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Adelaide sat in a shaded alleyway, finishing off a fried fish and some salted root vegetables her new companion had gotten for her after the show. The guards were still on alert, and the jamming field was still up, so she didn't have much of a choice but to stay put. The robot was currently pacing back and forth - if you could call a handstand "pacing".
"Okay," said Adelaide, cleaning off the last of the grease from her fingers, "so, who are you?"
The robot turned, wobbled on one hand, then crashed down ungracefully. "M-merry! This poor fool's name is Molly! And wouldst thou be so kind as to give thine own?"
Adelaide gave her a concerned look as she tried to pick herself off the floor and tripped over the ribbon skirt she was wearing. "Adelaide," she said. "And, uh, don't feel the need to put on the whole clumsy clown act, it's fine, really."
"Act?" said Molly, with her ribbons somehow knocked over her her face.
Empress closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then, she stood and helped Molly up, brushing stray dust out of her short cyan hair. "Thanks for saving me back there, Molly. Why'd you do it?"
"Prithee, I saw yon knight accosted by the King's guard and guessed thy purpose was to have some business with the King. Or perhaps thou'rt here to give the King the business?" She waggled her eyebrows, or attempted to, mostly just succeeding at scrunching up her painted face.
Adelaide worked through the archaic language for a moment. "Wait, you thought we were here to assassinate the King and you decided to help me? Aren't you wired in to the same system as the guards?"
"Alas that I am! Conjoined, as it were, to my twin brother, the HANGED_MAN. My purpose is to entertain, to lift the spirits of the populace, to conceal the ills of mine own brother and gift bread and circuses to the masses whilst he schemes to maintain the King's absolute power." She turned away, pressing her forefingers together and getting quieter with every word. "But prithee, if thine purpose was to help the least of us, wouldst thou not start by eliminating their greatest threat?"
Adelaide narrowed her eyes at Molly while she did some calculations. "It's you. You're the one that hired us."
"I'faith, I can say no different!" said the robotic fool, miserably. "And with mine own lack of skill, I caused your downfall ere you came down the gravity well!"
A clattering noise came from the mouth of the alley, and Adelaide grabbed Molly's arm and pulled her into a small crevasse between two buildings. "Listen," whispered Adelaide, "we're not down and out just yet, but you have to tell me everything you know about the King and this HANGED_MAN character. And please try to keep the flowery language to a minimum?"
Molly's face lit up, glowing from within as some internal mechanism illuminated her growing smile. "I'faith, I'll speak naught but the troth!"
Suppressing a grimace, Adelaide hoped the other two were having a better day than she was.
Knight wove through another cluster of missiles, her core temperature indicator flashing yellow at her. She was going to have to land soon, and then it'd be five-to-one odds. She'd faced worse before.
Okay, she'd faced similar before.
And she hadn't already been dinged up from a stupid gladiatorial fight.
And Empress had gotten the last hit in anyway after Knight's spear broke.
Empress. Knight really hoped she'd gotten out okay. She'd probably saved Knight's life, staying behind like that instead of scrubbing like she should have. The scene played again in Knight's mind, Adelaide's raven hair blowing in the wind, her aim perfect, her pale skin contrasting with her jet-black arm, backlit by the sun like an avenging angel...
Knight paused for a moment, the red on her cheeks having nothing to do with her overheating reactor. "Oh, hell."
Well, the thought, as she landed under a cliff overhang and pulled out her spear, now I know I'll survive, because Quinn is never going to let me live this one down.
