Then she corrected herself. Not the same type of people. Certainly still people. That at least was proven by how irritatingly bureaucratic they were.

Orfeus turned to Margaux and spread out her hands, slowly so it couldn’t be taken as any colour of threat. “Does the advice of your own expert convince you, at least, if my protests do not?”

“I wasn’t advising,” O’Hallow said. “I don’t advise. I tell, teach, talk.” Xe smiled, looking enchanted by the words. “Speak and say and scribe.”

“Significance,” Margaux said. O’Hallow subsided. Margaux looked at Orfeus, gauging her. “Perhaps if you agreed to comport yourself with the decorum befitting a Blood user – perhaps if you consented to further study, we could find you the information you seek and safe haven in our city.”

“I feel you’ve learned the most important thing about me already,” Orfeus said. She glared daggers at the woman, like slivers of stained glass. “I don’t shut up! If you try to keep me here against my will, then I will rail and I will rant and I will spread the word of your doings as far as I can across the web of the world. I will, yes, tell and talk and speak and say and shout, and I will never stop and I’ll never shut up. I’ll use every inch of any bardic gift I have to sing to the world of your tyranny.” She grinned. “Now that would corrupt your image.”

O’Hallow nodded amicably. Xe was the only one who didn’t seem concerned one way or another by the goings-on. Margaux looked spitfire furious, her teeth grinding together.

She glanced around at the other four, then directed her chair back, half turning her body away. “You have free rein to enjoy our city, Orfeus,” she said, the words dragging past her lips like they pained her. “For a day. Or two.”

Orfeus gave the most elaborate salute she could think of, flaring her fingers at the end for the malicious joy of seeing half the council flinch. “I wasn’t planning on a month-long stay, Madame.” She’d just have to find some other safe place.

They all turned their backs on her. But the bulky one, Othmar, made sure to still have her in the corner of their eye, like she was going to jump out at them or something.

She tipped back her head and looked up at the stained solarglass wall, no significance to the design that she could see, just geometric patterns. Here in the presence of beauty and richly growing things, Orfeus stood making a soundless prayer to the Green. The Green didn’t need words or structured worship, one reason why she didn’t pray more often. It was about intention, appreciation, being in the moment, the smell of soil, living things.