The Bear's Hunt
Twenty-Ninth Day of the Eighth Month 293 AC
When asked outright if he would rather take on his new life now or after the battle in the Circle, Wyl shudders, a painful mix of longing, resolve, and self-loathing passing over his transformed features. He swallows: "This... this body's better for fighting. I'll keep it a while longer." You rather suspect the man's friends would try to persuade him otherwise, but do not speak up yourself. His oaths are between him and his liege lady, and
not for any other to meddle lightly in.
Instead you ask him to take you to his companions that you may get their measure and make your offer to them as well. As it happens, however, that is no straight path to take, for Wyl does not know where Oddric and Walter had gone off to today, and revealing that you do would have rather
unfortunate implications, so you follow the armsman to seek out the one companion whose whereabouts he always knows—Alysane Mormont. "Lady Maege set me to guard her and that's what I aim to do, even if she's always one to jump into the thick of things quick as a bear... er... at the drop of a hat."
So she is trying to keep her true nature a secret, a wise path in general, particularly if it is indeed a gift other Mormonts have come to share, but it will make conversing with her all the harder, since you would have to earn the lady's trust or let on that you know her secret is not hidden from you and risk alienating her.
***
Perhaps unsurprisingly you find Alysane Mormont on the training field beside the Legion headquarters sparring with whichever of your soldiers care to try their luck. Likely even if there was no festival you would see this woman fighting in the Circle, be it only for the sheer exhilaration of testing her strength and skill. More than once she curses through gritted teeth when a legionnaire gets a touch on her, though it is not them that her ire is directed at but herself for letting them slip past her defenses. When the fight is over she offers them an honest smile as she pushes her sweat-soaked dark hair out of her eyes.
It is only when she realizes that the man she had been sparing with is looking in surprise at something over her shoulder that she turns and notices you and Wyl. "Come to try for a spar, my lord?" she asks, her ringmail clinking as she offers a hand. As her heavy woolen cloak shifts you notice a bronze-bound horn at her belt, marked with runes of the First Men, most likely the prize of some barrow than a heirloom you would judge.
"Perhaps later, my lady..." you begin.
"Call me Aly," she snorts. "My mother's 'my lady' not me, especially not out here where most folk haven't even heard of Bear Island and I might as well be just another sellsword who talks funny."
"Aly, then," you allow. Ordinarily you would invite her to call you by name in turn, but in front of a two score curious legionnaires it is a bad place to lay down the mantle of royal dignity. "Still, your purpose is not that of a sellsword, whatever 'most' may think."
"Aye," she spits. "We're out here looking for my cowardly slaver of a cousin, Jorah, to make him take the Black or face the sword as is proper."
That earns quite a few approving sounds from the watching legionnaires. 'Slavers' are only slightly more popular than 'demons' with most of the common soldiers, and any officers who think differently mostly keep it to themselves.
What do you do?
[] Offer to help her find Jorah before making your offer (Scry and capture)
[] Make your offer of employment immediately
-[] Write in
[] Write in
OOC: The reason I did not move right to scry and capture is that Jorah did not break any of your laws, he broke the laws of Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark. If he is being a productive member of society in Western Essos there is a case to be made for Viserys leaving him alone. He has hired worse slavers than him.
