<div class="floatright">  (http://i.imgur.com/MkdOVAW.jpg?2)</div>When Jia draws back, Baudhiel holds her breath-- at the young wpoman's gesture, she can't help but look momentarily at the delicate hand on her lean arm, as if the gesture is odd to her.<br/><br/>She obliges, of course, recognizing in some primal way that the girl was after their mutual best interests, and steps back with her to continue to stare at the pot.  Oblivious of the servant-- or torturer, or janitor, or whatever he was-- she continues to stare at the pot.<br/><br/>"Lethe's waters... they would take memories, yes?"  she whispers, her eyes staring longingly at the column of vapors rising into the bleak and blackened sky.  "Is that how they did it..?  Could they do more?"<br/><br/>She feels for the pouch on her hip where she keeps her empty potion vials-- and, of course, finds nothing.  There is a flash of memory, faded and jagged like a marionette play for children, of tossing a vial of virulent, healing fluid from that hip to the waiting hand of a wounded partner, one whose bold grin never faded, even in the face of dire peril...<br/><br/>She stares at the cauldron still, seemingly ignoring the man, and following the channels of magic to the sigil at the gate that would free the beasts from their cages.  "They trapped those kennels to the main gate.  We barely escaped being eaten alive.  So far."