“You’re Aes Sedai?” Millae nearly wailed at Cho’Ra’s offer of healing, “I swear, I didn’t mean- I didn’t- It, it was an accident. I’m sorry Cho’Ra Sedai, I never meant to! I’m sorry, please! Please! I was just trying to help!”

“Easy Millae, not to worry. I am no Aes Sedai. As with the rest of this troupe, I am only here to offer you my assistance. Where I come from, I was often used as a means to help people feel better. It is something of a reflex for me now to offer. I apologize if I have caused you any further grief.”

“You’re not… Aes Sedai…?” Millae asked, her eyes wide as she peered at Cho’Ra, “And the Aes Sedai let you Channel as you please? With no Three Oaths?”

“One does not need to give some Oath to some sti--” Cho’Ra stopped herself, noticing as the small bit of color Millae still had in her cheeks seemed to drain as she looked at the channeler. Gracefully, Dane drew Millae’s attention back to the situation at hand, offering her a wineskin and encouraging her to tell her story.

Cho’Ra stood back up and took a step back, as her presence merely seemed to unsettle the girl even more. She understood the hesitancy people tended to have around channelers who were not picked up and trained by the Aes Sedai. They had been taught all kinds of things to fear as children. Cho’Ra herself had been able to avoid their grasp in her hometown. Back then she had never wanted to leave, and having lived her life free of breaking the world even further, she couldn’t help but feel a bit of resentment toward those who treated non-Sedai channelers as though they were one stubbed toe away from blowing up the entire world.

Dane continued his encouragements, and the ever-chivalrous Ebou Dari proceeded to wipe the grime from the girl’s face. “Only when a girl is ready,” the Ebou Dari cooed, “We are friends, sweet, and are only here to see that the Wheel turns as it should. Speak what you know and what you think and a man and his friends will listen and hear, yes?”

Millae glanced up at them, working to hold back her tears, and finally pulled away from the Ebou Dari man, huddling up against the far wall. A tear streaked down her face, and she finally let out a soft sob before quietly declaring to the group, “I did it.”

Cho’Ra’s mouth dropped slightly at the confession. All this time, all those people decrying her sweet innocence. And yet . . . .

Millae’s tears finally flowed and she shrieked,  “I did it! I killed Nelelle Sedai! But please, it was an accident. I didn’t mean to… I just… I just wanted to help her… She was working tirelessly for Lord Rian. I knew she was exhausted and not sleeping well, despite the fact that she tried to hide it. I just wanted to help her sleep, not kill her. Never kill her… But I did… and now… now I’m going to hang.” Her voice broke with the last words, and the young girl pulled herself into a tight, shaking ball as tears streamed down her face.

A predicament indeed. An accidental murder would be much more difficult to defend, especially in the eyes of grieving parents. Especially in the eyes of grieving parents with power and in need of blame to be put somewhere.

Dane continued in his empathetic questioning, trying to coax more out of the girl, trying to build her case. It would indeed be difficult, but if the girl truly were innocent, Cho’Ra was ready to do whatever it would take to keep her safe. Of course, if she weren't . . . well that would be a different matter entirely.

“I did it…”

At the first words of Millae’s ‘confession,’ Thren’s eyes, at first, went wide, then, narrowed as he cast a somewhat uneasy glance toward the staircase… Had the guardsman heard? Or the scribe?... Even as the girl continued her weeping admission, including her assertions that it had been an accident, the Ebou Dari’s honeyed eyes flicked back to frame her and he raised his hands in a gesture of caution. “Shh, shh, shh,” he admonished in a hiss, “a girl should not say such things. Especially not in so loud a voice…”

“Calm down,” Dane said, passing his wineskin through the bars, again, “Things look bleak, but try to get a hold of yourself.  Take a drink.”

In response to the bowman’s glance, then, Thren’s signal of forestallment turned to one of beckoning, as if his gesture might actually pull the girl away from the wall and back to the bars. “Come, sweet,” he purred, an affable and sympathetic smile playing on his lips, “come closer. Allow a man to wipe away your tears and calm your heart, yes? Then, mayhap, a girl can speak to us in a tone more appropriate to her surroundings…”

((OOC: Just presuming, here, that Thren might be smooth enough to coax Millae closer. If not, let me know, and I’ll gladly edit to reflect otherwise.))

The smuggler offered a slow nod of encouragement as Millae peeled herself away from the wall against which she’d been huddled and another as, somewhat sheepishly, she made her way back toward the bars that separated them. “There’s a brave young lady,” Thren smiled easily, reaching a hand through the bars to dab the tears from her cheeks, his voice dropping to almost a murmur as he continued, “Still your heart and your head, sweet, and keep your voice low, hm? A man can easily attest to the wisdom of such things in places the likes of this.” He chuckled softly, then, and drew his hands back lest the girl become too uncomfortable with his attentions. “A man has come to learn that the coin of guilt isn’t minted from the ore of misfortune, you see? Just so, offering that coin along with that ore, will likely find a girl being asked more questions than she might be prepared to answer…” Another warm smile, along with a somehow playful wink, played on Thren’s features as he settled back and tilted his head encouragingly towards Dane’s proffered wine skin; “…and, where the authorities are concerned, sweet, it is best that some questions go unasked, yes?”

((OOC2: I’ll cut it off, there, for the time being. Just felt the need to post something, you know? I figure Dane’s line of questioning follows this little bit, of course, and, for the duration of that, Thren will simply watch and listen, hoping to pick up any clues or bits of “useful information” from the girl’s answers and/or body language.))