A Bridge Crossed
Twenty Fifth Day of the First Month 294 AC
Not for nothing have you read the laws of Heaven's Shore. Archons and devils are both likely to enforce them with some care if likely quite different in other regards. "So am I to understand that we stand accused of carrying unknown contraband by no reason save the circumstances of the time and place we find ourselves in?" you ask, feigning offense and just enough incredulity to be credible in turn. "By that measure, are not dozens, scores of people crossing this bridge every hour of every day?"
The crowd draws back a touch. If you did not think you could handle the patrol by other means, you probably would not have made that point and risk thinning out the witnesses.
Unsurprisingly, the officer is not impressed. "Alas, no divinatory magic we possess can verify the truth of your words. If you would be willing to remove those wards I would be glad to leave you on your way, good sir."
"Innocent until I can prove my own guilt?" you snort. Turning to ser Richard you ask plainly. "Even in Dis they spared that for people already in the interrogation chamber, did they not?"
"Aye," the knight replies gruffly. Oathkeeper looks like a thing of jagged dragonglass and hell-forged steel, but the gesture of reaching for it is no less clear for it.
Before the crimson-clad officer can get another word in edgewise, you add, "I have heard no cause why we should subject ourselves to a seer's probing gaze save your word alone,
light-bearer." You emphasize the words slightly, not as a mockery but a reminder to those behind him of the ideals they once served, and even now many try to keep in some small way amid Heaven's ruin.
"Contempt drips from your lips like poison from a serpent's fangs," he sneered. "Cause enough to question your motives in walking these streets in secret."
"The light here is not what one might hope for," you motion at the sky, the brief expression of disquiet unfeigned. "But it is clear enough to see by, even by those whose eyes are not blessed with more than mortal sight. Hardly skulking in forgotten alleyways and tangled paths to be
here."
"Then you have nothing to hide," the captain presses, his head twitching slightly as though he would very much like to use those horns on you.
"I have as much to hide as many and less than some, but none of it connected to any contraband. If the veil we bear is cause enough to strip us of it, then might I suggest you next strip buyers in the marketplace of armor that you may better test your daggers upon them. The law has no stipulation for you and yours to detain visitors or citizens without some reasonable cause of wrong doing, and it must be reasonable to others not just to yourself, else the word is void to meaning." The devils who are the true masters of Heaven's Shore can detain people as a 'potential threat to the city', a category which could be spread to literally anyone, but there is still some shred of old laws clinging to the code that binds the Blessed Guard, a fact which the remainder of the patrol seems more aware of than their increasingly angry leader.
"My jurisdiction and right to act are for the exarch to decide," he replies coldly. He takes a deep breath, as though about to make some grand proclamation before ordering the charge, but instead you hear his voice in your mind.
"You have no stake in this, earth-born. Hand over the prisoner and you shall have the favor of the Lord of Heaven, more note worthy by far than that of a devil so cowardly he lure strangers with news of his death to use them in his quarrels. You may have whatever you wish of his collection once it is properly catalogued..." He pauses just enough for the word to register.
"Oh... I forgot you would not know. All those at the auction have been captured or killed."
Reading deception in a mind voice is not quite the same as doing so in flesh, but between Varys and all the spirits who have sworn allegiance to you, you have more than enough experience with silent speech to taste the lie.
"I have no idea what you are speaking of," you reply, cutting off the thought more sharply than strictly necessary before turning on your heel and walking away. The patrol does not follow.
Though you still cannot spot your veiled spy, you make a guess that it probably can't see through solid stone. The next few steps along the path to the Fortress involve quite a bit of stone swimming, much to ser Richard's disgust.
"If we were meant to do that, we would've had three legs and three arms, Your Grace," he says after the last one.
"With enough magic that can be arranged," you shoot back a bit absentmindedly. Unfortunately, you are going to have to put your magic to more practical purposes today.
The oracle implied that you are going to have to make a show of arcane power to be taken seriously enough to get the Gylou interrogated in good time. Returning to your Hassan persona, how do you do so?
[] Summon a few Elder Earth Elementals
[] Create a note inviting the commander of the garrison to mediate the conflict
[] Write in
OOC: Keep in mind not being seen as important enough risks valuable time, but doing something too impressive might draw undue attention. Not yet eddied.