Silence fell. The trio looked sheepishly at each other, wry smirks across their faces.
"Oh?" Emma murmured. With her hands behind her, she leaned forward slightly, cocking a curious eyebrow. "You requested Master's help, knowing his price. He didn't coerce or force you; he was simply the only one willing and able to save your lives and territory. Will you try to cheat him out of his due after that?"
The trio looked at her again, and Zahra shook her head with a sigh. "No, we won't. Even if we forget the fact that he saved us, those hunters would simply send another confessor… And we clearly can't deal with that yet."
Next to her, Nasir frowned sombrely. "We don't doubt there's more of them. Do you have any idea how many there are?"
Emma righted herself, smiling softly, and a little more genuinely. "We don't have precise numbers. Only that it's more than five, perhaps even ten, and that most of them are now caught up in a war with the European council."
