"...There. That spot, please."

"Right there? Very well."

Metalling clanging could be heard in the rocky canyon as the four-armed demon swung repeatedly with two pickaxes at the spot the Pumpkinhead designated.

They had reached this area earlier in the day, after a conversation with the troubled succubus from before. Since then, it seems they'd been engaging in small mining projects at various spots.

"You're sure [CLANG] it's here, [CLANG] witch?"

"Not with absolute certainty, no. But I do sense it."

"Fair enough, [CLANG] I suppose."

Merciviant watched its companion as it swung away without losing even an ounce of energy. It was half relief and half admiration, due to its own frail form not quite able to keep up with its summoned allies...and with the summoner's issues, it likely wouldn't catch up anytime soon. It would instead have to focus on its talents - as it said, talent polished with skill is formidable indeed.

"I will say that I am surprised at how you've taken to this, Lord Asmodeus. You even insisted to do so." It looked with a focused stare on the pickaxe that it was going to use alongside its ally.

"Is that so? [CLANG] I quite enjoy physical activity. [CLANG] Even in my own realm [CLANG] I make it a point to do so often. [CLANG] I am quite proud of my strength, you know." He finally seems to stop and give his physical avatar a moment to rest.

"To be completely honest...I had wondered if you did, or if you often had your servants do so."

"Nonsense. My servants are there to assist me, not do my work for me."

"A reasonable position, I would think...though I would not care to be a ruler or ruled over myself either way."

"Oh? From what I am seeing..." He picks up the pickaxes again. "...you have at least a bit of potential to be [CLANG] a proper master over demonkind, should you pursue it. My advice [CLANG CLANG] is at your disposal, should you desire it."

Merciviant looked down as the clanging grew louder.

"I truly cannot imagine that."

The pair had done a lot of travelling together before. Half a decade, in fact. But even with all that, this felt different to Haut. Being honest about shit wasn't always the easiest for him, so it was a big step! It's hard to say he wasn't kinda walking on air though, at least as far as his personal life was going. Which, frankly, he kinda felt like he deserved a win so this was the best possible one to get. Not everything, but enough things, were coming up Haut at the moment.

The sound of metal slamming into rock did kind of distract for a moment, though. Wandering the path from Truce to the super-cozy-lete-spot brought Haut and Jillian both past some kinda pumpkin head and mining demon. "Huh. Kinda thought I'd see that sorta stuff around Brigantes, or maybe Viorar." It was an idle comment, but he was interested in seeing the pair. They were just kinda weird.

For her part, Jillian looks surprised but not-at-all displeased by the pair they happen to pass by, and the clang of the excavation process apparently did not discourage her at all; she'd been around Haut long enough that loud noises were pretty frequent, and not all of them involved foul language, either. Not all the time, anyway. A happy smile forms on her face when she recognizes Merciviant and Asmodeus, and she actually calls out to them, as such. "I didn't figure you'd have gone far," she says, raising her voice a little against the mining process, "but I suppose I wasn't sure what you actually meant when you referred to 'enslavement materials,' at the time." Her smile wavers a little bit, as if she were trying not to transition into a smirk about something, but manages to hold on.

Zen had been taking a not inconsiderable amount of time just getting to know the area around Truce. It was part of her job, after all, and she took her job pretty seriously. The fastest way to get familiar with a place was to see it from above.

She had been spending quite a lot of time in the form of a small bluebird and had been flying for quite some time already when the clanging sound that seemed to be coming from a nearby canyon had caught her attention.

Investigating was part of the job, and so the small bird swooped downward into the canyon, flitting nimbly between the rocky walls until she found the source of the sound. Four individuals were talking, one of which she recognized as the man that Deacon had asked her to make the delivery for.

Taking a moment to perch on an outcropping nearby, she sat and curiously observed the group whilst doing her best to appear as normal a fauna as she could as she listened.

Merciviant turns to Jillian on hearing her voice. Asmodeus turns his head as well, but doesn't stop his mining.

"Aha, look who it is, witch! This is better company to keep than the others you're so meek around."

"You truly cannot help but jab at them, can you?" Looking back to Jillian after its retort, "Though it is good to see you in higher spirits. How is-"

"Found one!"

Amsodeus's excited shout caught the summoner's attention instantly as a chunk of silver ore fell to the ground, dislodged by his strike.

"Excellent, Lord Asmodeus. Just the right size as well...ah, but we are being rude. Apologies."

