He's heard that cough of hers a time or two since they've been down here, and it doesn't sound good. So far it he can't tell if the guards have noticed - or even care - but if she can make it seem like she's actually going to cough to death, that might be another matter.

"Aye, maybe so. If they wanted us dead, we wouldn't be here now."

He's convinced of that much. Given the sheer numbers at the rift, once the rifters and shardbearers had fallen it would've been easy enough to take all of them out for good, and not just Avery - although he hopes he's wrong in what's happened to her, and she managed to escape in the end. He doesn't know, though, and the fact that they're all here and they all have shards makes him think that they're wanted alive - for now.

"If we can get yon guard in here to check on that," he adds, voice still quiet, "he'll be distracted. One of us can take him out, then."