"Hmph." She couldn't help a smirk at the girl. "If you keep pressing on, you'll soon find out just how useless a word like 'impossible' truly is. Everything in Ulduvai is 'impossible' but it's there and it's more dangerous than any of 'you' could ever comprehend." A small seed of guilt sprouted in her conscience for speaking so condescendingly, but weapons were still out. No measure of kind words or smiles would be able to counter that fact until the guards practiced some decency.<br/><br/>Though she didn't understand what a 'Chelaxian' was, she still shot a brief glare their way when she heard the lead guard's unwelcome voice. She looked slightly bored as the young woman offered apologies that were continually hollowed out by the presence of the armed and ready guards. Eventually, she narrowed her gaze and spoke up. "You can make all the excuses you like, but your associates carry themselves as brutish conquerors, not people who have questions about the past." She shakes her head. "It's one thing to read. Another to experience. The Shory are not ancient. Ancient is a word better applied to dusty remnants, not to a woman standing right in front of you." Her expression falters somewhat. "We exist in the here and now...just not as we once did."<br/><br/>Maia fell silent then, and began to hesitate. Even though her father sent her to retrieve mercenaries, she was filled with the desire to walk away or convince them to go back from whence they came. But then again, the guardsmen were knaves. At least she wouldn't feel all that terrible if they met their end while assisting with her mission in Ulduvai. She was sure she'd have to promise them riches in order to get them to help, anyway. And the more that died to the dangers ahead, the less valuables her people would have to part with because the Shory, unlike these fools, understood what it meant to be a decent person. Well...once freed from their torture, that is.