It looks to Jillian's imposing companion. "I recognize you from the fountain as well, though I do not believe we had the chance to speak at length. You seem well."

Haut looks between the pair, and his own companion. The words 'enslavement materials' raises his eyebrow. "You meet more and more interesting people when I'm not around." As the pumpkinhead looks to him and claims familiarity, Haut cocks his head to the side. "Wait, are you the thing that was there for the shadows? Sorry, my attention was a little split at the time."

He points a thumb to himself. "Haut, as way of introductions go. If you're a friend of hers I can't really think that badly of you." That said, he also doesn't want to bring up much of the day of conversation. Jill's friend was Jill's friend, and him just saying some shit would get in the way of them talking. And he was happy to promote the chance for her to talk to more people.

Which left him kinda watching this 'Lord Asmodeus'. He had kinda assumed it was a summoned creature, but summoners rarely call their minions by such titles. (edited)

The comment about her in higher spirits reinforced her smile, and she offered a nod. "Aye," she said, a bit formally. She offers Haut a side glance, more than a trace of fondness found in her eyes for that moment, before looking back upon the pumpkinhead and his mining cohort. "Sometimes paranoia gets the better of us, and things do not truly turn out as painfully as we predict them to be. Such is the nature of... being 'normal,' I suppose." Her smile loses to that smirk she was trying to avoid from earlier, in spite of herself. "I was going to say 'mortals,' but I don't quite qualify for that concept." Her demeanor is good-natured and she seems pretty happy, in general, about things. (edited)

The group seemed to be on amiable terms, that was nice to see, considering her first encounter in this place it was good to see the man known as Haut wasn't aggressive toward -everyone-. Truth be told, she was intimidated by the man.

The other three, now they actually put her on edge a little. One looked a bit like a tiefling, but the other two? And mention of "enslavement materials"? She wasn't entirely certain if she should keep eavesdropping or if she should mind her own business. But she WAS a scout, she was supposed to be keeping her finger in the pulse of this world...So she ruffled her feathers a little settled in to be nosey.

Asmodeus's shining eyes stare right at the man calling himself Haut with a disturbing intensity. He definitely seemed to be analyzing him in some way, before a fanged smile crept over his scaled face. "Well now, it would seem we keep yet more interesting company still, do we not? Most interesting indeed."

Merciviant seemed puzzled by its companion's reaction - normally, Asmodeus had a more annoyed disposition towards apparently mortal beings - but he had been lightening up rapidly of late, and this might have been one of those times.

It nodded at Haut's initial question. "I am Merciviant. This is my companion L-"

"Asmodeus, demon king of desire. A pleasure to share my true name with you."

"...? At any rate, we had no pact at that time. The two of us only spoke at length with your companion earlier today. And on that note..." It turned back to Jillian.

"It is good to see you in higher spirits. Perhaps we both have found a good path forward."

The first thought to Haut's mind is 'bullshit' followed by wondering why the fuck a 'demon king' would be swinging a pickaxe for a pumpkinhead. What actually comes out of his mouth is "Huh." The chaotic pathways that lead to this place didn't just pull from one specific place, so who knows. Maybe this really was a demon king from somewhere. And maybe he wasn't just lying out of his non-existent ass.

The point was, he wasn't really being a problem. "Guess you and Jill have something in common, then. No offense though, I'd rather have her as a companion than you." It was a pretty easy choice to make, all things considered.

She hears all of this and detects that there is some kind of underline between either or both of them, but in her head, she's had way too much unearthing of drama that may or may not exist for the time being, and decides to just... not go there, right now. "I think so," she said to the pumpkinhead. She turns her head slightly to look at Haut. "Merciviant met me by the gate when I first arrived in Truce. If I could say anything, it would be that they helped build up my courage a little bit, in order to be able to come out to you with what I did. I appreciate their efforts considerably, and I fairly like the lord Asmodeus' wit, besides." Her tone is conversational and she even slides in the honorific, besides. "I would consider them 'allies' in either case, and they have pledged assistance if we require it, in whatever capacity that may or may not involve." Almost idly, she reaches up to rearrange a bit of her bangs around her left horn, as if it were irritating her in a passive way.

Her sleek, spaded tail flicks idly about her backside, and she braces one black-toenailed foot behind the other, both of which are bare against the rocky ground beneath them. "Allies are not exactly something we can have too few of, I would like to think, at this particular moment," she comments, offhandedly.

