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Around midday Bo turns the wagon over to a lake and stops so as to unhitch the animals and let them graze and rest while giving everyone else time to walk around. Tyrus goes about setting up some lunch for the group to consume. Jase hops out and walks around, more interested in the layout of the land than the food at the moment.

"So are we in Thaal territory now?"

"No," Bo says definitively, grabbing the pear that Tyrus hands him and biting into it to create a hole then goes about sucking away at the juice for a few seconds. "The Fields of Juraine is on the border to Thaal lands. Entering Thaal lands would require we acquire a permit and go through customs on each time we cross their border. Though it would have been faster we've been taking a route that skirts the outside edge of current Thaal borders by about an hour's travel, give or take."

"Well I guess that's good. I'd hate to have to have a run in with the Thaal."

"Have you even ever met a Thaal?" Tyrus asks, staring out into the distance.

"Well, no. Do you think I'd still be alive if I had ever seen any of them. But it's not like you really need to see one to know what the brutes are like."

"And most people would say the same with Alkilraen or Saren," Bo says in response. "Such stereotypes are rarely fully accurate."

"Thaal warriors," Alliquinn adds in, "they like strong. Like honor."

"Well, yes, I suppose that's a fairly fair stereotype of them," Bo shrugs.

"And spoken from someone of the one race the Thaal don't treat like insects that should be squashed should they ever raise their voice in opposition."

"Thaal warriors," Alliquinn repeats, "they like strong. Us strong, no lose to them."

"There's someone coming," Tyrus says, pointing towards the distance in probably as much of an alarm as to divert the topic of conversation away to something else.

Bo turns and looks in the direction Tyrus was pointing and holds his pear in his mouth as his hands reach the air in front of them and move as if pulling it apart. He squints at the shimmering of the air around him and shrugs. Jase tries to see if he can squint enough to see through the same distortion but is unable to do so. Eventually, Bo grabs a good bite of his pair and goes about checking to see that everything in their wagon is secure enough, going out of his way to make sure that the Bol is extremely visible on top of all the rest of their gear.

"So who is it?" Jase asks.

"Slavers," Tyrus says resolutely.

"Yeah, most likely," Bo adds in.

"Slavers? What are they doing here?"

"Same thing we are at the moment," Bo says. "This is a good spot to rest animals. Beyond that, we are close to the border of the Thaal. So they're likely heading there to sell their slaves."

"Well are we going to do anything to help?"

"No. What they are doing is technically legal. And as I said earlier what we are doing is going to be in the entirety of the law. Though you may consider it to be the moral outcome, the fact remains we'd be on the questionable side of the law here if we were to intervene on behalf of the slaves. Not to mention we don't know why they are slaves. If they were legally acquired then we would actually be committing a crime and could be arrested for trying to free them. So, no. So long as they make no motion against us, we make no motion against them. Standard protocol would have them at least check our wagon. Won't take anything unless they think they can get away with it. Thankfully with the Bol here they'll come to the rightful conclusion that one of us is a Jhi. So long as we don't tell them which, they will be somewhat leery about attacking any of us."

The group walks up, Jase deciding to hide behind the wagon as they approach as he would really not want to deal with them. Alliquinn just stares and watches them, making no motion regarding them in any way. Bo hops on top of the wagon to watch them, sitting on the top, but makes a point of casually eating his pear. As the slavers approach they move to rest close to them but stop a decent enough distance away so as to not give any illusion of trying to stop the other from leaving. But sharing news and simple civility would suggest at least being sociable. There are a few armed slavers guarding their line just in case there is an attack.

Bo waits until they come to a stop then hops down off the top of the wagon and walks over towards the slavers. Alliquinn follows, Tyrus doing so as well in response to her own motion. Some of the slavers begin walking towards Bo and the others, their hands on their weapons but haven't drawn them. Bo takes a piece of paper out of a pocket and then hands it over to the one of the slavers. They take a look at it before handing it back and a document of their own. Bo looks at it but doesn't really give a response before handing it back.

"Somewhat surprised to see one of her people outside of the city," the slaver comments while they assess the group.

Bo shrugs and then heads back towards their wagon. The slavers go about letting all of their slaves sit down and rest while another one gets a simply and very small meal and a bit of water to pass along them all, another going to the lake to fill up their waterskins. "My mistress has business anywhere there is business to be had. She has no need to stay in just one spot if there's money to be had. She just prefers her city because it is Her city."

"Fair enough. So any particular business you all are after?" the slaver asks while one of them heads towards their wagon to see what all they're carrying.

Bo stops at this question a moment, his hand moving up to his mouth and his eyes bouncing around slightly as he's clearly debating how best to answer the question. Eventually he just shrugs. "Nothing that I'm at any liberty to express in the moment. But what we're setting out to do is something I'm sure the four of us are more than adequate to accomplish."

"I bet," they say, moving past them to look at the rest of the group more closely, in particular walking right towards Alliquinn.

Tyrus takes a step forward to shield Alliquinn from the slavers. One arm waves itself in front of her to act as a sort of shield for her while his other grabs at the axe attached to his back, though not yet fully pulling it out to be easily useable. Some of the slavers quickly reach for their weapons as well. Even Bo tenses up at the escalation moving himself so that he isn't being surrounded as easily. The only ones that don't seem on edge are Alliquinn and the head slaver.

"Down, boy," the head slaver quips. "We are fully aware of the Accord. We have no interest in harming your Bone Flute user," he points at Alliquinn's Rooqa to further illustrate his point. "Hell, of all the people in your group, she's worth by far the least in regards to value as a slave. And you have a saren in your group. You are by far worth the most. So if anything she should be shielding you."

