The story so far: Two items to go on the scavenger hunt, and it's nearly dawn. Darklis and Nikole are on the track of a wizard's fingerbone; if the rumors are true, this wizard won't be objecting much...

Nikole regards the charnel house with considerable upset. "They don't get funerals or *anything*?"

Darklis shrugs. Elaborately, this time. "They get burned."

Nikole says "Oh."

Darklis says "Well, what'd you expect? They can't keep bodies piled in the gutter."

Nikole says "I reckon not..."

Nikole looks quite unhappy to be thinking about improperly buried corpses at 4:30 in the morning.

Darklis sticks her hands on her hips. "Well, I guess we oughta go in and see if we can find a wizard corpse."

Nikole looks really extremely unhappy! "How would we tell which one is a wizard? It's walking around?"

Darklis says "Nah. He'll have a big nose and a pointy cap, or something."

Nikole says "If you say so..."

Darklis, confidently, says, "And a long beard. C'mon." Is there an obvious door around?

Nikole clutches her knife. Iron is good against ghosts. Really.

The big oaken door in front of you, with a cross smeared on it in dingy white paint, is pretty obvious.

Darklis is a nice girl. Dumb, but nice. She trundles forward and gives the door a push. Or a pull.

Nikole stays behind Darklis, who must be the expert on city ghosts.

The door pulls open easily enough, with a squeeeeeeeeeak of hinges, a wave of nauseating scent, and a chitter-chitter-THUMP as the large rat that was leaning against it falls over and runs onto Darklis' feet!

Nikole SHRIEKS!

Nikole promptly feels foolish, because it's only a rat.

Darklis yelps and leaps backwards and dances up into the air and stomp stomp stomps!

Nikole kicks at the rat if it escapes Darklis' stomping feet!

The rat, deeply offended by this behavior, flees around the corner of the building.

Darklis clutches at her heart and pants a few times. "Stupid rat."

Nikole gasps, "Well, if you don't bury bodies, you get vermin!"

Darklis says "You get rats in cities anyway."

Darklis edges towards the door again.

The door has stayed ajar through all the flailing about. Through the gap you can see only darkness.

Darklis says "D'you have a light?"

Nikole says "Um... no. I have flint and steel, if we can find something to make a torch."

Nikole admires the complete lack of pine branches in the vicinity.

Darklis waves her hand and shrugs, and tip-toes forward into the blackness. Holding her breath.

Nikole tags along behind, trying to watch in every direction at once.

The floor is...slippery, under your feet. And sticky.

Nikole squirms in disgust!

Darklis, succinctly, says, "Ew." Very quietly.

Nikole tries to walk without touching the floor *and* watch in all directions!

There's an opening off to your left side, somewhere, and a little of the grey predawn light filters through it, enough for eyes to see once they adjust. But not soon enough to keep Darklis from walking into a table.

Darklis swallows a yelp of pain, clapping a hand over her mouth. After a long second, she whimpers, "Table. Ow."

Nikole does not shriek, because it was too embarrassing. But she squeaks when Darklis gasps.

Darklis tries not to look at the floor. "Do you see a wizard?" she whispers.

Nikole peers into the darkness, looking for a walking corpse. Or at least one with a pointy hat.

It's a stone table, about stomach-height for Darklis, and on top of it is a dead body. You can tell it's dead because of the rat perched on its chest.

If you squint, you can start to make out the outlines of other tables in the dimness, ahead. There seems to be a line of them stretching down the room.

Nikole moves ahead to inspect the other tables, ready to run for it if any of the corpses move.

Darklis shudders, and begins working her way down the tables, too. "I guess we could cut a finger off all of 'em ... "

A number of things are indeed moving in the dimness. And squeaking.

Nikole is not scared of *rats*.

The bodies on the tables are laid out in a rough semblance of propriety, and still have their clothes and jewellry. The stacks of corpses along the right-hand wall were not so lucky.

Nikole says "Ew!"

No pointy hats are in evidence in either group.

