was stealing money from the population and spending it on pointless luxuries. You'd never really suspect a child to have a knife on them, you know?"
That might say a lot more about Brad than anything else Rose could add.
"But I know why he was doing that. He had good intentions, good ideas, that I still agree with. In every other way he was pretty great father though! He knew how to cook, he'd spend a lot of time with me, always had an ear available if something was wrong. And he was always looking out for everyone in his care."
Rose looks back towards Alisha, shooting the question back at her. "What's Maltran like? I've seen her in public events but she doesn't seem like a speech-giving kind of person. I'm guessing she's very knightly and all that?"
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"I... ah... do you think so?" Alisha asks, with that smile that edges towards embarrassed. "I suppose I do have experience fighting things that no other knight in Hyland has. I wonder, though... how would Lady Maltran fair againt such things?"
A question no one could answer, save the woman herself.
She keeps moving through the forms while she listens. Some of the techniques she does may be familiar to Rose. For instance, the upward sweep of the spear for Demon Fang is unmistakable. Alisha starts to turn into a pivot, the start of Spinning Top, when she hears those words:
'I was... seven or eight when he made me kill my first target.'
Her movements slow a little, then. The way she says it so matter-of-factly stuns her. She turns, to stare at Rose for a moment. It is hard to see Brad as more than a killer, then. But, he was kind, too, and she doubts Rose would be wrong about that. The conflict in her words makes Alisha hesitate, without finding any good answer.
"He sounds... he sounds like he was a good father, except for that," Alisha says, quietly. She hesitates, then she smiles. "You--you said you agreed with his ideals, as you grew older? I can't say I approve of having a child kill. But... it wasn't something you were forced into?"
She pauses, though, as the question is turned back onto her.
"She can be very stern," Alisha says. "But... underneath that, she is a very honorable person. She is realistic, though--she has a sharp eye for politics and the way the kingdom works. She tries to balance the two. She... mm. She looked at a princess with illegitimate heritage, who was told she could never inherit, and she saw a knight. Before I ever saw a knight, when I looked in the mirror."
Alisha's form slows, and she looks down, thoughtfully. "...She made me everything I am, now."
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
"He never forced me to do anything. When he saved me from those bandits, he asked, do you want to come with me, and I chose to! ... I mean, as much as you could say I did. In retrospect I was a lonely little girl who'd just lost both of her parents and was left standing in a burning town. I didn't have anywhere else TO go, so you might say that choice was made for me. That's alright, though! I grew up, and I saw that Brad wasn't killing people because he was a bad person, but because he wanted to help others. A lot of the Sparrowfeathers and Scattered Bones are people like me that Brad saved. So I knew growing up I wanted to help people too."
Rose doesn't expect Alisha or Sorey to change their minds about what's right and wrong, but she can at least tell it how she sees it.
Rose gets up from her seat (probably a tipped over dummy or crate), regaining her smile as she pulls both of her knives out, bending her knees, and bringing them in front of herself defensively, as if ready to pounce.
"I see! So she's that kind of person. I'm not surprised you'd turn out to be such a great person with that kind of role model. In a way she's probably made you a better princess, not just a knight! What good is ruler who can't stand up for his people and who doesn't know what it's like to fight? She gave you the chance to see what it's like down there, off the throne, so when you finally get on it you can handle it."
That's her take, anyway.
"Anyway! I think that's enough reminiscing about sad things, let's trade a couple of boths! Swinging at thin air won't make you better in the ring!"
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"That... makes sense," Alisha says, after a moment. It wasn't a path that Rose seemed to regret. It was something, she decides. She looks up, though, and blinks when she sees the knives come out. When she sees Rose bend her knees and look ready to fight, the princess gets an idea. She intends to spar with her, not just watch.
"Mm, yes," she says. "She certainly did that. I had to think past the palace walls, because of Lady Maltran. And... Brad showed you how he thought, instead of telling you. So, in a way, he did something similar."
But, she cracks a broader smile -- a hint of pride, there. Then, she nods to Rose. "Very well, then." She swings her spear up, to guard herself with the haft of the weapon, and starts to circle around Rose. Her leaf green eyes lock onto Rose, and she keeps her guard up.
"I remember saying I wanted to spar with you, before. That was before I knew we'd fought once before."
This time will, all told, have lower stakes.
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
"I'm sure we'll find some time to do an all-out no-holds barred match sometime, princess! This is just practice, try not to skewer me and I'll try not to stab you!" It's said playfully but one assumes Rose has enough self-control and skill to do that. Right?
Alisha is circling. And what's more, that spear is a massive advantage when compared to knives. Better range, and it limits her ability to charge in. Rose remains perfectly still, following Alisha with her eyes only, shifting just a bit only when Alisha reaches a blind spot.
"I guess so! Our mentor figures might have been totally different but they had the same effect on both of us, what're the odds?" Technically quite high when you know what a mentor is supposed to be. "I'm warning you though, I won't play fair! You shouldn't expect your opponents to, so be ready for any trick they might pull!"