Asmodeus...of the nine hells? Zen felt her gut knot up. She hoped it was just a coincidence. That maybe in some other world demons were just a term like Tiefling, or maybe the being was lying. Either way, she should probably try to be careful.

It took her a few moments of studying the Tiefling to recognize her. No, not a Tiefling, Deacon had said Succubus. She was the other person that Zen had been instructed could be a point of contact. At least the woman looked like the illusion she'd been shown.

The little bird shuffled a little on the rock that served as her perch. Maybe once she had listened a bit more, she might make herself known, but the "demon" was making her hesitate to do such a thing. Probably best to just listen.

Asmodeus smirked and gave a small chuckle at Haut's comment. "Why, I can hardly blame you. I dare say I would too!"

"You would...prefer her to yourself?"

"Yes."

"I am struggling to understand how that would even work."

"Oh, the limitations of one restricted to a material frame."

Merciviant shrugged. "I suppose." It walked over to where Asmodeus had been mining and picked up the chunk of silver.

"This will indeed do nicely. We should be able to establish a connection tonight."

As Merciviant secured the ore in a small pouch and stowed it away, Asmodeus looked to Jillian.

"So then, good lady. Even if your path and answers are not quite set, I see fewer uncertain clouds about you. Though the smiles say it all, in truth."

She can't hide her grin at Asmodeus' initial comment, and it's pretty obvious that she thinks he is just 'the shit'. "Yes," she admits, "as I mentioned, things did not end in as perverse a fallout as I anticipated. There is..." she pauses, shifting on her other foot, "still quite a bit of work to do, elsewhere. And I haven't forgotten my promise to reach out to you and your Conductor, either, should the need arise. We have a way forward, at the very least, we simply need to find the means to traverse that path, as yet." Her tone feels a little... uncertain, but not in any overbleeding way.

"As perverse as the fallout may be, and as much of a path as we might have, it's still one we know we're on." The wording amused him, given the pair of demons present. "That said, friend of Jill's is a friend of mine. You find yourself with something you need a hand with, I'll see what can get done. Even if the magic side of things tends to get past me."

Being out of his depth was nothing really new to Haut, but it's been a while since the different circles him and Jill moved in got shoved into his face. He'd almost consider crash reading some demonology books or something, but he just didn't have the time. Plus he might now find himself with some choice words about people's phrasing considering succubi.

Never thought he'd be finding himself white knighting for sexy demons, but life really did take strange turns.

The small bluebird fluffed up a little more, she felt like she was definitely listening to something that she probably would rather not be. The word perverse cropping up in their conversation made her uncomfortable, but she supposed it made sense to a degree, she knew at least on of those present was a succubi. If she was being honest with herself she wasn't really keen on meeting her, despite Deacon's assurances that the woman was alright for now.

Of course Deacon never seemed bothered by anything, she wasn't even sure he was capable of being bothered at this point. If she hadn't been loitering around in the body of a bird, she'd probably be red in the face just from hearing the vague bits of out of context conversation. As it was, she was just feeling more anxious.

On Haut's offer of help, the demon king looked down to his summoner, who seemed distracted through most of this. "Didn't you mention having difficulties with refinement, witch? Perhaps ask him about it."

"Ah, that is true...I do not wish to impose, but if it's a simple enough task..."

Merciviant takes the small silver chunk back out.

"The metals I use as pact offerings become the seals of the demons I work with once the contract is settled. As such, a certain degree of purity is ideal. This chunk likely is fine as it is, but the less of such impurities the better. It allows them to channel more of their strength when I summon them... however, I am no metallurgist. Nor do I fully understand what it is that is 'impure' about them. If you happen to have any such means to remove them, that would indeed help us to be more prepared overall, even for everyday ordeals."

"Purifying silver eh?" Haut collects the chunk, eyeballing it and using a thumbnail to try and scratch some rock away from it. He was more of a tinker than a smith, but that still didn't mean he was useless at it. "Yeah I'm pretty sure I could get it smelted down, that'd get the stone out at least. Plus any other bits of metal with a different melting point would get separated off."

It was work, but it was actually work he could do. And he had just said he could help. "Think you could wait until tomorrow? I got another project I'm working on but I could have this cooking in the background."