Nikole looks for one with strange jewelry like shamans wear.

There's jewelry around necks and in ears, but it's slow work peering for it in the darkness.

Darklis shrugs. "It'd take too long, anyway," she decides, and prods at corpses. Yuck. Any long beards? Big noses? Anything else clearly Wizardly?

That one over there has a big nose...

Nikole does *not* take any of the jewelry. Even if it looks expensive.

Darklis goes to look at the one with a big nose. "Hey, maybe this is him!"

Nikole has no idea what a town wizard looks like, really.

Nikole eyes the corpse. "You reckon so?"

Suddenly there's a loud, gurgling, retching cough from the back of the room. "HARRRRRRUMGPH!"

Nikole SHRIEKS!

Darklis shrieks and grabs onto Nikole!

Nikole attempts to struggle free of Darklis so she can get out her knife!

A light flares up, and flickers. It's a candle.

Darklis squeaks, to the candle, "Are you a wizard?"

Nikole relaxes a little. Ghosts don't use candles. But graverobbers do!

Nikole holds out her knife in the general direction of the candle.

The figure holding the candle shuffles forward. "HARRUGMPH-" and spits on the floor, ceremonially.

Darklis ews.

"Ahrrgh. Blegh. Who's there?" The man - it's definitely an older man's voice, with a nasty chest complaint - peers at you.

Nikole says "We're looking for a wizard."

Darklis clings nervously to Nikole. "Are you, um. Werle?"

"Enh?" He coughs again, and takes another step towards you. If this is Werle, he's been moonlighting as a gravedigger; the man's clothes are grey with dirt and smeared with unidentifiable (thankfully) stains. "Wizard?"

Nikole says "Um, her uncle!"

Nikole says "He's a wizard. But not a very good one."

Nikole says "We heard he was dead..."

He straightens up a bit. "Oh. Girls. Eh, you're the next of kin?"

Darklis says "Yes?"

He nods to himself judiciously, and forgets to stop nodding for a few seconds. "Arrrright, you can look around. Ten coppers for a decent burial, fifteen if you want a priest."

Darklis clears her throat. "Can we, uh. See him?"

Scratching and yawning, he shuffles over towards the opening you glimpsed earlier and flings a door open. More light seeps into the room, which doesn't improve the view.

Darklis sort of fixes her eyes on the gravedigger's shoulders, and tries not to look at much else.

"ehn?" He blinks at Darklis. "Which one is 'ee? You know him, I don't." HE gestures down the length of tables. "Well off, were 'ee?"

Nikole tries to remember what the wizard is alleged to have looked like.

Darklis looks despairingly at Nikole. What does he look like? "He's, uh. Well, you know. Family." She wrinkles her nose.

The man squints at you. "Aye. Not seen him lately, then?" He smirks.

Nikole shakes her head sadly.

He heaves a beery sigh. "Well, you'll just 'ave to hunt for him, won't you? When'd 'ee die?"

Darklis says "In the last couple days? Maybe. It's just that nobody's seen him at his regular places, see..."

A grunt. The gravedigger shuffles down the row of tables. "Well, if 'ee looked the sort to have family, 'ee's on a table. If 'ee's here. Poor folks is against the wall." He leans against the other wall and leers companionably at Nikole.

Darklis sniffles, then wishes she hadn't. "Well, we'll take a look on the tables first."

Nikole attempts to conceal a shudder, with only partial success. Hopefully soon her shirt will dry out and stop sticking.

Nikole re-examines the contents of the tables, now that there's more light.

The tables have bodies on them. Men, women, children, infants, with the marks of illness or violence or age upon them. None of them look particularly wizardly, but then, how would you know?

Darklis whispers, "Did Ursula say how old he was?" to Nikole.

Nikole whispers back, "Not *too* old" although of course to a thirteen-year-old, thirty would be ancient.

There's a few youngish men on the tables, mostly looking like they've died in bar fights.

Darklis bites her lower lip, and looks for somebody who's not *too* old who looks like he drank a lot.

