Silent takes a long breath, then sheathes his blade. Go on, then. 

The speaker waits a long time, regarding you. Then nods, and makes a hand gesture - you don't know the precise meaning, but you recognise the style as from Xhorhasian military training. Two of the other figures approach the prisoners, remove their gags, and set to work on their chains. The leader continues to look at you, not speaking for a while.

Then finally...

Why? Thank you. But why?

Silent laughs out loud. I trained under master Ildrin Tasithar, I know steelhearted Krynn knights when I see them. Combat between your men and I would have left most of us dead, certainly me, and you were not kind enough to give me good reason to draw steel. I do not dance with unwilling partners if I can avoid it.

So I am taking a gamble on you, soldier. By letting you leave with your men, I am gambling that less lives will be lost, less damage will be done. I am gambling that you are a soldier trying to do right by his men, and not a dog of war who seeks salvation in violence. But who knows? Perhaps I am closing my eyes to avoid an uncomfortable truth. Maybe you will disappoint me. 

Silent then rummages in his cloak. Were it my friend keeping watch when you arrived, those two would no longer draw breath. There are two favours I would ask of you in exchange for those two lives. Small ones. 

There is a start of surprise from one of the masked figures at the name of your former teacher. The leader does not react however, the gaze unmoving, focused upon you, then looks at the female prisoner who has just been unchained, the lock picked expertly. She nods.

Speak your favours. I can promise nothing, the leader says.

Silent produces two objects from his cloak - a pouch containing coins (400 gold pieces) and a hollowed-out tusk that looks like it might have once been used as a drinking horn. 

This coin, I'd like you to give to swordmaster Tasithar when you return home. Tell him his last, quietest student awakened his blade and is trying to walk the path. He will know the coin is meant for my father and where to find him. It is a long overdue repayment. 

This horn... trickier. But if you come across a Kryn bard named Thorryn on your travels, pass it along to him. Tell him his brother still lives and is wandering the Empire. 

Several pairs of eyes flicker over to the greatsword now on Silent's back once again, and widen. I will take this first favour, the male prisoner says, who gives a curious, and rather puzzled look at Silent's sword too. And repay the good treatment we received at your hands. But I will not be doing much travelling in the near future, I fear. Perhaps...

I will take the horn, the leader says. And perhaps this Thorryn will tell me the tale of how his brother wanders so far from home.

(If Silent is willing, they will take the two objects from his hand. Will he then let them leave?)

(OOC: Yep.) 

As the Kryn leave, Silent switches back to Common and says, Make no mistake, soldier. If I come across any of your... of our kind on the offensive, I ain't gonna think twice about cutting 'em down. Same goes for Empire folk brutalizing our people, just so happens I'm on the wrong side of the border to see that happening often. Let's hope neither of us crosses paths again until this whole stupid situation has died down. 

There is a brief sound of response, that might be agreement, and then they are gone. Silent is left alone with an empty carriage and some discarded chains as the warriors of the Dynasty have disappeared into the night.

What will Silent do?

Silent walks out of the carriage, sits down beside it and looks up at the night sky for a good twenty to thirty minutes, taking in the air and thinking. He then eases up off the ground, and makes his way into the tavern to find Alton first. He barges into Alton's room and shakes him awake if necessary, loudly whispering: 

Screwed up. Kryn knights showed up, freed the prisoners. We gotta get the hell outta here... or come up with some kinda story for the Lawmaster. Might be best if I split town, say they killed me or something. 

Without waiting for a response he'll go to Balassar's room, wake him up and relay the same information. 

Balassar gets out of bed and just looks at him. He just grunts in frustration “Just took them huh, no call for help or blood or scars on ya. How you explain that?” He asks picking up his sword and shield as he keeps his eyes on Silent.

Silent scowls. At least four Kryn Echo Knights got the drop on me, threw up a darkness spell and were in the carriage before I even had my sword out. Took a good old-fashioned standoff to convince them to turn the damned magic off, but they weren't backing down. You think I shoulda fought 'em? For what? I know a losing battle when I see one, ad I'm not like Alton, I ain't got no way to talk over a distance. You think they'd just wait patiently while I yell for backup? And hell, if it turned into a real fight... when the Crownsguard showed up, that woulda been a bloodbath and a half. Deaths on all sides. Pointless deaths. 

