sap-stained badgergirl slouches in one corner of an outer courtyard of the Earthly Authority, trying to look formidable and imposing. she switches her thorned tetsubo from one shoulder to another - a hexagonal prism glittering in purple and green, cut from one of the perimetershrubs swallowing the lowlands and the old roads. if someone doesn’t take her up on her bodyguard services soon, she thinks, a change in career may be in order.