Hmm. If the drunkards Darklis has seen are anything to judge by, none of the men on the tables drank more than is usual for their age. A few of the women did, though.

Nikole goes and checks against the wall.

The grave-digger fishes in his pockets and brings out a candle-end,which he tosses at Nikole. "Hope yer getting paid a lot for this, gel."

Nikole catches the candle deftly, and grants the grave-digger one smile before dragging out flint and steel and lighting it. "He's my friend's family!"

Darklis sighs and goes to look at some of the poor bodies, too. "Ever hear of any special markings wizards have?" she asks the gravedigger hopefully.

The poor tumbled corpses against the wall are naked, stiff, and in bad shape. None of them look wizardly at all... wait, that one in the corner looks different.

Nikole bends to peer at the curious corpse.

Darklis edges over next to Nikole.

It's curious because it's still got its clothes on. Looks male...

Darklis pokes the corpse. Is it alive?

It's dead. Quite stiff, and blue.

Nikole shudders as Darklis *touches* it! Ew!

The body looks like it's been flung onto the heap, and is sort of flopped face down.

Darklis wrinkles up her entire face, and takes a shoulder of the corpse, and tries turning it over.

Nikole has to help, or she'll be a wimp. She grabs a leg and hauls on it.

When it flops over, the corpse reveals itself to be a young drunkard with a big red nose...and no fingers left. On either hand.

Nikole says "Hey! What happened to his fingers?"

Darklis stares down at him. "Well. I guess that's him."

Darklis says "Anybody else been in here, mister?"

The grave-digger leans over. His breath is terrible. "'Ere now, what's 'ee doing in the pile? And someone's gonand cut his fingers off!"

Nikole stops breathing, which makes it quite difficult to say, "You don't take very good care of them!"

He harrumphs. "I were asleep last night! Didn't hear anythink, but..."

Nikole says "But?"

Darklis lets out an exasperated sigh. "But?"

The man looks slightly sheepish. "But I'd been at the Mint Mark till late, true. Quite a night, with innkeep 'anding out drinks and all. And I 'ears the lizard ate somebody."

Darklis says "He did."

Nikole says "But he deserved it."

He blinks. "You were there?"

Darklis points at Nikole. "It was her fault."

Nikole repeats, defensively, "He deserved it!"

Darklis eyes the gravedigger. "You didn't take very good care of him. I'll give you three copper to bury him proper."

The grave-digger takes a step backwards, then another. "Now see 'ere! It weren't my fault about yer "uncle" or 'ooever 'ee is! I'll give ye a discount, though, 'ow's that?"

Darklis, firmly, says, "Three copper."

He's a slow man, and it takes a while for Darklis' words to penetrate. "Harrrumph. Arright, then." He holds out a hand.

Nikole says "And that's generous!"

Darklis digs into a pocket and comes up with two copper, and elbows Nikole for the third.

Nikole grudgingly forks over a third copper.

He makes a little shuffling half-bow. "Arright, miss 'an miss. Go on now, I'll see him buried."

Nikole says "You better!"

Nervously, he moves away from you, over to the table in the corner. In the light of the sunrise you can now see it's got a bunch of body parts on it. Little ones. Neatly arranged.

Darklis stops, and stares. "Hey."

Nikole blinks at the corner table. How small are those bits?

Really small. Like fingers, and arms and hands.

Darklis edges that way. "Think they're his?"

Nikole, disgusting as it is, inspects the corpse's hands to see what kind of fingers would go with them.

The grave-digger looks alarmed. "'Ere now, what's this? You don't want these. 'At's disgusting!"

Grubby fingers, probably. Not ones that have done a lot of work, or been washed overmuch.

Nikole then goes and looks for soft, possibly plump fingers. They're probably *all* grubby.

Darklis sniffs. "You're the one who went and lost his fingers. We need to find them."

He puts up an arm to bar Darklis from approaching the table. "These 'ere are wot I sells to the magic shops for fools to buy. Not for girls."

