Symbol of Eventide - A Knight's Padded Oath (Private for theJozza)

[Purestarfall]

The knight wasn't willing to press the organization member on what she meant by it until she had gotten her full cooperation. "I take it when you mean provisions, you're talking about your gear and such that was taken from you when you all were wrapped up I assume?" Alison asked the leader to make sure that was clear, tricky wording was a danger to terms like these and Alison knew they had no time to bother stocking up on extra goods just for some prisoners. "If that assumption is right, then I find that arrangement agreeable to us in return for information about the guild itself." She then continued as she waited to see what the response would be.

Alison did think about having them take up a cause that stated that they all wouldn't bother trying to attack or mug anyone when leaving the city. Though with how the woman sounded about this, it seems the knight wouldn't have to worry about this as she sounded more interested in just leaving as soon as possible.

[theJozza]

The woman glances at her companions, all of whom are nodding and grunting affirmatively behind their gags.

"Okay deal," the woman says. "But if you want us to talk you better free us first. I want a guarantee you won't just leave us here after we tell you everything."

Eliza glances at Alison. A part of her is glad that this is going so smoothly, but as inexperienced as she is to this manner of business she is a bit worried if they should agree to this. She gestures her head to the door as if to signal that she wants to take a time out to discuss things with Alison about how things are going out in the main room of the shop.

[Purestarfall]

While she did notice Eliza gesture her hand to the door, likely to try to talk things over beforehand. However even if they did, they likely wouldn't come to a good solution without wasting some time. And with how the prisoners were acting, waiting around might have made them rethought on the offer. No, they had to do this now and not let the chance slip away while being careful not to let it get out of hand.

"Eliza, I know that you're worried about this. If that's so, you can head back into the main area of the shop while I handle the rest of this myself. I won't force you to stay and partake any longer if you want to. Thank you for helping me this far." Alison replied back to Eliza that she thought it wasn't worth taking a break at the moment since speed was a bit of a priority on both sides.

Before the red-haired woman had a chance to respond either way though, so that she knew Eliza overheard it, Alison turned back to the leader of the captured group and told her "I'll reach a compromise with you. I'll untie any one person from your group right now that you pick, other than you, and let them stand around freely in this room until questioning is done. I'm certain that if they try to leave the room or do anything funny that I'll be able to quickly deal with them since it'll only be one person, otherwise I'll let them hang around just waiting until we finish our little talk. Then they'll be allowed to free the rest of you. So as long as you pick someone that you can trust will behave or try to bail and leave you high and dry, I have no issue with giving you that assurance."

[theJozza]

"Oh it...it isn't that Alison," Eliza says, a little embarrassed by both the insinuation and that her inexperience is apparently easier to see than she realized. "I just...are you sure we can trust them? They appear to be cooperating rather easily." She says glancing over the bound prisoners and narrowing her eyes.

"First you can tell your partner to relax," the woman replies. "The fact is that even if we bring you back now we'll suffer consequences so there's no reason left to try and fight with you," She bites her lip and glances at her comrades. "All right how's this sound. I'll do you one better, your partner takes my second in command," she gestures with her head at one of the three male prisoners, he looks younger and shorter than the other two. "and they go out and retrieve our wagon so we can leave the city as soon as we finish. "That way you can extra sure that we won't try anything. How's that sound?"

The other prisoners nod in agreement, with the one she singled out scooting forward and locking eyes with Eliza. She meets his gaze and glances at Alison. She was confident that she could handle him alone, but a part of her does not like the thought of leaving Alison all alone with four of them, bound or not.

"I will only go along with that if we move you and Alison to the main room of the shop," She speaks up before Alison can answer. "That way we can keep the rest of your subordinates secured back here while you give Alison all the information you can."

[Purestarfall]

"I don't." Alison said bluntly to Eliza to inform her about it. "But isn't our goal to get information from them? We'll have to coax it out of them somehow, but we're going to need to make sure that we can trust the information and that at least involves getting to a point of trust with them. Since they want to get out of here before some sort of threat arrives, I think that we can set up some light assurances that we're not actors in bad faith. If they do happen to show that they can't be trusted after this, then I'll make sure not to do that. Besides...I'm sure you and I can handle the one weak thug if they get any ideas, right?" She then explained to the redhead, before leaving that question to her to try to remind the mage that it'll be fine, no matter what happened.

She then listened to what the woman told her, and Eliza's interjection to the offer, before replying back to everyone "First, don't tell me how I should treat my partner. That's her and mine business alone, not yours. Moving on, I have to just say that I'm always concerned with someone asks to leave the scene of an interrogation. Too much can potentially go wrong. Still, I'll allow it in this case as long as Eliza is fine with it and you're fine with her trailing him. Which of course, means that now you'll have to agree with moving you and you alone into the main room of the shop." Alison had hoped not to bother the shopkeep anymore given all that happened, but her hands are tied now due to Eliza's insistence about it.