Jillian seems distracted at the moment by something, tipping her head upward slightly as her vertical green irises contract slightly while Haut discusses his prospects with Merciviant and Asmodeus. She smiles slightly, then, just a little upturn of both corners of her mouth as her voice takes on something of a sing-song-y type of lilt, which, for her, is actually not abnormal. "Ah... miv sa niss'ta pu'koki~..." Her voice is elongated a bit on that last syllable of... whatever that was, just now. Rather abruptly, though, she seems to realize something and gives her head a stiff shake, blinking a couple times. "Oh, whoops," she said, looking confused. "I think I zoned out for a moment. Too much shit going through my head lately." She casts an aside glance at the bit of silver, only catching the last few bits of Haut's statement, something about cooking. She had mentioned that she wasn't that hungry, though, but he could've been talking about something else.

"Yes, that is more than fine. Thank you for the help." Merciviant hands Haut the piece of silver.

"Although that does mean we are free for the day. Would you care to return to the Abyss for a time, Lord Asmodeus?"

The demon thought on the offer for a moment, looking over Jillian and Haut, tapping one of his many fingers against his jaw.

"Hmm...I would not mind, per se...but I suppose I'll have a bit of fun out and about instead. I'm enjoying the excersise. And also..."

"Also?" Merciviant tilted its head at the shift in tone in its ally's voice.

"I would very much like to know where that absolutely delectable aura of fear is coming from."

When the succubus did her little sing-song comment the little bluebird shifted on it's perch and tried it's best to act casual. That was supposed to be a possible ally at least. And the woman didn't seem all that inclined to drag her out of her hiding spot to expose her.

The DEMON on the other hand, that made her freeze, hoping desperately that maybe if she didn't move she would wouldn't be spotted. Zen wasn't equipped to deal with a demon all on her own, if it chose to attack, but she was worried if she tried to flee she'd end up getting attacked.

The little bluebird crouched there for a long handful of rapid little heartbeats. Zen was trying to analyze her options, flee and maybe get blasted out of the sky, stay where she was and hope they didn't actually hone in on her, though one of them seemingly claimed to have seen her so that could be a point against that, or...hope that Deacon was right in putting a level of trust in the angry man and succubus and go down there with the tenuous hope that they'd keep her from getting ripped apart by a demon.

Ultimately, she trusted Deacon. Taking another few moments to try and compose herself, the little bird dropped from its perch and swooped down to land, being sure to keep Haut and the succubus between herself and the demon, before she reverted to her elven form.

"Um...hello, Mr Haut, and friends." She gave a little bow, her voice was quiet but steady, even if she didn't FEEL steady. "I was just flying by and I thought perhaps I would check in and see if the materials I delivered were to your satisfaction."

She seems genuinely surprised, actually, at the sudden appearance behind her and Haut of Zen's slender form, but it also could've just been her keeping up appearance; deception she was good at, just... not around Haut. She had a tendency to be transparent as glass toward him (most of the time), without even really meaning to. It's also not certain if part of that surprise, too, comes from the fact that this girl seems to know Haut already. "A wood elf?" she said, turning just to one side to be able to see Zen better. "That's a surprise, it's been a very long time since I've been in the company of one such as yourself. And, unfortunately, they weren't really under good tidings at that time, either..." Her tone is conversational, at least, taking on a bit of a thoughtful undertone as she considers her last engagement with Zen's kind. A lot of blood involved, that one. Her eyes shift to Haut, as if waiting for some sort of clarification or confirmation, but she seems not to act in any physical way, herself. (edited)

There's a little rollercoaster that plays across Haut's face. From the momentary acceptance of yet more work on his plate, to a confused but endearing smile as Jillian has her little sing-song in what might as well be deku to his understanding. "Don't worry about it Jill, I like hearing you sing."

It's the flurry of motion behind him that really affects Haut though. Jill would be able to recognize the expression on his face, that strained, hair trigger response of someone an errant twitch away from committing violence. It was Zen calling his name that walked things back, and kept him from hauling around to punch whoever the fuck just showed up straight in the face.

There's a moment of calming, before Haut turns around and nods. "Zen, good to see you're getting used to the area. Jill, she's with Deacon." It would explain the most in the least to just cut the chase and arrive at the crash. "Zen, this is my better half, and one Merciviant and Asmodeus. Everyone here is fine, no need to worry." Despite the fact that one was a succubus, one was a pumpkin headed skeleton fingered monster, another was a skeleton demon, and Haut himself was... mostly a normal guy with a temper, he seemed to speak with what he considered to be authority here.

