"No offence Rick but its going to take a bit more than kind words. Harry..." Emma starts to speak but swallows back the tears at mention of Turkleton. A few passing moments and she continues clearly.
Now that might make things a bit difficult, but also a bit interesting. After all, if Harry didn't trust HAL why tell the Summer Sovereign where to find Emma? Gianna knew where she was, and probably could have cared for the girl if necessary. But he decides hold back that observation, for now. "Did Harry say why you shouldn't trust him?"
Initially, Emma didn't say much, instead she took her hand back from Rick and wrapped it back in the towel to help the bleeding. When she did speak, she sighed as if conceding a point.
"No, he didn't. When he was explaining about the Freehold, he just told me not to trust Liebowitz, or HAL, whatever," she adds with a shrug. "He didn't want me meeting with him, why I wasn't at the Winter festival, thing. Glad I wasn't now. This place sounds pretty fucked."
Rick sighed, trying to determine the best path forward. "Trust comes hard between Changelings. Our politics can get...Machiavellian. And that leads to a burden that the Sovereigns must feel more than anybody." He lapses into a brief silence, thinking of the Autumn King back home and that morning with Terri in the oak. Two Changelings he had come to trust with all his heart and whatever remained of his soul. The memories serving to add heartfelt sincerity to his voice. "The temptation not to trust anyone, at all, is there. But to do that means you have to stand alone against the horrors that lurk in this world. None of us our powerful enough to do that. It's why we form Freeholds and Courts, why we work together. And in the end Emma, when Harry knew his time was short," he locked gazes with her once more, "he told HAL where to find you. If he didn't want you to speak to HAL, he wouldn't have done that."
The Blightbent seems to think for a while, taking in Rick's words and pondering them.
She decides with a slight nod.
"Fine, I'll come with you but can we stop somewhere to get this sorted," she asks, holding up the hand. Rick can see the towel is starting to turn an oily crimson. "Its starting to sting now."
"Yeah, that should definitely be tended to." Rick spared a quick glance to the bathroom. "Is there a first-aid kit around here? You didn't hurt yourself too badly so I could probably tend to it here with the proper supplies. We probably don't want to walk through the trainstation with your hand wrapped in a bloody bed sheet like that." It would probably attract more attention than either of them wanted.
"Hang on a sec, I'll check quick." A brief examination of the apartment netted Rick a rather unusual first-aid kit. And he was slightly repulsed to find that it contained only squirming leaches when he opened it. He wasn't a Doctor or anything...but he was pretty certain that was a medical treatment that had gone out of style centuries ago. So he closed the kit and put it right back where he found it before grabbing another sheet and walking back out to Emma.
"Looks like you were right, I'll have to improvise." So he cut the strip into sheets, forming rather crude bandages which he used to bind Emma's wounds. "It's probably best for you to keep that in the pocket of your hoody, just in case. When I can get my hands on a first-aid kit I'll be able to do a bit better." Then he lead the girl outside. And once he was in the mortal world once more took out his phone to contact his Sovereign.
The Blightbent allows Rick to bind her wound before following him outside, making sure her hand is stuffed deep in her pocket. She is exceedingly nervous about meeting HAL, especially now her guardian is no more.
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