Ludo, 31st Pflugzeit

Spoiler: Gina Spills the Beans-a
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Did she ever say why she hated the witch so much?
“Many reasons,” said Gina. “When she first came it was that she was a dilettante, that she did not wash, that she would embarrass them. Now it is more that she is… dangerous, that she gives herself airs, that she is using them for her own purposes.”

“Maybe she is right. She made us search the witch’s rooms. We found things… there was a book covered in human skin.” She whispered it, as if they might somehow be overheard on this wide open road. “My grandfather always told me, if you break your toe and a witch offers you help, it’s better to lose the leg. But the Prince decided to keep her all the same.” She paused. “That was the most angry I remember seeing them with each other.”

How did she decide who? The handsome ones?
Gina laughed darkly. “She chooses the ones who are presentable, yes. And who know how to behave. One time in Al-Haikk she was very displeased - she was yelling at her husband about how she was supposed to receive guests with a ‘one-eyed ogre’ at the door.” She paused for a moment in recollection. “He was not so bad-looking, either. He should just have bought an eyepatch.”

Where are the others when not at the door?
She shrugged. “Back with the others?” she said. “The Prince - the Captain, he was then - he said he did not want his men forgetting how to be soldiers. That’s why there’s always a - how do you call it - a rotation.”

OOC:
Spoiler
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What happened to Bianco in the end? (Ludo feels safe asking this because Gina seems not to have connected him with Elsa - if he's not actually got that impression, he won't ask).
As she mentions above, she was involved in the events that precipitated the trial. Irene was physically present in Manann’s Keep so you can guess her handmaids were tagging along too - how much they knew about Bianco’s formal role in proceedings is more of a blind guess. If you’d still like to ask let me know.


32nd Pflugzeit

Ludo

Filomena had the money on hand - Ludo got the feeling she’d been prepared for some time. It was quite a lot to carry, even - or perhaps especially - in its iron-rimmed strongbox.

“You’re collecting by yourself?” she asked, with the faintest note of surprise. “I can send Pietro with you, if you need it. A little man, carrying all this through the streets… not everyone knows about your friends in high places.” She paused, scrutinising his face. “Some might even be desperate enough not to care.”

"Perhaps I'm misremembering, but I'm given to understand there's no love lost between you and the principessa. Is that right?"
Filomena’s expression stayed very deliberately impassive.

“Why should there be any to begin with?” she asked. “She’s a princess. I keep whorehouses. In her world, people like me don’t exist.” She paused. “Or else they charge a lot more.”

Sieghard

Sforza listened to Sieghard’s account with concern.

“Abdul should have sent word immediately,” he said. “But the book was not in danger? How close did the creature get this time?”

“And the old priest,” he asked, when Sieghard had given his answer, “he still lives? Do you think he can still be trusted?”

“What did Holt have to do with all this?” added Irene. “Isn’t she supposed to be in Putbad?”

Elsa

Tattie looked less than confident in her Chaos diagnosing abilities, but nodded in relief at Elsa’s plans to keep out of the way of the returning royals.

“Where are we going, then?” she asked. “You said we were looking for a… a wanderer?”