<div class="floatright">  (http://i.imgur.com/MkdOVAW.jpg?2)</div>Seeming to linger when Jia's lips brush hers, the fair girl's skin flushes visibly as her lashes tease at each other.  She sets to work alongside the sorceress, grateful for the company, the immediacy of a non-hostile presence amid the horrors around them.  The work is a suitable distraction.  Once the equipment is amassed, evaluated, and sorted, Baudhiel makes note of the items she cannot yet identify-- though she hopes, soon, to make use of<i>any</i>advantage they have.<br/><br/>She watches Jia as she takes a momentary pause from where she kneels on the black stone, the heat from a massive iron grate sending currents of air stirring about her enough to rustle her blond hair-- her pink skin glistens with perspiration, and a glow from the deep embers belong the room cascades through the grate over her features in bands and waves.  "We have to go back, don't we..?  These things won't pose a threat to her... not yet."  She studies their arsenal once more, and casts a brief glance to Piro and Naori.  "When you are ready to fight her, I'll be with you... but if we're not ready, let's play along.  Let her see that we're good playthings, eager to cooperate for the hope of bargaining for our freedom."<br/><br/>"