"The materials functioned perfectly, no need to worry about my satisfaction there."

Zen forced a small smile, though the observant sort would see the tension in it. "Oh, well I'm pleased to hear that." she said softly before casting a pensive glance at the pumpkin headed being, and the demon before her gaze turned to Jillian.

"it is nice to meet you, Miss Jillian. I'm sorry if I intruded on anything. I can be on my way." Part of her wanted them to just bid her farewell and dismiss her entirely. She wasn't comfortable with so many fiendish eyes turned her way, even if they were supposedly friendly ones.

Asmodeus gazed at the newcomer with one curled finger on his chin, smirking. "Shapeshifting! Always an enjoyable skill. The things you see and hear and do when no one recognizes and interrupts you..."

Merciviant was oddly silent as its eye light kept shifting from the now revealed wood elf to the open page of its grimoire, depicting a strange, vaguely peacock like entity."

Her grin does not hide one of her elongated canines, but her actual demeanor, for what its worth, comes off as genuine and friendly. She idly brushes a length of white hair behind one ear, and at least offers a smile at Zen. "Ah, so you're the 'scout' Deacon mentioned," she remarks, brushing one foot loosely against the rough ground. "I didn't know he was going to send us such a cutie, though. This day just keeps getting better and better." She declines her head slightly, a somewhat-submissive gesture. "I apologize if you were startled, but I meant no harm. Old habits die hard, I'm sure one with a lifespan as long as yours can understand to at least an agreeable degree, too, yes?"

Being called a "cutie" caused a pink colouration to spread across her cheeks involuntarily. She decided to focus on the last comment to spare herself from paying too much attention to the rest of it.

"We are indeed long lived." She agreed quietly "Thankfully my work has kept me rather flexible when it comes to my behavior however. The constant new experiences keeps me on my toes."

She glanced around at the four, painfully awkward as to what else to day. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have interrupted."

Haut shakes his head. "Don't worry about it. You're getting better at how you make interruptions. No roaring this time at least." A grin spreads across his face as he joins in the teasing. "I think we're pretty close to business concluded though, right?" He points his question at Merciviant by turning to face it once more. "Northern residential tomorrow, look for the place with a hole in the garage door." He pauses for a second, before looking back between both non-demon figures. "Actually if you wanna get in touch with some more natives, this could be a good opportunity for you, Zen."

Zen felt like she wanted to shrink into a hole and disappear with the reminder of her first little screw up on this job. What she wouldn't give to be that T-Rex right now, at least then her expression would be harder to read. Even the angry one was teasing her now.

"I'm not entirely certain what to say. I'm not generally the...talkie type." She said quietly and scanned the quartet. Not only that but she needed to be careful with information too. Ragavor probably would have been a better pick for this particular job, he at least didn't -care- if he had to talk to people. Actually, Mr Haut and him probably would have gotten along pretty well if she had to guess.

"I don't have anything else going on today, so...i'm free." As much as she would rather not talk, she was here to learn, and that involved talking so she was going to have to suck it up.

Jillian smile shifts slightly as she looks upon Zen and her obvious discomfort. Her eyes glance for a second toward Haut, but she speaks toward the former, letting a hidden accent flow into her tone, taking on that same sort of sing-song-y vocale from earlier. "Miv sa vivra roven sa vivel bortani ilminjustari, luto miv sa somin'tisbara shirov sa ju seku~" she half-said, half-melodicized, a sort of almost-maternal expression forming over her face. She tips her head slightly, a bit of bangs moving aside as she does and unveiling the left of her horns that had been hidden up to that point. "Gorvin sa na keosmin'ti shumi kromeshukeki ju pu'koki, loro shirov sa ju su tiven." She doesn't look at anyone else as she speaks, as if wanting to make sure that Zen is reading her face and nothing is left up to interpretation (pun possibly intended).

"I do appreciate it, Miss Jillian. I...I'll admit that this isn't my usual assiginment. So I'm a little on edge." she said quietly. "But if Mr Benoit trusts you, then I am inclined to as well."

Mr Haut and Miss Jillian she trusted, but the other two...there was a reason she was keeping those she was inclined to trust, between her and the demon and the pumpkin.

Merciviant was very still and quiet, but its light is focused on Jillian as she sings out that unknown, yet increasingly familiar sound.

"That song...I may have heard it or something like it recently. Where was it..."