Rose's left hand suddenly twirls her knife. It becomes coated in a layer of earthly energy, and she flings it - past Alisha, looking like it might have been intended to graze one of her knees but barely missed.
Then Rose snaps forward in that instant, striking as hard as she can - at Alisha's spear. She's trying to push her back! It'd only take one or two steps back to trip on that knife, which, planted in the ground, has turned itself into an explosive trap of some kind. Kind of like a proximity mine. That shoots earth upward.
Edna would probably approve.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"I-I am not sure that we need a no-holds barred match," Alisha answers, with a slight frown. Of course, she has faith in her control. She circles, and she remembers how Rose fought before -- both at her side and in a battle. She tilts her head, eyebrows knitting. Then, she nods. "I wouldn't expect you to. But... I see your point, Rose."
She ducks to the side, as Rose throws her knife. The blade shoots past Alisha and slams into the ground. She starts to move forward, to close the distance between them -- and Rose meets her. She swings her spear up, catching the strike.
And then the one from behind fires, the as the explosive trap explodes. Alisha trips and stumbles forward. She falls towards Rose, until she gains control of the fall by slamming the butt of her spear into the ground. She pivots on it, spinning along the polearm.
And then roundhouse kicks for Rose, with a sudden and sharp motion.
Edna probably wouldn't approve.
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
"It'd be good training!" Rose insists, even though Alisha's idea of training probably isn't trading blows with a friend. At least not, in Rose's terms, no-holds-barred.
With her trick having worked, Rose is ready to keep pushing, but gets thrown off her groove as Alisha doesn't just catch herself but tumbles forward. The spear plants into the ground, and Alisha's foot comes up.
Roses crosses her arms in an X, allowing the sole of the princess' boot to strike her forearms. It hurts, but it's better than the face or ribs! Either way, Rose is thrown back, and only has one knife. She'd hoped to fetch her second one when she pushed, but that didn't work out.
"Not bad! You adapt to new circumstances really fast! I feel bad for anyone who's counting on you being slow," Rose grins, praising the princess. Maybe it's to throw her off guard?
That's exactly what it is. Rose uses her remaining knive to go in, hopefully before Alisha can raise her spear again. She flows like water, her motions a sudden zig-zag of ice as she goes left, right, left and comes in from the right one last time, this time slicing - with the blunt of her edge, obviously - while trying to reach her second dagger, still behind Alisha.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"A spear is, traditionally, a slow weapon," Alisha says, as her foot slams back into the ground. "So Lady Maltran said that fast reactions were crucial. Otherwise, I could be taken down quickly."
She was still sturdier than she was fast -- as their experience in dungeons showed. Alisha was far more likely to use her brawn to push aside a rock than Rose, and one only had to compare their respective muscle tone to see who had more strength. But, that didn't make Alisha any less dangerous than Rose.
She knows that well.
The dagger slices are fast and furious. Alisha can't ward off the first two -- the back of the dagger scores hits, hard enough to bruise -- and Alisha brings her spear up at the last minute, stopping Rose's swing with a clank of dagger-on-spear. Then, she turns, and swings the side of the spear hard for the other girl's ribs.
"But you're very fast," Alisha says. "It always takes me by surprise!"
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
"It might be slow but it gives you extra range!" Rose comments between swings, as best as she can keep up - until, unlucky her, that spear blocks not only her knife but her attempt to retrieve her second knife. Maybe throwing it to open wasn't the greatest move she ever settled on, but it worked for what she wanted to show Alisha.
"Wide, strong arcs keep me from getting in up close to hit you. Even if they don't all hit, you can deny someone with a smaller weapon their chance to do anything at all!" Statements of the obvious buy her time, as she struggles to maintain the weaponlock - and then, promptly, fails.
Alisha is too strong physically to crash into like that.
Her spear slams into Rose's side and sends her back several feet - she doesn't have the luxury of a long pole to catch herself, unlike the princess, so Rose's recovery method is more to tumble on the floor and roll, then flip upright using the momentum. In the same motion, she reaches under her armpit and -
"... oh yeah, I don't carry my throwing knives around when I wear this. Awkward. Plan B!" Rose leaps. She lines up with the sun, trying to prevent Alisha from staring directly at her. Rose can't fly, of course, so that means she goes from leap to dropkick very quickly. She might not be as much of a brute as her training partly but speed and momentum will make a kick just as awful. She's aiming for the right shoulder, since it's the one Alisha uses to guide and swing that spear so dangerously.
"I try! I can't take hits like you and Sorey, so I weave around them instead! Besides, my job requires speed and skill more than strength~."
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"Mm. Yes, quite," Alisha agrees. She can see that -- after all, she just stopped Rose's strikes from getting in close. She sees Rose fly back, and she hesitates -- just a moment -- but sees that she rolls with it so well. She turns to look at her, until Rose ends up in the sun. She blinks, then -- and quickly tries to turn to the side.