Darklis tips her chin up. "Who'd you cut 'em off?"

Nikole goes around behind the grave-digger while he's distracted by Darklis, to get a better look.

He waves his hands agitatedly. "Not yer uncle! I only gets 'em off folks as is about to be buried, kinders mostly. Bad for business else."

Darklis looks *so* dubious. "I think you're trying to pull a fast one on me."

The table has a horrific sort of tidiness about it. Little arms are piled in one corner, with the hands still attached. Fingers are grouped by size, from the infant to the adult. There's a couple of eyeballs in jars of vinegar.

Nikole checks over the fingers carefully, although without touching them if she can.

None of the fingers actually look like they belong to a middle-aged ordinary man.

Nikole says "None of these look right."

The grave-digger looks indignant. "I never, miss! An 'orrible thing, cuttin' off someone's fingers afore their kin arrives. Who would do such a thing?"

Nikole eyes the gravedigger. "Did you sell any earlier tonight?"

He shakes his head. "I takes 'em to Irvin, over by the well, and 'ee cleans 'em down to bone for me, once a week."

Darklis squints. "Irvin?"

"And now, harrrumph, you best be off." He pushes at Nikole with one hand and Darklis at the other, still looking scandalized. "No place for gels to be, this ain't."

Nikole is inclined to agree. She lets herself be evicted.

Now he's annoyed. "Irvin the troll, miss, if you're so fond of things as no gel should know about. Now good day."

Darklis mumbles, "Irvin the troll by the well," and then scoots.

The door shuts behind you, and you're back on the street in light that is almost bright and air that is almost fresh.

Outside, Nikole says, "I reckon one of the boys got them. And didn't leave any for the rest of us!"

Nikole looks much happier to be not locked in a dark room with a ghoul and a bunch of unburied corpses.

Darklis says "Yick."

Nikole looks to the east. "Not long until dawn..."

Darklis puffs her cheeks out. "Or maybe that wasn't him at all. *Yick*. I want another bath. I wonder if we should find Irvin the troll."

Nikole says "If it wasn't, then some boy has a whole bunch of fingers that don't count for the test!"

Darklis grins. "That'd be funny."

Nikole nods!

Nikole says "But it doesn't help us."

Darklis's shoulders slump. "No, I guess not. Okay."

Nikole looks around, tiredly. "And we don't have a lethe snifter."

Darklis hops on her toes. "Should we find Irvin or look for a lethe snifter or check the gutters for Werle?"

Darklis, apparently, just caught her second wind. Maybe it's the fresh air after the charnel house.

Nikole says "There are a lot of gutters..."

Darklis says "Not so many wells. And we still don't know what a lethe-snifter *is*!"

Nikole says "I *know*. If we could find a live wizard, we could ask."

Darklis says "I still think we oughta bring a whole wizard to the school."

Nikole says "I sure don't want to cut up a dead wizard!"

Nikole says "I reckon we're looking in gutters, then."

Darklis says "I'd rather cut up a dead wizard than a live one!"

Nikole says "I'd rather not cut up a wizard at all!"

Darklis says "Well. Yeah. But if we *have* to, I'd rather cut up a dead one."

Nikole says "I dunno. You can apologize to a live wizard."

Darklis says "You don't *have* to apologize to a dead one."

Darklis looks up and down the street. "Gutters, or trolls?"

The sunrise is actually pretty, slanting over the rooftops and lighting up the dirt and grime on the streets. You can hear the first stirrings of early risers and their wagons, in the distance.

Nikole says "Gutters. What, you've never heard of ghosts?"

Darklis, scornfully, says, "No such thing."

Nikole takes advantage of the improved illumination to inspect the gutters along the street.

Nikole shivers. "Oh yes there are."

Darklis suggests, "Let's look in the gutters on the way to the well."

Nikole shrugs and turns toward the well they passed earlier.

The well, as best you can recall, lay almost directly north of you, near the Salted Slug. Back to the gate and up Athelas Street is the quickest way there.

