Book 6. Chapter 4: Side quest
“Surface dwellers!” A rather fat man said, almost rolling off one of the skiffs, landing hard on the ground and rushing up to the undersider knights up front, shoving his way through the line. “Goddess bless this goldforsaken land, we’re saved!”
Two of the knights next to him began to lower their rifles down, before the center knight swiftly chopped the air, then lifted a fist up. All rifled went back to aiming right in our direction, and a few hands reaching to the hilt of their knifes.
The rest of the Winterscar knights behind me came to a stop, Wrath included as we held a standstill for a moment.
“Identify yourself.” That undersider knight at the center called out over general comms, with a deeper timber of an older veteran.
“Odd way to greet friendly faces this far down in the underground.” I muttered. A power play of some kind before the mechants?
Wrath opened comms a moment later, “I overheard their earlier discussion. He’s warning his caravan that our cloaks and clothing are hiding far too much of our armor. This is unnatural to surface knights. Your culture does not hide their house sigils, we are suspicious.”
“He thinks we might be slavers or raiders in disguise.” Father added, taking a step forward beyond our lines. “A reasonable precaution.” Then he stopped in his steps, as if he had a better idea and turned back to me. “Boy, handle this. Diplomacy is a skill, practice it.”
He wasn’t really saying I needed to practice speaking to a bunch of panicked soldiers that we weren’t here to enslave them or loot their stuff. He was saying it’s a good chance to practice our official cover.
I gave a shrug of my shoulders, took a step forward and opened up general comms with a traditional clan salute. “I am Remus Nighthaven, of House Nighthaven. We are knights sent by clan Deius.”