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"Oho!" came the loudmouth's voice again. "So you did understand me! Well, now! Don't I feel foolish! Here I was, paying you compliments, thinking you were polite, and the whole time, you were actually being quite rude. It's not nice to leave people hanging when they're talking to you."

Yeah. This man was almost certainly from Morgunov's side of Abolish.

Evangelina elected not to respond, and she was rather pleased when no one else in their group did, either.

"Hmph! Our intentions were purely academic, you know. We were merely curious as to why the lot of you were attempting to hide your souls. Why, a more suspicious person might think that you were up to no good--but not me. I'm very trusting. I'm sure I'd be content if you would only tell me your names and show me your faces. Sounds reasonable, right?"

Evangelina could see the twitchiness among some of the Abolishers. The talkative one seemed calm and collected, sure, but his friends were pretty obviously just waiting for an excuse to fight.

They were about to get it.

Melchor decided to speak up first, though. "You are about to bite off more than you can chew, friends. I suggest you rethink this strategy of yours."

That was far more diplomatic than Evangelina wanted to be, right now.

Oddly enough, however, it did seem to give these lunatics pause, and the apparent leader looked around at his group. "...Is that right? Well, we appreciate the warning, friend, but with all due respect, I don't think you have any idea how much we can chew."

The main problem was that Evangelina couldn't see any of their reapers. She could see a few observing from a distance, but there was no way to know if they belonged to Abolish, so wantonly attacking them might just bring down a completely different group of servants on their head.