[theJozza]

"Very well, I accept the terms as well," Eliza nods, grateful for Alison's trust and the knowledge that she would be able to handle things while she was gone. After a bit of rearranging she and Alison have the leader and her second in command out in the main room.

"Hold still," She orders the young man as she adjusts his bonds so that he can walk, but she leaves his hands tied and covers him with a cloak. "Now move." She says and leads him outside, fortunately she's more than strong enough to keep him in line. Once outside she turns to him. "I will remove your gag as we walk, but rest assured I will have no qualms about returning it if you do anything I don't approve of is that clear?" The youth nods and she pulls the cloth down. "All right let's go. Which way?"

"Down this street," he grumbles as she leads him forward. "Is it really necessary to keep me tied? My commander was telling the truth, at this point we have no reason to fight you."

"I will release you when we return and Lady Lusterstone confirms your leader's cooperation," Eliza replies. "Moreover I did not allow you to speak so I could hear you complain." She raises an eyebrow and the boy goes quiet, but grumbles a bit as he leads her down the street.

Back at the dress shop, the leader is seated across from Alison in the same chairs their first conversation was in. The difference being the guild member is now tied to her with the shopkeeper tying the last not.

"Is this really necessary?" She says to the woman.

"Consider it my last bit of payback on you damn swordfishes," the shopkeeper shoots back as she steps aside and gestures to Alison. "All yours milady."

[Purestarfall]

Alison would just watch the shopkeeper tie the leader up for her while she took her own seat, doing her best not to make any kind of wordless remark even with a glance. Though once she was told that she was done with it, Alison just nodded and told her "Thank you for your assistance." Once that was done, she turned back to the leader and asked her "First off, I'm going to start by asking what's the deal with the group? When I got involved in this, I just thought that at best you guys were involved with the local thieves guild or something rather mundane like that. But if your group has homunculi running about...they're not normal run of the mill thugs. So I want to know what they're really after, since clearly this is a little too much if you all just wanted to get a turf set up so that you can extort everyone. Too expensive to have Homunculi as part of that since you need a good spellcaster on the payroll."

[theJozza]

"Well the truth is...the whole extortion racket was just a cover up and a way to attract and pay recruits," the woman says, though she seems to be reflexively glancing around a bit. As if saying these things out loud makes her feel that she needs to make sure no one else is here. "Honestly, the people running this operation don't give a damn about turf, money, or anything like that."

Meanwhile, Eliza is continuing to lead the young man down the street, he is also glancing around nervously, which Eliza takes with annoyance and usually gives him a shove when she sees it.

"You know, you might want to come with us," the man finally says. "To leave the city I mean. We could use a couple of women like you two."

"Please do not insult my intelligence," Eliza says rolling her eyes at what she perceives as an obvious trick. "Moreover I will have no qualms about gagging you again if you continue to annoy me."

"No I'm serious," he says, glancing to her. "My sis...I mean our captain is a great leader," he blushes a bit as he realizes what he just gave away. "We'll be needing to find a new place to operate and having a good mage and warrior with us might help things. Besides it's not like you two can stop the cult."

"Cult?" Eliza says, her impatience and annoyance now tinged with curiosity. She'd been about to gag the young man again, but now she felt interested. "Why do you call it a cult?"

"Oh uh....look lady, the bottom line is that if you two try and take on our leaders, you're going to die," he says earnestly. "Why not just come with us and join our crew? Not like you're from here. Your mercenaries just like....emph."

"That is quite enough of that," Eliza growls as she pulls his gag back up and raises his hood to hide it, content that she wasn't going to get anything worthwhile from him at this point. "What Alison and I do, and for that matter what we are, is no concern of yours. Now march." She says pushing him, as he grumbles at her under his gag.

[Purestarfall]

"Okay, so it was a coverup for what you're really doing." Alison let out as she adjusted herself slightly in her seat. "In any case, you really didn't answer my question. Why does this group need to get recruits on this scale? If its not for money or turf, then what are the people that're running this really after." Alison then once more asked the captive leader of this group.

[theJozza]

"They want boats," The woman replies bluntly. "Or rather, they want access to and freedom in the waters of the bay. I confess I don't know all the details, but the leaders of this group area all some sort of mages that specialize in water magics and spells related to the sea," she pauses for a moment and with a sigh looks up. "The only other thing I know is that every so often they take a boat ride out to the center of the bay in the middle of the night...sometimes with operatives that failed. The operatives don't come back...but sometimes they do come back with those coral things."

Meanwhile Eliza and her "guide" arrive at the hidden wagon.

"I see you were telling some truth," Eliza shrugs, but she then simply tosses the young man into the back and starts driving the wagon back towards the shop, her now passenger grumbling in the back.