3:7 The noblest emotion.

In the morning, Rafa and Aleksei sat with their legs hung over the side of a canal while Silveredge and Mi'ishaen fought closer to the main gate.  Niku, who had been none too thrilled about being kept out of the tavern the night before, happily barked and bounced around Silveredge.  Half the soldiers there- young, and made celibate by force- were so enthralled by the sight of two women sparring with each other in the street that they didn't think to stop what other soldiers and townsfolk thought was tantamount to a public disturbance.

"Mishka is child of war," Aleksei explained, continuing a conversation that had been started in whispers the night before.  "It is putting deep shadow over her cradle, but what is doing much more damage is the automatic hate that so many have for her kind.  I am learning not to have this hate for Tieflings; others of my kind are not yet learning this.  So I am much confusing her, when we are first meeting.  I am strange thing to her, but somehow useful."

"But how did you come to pretend to be married or dating?" Rafa asked, running his fingers through the back half of his hair.  "Three separate times, even."

"It is I doing it the first time.  I am thinking that if Mikhail's Dragonborn are thinking that she is mate, they will not kill her immediately.  But it is her doing it the next two times... I do not know why," Aleksei shrugged. 

"She just picked up on a good story and kept going, is my guess," Rafa sighed, scratching at a phantom itch on his arm.  "I wonder what she's got that poor Shadar-kai stringing along on."

"There is no string with Rasha and Mishka; what you see is what they are," Aleksei replied.  "Mishka does not yet know what is affection, and Rasha is good rogue."

"Oh, so?" Rafa laughed.  "I think that sapling shadow would cry if she were made to do anything wrong."

"This is her way, to appear docile and harmless.  This I am seeing very clearly with Mikhail.  While she is yet bowing her head and saying 'Master,' she is killing him in cold blood."

"Ah," Rafa mused, leaning his head back slightly.  "She had me fooled- well, they're just different- they have their... uses.  Their talents, then."

"These talents interest you," Aleksei laughed, turning his gaze over his shoulder to look at the women, who were taking a moment to rest.  "It is good that we are so far from them."

"I don't know what you're-"  Rafa got to his feet, and turning around, caught sight of Iordyn and Valeria.  He immediately crossed his arms, offering the approaching archer a rather stony faced welcome.

"Good day to you too, and here's your message from Suzail," the young archer said brightly, pretending to ignore the glower.  Valeria, whose tail stood straight in the air, barked a few times in Niku's direction.  She obediently sat when her master looked at her, but fidgeted as though she wanted to play.  "I tipped the messenger two lions- made his day, I think."

"All the Purple Dragon pages are paid well," Rafa retorted, raising an eyebrow.  When the young male before him produced a sealed missive, he found himself disbelieving the clear indigo stamp on it, even though he knew the wax would be practically impossible for an imposter to acquire.  "If he got you to pay him too, he's a running a side scheme and should be fired."

"The lad carrying this was nothing more than a rag doll," Iordyn replied, pushing the letter further toward the soldier, who finally took it.  "His belly was hollow and his eyes were dull, so I gave him two gold pieces and told him to find somewhere nice to eat."

Rafa opened the letter and frowned at it.  "I don't know how such an urchin would have snatched this off a true messenger.  You've been cozened-"

"I wasn't cozened, ser," Iordyn pronounced pointedly.  "The letter came from Suzail haughtily enough, but got borne away by the first hungry rat the guard could find; I saw the exchange myself before I set off to deliver my father's letter.  Wanting only to do the right thing by all parties, I stopped the lad and paid him before he got too far.  I expect the Crown didn't want to waste a properly paid page on a discharged officer."

"Suspended, I give you great thanks," Rafa noted, looking up from the letter briefly, "though I may as well hand in my armor when I get to Suzail.  Aleksei, we're to cross over and meet additional Purple Dragon escorts that will bear me off to judgement and you to the battlemage that sent for you."

"Rasha and Mishka?" Aleksei asked, tearing his attention away from the women, who had begun fighting again, to look at Iordyn and Rafa.

"No mention," Rafa sighed.  "It's as though they didn't even exist, though I told your Rasha to put- oh, never mind.  Come, back to the tavern."

"The tavern?" Iordyn shot back, stunned.  "How could you think of going anywhere but on the very next boat to-"

"I'm not suffering through the humiliation of a public trial and hanging while hungry and sober," Rafa answered, sticking the letter into a pouch at his belt.  He held out a hand to Aleksei, but wasn't surprised when the Dragonborn got up without assistance.  As if to thank the offered help, however, he did give the Human soldier a strong handshake.

