"Why, that would imply something premeditated," he says with a smile that may not be entirely innocent. But he quickly shakes his head, glancing off anywhere but at Apollo. "No, nothing like that, provided everything goes as well as I hope.

"Our flight has had some success here. Inevitably some of the other flights' Dragonsworn will grow envious of our position. Resentful. It's only a matter of time before they decide to act on that resentment." Or in other words, those four little experiments of his might wise up and catch onto what's going on. The glib-tongue can't control minds, and its effectiveness (as he found) is still limited by the personality of whoever he uses it on -- a fervent belief in these peoples' guilt certainly didn't stop that guard captain from giving them a damned quest to restore their reputation. Honestly, it's like this sort of thing happens every day for them.

It might be too much to hope that they'll just all be killed by wild bears, so he has to assume that once they're free to enter the town again, they'll start trying to figure out what had happened. And if they do...

"I haven't exactly made a secret of my role in making allies of the elves," he says slowly. After a convincingly-hesitant pause, he finally looks back up at Apollo. "I'm afraid that may soon make me a target."