Any emotion that Tamras succeeded in concealing with her expression was betrayed by the tentative backward tilt of one ear as she ruminated on the news. Dale's black-brown gaze shifted calculatingly from speaker to speaker, her countenance otherwise inscrutable.<br/><br/>The circumstances were all very suspicious to her, little though she knew of humans and their mercenary work. She knew the dwarves to be an extremely greedy people from the tales she had heard; why they would want to share their spoils with a score of humans and a rag-tag bunch of elves, she could not fathom. Were they to be lured down into the deep roads and robbed blind? She could not say that they had anything of particular value to warrant such and elaborate scheme— well, certainly she did, but nothing that a dwarf would covet, to be sure. She thought for another moment that somehow the whole scenario was a ruse by which to trap herself and the other elves, and enslave them, but that, again, sounded like a scheme scarcely worth the fanfare.<br/><br/>As Aleks ventured his suggestion, she fixed him with a queer look. The humans, she knew well enough, were harsh captors of their own in this respect. Truly, she had expected a human least of all to suggest their inclusion on such a venture. Advantageous though the concentration of power would be, she imagined that a group of prisoners would have things in mind other than aiding the cause of the Duke if brought outside of their prison.<span style="color: teal">“Shall they trot at our heels like war hounds,” </span>she inquired skeptically of the knight,<span style="color: teal">“I have no misgivings for your mages, but I am no bounty hunter— I did not answer the Duke’s call to stand in their way, should they decide to make a bid for freedom.”</span>Best to clear that up as early as possible.<br/><br/>Tilting her chin, she addressed the Duke.<span style="color: teal">“Your Grace,” </span>she addressed him, with that vaguely mocking flourish,<span style="color: teal">“I am here in response to the call, nothing more. With your promise of compensation, I need know only when we shall depart."</span><div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>