"We previously sought power through treacherous means, only to save ourselves when the dragons rose," the mursaat continues its speech, ignoring the dragon. "But now I see we must all stand against the dragons to save everyone."

"Uh huh. You hope to become an ally."

"You have killed two of them, have you not? Our interests are the same. The fire dragon is rising. I cannot stand idly by and repeat past mistakes. My actions since returning prove me a useful ally."

"Like when you destroyed the Bloodstone?" asks Marjory, sceptically.

(And Caithe slowly makes her way to the dragon, too, more enraptured by it than by Lazarus's posturing.)

"The Bloodstone was destabilized by years of misguided White Mantle tinkering," Lazarus explains, managing to almost not sound condescending. "I did absorb the blast to repower myself, but also, how many lives were saved?"

Scritch scritch scritch scritch, here, Caithe, the little dragon likes scritches behind her swirly head decoration things, you can help too, there is plenty of dragon to scritch.

"Don't the White Mantle worship you? Doesn't that make you responsible for their misguided tinkering?"

Scritch scritch!

Rrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaa~

"I could not very well have guided them from beyond the grave, now, could I?"

"Well, yes, but 'Hey guys, it's totally fine to tinker with the big scary magic thing for power,' seems like the results of administrative decisions that are somewhat indicative of one's priorities as a leader. I'm just saying, it's weird to hear you bring up the number of lives saved in contrast to... everything else the mursaat are famous for."

(Scritch scritch scritch scritch, Who's a good dragon? You're a good dragon!!)

This dragon is the best dragon, it's sure of it.

"What's even your angle, with all that? What's in this for you?"

"The salvation of this world." He looks at Vetareh directly. "The White Mantle is splintering. Those who follow Caudecus, and those loyal to me. It was the former group that destroyed the Bloodstone. But if I can unite them—I can make them a force for good; another spear in an army against the dragons."

    "This is the same accord the mursaat struck with the Forgotten," points out the exalted. "Then, they simply broke their word and disappeared."

"That was a cowardly act of self-preservation, and something I will not repeat."

"Okay, so did the brush with death get rid of your sense of self-preservation? I don't have a problem with your conclusions, I'm wondering the logical progression."

"It changed my perspective. Selfishly—it seems I cannot hope to escape the dragons, as we did thousands of years ago. It's in my best interest to cooperate."

"You seem earnest enough, so I hope you'll understand when I tell you there's no way I can agree to this. I can't keep an eye on you at all times."

"I have an idea, Commander," says Marjory. "I'll do it. I'll dig into his claim, and if Lazarus has truly changed, we can reassess the situation."

"I welcome any inquiries."

"Oh, it'll be much more than that," she assures him, a wicked smile starting to play around her lips. "I'm going to be embedded with you, shadow your every move."

Marjory sounds a little bit frighteningly into this (it's... admittedly kind of hot) but, uh, okay. She'll just. Scritch this dragon, then.

Regardless of whether James shares her beliefs about the hotness of this act, he sounds way more concerned than anything when he says, "Marjory, can I speak with you a moment?"

So she follows him to where Vetareh, Caithe, and the dragon are.

"What are you doing? He absorbed the Bloodstone's power. We obviously can't just easily put him down if his story doesn't check out."

"Also, the topic James and I have been dancing around because it might actually start a fight and now is not the time," scritch scritch the baby dragon who is too precious for fights right now, "we just came back from the mursaat's old fortress, powered by tortured souls and guarded by agony constructs, so, uh, be aware of the possible worse than death fail states that might occur here."