"It's a sacrifice stop him now!"

Stalas gestures subtly at Metella as he and Hesta and Kador jump down from the platform—

The golems get in the way of the first volley of arrows, the combined impact of Hesta and Kador shakes the floor badly enough to affect the archers' footing, and Stalas flies three times as far as the other two and lands almost directly on top of Caladrius.

He stumbles backward, his casting interrupted. He hastily raises a flimsy barrier to buy the two seconds he needs to get a more solid one up-

How does the flimsy barrier handle being punched by a golem? Most things handle that poorly, but you never know.

It gives way. Saps a considerable portion of the energy of his swing, enough so that when the follow-through connects with the magister's body only the breath is knocked out of him, and not his actual life.

"Reconsider your choices," Stalas suggests, grabbing the magister by the throat.

"Yrgrk," says the magister.

And if Stalas graciously allows him to talk...?

"Yes! Yes! You win. The contract is in my office, here, the key. Just let me go."

"Don't. If he goes, he'll tell the Archon what happened here and then someone will be sent to collect me."

"And I don't suppose there's any chance of him reliably agreeing not to mention it?"

"There's no promise he can make that I would trust."

He waits a moment to see if Caladrius has anything to add.

"You can't kill me now! I've surrendered!"

"Yes, and you do get some consideration for that, but if I know in advance that you're just going to run off and get my friend in trouble..."

"Your friend? You can't have known her more than an hour."

"I make friends quickly. It's a talent."

(Meanwhile, cages are opening and elves are being escorted quietly out of the room.)

(Elves are very relieved to be leaving this place.)

"Stop talking to him and just kill him. He's not going to offer any guarentee of silence, because he knows he can't."

"For future reference, this is the sort of thing I like to know in advance," says Stalas. But he closes his hand. Important parts of Caladrius go crunch.

Magister jam, ick.

"I was going to tell you when it became relevant. And I had hoped it wouldn't be."

He lets go and lifts his faceplate so he can converse at a more reasonable volume.

"I can see the logic, but it's important to me on both personal and practical grounds to be well-informed about when it is and is not feasible to offer mercy to my enemies."