Iordyn, meanwhile, turned to notice Niku's barking, which Valeria had begun responding to with some whining of her own.  He discovered that Niku had decided to join in the renewed fight between Mi'ishaen and Silveredge, eagerly giving the bouncy Tiefling twice the workout.

"Why is anyone permitting this?" he asked, moving a step toward the situation as though drawn by a magnet.  "This is public menace, with the Tiefling and the dog leaping about like nutters."

"You  forget that they aren't prisoners," Rafa sighed.  "They're not doing anything wrong."

"You see nothing wrong with a pair of women brawling in the street like common beasts?" Iordyn dared, looking from Aleksei to Rafa with clear annoyance.  "The dog is loose and wild, even!  Who knows what could set the thing to attacking any one, and who's going to stop him if he does?  The girl who hasn't put a minute's worth of training into him?"

"They are all three working like soldiers," Aleksei shrugged.  "This is the most training I am seeing Rasha do for her little brother, who is quickly learning the ways of both women.  Already he is not running between Rasha's legs as he is wanting to do earlier this morning."

"Yeah, that fall must have cost her some good bruises on her hip and shoulder," Rafa mused.  "Big hound whined like a puppy when he heard her go down, like he knew it was his fault."

"Niku is very smart," Aleksei nodded.  "Also, anyone can see she does not easily lose balance."

Iordyn watched, frowning, as the two males literally turned and began slowly ambling toward the tavern.  Niku noticed the movement before the women did, and circled out toward Aleksei before running back toward Silveredge.  Valeria responded by trotting a few steps toward the larger hound, barking excitedly with her tail high in the air.

"Hush, Ria," Iordyn commanded.  "C'mon, sit down-"

"Where are the boys off to?" Mi'ishaen called from the middle of the street.  She and Silveredge had paused to focus their attention on him, panting and picking sweat-soaked clothing away from their skin.

"The... eh... tavern," Iordyn replied uncertainly.  "Whichever tavern you were-"

Mi'ishaen didn't wait for the young man to become any more sure of himself.  "The old manor up the street, c'mon, Edge- hey, dog!  Let's go!"

Silveredge trotted a few steps behind the quick-marching Mi'ishaen, opening her hand when she'd matched her stride.  The Tiefling barely cast a downward glance before she took the offering, and the energetic hound bounded before them quite a ways before he paused to turn in a few useless circles while they caught up to him.  Iordyn patted his leg so that Valeria would follow him, then quickly walked behind the ladies.

"So- so, how long have you been... uh... married?" he called, prompting Silveredge to attempt to slow Mi'ishaen down.

Mi'ishaen, who didn't even look back, snorted.  "Why don't you ask Ser Voyonov?"

There was a silent moment while Iordyn collected his bravery and his thoughts, and both women made the mistake of thinking that he was done speaking to them.  The archer's next words forced their way through the beginning of a conversation between them.

"You know, Cormyr permits couples of like-gender," he counseled, feeling as though he were shouting the advice down the street.  Indeed, a few passers-by immediately turned to reguard the foreign women as well as the familiar young man.  Iordyn knew that whatever he said from that point forward would get back to his parents before he could.

Mi'ishaen stopped dead as though there had been a wall in front of her, surprising Iordyn, Valeria and Niku, but said nothing.  Silveredge tucked herself closer to the slightly-shorter Tiefling, putting herself between her dark crimson arm and the muscular trunk of her body.  The heartbeat there had quickened, and the Shadar-kai deeply considered simply telling the Human male to shut up.

Iordyn walked around and carefully positioned himself in front of them so that he could comfortably look at both women without seeming like a threat.  When Niku laid down in the street without growling, he felt comfortable about continuing.  "I said, Cormyr permits couples of like-gender.  We don't stone them.  It's not against the law-"

"My lord will forgive me if I wonder why he thought to mention that detail of the law?" Silveredge supplied smoothly, watching Valeria take a few tentative steps toward Niku.

"You're quite simple, aren't you?" Iordyn smiled.  "Nature's blessing, the creation of offspring, rests upon couples of opposite genders- just in case you didn't know that, either."

"Why didn't you just let this fool die in the woods?" Mi'ishaen whispered in frustration.  Some deep part of her sparked with indignation, as though she'd been insulted by Iordyn's assumption.  "Damn fools can't even let me try to have friends, without calling it a deviation of nature?"

Silveredge wiggled her fingers until they were enmeshed in those of the Tiefling beside her.

"My lord may of course think of me whatsoever he will," Silveredge smiled faintly, dropping a very slight curtsey, "but he may wish to remember that I'm only capable of briefly delaying whatever physical punishment may reward his future words."