Pretend to be dead to get her to come investigate

Tally did the only thing he could think to do, and feigned a sudden ****. He went limp and keeled over on his side. Unfortunately for him, there was no sound of Quelm getting up, and with his back to her, he couldn’t check what she was doing without dropping the act. After he had been lying on the floor motionless for about ten minutes, Tally came to the conclusion that Quelm had not noticed.

Taking a bit of a risk, he whispered ‘hey’ to Sarah. Sarah paused working on her stale heel of bread and looked at him.

“I’m pretending to be dead,” Tally whispered, to lure her into coming over here. What’s she doing?”

Sarah’s gaze lifted above Tally for a moment to look behind him. “She’s still writing,” Sarah whispered back, “I don’t think she’s paying attention to what we’re doing.”

“I need you to make a scene,” Tally instructed, “something that will get her attention. Can you do that?”

Sarah thought for a moment. “Okay,” she nodded. She cleared her throat, and announced in a melodramatic howl, “Tally, noooo! Stay with me! You can’t die on me now! Oh, woe is me! You poor, poor man!”

Tally heard an irritable grunt from behind him. “Hey, settle down, you two,” Quelm said.

“Quelm, I think he just died,” Sarah said. There was a pause.

“Are you sure he isn’t just sleeping?” Tally heard Quelm suggest.

“Well, he stopped breathing.”

“Hmm. Yes, that is usually a symptom of ****, isn’t it?” Quelm considered. “Alright, get back from the door, I’ll get him out of there for you, we can’t have a corpse stinking up the place. Lucky you, Sarah, you’re about to have extra leftovers for the next few days.” Tally heard the sound of Quelm standing up. Sarah pressed herself against the back wall of the cage, as ordered. Tally felt a tingling sensation building up in his hand, the same thing he had felt when Brim had used him to channel her magic into Mi Iau. “Whenever you’re ready,” He heard Brim’s voice say to him.

“Such a shame, really,” Tally heard Quelm right behind him now, along with the clinking of a key in the lock. “He seemed in pretty good health an hour ago…”

Tally felt a hand on his shoulder, which preceded Quelm carelessly rolling him over to see his face. As soon as he was in motion, Tally dropped the pretense and grabbed hold of Quelm’s hand with both of his.

“Oh! So you weren’t dead after all! I… oooohhh….” Quelm came on the spot.

There was a long period of silence. Quelm, still kneeling down outside the cage, swayed from side to side with a dreamy smile for a few seconds. Tally carefully let go of her hand, which plopped limply into her lap. Sarah looked heartily confused.

“Excuse me,” Tally snapped his fingers in front of Quelm’s face, “Would you mind getting out of the way so we can get out?”

Quelm was startled back to reality by Tally’s snap. Her dreamy smile was immediately replaced by a look of horrific embarrassment as she looked from Tally, to her own soaked pants, to the old lady gazing judgingly at her from the back of the cage. Hastily she stood up, allowing Tally to get out of the cage. “Sorry about that, I don’t know what came over me just there,” Quelm muttered, massaging the hand that Tally had grabbed hold of.

Tally stood up straight and stretched, then beckoned for Sarah to come out of the cage too. “It’s alright,” he said, “I’ve used some mind-control magic on her. She’s friendly now.”

“Mind control magic?” repeated Sarah.

“Mind control magic?” repeated Quelm.

“Yes,” Tally answered to both of them. “Quelm’s going to help us now, aren’t you Quelm?”

“Of course,” Quelm nodded, “but… mind control magic??”

“If I get out of here, are you going to deck me across the jaw like you did for my last escape attempt?” Sarah asked her pointedly.

“No, no,” Quelm replied, quickly averting her gaze, “I promise I won’t do that again. Come on out.” Finally satisfied, Sarah stepped out of the cage.

“So how can I help?” Quelm asked, motioning to her bed to offer Tally a place to sit. Tally in turn offered it to Sarah, who graciously accepted. “I was trying to get through that big gate out of town,” Tally said. “Mi Iau was trying to smuggle me out of there, but she got detained just before you found me.”

“The general?” Quelm raised her eyebrows, “is she with you too?” Tally nodded. Quelm was suitably impressed. “Well, I can certainly take you back to where I found you, and get you through that gate.”

“We should also try to find Mi again,” Tally added, “because she has all of my equipment.”

“Right, that too,” Quelm stroked her chin thoughtfully, “should be easy enough to find her. Anything else you want from me?”

“Well, I could use your help once I’m out,” Tally suggested, “I’m on something of a quest, you see. Would you be missed if you suddenly disappeared from here and possibly never returned?”

“Me? No,” Quelm shook her head, “I’m just your low-level grunt. So I’ll be abandoning my old life to go with you, yeah? Sounds good, let me just pack some things first.”

“Excuse me,” Sarah said quietly, as Quelm passed her by on the way to one of the storage trunks. Quelm stopped.

“My grandson was kidnapped by some of your people early on in your invasion,” Sarah said. “If you really have turned friendly, you may be my only chance of finding him again.”

“I’m sorry Sarah, but I’ve never seen your grandson, I have no idea where he might have been taken.”

“But you’d be able to go looking for him, right?” Sarah said hopefully. “You’re one of them. The others would let you search for him without killing you. If I tried to rescue him myself, I’d never make it alive.”

Quelm’s mouth had dropped open. She turned her head to Tally, awaiting instructions.