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Old 05-22-2006, 02:58 PM   #24
Firefoot
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Join Date: Dec 2003
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Firefoot has been trapped in the Barrow!
“And the men Sorn surrounds himself with are not the type that cannot be bought...”

“And by that you mean me, I suppose?” asked Scyld sardonically. “You might as well say it. Diplomacy, I suppose they call it where you come from, Miss Linduial? Or perhaps it is Lady Linduial? Perhaps you think to win me to your side diplomatically. But I am not a diplomat, and what is more, Lady Linduial, I know where I stand. You do not even completely know where you stand, and diplomacy is best used with knowledge, don’t you think?” He smiled in his smirking way. He had certainly learned a great deal listening in on Sorn’s conversations over the years; let Linduial wonder. “But as I was saying, you need not be diplomatic with me. Perhaps you think I would beat you for that? Then you are a worse judge of character than I thought. Sorn probably would not notice a few more bruises… despite how you like showing them off… but I am not a violent man. I only do what is necessary.”

Scyld could see that he had caught Linduial’s attention with his speech, many more words than he normally strung together at one time. But he had made it his personal duty to find out more about her – and not all of that information would go to Sorn; in fact, most of it would not – and if she found out a little bit more about him in the mean time, that was all right, and it may even help. But there was more to it. Scyld was genuinely enjoying this conversation, and not just sadistically. He had had scarce enough intelligent conversation during his time here with Sorn – after all, who all was there to talk to? Gurth, the great volatile imbecile? Sorn, his unstable employer behind whose back Scyld was almost constantly plotting? The other lesser employees that came and went, few of which were even a close match for his intelligence? But Linduial certainly did not need to know this, and Scyld could not resist another attempt to goad a reaction out of her.

“You know, perhaps in different circumstances we might have been friends, you and I, or I might have ended up in your employ.” He caught her look of thinly veiled disgust before she again assumed a more bland look. “You do not think very highly of me, I see. But that is well, since I do not particularly highly of you pampered nobles, either.”
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