I turned the ring of keys over and over in my hands as I contemplated strategy.
"What's our cover story for being here?" I asked.
The Governor got up stiffly and said, "Why I'm sure being the adventurers that you are that you'll want to investigate the ruins in the forest. Not to mention letting it drop of your willingness to open up travel between the surface and this place for the purpose of trade. I think both will be quite plausible reasons for continued existence here for the time being. Well now I shall leave you to plan a mass escape and rejoin your crew as you have much to think about."
He started to leave but then stopped, "If you do go to the forest to look over the ruins be careful of the Salria."
"The Salria?" I asked.
"Yes, they are a spur off group from my people. They went back to the old tribal ways and among other things they practice the superstitious arts as well as black magic. Slave children who have wondered too close to the forest have gone missing before so be careful. They are a strange people and we do not have much to do with them or they us."
"Thanks for the warning." I said and he nodded and walked away.
I fingered the keys again. Was all this an elaborate trap of some kind?
I got up and walked back to the room I had come through to reach this veranda and slammed the door shut; only I was still on the veranda. I slipped quietly across the veranda and stepped behind a pillar and waited.
The girl walked by and I cleared my throat slightly. At the noise she spun around ready to fight or run whichever the case may be.
"Easy! I'm not going to hurt you, okay."
Her breathing slowed a bit and she nodded shakily.
She gazed at me in fear, even as she did her best to cover up how afraid of me she was.
"I'm not going to hurt you. I just want you to answer some questions for me." I said softly in as nonthreatening a manner as I could manage.
She swallowed hard before nodding. She had a look to her of extreme apprehension as to what I might ask her about.
"Mandy was the Governor telling me the truth about everything?"
Her eyes darted off to the side and she said something low that I couldn't hear.
I tipped her face back to me with a finger gently and said, "I didn't hear you."
"Mostly." She said a little louder than before.