Now that does sounds familiar. "The rot tends to start up top, huh. Let me guess: they also don't give the rest much chance to think about it."

Memories of Rashah come to mind, even if that was a rather extreme example. There were more subtle ways to prevent one's people from questioning things than outright threatening to make dissents the guards' dinner.

"The library did end up a kinda backhanded gift, yeah. At least the extra space is handy, but it wasn't what I imagined at all." Then again, Dairine had been pretty spoiled with Cair Paradisa's giant library of books. Starting one from scratch just didn't fill the same itch for this speed reader.

Her nose scrunches up. "I guess I should have expected it. Can't trust kidnapping forces too much, but since these goods aren't free of charge, I'd hoped it'd match our requests a bit better."