Darklis studies the gutters, and yawns, on the way back towards the well.

Nikole says "Should we split up to search more gutters?"

The gutters are full of garbage, and the occasional dog sniffing about, but you see no bodies.

Darklis says "Okay. Meet at the well? Or back at Mindy's?"

Nikole says "At the well, I reckon."

Darklis nods. "Okay!"

Nikole turns at the next intersection to take an parallel street to Darklis's.

At the gate, where all the streets fan out, you can choose between Athelas Street, Basil Street (which leads to the Salted Slug), and a variety of other streets.

Darklis takes Basil Street!

Nikole will take Athelas Street.

That means Darklis gets to pass by the street vendors setting up, and the bread wagon with its tantalizing smells, and the dingy little shop that says "Noodle-Bar-To-Go-Yum" in crude printing above the door.

Darklis can't read the dingy little shop sign, but she wanders towards the bread cart with wide hungry eyes. "How much is a bun?" she asks in her best pathetic waif voice.

Nikole, on the other hand, encounters the fish stall, the woman selling live chickens and eggs, and a swarm of urchins that approach her with gleeful cries. "Penny, miss!"

The sleepy young man driving the cart pushes the hair out of his face. He'd be rather cute, actually, if it weren't for the boil on his nose. "Mm? Two-buns-a-copper,miss."

Nikole ignores the children, and is not really tempted by the uncooked foodstuffs, although they remind her to be hungry. *rumble*

Nikole keeps a sharp eye out for wizards in gutters, though. Or even stumbling around looking for hangover cures.

Darklis, guiltily, digs a copper out of her pocket. It's not *her* fault it's there. Really. She forgot about it when she elbowed Nikole for another copper in the charnel house. Honest. "I'll take two. D'you know a wizard named Werle?"

The children follow Nikole all the way down the street, tugging at her clothes. There are no wizards in the gutters unless they're disguised as mangy dogs or cats.

Nikole suddenly turns to the urchins! "If any of you can take me to the wizard Werle, I'll give you *two* pennies!"

A couple of buns make their way out of the pile and into Darklis' hands. "Mm? Werle?" The driver blinks at Darklis, suddenly a bit more awake. "Um. Drunk, brown hair?"

The biggest urchin looks at Nikole skeptically. "Oh, that guy? The one who talks to lampposts? What for?"

Darklis tucks one bun into her pocket, and takes a grateful bite out of the other one. "Drunk, f'shurr," she says around the bun. "Him, yah."

Nikole says "I want to hire him."

Nikole says "You know where he is?"

Nikole takes out one penny and fondles it in plain view of the urchins.

The children burst into raucous laughter. "To do what? Throw up on your shoes?" "He 'kin change a pint into an empty one!" Many other such witty remarks are made.

Nikole waits until the merriment dies down. "Doesn't matter what I want him for, does it, so long as you get your money?"

Meanwhile, the driver sits up a bit straighter as he realizes Darklis is a pretty girl. "Well, miss, he's usually about Quarter Street, and the bars up there. Buys a bun from me when he has the money. Haven't seen him this morning or yesterday, though, come to think of it."

The biggest urchin waves the others to silence. (Probably a boy, but it's hard to tell through the dirt.) "Where you be, then, when we find him?"

Nikole says "How long'll it take, do you reckon?"

Darklis takes another bite of the bun, and chews worriedly. "Is he about yay high," she asks, and makes a stab at guessing the corpse's height, "and kinda softish hands?"

He preens. "We can find him." One of the smaller urchins pipes up, "I bet he's--" and is quickly shushed. "An hour, 'cos we'll have to wake him up."

Nikole holds out the penny toward the smaller urchin. "He's where?"

The bakery driver nods at Darklis. "That's him. Why you looking for him? Does he owe you money, miss?" He attempts to look Helpful to Damsels.

Darklis slumps. Damn. "No, I think he's dead. I needed his help. Don't suppose you know where to find another wizard?"

