<div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/5/5a/Ophelia_argentus.png)</div><strong>Ayala</strong><br/><strong>Location:</strong>Refugee Camp outside Kamthahar<br/><strong>Tags:</strong>Wei and Band, Mysterious Stranger<br/><hr/>Ayala looked dubiously at Wei, as though trying to ascertain whether or not he was serious. A long and level gaze determined that perhaps he was, at which point Ayala started to laugh, a great raucous laugh with a jingle as her bangles shook from it. "Ah, forgive me! Of course you would think such things, and ask such questions, I have not even taken the time to introduce myself!" she said, wiping the first traces of tears from her eyes.<br/><br/>She stood tall and proud, with a dramatic hair-flip. "I am Ayala, Witch of the Purple, Peer of the City, Protege of the Deer-Footed, and inexplicably, emissary of the Unconquered Sun. I have survived no less than seven attempts at poisoning. I have borne the scars of snare and spell alike, and repaid many such ambuscades with interest. I have found my way through rivers of quicksilver and through underways where the darkness was so thick it could strangle you. I have gnawed on the meat of far more fell monsters than those adorable murder-pigs that roam your forests, and lived in places where merely to breathe was death. I stand before you because the Prasadi caught me by surprise. Now that I know they are my enemies, I will burn their bodies and grind their bones into dust.<br/><br/>You offer countervailing arguments. Let me cross-examine!" She addressed each of his companions in turn, "Please, do tell me. How many armies can you raise?" she asked Kedo, "how many sages can you snap your fingers and call?" she asked Opal. To Orrun, "how many harvests can you raise from bare ground?" to Tyara, "how much faster than the wind can you travel, and for how many thousand-leagues?" to Kafani, "how many dreams can you sell in an hour?" to Azula, "how many fortifications can you level?"<br/><br/>"Your dedication to your people is admirable, and I have no doubt their spirits are brave and true, but unless you happen to be a Prince of the Earth yourself," she returned to Wei, "we do<em>not</em>risk equally."