Communication Problem

You are taken by surprise when a group of strangers suddenly appears in the passage. Some of them look to be of your own species, except that none have skin matching your own reddish hue. Others seem very alien, one of them even having two heads. Even with your amnesia, you are fairly sure that that can't be normal. All of them seem to be very over-clothed by Barsoomian standards.

You have no idea whether they are on the side of your own people, the Iskandrians, or your captors, the Xodarians. However the latter seems far more likely. Since they don't have anything with them that you can recognise as a weapon, your first instinct is to flee, but with the corridor all but blocked at your back there is nowhere to run to. One of them speaks, and for a moment you think that you can understand him, but frustratingly the words seem to turn into gibberish.

The short female with the pointed ears seems to notice the ring on your finger. She points at it and says something to her companions. Do they mean to rob you? You know that the ring must be a priceless heirloom, but you also know that you aren't in a strong bargaining position. You take it off your finger, and offer it to them.

Artizza:

The huge ruby-like stone in the girl's ring must be the crystal that we seek. The girl notices our interest in it, and takes off her ring and offers it to us. The poor thing evidently assumes that we would otherwise have taken it by force. Though we desperately need it, we don't want to get it like this. I imagine that the thing is worth a small fortune, maybe even a large one. What can we offer her in exchangge for it? The small amount of gold that we have remaining would almost be an insult and, whilst we have various items of great value with us, we either have need of them ourselves or else they wouldn't be worth anything in this comparatively primitive culture.

Unless I miss my guess, this place is a vast dungeon, which means that this girl is almost certainly an escaped prisoner. So perhaps I've been on the wrong track in thinking of bartering for the ring. If we could take the girl to a place of safety, that would probably be worth more to her than any amount of gold, especially as to wear a ring like that she must surely come from an extremely wealthy background. (Her near nudity might have suggested otherwise, but we have already learnt that they seem to wear very little in the way of clothing on this planet.)

1. I belatedly remember that I carry a universal translator. I switch it on and say: "Don't be afraid. We will not harm you."

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