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--donation bonus (day #23, post 3/5)--
Strangely, Luther’s recent deception had served to pacify the Abolishers for the time being. The only reason they were present today was because they believed that Hector had killed Nathaniel, leading them to suspect that Hector wanted the other princes dead as well. So rather than occupying themselves elsewhere with more important matters, they were stuck here, playing guards in case of an attack that wasn’t going to happen.

This meant that information about Abolish’s presence in the capital had greater opportunity to spread--a chance which David and Duchess Jezebel were taking full advantage of. Even now, while they both sat through this ceremony, their agents were busy helping refugees flee the city and get the word out. For the first time in a long while, David could see genuine hope brewing, hope that Atreya might make it out of this mess without going to war with Rendon or Kahm.

The primary hitch, however, was trying to find out what the Abolishers planned to do next. As volatile as they were, it was difficult to predict how they would respond to being outed. Somehow, he doubted that they’d simply up and leave. Even despite being on relatively good terms with them personally, David had thus far been unable to break any new ground with them.

Desmond and Andres were obviously unavailable. David had no rapport with Conall and Tessa, as they were the busiest of the seven and were usually preoccupied with one thing or another. And since Karkash might as well have been a brick wall for as often as he spoke, that only left Hanjir and Nola.

Hanjir was perhaps the most terrifying of all seven, but not because he was more imposing or intimidating--Karkash had all of them beat there, surely. Rather, it was simply that Hanjir had, by far, the worst mood swings. He was easily the most unpredictable, even starting fights with the others at whim. Moreover, David discovered that Hanjir tended to lie for no apparent reason, which rather devalued him as a potential source of information.

So that left Nola.