<>
**
"Heh?" Zuriel asks, his face momentarily dropping the confident expression it had been wearing and replacing it with confusion. Despite this, his grin remains unchanged. "Uh. . . pardon me, my lady?"
"Both of you were not the first to claim themselves as mages. Long ago, a woman who claimed to be a 'mage' tricked us, stole something we deem precious, and escaped."
The word "escape" intrigued him the most. For them, that means there is a way to escape from here. He would like to dig into that topic.
"Escaped?" he asks, trying hard not to look suspicious.
"Yes, and never to be seen again."
"How did she escape?"
She narrows her eyes at him and that's how he knows he messed up. She talks in their tongue and the tribesmen are cheering again.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait!!" he yells as they get dragged back again. "We're not like that mage!" His voice cannot be heard. "Please!"