But Rose is airborne and coming down. Alisha can't quite block a kick she can't see with a spear, so she decides to raise her arm instead. Rose's foot slams into her wrist -- currently without a steel gauntlet -- and then she pushes her back.
So Alisha drops her spear at the last minute, and both hands grab onto Rose's foot just as it bounces off her wrists.
And she turns, swinging her down towards the ground. A proud smile spreads across her face as she finishes the throw. She sends Rose for the sand -- rather into something hard. "You're also much lighter than me," she says. "Much easier to pick up!"
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
Oh, that kick didn't land at all.
Wait what's Alisha doing...?
"EEP!"
Rose is light. Maybe too light for her own good. Alisha effortlessly swings the assassin into the sand and pins her down, and Rose, rather than grunt in pain, starts laughing. Not just because it's an awkward position to be in, but she really underestimated the princess.
"Ahaha... alright, alright! I yield, princess. You've got me, and honestly now I feel double sorry for anyone caught up against you next!" Alisha the Mauler? Alisha the Impaler? Rose needs to think of a mean, scary name to hype the princess up with. Maybe go for something Alisha wouldn't mind, though. That could be harder.
"Say, are you going to keep me on the ground all night or do I get to get up sometime~?" she also teases, seizing the opportunity for some humor and lightheartedness. Also Alisha is cuter when she turns red and panics.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
Alisha puts her hands on her hips and smiles down at Rose, confident and pleased with her approach for a moment. Until, of course, Rose says that. Then she turns red and panics.
"I-I-I--!!"
She stammers and puts her hands over her mouth, her face quickly turning the most lovely shade of scarlet. "I-I did not mean it like that! R-Rose! N-Not that I--" She clamps her mouth shut, because nothing she would say after that would in any way make this better.
"Th-that isn't fair!" she she finally whines, covering her face in her hands. But she spreads two fingers, and one green eye peeks between them, down at the assassin.
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
Rose grins, getting up and dusting herself. She doesn't actually hate sand, even if it IS coarse and gets everywhere. A hand reaches over to poke the princess on the forehead the moment she manages to reveal an eye in shame.
"I think I understand why Ragnell thinks picking on me is funny now. I'm still going to kick her ass! But I understand it a little bit better. Chin up princess, you've still got some matches to win! Besides, a princess and a merchant? Please, it'd never work."
Nope. It wouldn't ever work.
"Do be mindful of opponents trying to play this card on you! Some people'll go to great lengths when it's time to win. Well... I'd bet if someone tried this and you still had your spear in your hand it wouldn't end well for them, so maybe I'm worried for nothing, ahaha~."
Rose is pretty cheerful for someone whose ribs hurt due to spear-related reasons. She just can't help it.
"Say, speaking of Maltran so much, you don't suppose she's on Filgaia somewhere, too?"
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
Alisha lowers her hands from her face and sighs. She is still red-faced, even after the poke on the forehead, and crosses her arms over her chest. "Hmph," she says, with all of the royal affrontedness that she can manage. But, as always, a smile slips onto her face afterward. "...Y-Yes, well. I do have some matches to win. And..."
She looks at Rose, and thinks -- for just a moment -- about whether and why it could work. The smile falters, for just a moment, and then she looks away.
"I suppose... they might play that card," she says, after a moment's hesitation. "It is strange to think about. I never had anyone really pursue that in Hyland. Of course... legally, it would be hard for me to inherit, and even harder for any children I might have, so..."
She wasn't exactly swimming in suitors. She blinks, though, and looks at Rose. Then, she shakes her head. "I doubt it. If Lady Maltran was... I think she would have come looking for me, by now. Unless she is very, very far away."
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
Rose knows better than to keep poking the spear-armed beehive. Or rattle it. Or really to keep looking at it wrong. She stops laughing and teasing the poor princess, leaving that matter behind them. She does comment, though: "Please! I'm sure you'd be swimming in princes and counts and dukes if you gave them a chance. They're missing out if not. Or maybe they're scared because you're a frontline princess? Nobles don't seem to like getting their hands dirty very much, they like comfort." That'd probably make sense, Rose wagers. Alisha is more knight than princess and that might scare away suitors.
"As for Maltran, maybe we should ask around? You never know. We've had to move a lot lately so you might have just missed each other!" Or not. Rose is pretty sure a figure like Maltran would have stood out by now, right...?
With a pat on the shoulder, Rose walks past Alisha, after recovering her knives. "Alright, well, I've got some business to get back to, so I'll leave you to train in peace! You just promise me one thing and it's to kick ass out there!"
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"M-Maybe, but... they're not exactly my type. If I had to marry a nobleman for the good of the kingdom, I would. But..." Alisha looks down, brow furrowed, and she shakes her head. "...It wouldn't be my first choice, if I am being truthful."
Her lips purse, for a moment, and then she looks back up at Rose. She nods, once, to her. "Maybe we should ask, then. If Lady Maltran is here, that would be helpful. The worst that happens is we discover she isn't."
That is far from the worst that thing that could happen.
She turns, though, to look after Rose as she starts off. She lifts her hand, waving a