[IRP] Vanguard Rising

[Gazetteer]

Seeing Ambrose sit down, Tangle followed suit... although not at the table. Instead, she perched on the foot of the bed, legs crossed, one elbow braced against her knee, chin propped up on her hand as she watched him keenly. There was nothing amorous about the choice in seating arrangement, but Tangle didn't know this man well yet, and seeing how he responded to small eccentricities was important.

His excuse for why they were here had made Tangle's eyebrows shoot up once the innkeeper had stopped looking directly at her, but she did now appreciate the implication that she would have been within her rights to throw a fireball at him. It was always good to establish that sort of baseline expectation. Ordinarily, she might have made a joke about buying her dinner first, but, well, he had. The actual question turned out to be more interesting, regardless. "Hm." Idly, she pulled on the twine that secured her Guiding Ring around her neck, using her free hand to idly swing the distinctive piece back and forth while she considered how to answer.

Tangle had read about the Black Fang, by name and veiled reference in most places. But in considerably more detail in some of the surviving writings of Pent of Reglay. Which, she realised with a slight stab, might no longer survive, with the occupation's attitude toward Etruria's cherished magical tradition... It, perhaps, made the lie she settled on a little more blunt than it might have been: "I've heard the name vaguely referenced before," she said, shrugging one-shouldered, "but just the name. It has no significance to me." In the end, a great deal more depended on what Ambrose thought the Black Fang had been. She wanted to hear his explanation.

As he finished, Tangle stopped swinging the ring back and forth on its twine, fingers running over the smooth metal instead. She wished she were wearing it. The old habit of twisting it on her finger as she thought died hard. "I am, first and foremost, a patriot," she informed him. "I and any followers who have come to work alongside me are fighting for Etruria before any other goal." For all that the maps were being redrawn to pretend that the greatest kingdom on Elibe no longer existed. And for all that, so far, they'd only had the resources to carry out small-scale operations, to say the least. Regardless, she wanted to stress that her and Ambrose's goals were not wholly identical. She was fighting for something different than merely the well being of a nebulously defined and seemingly pan-national 'people'. On the other hand, allies -- ones who dreamed big enough to imagine themselves striking down the Emperor himself, who had a castle at their disposal... What was that saying about the enemy of one's enemy?  "An alliance may be beneficial, however," she allowed.

She was silent for another further, thoughtful moment. Then she stopped, and straightened up on her perch at the end of the bed. "What we are attempting does sound like it currently runs together rather nicely. And I like the way you talk about disemboweling people who deserve it -- good attention to presentation. I will join your cause, if you don't mind that I wasn't exactly born a peasant girl."