Look, if I thought they were gonna leave and start killing people in the center of town, I woulda put my life on the line and tried to take as many of 'em down with me. That wasn't the situation, not the way I saw it. D'you reckon keeping those two prisoners was worth dying for? Or worth killing for? 

Balassar gives another grunt as he sheathes his sword and begins putting on the pieces of his armor that he didn’t sleep in “Our job was to escort and keep the prisoners in our control. We have no idea why they were here or what they did, but if it warranted an escort it must’ve been important. So yes I expected you to at least swing your sword and fight them to keep the people safe.”

As he finishes dining his armor he begins walking towards the door “We have to alert the Crownsguard and lock down the city. Hopefully they haven’t gotten too far.” As he passes Silent his head will quickly turn “Any innocent blood shed because of this is on your shoulders.”

Alton stirs at all of the noise and sits up rubbing his eyes, his hair hanging about shoulder length in a mess, "Huh? What happened? Why do we need to lock the city down?" He looks around the room catching Balassar leaving and then looks at Silent with concern in his eyes, "Are you okay?"

Let the prisoners get stolen away, but reckon I've been worse, says Silent to Alton before turning to Balassar's back and calling after him. Damn good thing they caught me on my watch and not you, then - I wouldn't wanna be burying you right now. Either way, think for a damned second, if we all go to the Crownguard right now we're getting thrown in a cell. And these Kryn weren't nothing like the ones we fought before, Crownsguard won't stand a chance. If they wanted to burn this city it'd already be on fire. We need to slow down, plan our next move, figure out what the hell they were after. 

Balassar stops turning his head slightly "Do what you want, but I won't run from our mistake. My sister and father are blocks away from here and according to you there are deadly Kryn soldiers still somewhere in the city probably. I won't leave my family or this city in danger because your afraid of the consequences of not standing your ground. I guess that's the difference between the Empire and the Dynasty, we teach our soldiers to own up to their mistakes not run from them." with those words his head just turns as he begins to walk outside to look for a Crownsguard to inform them of the situation.

Alton, still half asleep says with a yawn, “Oh, okay.” Then lays back down for a moment before quickly sitting back up, “They were stolen!?” He does try to keep his voice down to not disturb any other guests. He sees Balassar leave and puts a hand to his forehead letting out a sigh and takes in a deep breath. “Well, I guess that’s Balassar’s plan. Any idea how close to sunrise we are? If it isn’t that far off, one of us should be at the wagon to explain what happened.” He looks up at Silent, “ If you want, I can do that. I don’t know how things went down, and I don’t want to know right now, but I might be able to spin something believable as to what happened. If not, I’ll try and catch Balassar before he causes a panic in the city, or at least with the guards. This will be your call, Silent.”

Silent grimaces. Reckon I've made enough calls, Alton. I don't reckon he's in the mood to be persuaded, but if anyone's got a shot it'll be you. Do what you think is right, I trust your judgement. I'll wait by the wagon. That's my mess to clean up. 

Before leaving the room to go to the carriage he turns back and says, Sorry to have put you both here. I did what I thought was right. Then he leaves. 

It's about a half hour before sunrise. Balassar, you exit the inn and find the streets starting to fill up with tradesfolk and the general populace of the city getting ready for the day. A large carriage passes by, drawn by two black horses, headed towards the gate and out of the city. In its wake, you see walking a patrol, a Crownsguard human and a companion, dressed in scale armour, a dwarf. They are ambling in your direction.

(It's possible that Alton comes hurriedly out of the inn behind you, but that's still to be confirmed. :) )

Alton walks down with Silent, he pulls his hair back tying it up in his signature topknot, "We will all get through this. To be honest, if it was me, I would have done the same. I'm not strong or as good at fighting up close like you and Balassar are; and I'm sure any spell I cast would have just wound up with me dead too." He places a comforting hand on Silent, "I'll try and get Balassar to at least wait and come to the wagon so we all can talk with the Crownsguard official that we are to meet with." He give Silent a playful punch, "We wouldn't be the Tarrasque ABS without you, so don't get yourself thrown in jail or killed." With that, Alton darts off to catch up to Balassar.

Balassar just walks up to the Crownsguard “I need to speak with the Lawmaster or whoever’s in charge right now, it’s an emergency.” He just pulls out the letter they presented at the gate and holds it out hoping it will help with get the urgency across.