Tyrus doesn't look to be taking any motion to stop protecting her. But with the slaver backing off out of Tyrus' expected strike range the luphein loosens up a bit, but still keeps his hand poised to grab his weapon at an instant's notice. One of the other heavily armed people of their group takes a glance at their wagon and then makes a symbol with his hands to the group. The head slaver nods at it and then continues.

"Look, let me be frank. So you can relax and let us go about our business. Saren and Sciuden aren't worth much. There are some that will take them, sure, but they aren't worth that much. Especially not worth fighting over. Each of the ones we have are worth more than either of you two," he says, pointing at Jase and Bo. "Your Bone Flute user is worthless to us. If we were motivated enough we'd grab everyone but her, and let her go about her day. Now some races will accept the flute users discretely, but not the Thaal. They will actively hunt down people grabbing them. They are interested in flute users, but they hire them, not enslave them. Add to that Alkilraen are worthless as slaves by themselves. They are so fanatical about being paid for their work they'll either fight to the death to free themselves or just do nothing and die. Either way, no slaver would waste money on a slave that can't be forced to obey orders. A luphein would be worth quite a bit, a big strapping male like yourself is worth three of our lot. But with a Jhi in your group we'd be too likely to lose our entire stock going after one person. So like I said, you can just relax. We have absolutely no interest in your group. It's simply not good for business. And we're all about the business. If we stand to lose more than we can expect to gain, there is no point. So you lot do what you want, we'll rest our slaves and animals at this location as well and then when we part ways we'll do so amicably, so long as you do."

Bo shrugs them off and then goes about filling the group's canteens. Tyrus doesn't let his guard down, but makes no motion against them. He does however lower his arms and stands more passively in her defense, especially as the one that approached them walks off to go chat with some of the other slavers. However, Tyrus does tense up when one of the slavers walks towards the two of them with his hand in his pockets, heading directly towards them and not paying the large luphein any attention whatsoever, much to Tyrus' disapproval.

"So, Rooqa girl, you free for your services?" he asks, pulling out a glass ball from his pocket and holding it out to her.

"That would depend on what you need her to do," Bo says in answer for her. "She is effectively under my employ at the moment, but we do not have exclusive access to her. So long as you aren't requiring her to violate her contract with us and head in a different direction we aren't going to stop you."

"Very simple business matter," they reach into their pocket and pulls out a few bills. "Just want her to walk our line, as thorough as she feels this will cover and then just give us the memory of it. It's not entirely necessary, but it certainly makes things run a lot more smoothly if we can get a memory sent ahead of us. Helps alert customs to come find us as well as get the financiers to start working out the value of our merchandise ahead of time. And if her pet dog wants to follow her to make sure we're not up to anything he can feel free. But we won't be paying him to walk our line and would ask he at least doesn't interfere with the memory."

Alliquinn nods and then steps around Tyrus and moves over to the slaver. She picks up the ball and sticks it straight into her Rooqa. She also takes the bills for a moment, staring at their value before placing the bills back into the slaver's hand. The Alkilraen then goes about walking to the line, Tyrus following behind her as the slaver simply smiles at the exchange. Alliquinn silently walks up to the front of the slave line, all of the slaves sitting down and resting, regarding her warily. She crouches down next to each one, stares at them a few seconds while tilting her head this way and that before moving on. Most of them look fairly young. Still very healthy with not much in regards to scarring from being beaten into submission. Almost definitely only recently grabbed, possibly from the surrounding countryside. Once she's gone through each person in the line she walks around the back and just does a casual walk up the front on the other side. Tyrus follows her through this entire exchange, positioning himself not in front of her, but at the same time as much between her and the rest of the slavers as he can manage. Alliquinn then takes the glass ball out of her Rooqa, walks over to the slaver with the money still sitting in their hand and swaps the money with the glass ball. The slaver makes no motion until the money is grabbed then gently closes his fist around the ball.

"Much appreciated. Alvil. Get your bird ready, got a message we can deliver."

Alliquinn turns and watches with curiosity as one of the slavers brings out a large eagle that's sitting in a cage. Alvil waves a hand over the eagle's head for a moment and the bird's eyes glaze over for a second. They then put the glass ball into a little pouch around one of the bird's legs and then opens the cage as the bird flies out. It doesn't hesitate and heads immediately off in the direction of the Thaal border. With all that done the rest of the slavers more or less ignore their little group. Some of their guards keep an eye on Tyrus, but when he makes absolutely no motion towards them so long as the don't move towards Alliquinn they mostly just ignore them. Else they take things easy, pass along some food and water amongst themselves and their slaves and just idly pass the time. They are in no real rush. A few of them try to goad Jase to try and join them in a game of dice but he refuses to have anything to do with them. Bo makes it clear that he doesn't want them knowing their exact direction at this time and they're making good time anyway so they'll wait until the slavers leave before heading out again themselves. Alliquinn decides to spend some of the time waiting grooming herself a bit using the lake water and doing a bit of fishing in the process though she doesn't catch anything at this time. Knowing the range of the item Tyrus grabs the Bol from the wagon and brings it with him to the lake, knowing full well that that act would give the slavers some idea who the Jhi is. And then an hour later the slavers get everyone standing again and then they begin walking towards the border, leaving them once again on their own. Once Bo is certain they aren't being monitored and are out of view he packs up their own things to continue on their journey.