Wasting no time in pouring herself a glass of wine, being sure to angle the flow of crimson liquid carefully into the glass to oxygenate it in the process, Xali's eyes flicked up from the wine bottle to Alexei's face. Her comment about the difficulty and value of spellcasting had been mere conversation. The haughty leopardess always enjoyed subtly remarking on her superiority, but at the same time she instinctively understood the danger of appearing arrogant. Therefore, she tended towards holding herself up as an example of the superiority of a philosophy or discipline (spellcraft, in this case), giving her pride a shared foundation with one or more companions.<br/><br/>She'd assumed that Alexei would simply smirk and nod, modest as always, but instead, her mention of the discipline of magic seemed to strike a nerve. At first it occurred to her that the soft-spoken yet thoughtful warrior-mage might be insulted by her suddenly redirected flirtation, but no, he'd seemed amicable enough to it a minute ago. Xali realized that it was her comment about magic itself that troubled him. Her gaze met his for a moment, looking into those almost luminescent eyes with curiosity. But, she did not broach the subject just yet, instead slowly carving off a piece of the decadent dessert Chelsea had brought out and bringing it slowly to her muzzle. "Simply mar-velous. The tart aftertaste of the wine is the perfect complement for such a rich dessert. Oh, I do hate to mar the experience with our scheme of attack, but it's best if these details are hammered out now." As it so happened, that provided Vendra, who looked a little uncomfortable, with the perfect opening.<br/><br/><blockquote class="uncited"><div>“There is a vast number of undead creatures in a necromancers arsenal. A number of the more powerful creations have the ability to perceive creatures through their life force rather then by sight. Invisibility will likely get a number of us past the lesser ghouls and skeletons, though if we encounter one of the more powerful creations we may find ourselves flanked on both sides if they can get a warning out to those we sneaked by” The priestess cleared her throat. Seemingly Vendra had an adept knowledge of necromancers and undead. </div></blockquote><br/><br/>For all of her intelligence and all of her talk about the intense practice needed for wizardry, Xali was not the most disciplined or level-headed creature. Vendra, the timid little slave who Kahimori treated like a princess and Xali herself had rapidly been warming up to, may as well have dashed her wine in Xali's face. Not even a mage herself, but a priestess! If Vendra had been mistaken, Xali would have giggled good-naturedly and gently corrected her, but Vendra was entirely correct. And it is not merely a detail that Xali had neglected to mention; she'd forgotten entirely about the way that higher-order undead perceived the world.<br/><br/>Outwardly, Xali's reaction was very subtle. Her eyes flicked to Vendra, wide with a mixture of incredulity and hostility, but otherwise her face did not twitch. Although her tail puffed out slightly as the hair stood on end, it was mostly hidden from her companions' view. Immediately she realized that she was, once again, trapped. The thought that Vendra was only trying to be helpful did not occur to Xali; clearly the human wanted to show the others that SHE was the superior scholar. No doubt Vendra was already looking ahead to a time when she could supplant Xali entirely, perhaps be 'forced' to kill her in self defense. Paradoxically, Xali felt a new respect for Vendra along with the paranoid hostility; she should have realized that a Vanadiond would understand the dynamics of power. Well, in any case, it would be foolish to try and pretend she hadn't forgotten now.<br/><br/>Xali put on the most convincing smile she could muster, carefully avoiding the showing of teeth, and nodded politely to Vendra. "But of course!<span style="font-style: italic">Thank you</span>, Vendra, I don't know how such an important detail could have slipped my mind. Even so, I think being able to infiltrate past the weaker undead will be well worth the effort. As I said before, the greatest danger is being caught out in the open where a large number of the awful things can attack us from all directions. I think we should try and get as deep into the crypt as possible. I don't think being caught between the soul-sighted undead and the horde of coffin-fodder will be a terrible problem, since we can seal the weak undead out, at least in the short term. I can<span style="font-style: italic">arcane lock</span>doors, and we can always collapse a passageway or two. Even if they DO manage to get in behind us, the cramped conditions will work against them."<br/><br/>She laughed again, her voice holding no hint of the unpleasant thoughts buzzing in her mind. "But I don't think it shall come to that. Most likely the necromancer will have the strongest... specimens... guarding him or her, so by the time we're spotted, we will be within sight of our goal." She took a generous sip of wine between each sentence, topping off the glass each time it began running low, seeking to calm her nerves and studiously keeping her gaze away from Vendra, not wanting to let on that she was wise to the little bimbo's plans.<br/><br/><div style="padding: 3px; background-color: #FFFFFF; border: 1px solid #d8d8d8; font-size: 1em;"><div style="text-transform: uppercase; border-bottom: 1px solid #CCCCCC; margin-bottom: 3px; font-size: 0.8em; font-weight: bold; display: block;"><span onclick="if (this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display != '') {  this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = ''; this.innerHTML = '&lt;b&gt;Spoiler: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;a href=\'#\' onClick=\'return false;\'&gt;hide&lt;/a&gt;'; } else { this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = 'none'; this.innerHTML = '&lt;b&gt;Spoiler: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;a href=\'#\' onClick=\'return false;\'&gt;show&lt;/a&gt;'; }"><b>Spoiler: </b><a href="#" onclick="return false;">show</a></span></div><div class="quotecontent"><div style="display: none;">At this point, I know that Xali's private thoughts are revealing her more and more to be a genuinely unpleasant person and a potential ticking time bomb. The former, she probably is, but the latter she really isn't. I'm not going to start trying to assassinate Vendra or otherwise wreak havoc. I'm just trying to show how a neutral evil-aligned character with excellent intelligence and good charisma but low wisdom would think.</div></div></div>