Thinking back, it realized what it was the song reminded it of - the language the friendly centaur girl it met previously had spoken.

It listened more closely now, wanting to be sure, but also noting the similarities between the first person to show it simple, direct friendliness, and one now who it could not help but see in a similar light. It didn't know if there was a direct connection between them, but one thing was clear to it.

"Something off, witch?"

Its amused companion no doubt picked up on it.

"Not as such, no. I am.just realizing I may be better off here, in the end."

Haut wasn't going to pretend to understand what the hell Jill was on about, but it seemed to calm Zen down just a little so who cared? As for his part, he could follow the gaze that Zen had cast. "And this one helped save a kid back before your boss showed up. So y'know, good Samaritan points abound." He didn't feel the need to mention it was saving said kid from a clone of him made by Jill, she wasn't to blame for it so it didn't need to get brought up.

"Besides, new people are all over the place here, but you're not gonna be able to get to know 'em without chattin' 'em up."

She maintains her smile in Zen's direction for a moment or so long as Haut says his piece, before her attention pans off back toward the south, at the bottom end of the slope and the bank of the Lete just beyond. Something seems to roll around in her head for a moment, and whatever it is drops her smile just a little bit, but not entirely. "What are your plans from here, Merciviant? Lord Asmodeus?" she said, without actually turning around, her eyes still focused somewhere beyond where the four of them stood. "You mentioned further pacts to be made, as I recall."

"Yes, a potential ally that may work as a fine informant...as well as an actor for more subversive actions, if necesary."

"Should you really be saying that? You're too-"

"Trusting, I am aware. But I cannot continue to not trust others and only feign benevolence. It is as you said."

"Ah. So you are taking my advice to heart. I'm moved, witch."

Merciviant almost seemed to sigh.

"While that moniker is correct, could you please make an effort to return the respect I give to you in regards to my name?"

"Only when you find yourself. There is no point in properly addressing a 'maybe' or 'possibly'."

Merciviant was clearly annoyed by this but gave no further retort.

"At any rate, yes, by the time we pick up the silver tomorrow we shall be ready for the necessary ritual. I do hope to introduce you to our future associate soon."

Zen listened quietly to the exchange. The mention of a pact...Seems the pumpkin might be some sort of warlock from what she could gather. As for the demon having saved a child...demons were notoriously duplicitous, maybe it had nefarious intentions for the child in the future?

"Right.." She said, in response to Haut's statement about not being able to get to know people without talking to them. "I'm just not the best with casual conversation, so I'm not really certain what I could talk about...that's all."

She had spent most of her youth barely ever using her voice since the unicorns tended to rely on telepathy to chat. Even at her current job, most of her co-workers were rather loud and boisterous and so she tended to blend into the background around such big personalities.

"Um...was the child okay?" She asked finally, she might be bad at talking but if there was something or someone to be concerned about, she was an ace at that.

Merciviant looked to Zen and nodded.

"Yes, the last I saw. I believe he was headed back to his family. I have not seen him since, but would assume he is doing fine. I do hope to at some point, however...magical talent like that manifesting at such an age is rare, in my experience."

Asmodeus looked down to his summoner with a quizzical look.

"I don't believe you've told me much of this one. In the same craft, or something else?"

"I do not recall if he had found his focus yet. I do remember him being able to use recovery magic."

"Hmm...useful, I suppose. But not terribly interesting."

"You say this, but I could stand to learn a bit of it myself. I do not care for the majority of you taking hits for me as I do little other than direct attacks."

While it didn't have many demons in its service quite yet, Merciviant was already attached to them quite a bit - even Asmodeus, though it becomes increasingly difficult to say so. Its eye-light wandered to the pair of pickaxes resting on the ground.

"I could use improvement in many areas, to be certain."

Looking back at Zen, its light was a different color for just a moment - a shining white before going back to the usual dull orange of a candle flame.

"I should mention he was one such as myself as well. We have our weaknesses, but we also have a certain resilience to us. I believe he will be well, come what may."

Haut lets his attention bounce back and forth between the trio as they talk in amongst each other. Truth was, he wasn't really here to be Zen's introduction to everyone, and also he couldn't really understand what the pumpkinhead was talking about half the time. Nudging at Jillian, he wordlessly asks if she'd like to continue on to their actual destination. Fun as this all was, he was here to spend time with her. He will stash the silver chunk in his jacket's breast pocket though, making the likelihood of it coming into contact with Jill nearly zero.

