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Galanis looks at the group, then his eyes rest on Angel and Liri. 'Getting physical, are we?' he thinks and smiles to himself.

Liri had caught Galanis smile, and looks at him directly with a "so what?" expression.

At Fraso's request, Bastian looks to Galanis from beneath hooded eyes. His feet never leave the table, and yet his whole demeanor changes. "How many assignments have you failed? How many of your employ have died under your care?" The oddly pointed question is not without merit. The blessing he had place upon the drink earlier was a mystical 'truth serum', which causes Galanis to feel compelled to obey.

(OOC) Whoa! In vino veritas will let Bastian know if the person is lying, but it doesn't compel them to tell the truth. (/OOC)

"Bastian.." Angel pats the cleric on the shoulder, "We''ll both handle this..." Approaching Galanis the warrior shows her open palms, "Calah is it? Join us?" Finding a table she motions to them and Bastian.

Leaving the others for Liri and Papa she gives a half smile.

"My friend here has a point, even if he went the wrong way about it.. I've been a Merc for 4 years, I've lost one man." Her face lowers, breaking slightly upon realizing that they missed the service for Daos.. "I guess you can say I'm in charge, how long have you been a Merc, what are your skills..?"

Liri just listens, hiring mercs had never been her task, she watches everyone's reactions for inconsistencies.

Calah sheathes the blade she is working on, tucks them all away, and joins Angel at the table. "I normally work alone," she says. "Much fewer complications when I know exactly what my own group is going to do at all times. I find that a lack of foolish mistakes more than makes up for the limitations of having two hands and one mind at one's disposal. As for what I am able to do, I have a fine collection of sharp pointy objects that I have found serve me quite well for a variety of purposes, and which I believe will suit yours as well, so far as keeping a charge safe on the road. Beyond that, if you need something done, ask, and it will be done."

"Well spoken, Calah" Liri says with an appreciative nod. "But what i would like to know is; If you usually work alone, why would you want to join such large a group?"

"Exactly, how do we know we can rely on you? Mercs code withstanding, many a Merc has abandoned duty and been the only survivor.." Angel echos Liri with a relaxed tone to her voice, pushing her hair from her eyes she places the Elven Longsword on the table.

"This blade was my father's, a gift from the Elves, despite its age, I can trust it to save my life..." She grins widely, revealing white teeth, "Can I rely on you like this blade?"

(Ooc, Angel is slowly growing in confidence, she isn't the shy merc they started with...)

To Liri's question about working together with others, Calah says, "Everybody needs a change of pace now and then. They tell me the real money comes from bigger jobs that require more than one person. And you can only talk to your whetstone for so long before your mind begins to believe it's talking back."

As Angel lays the blade on the table and asks her question of Calah, Calah leans forward, looking deeply and with purpose into Angel's eyes, and says, "If you can find it in you to trust an intelligent sword with a mind of its own, then yes." Calah pauses a moment and then says, "But the answer to whether or not you can trust has at least as much to do with your judgment of character and capability as it does with what you are looking at. Which brings the question right back around. How well do *I* do to trust *you*, and these others you have surrounded yourself with?"

Galanis looks at the interchange of sentences with Calah somewhat amused. "Err... Well... No one died under my guard." he answers Angel somewhat distraced as he still looks at Calah, "And Calah, don't intimidate them too much... I'm sure you are a peach under these layers of armor..." Then he looks at Angle, "As I said, no one ever died under my guard, and I honestly hope no one will ever do." he says seriously, "Once I had carried myself two of my companions that were wounded under one hand and our employee under the other. Obviously I had to leave some of their equipment behind. I carried them 5 days while I crossed marshes full with hostile armies, and I managed to bring them in time to a healer. The whole situation was accidental, we found ourselves in the middle of a war between tribes, we fell into an ambush and were greatly outnumbered, that's how they succeeded to wound us all instantly, but their real enemies appeared and I was able to retreat carrying the wounded. That was the closest I got to losing people." he says his eyes somewhat clouded. It seems something else takes over his mind, his features darkens for a moment, and then is passes away. Returning to the present he forces a small smile and says, "Usually I work with teams of more than four. Never had a real trouble and I'm doing this for six years. And I don't mind having you in charge." He adds winking at Angel but his body language speaks his respect to her.

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OOC: Bastian wouldn't find that Galanis lies, since he doesn't. But Galanis wouldn't talk of his past before he became Merc. Back then he still never lost a companion, but his older brother was captured and tortured for few weeks before Galanis with two of his friends barely managed to rescue him. The captures were supposed to be allies and the betrayal had affected Galanis deeply to a point where sometimes he refuses to acknowledge reality.

((OOC: Sorry! It's been a while since I used it! Rereading it, it's a bit more powerful than I thought anyway. I don't have to cast a spell or blessing, I just have to give the drink to them and if they drink from it, I can tell if they lie.))

Bastian's surly attitude is softened a bit by listening to Calah and Angel argue back and forth in metaphor. It wasn't easy to find people with wit, let alone in a band of mercs. Typically they're more of the cynical type; jaded by the tragedies they've survived.

"Well answered." Angel replies placing her hand on the hilt of her sword. "There is no magic.." Facing off against Caleh her brown eyes flashing with humor as her lips curl in amusement. "I like you."

"I think you'll work out just fine. As for trusting me, or the others.. Master Fraso trusts us, he is your employer.. I think you know where I am heading with this." She grasps the hilt of her blade, sheaving it with a single motion.

"What of you three?" She asks the remaining Mercs.

The big man grins his disturbing grin again and says: "Me? Not losing employer, ever. But then, have never tried being guard before. I am making trouble for other peoples, mostly."

The dwarf speaks up next: "I have been a guard in the city of Roland, but I was guarding valuables, not people. No one ever managed to steal something I was tasked with protecting."

"Losing people is why many of us become mercenaries in the first place. If not for that, we'd have someplace to be, and we'd be better than sellswords," says the bald man. "But I have not lost an employer."

Galanis looks at Angel and Calah, 'I think Calah meant she is the intelligent sword, not the sword at Angel's hip... Well, she is very sharp, and can sting.' Galanis thinks to himself smiles at the double meanings.
Crossing his hands, the veins along his arms strain, Galanis waits for their hires decision, or next question.