Out of options

She entered the camp with a pair of bodyguards that were completely dressed in black. Even their faces were hidden. Today, she walked with such confidence that the dragon tamers stood and stared at her in silence.

"Who did you let in here?" one of them finally hissed angrily at Edward, staring at the woman in the long black sweaterdress that brushed the tops of her boots, just touching the ground. Her long black winter cloak pooled on the ground around her and a black leather shoulder bag hung from her left shoulder. Edward's contact was furious, believing they'd been betrayed to some foreign governmental dignitary.

"Can you not recognize a lady when you see one?" Edward asked. He went over to her. "And your errand?"

"Success," she said. "And I do believe payment is due now."

"Indeed," Edward said. He turned to one of the men around the fire and gestured to them to snap to it. They accio'd a chair from inside one of the cabins and took it to the cage. Edward walked with Khaat over to the cell door and unlocked it and went in first. He looked at the lump in the corner. "Behave yourself. Nellie likes lilies. And besides that, she hasn't been fed yet." Khaat didn't realize that the female dragon could have any preference for the lily based perfume she wore today. Interesting. Keeping his eyes on Barker, he motioned Khaat to come in. She follwed him in and the bodyguards stationed themselves on the outside of the cell as close as practicality would permit.

"Leave us," Khaat said quietly to Edward. He walked out and locked the door. She looked at Barker. She felt nothing towards him. "You were actually very helpful last night. Enough to earn a bit of medical care."

She opened the bag and picked up a large glass vial filled with a glowing blue light. "I presume you know what this is. You provided me this very nice thought thread last night. Oh, and a whole library of them, actually. Felix, Felix, Felix. I don't believe you have any secrets from me at all now. But this one--this one was very interesting. I actually should thank you for this one.

"In order for you to pay your debt to my friend for sparing your hide, you would normally need to be able to walk. Not so with a seer. Here is the first part of your payment." She reached into the bag and drew out a pendant smeared with pungent and fresh werewolf blood. She threw it at him. "It is was the information I required. You have the makings of a halfways decent servant, you know. Well done. it led me quite easily to where I needed to go."

She had counted on it being a game of mental chess. She had expected nothing less. "Believe what you like," she said. "I could choose to control your mind in any number of spells. If I had wanted to, a simple hex would have done that far more easily and efficiently than this. I don't intend to offer you more. It is not meant to be proof of anything. It is a mere keepsake. A memorial. A thank you.

"I never did answer you last night. Deliberately. You didn't figure it out, did you? You were bait. I used you. I used you to reduce the number of Greybacks in the world. I loathe them. One Greyback is one too many. Swine. The lot of them. No one is weeping this morning for any of them. My hatred for them did not start with you, but you were generous enough to help me get rid of some of them. And..." she drew out a handful more of memory thread vials. "I don't think it will be very hard to wipe out the rest of the litter, thanks to you. With the rest of your information, I think we should be able to finish them off before nightfall."