That just wasn't a pocket that got gone into much. Even less by other people.

Jillian's attention is captured and returned at the mention of the child, and she pivots slightly on one foot to bring her face back forward into the group. Before she has a chance to say anything on the part, though, she is nudged and glances down at Haut as he stows the nugget away, but she catches the drift he's trying to insinuate and offers a shorthand grin, with an applied nod. Then, she speaks up. "I think we're going to take off for a little bit," she said. "It's been a pretty rough couple of days, and I'm of the mind to relax for a bit before we start having to put other plans in motion, especially since we won't know when the next chance for a break might even be." She glances between the lot of them, but seems to let her vertical green eyes land on Zen for a bit longer than the others. There's something in her expression thus, but it's only there for a moment and disperses rather quickly, and it mostly seems like she's just wanting to make sure that the newest-comer of their group is at ease with being left behind.

With the notion of Haut and Jillian leaving, Zen's anxiety grew again. She couldn't very well say "No don't leave me here." or "Yeah I'm good." Neither of those were appropriate. She was a grown woman, and logically she had seen no explicit reason as to why she should think these two in particular were bad. Aside from being prejudiced toward demons.

Every single demon she had EVER encountered had been inclined to try to kill her, eat her, or enslave her soul. Thankfully up to this point she had avoided all of the above, but that was because she had grown to be rather paranoid during her time in The Between, in no small part thanks to Deacon.

She got an idea "I wouldn't want to keep them or you, Miss Jillian. I'm sure you are all busy individuals. But it was a pleasure to meet you all." Yep, the pumpkin and the demon had definitely been discussing heading off even before she had revealed herself, so they were likely still inclined to do so, and this way Mr Haut and Miss Jillian didn't have to feel any obligation toward her either. Win, win, win.

"Well, then." Merciviant dusted its cloak off and picked one of the pickaxes back up, with Asmodeus doing the same with the other.

"We seem to be finished here ourselves, and as everyone is going their separate ways...we shall proceed home to prepare the ritual. By tomorrow, we should be able to retrieve the silver and meet our prospectant ally."

"Just one thing, witch."

"Yes, Lord Asmodeus?"

"Be certain you keep our stations in mind when addressing this newcomer with me present. Even in this form, I am still a king among demons and have a certain image to maintain."

"Why, I am surprised. I would not have thought that important to you."

"In truth? It isn't. But the court feels otherwise, and I do not care for being chewed out by one of my mistresses yet again! So consider this a favor, if you like."

Merciviant shrugged.

"Very well. It is not as though I would do otherwise anyway.

At any rate, it was pleasant to talk with you all. Good evening and good day."

Haut watches the conversation ping around between the two, before nodding and trying to log the silver smelting as a priority in his mind. Of course, he had several other priorities as well, but he could handle doing more than one thing at once. Of course, even with all the things he could handle, there's only one thing he wanted to handle at the moment. Which was actually getting to hang out with Jillian instead of picking up side quests every five minutes.

He'd never understand how adventurers handle all this lack of free time.

"Right, you all take it easy, we got stuff to do." He trusted Zen to figure out her shit as well. Maybe it was a lucky break for her, given how trepidatious she seemed around the skeleton. Ultimate arbiter here was Jill though, so Haut doesn't exactly start traipsing off.

Jillian couldn't help but smirk at Asmodeus' comment about personal repertoires, given that it was a similar line she had been forced to walk at a long-ago point in time, too. She found his company amusing and kind of looked forward to further banter at some point down the road, but for now, she did need a break. From... most things, actually; a calm before the storm, if you would. "As well, then," she said. "I look forward to seeing you both again, and please keep your safeties in mind until then." She offered Zen another smile, as well, looking like she was actively trying not to infuse too much canine into it. "We'll be around if you need us, sweetling. Wherever you'll find one, you're likely to find the other, so don't hesitate to reach us out as needed." She rests one of her arms upon Haut's shoulder, a familiar gesture and an indication that she's ready to go whenever he is.

Zen gave a small bow, trying to hide the relief she was feeling as the little group broke up into their respective sub groups.

"Do take care. I'm sure I'll see you all around again some time soon." She said quietly and she turned away, there is a brief swirl and a soft whistled tone before her form morphed into that of a small bluebird which flits off eagerly into the sky. She needed to get better at stealth while in polymorph.