Dodging a blow from the big urchin, the little one grabs onto Nikole's hand and tries to take away the penny. "He's unner the stoop of the Apogee church! He allus goes there to sleep."

Nikole says "Let's go see if he's there. If he is, you'll get your money."

The bakery driver assumes a concerned expression. "Not that it's any of my business, miss, but he couldn't have helped you. You're better off going up to Wizards' Circle...if you've got the money," he finishes dubiously.

Darklis' eyebrows go up a bit. "Where's Wizards' Circle?"

"Hey!" The big urchin tries to thrash the little one, who breaks away and runs up the street towards the well. Left with nothing but bravado, he does his best. "He's lying. *We* can find him. But you got to pay us one first."

The driver points with his whip up the street, in the direction Darklis is walking anyway. "Up at the end. Good luck to you, miss." He flicks the reins, and the cart ambles away.

Darklis flashes a grin at the driver. It'd be a better grin if there weren't bread stuck in her teeth, but hey. "Thanks!"

Nikole says "Let's go see if he's at the church. If he isn't, then you can go look for him."

Nikole sets out after the kid.

The urchins follow, grumbling.

Darklis heads up the street towards this alleged Wizards' Circle.

Darklis comes to the crossroads of Basil and Quarter Street, where the Salted Slug sits. The inn is still closed.

Nikole catches up with the small urchin right by the well, which is already crowded with the first group of water-carriers. Among them squats a huge dirty figure swathed in burlap.

Darklis purses her lips, looking around. Is the well anywhere nearby? Since she's out anyway? She trods around, looking for places that look like wizards might hang out there.

Nikole notes the location of the troll, but is more interested in the church just now.

The well is visible off to Darklis' left, at the next crossroads up. Already people are trudging to and from it, carrying buckets.

The small urchin takes off again as soon as Nikole sees him (or her), running northwest towards the Mint Mark. This might be because the big urchin shakes a threatening first, or because it's the way to the church.

Nikole remembers more or less where the church is.

It's a simple matter to turn right at the Mint Mark, and continue on past Norris' printing-and-hat shop, up to the more genteel area of the Church of the Apogee. The little urchin is jumping up and down on the stoop, waiting.

Darklis scowls, and heads for the well, not recognizing anything as a wizard's house.

Nikole stops a bit short of the church, since they know and dislike her there. "Is he under there? If you get him to come over here, I'll give you an extra penny."

Since Darklis is at least as sharp-eyed as Nikole, she spots the big hulking figure sitting in the shadow of the well, too. Most other visitors are giving it a wide berth, but several stop to talk a moment and throw a coin.

Darklis purses her lips, and goes to talk to the big hulking figure. Edges near him, anyway, and clears her throat. "Are you Irvin?"

The urchin squeaks happily and darts down under the steps, vanishing somewhere you can't quite see clearly.

The troll looks up, features shrouded in the darkness of its hood. "Alms for the poor, missy?" it says in a deep patient bass voice.

Darklis tosses a coin towards the troll, for all that she's pretty poor herself. "I'm looking for a wizard's fingerbone," she says hopefully, "or a lethe-snifter."

After a full minute, the urchin reappears, looking utterly dejected. "He's not *there*!" it wails.

Nikole quickly looks to the head urchin, to see if he (she? it?) looks surprised, worried, or otherwise unable to fulfill the bargain.

A huge hand appears and catches the coin, deftly. "Fingerbone? Irvin sees fingerbones."

The head urchin looks simultaneously disappointed and smug. "See? Pay us and we'll go find him for you."

The little urchin bursts into tears, sitting down on the stoop.

Darklis crouches across from the troll. "I need a *specific* fingerbone. A *wizard's* fingerbone."

Nikole awws and pats the little urchin on the head. "It's all right." She surreptitiously tucks a penny into its shirt.

Bright yellow teeth gleam from somewhere inside the huge hood. "All fingers taste the same, missy."

Darklis manages, in the nick of time, to not say, "EW!" She swallows, instead. "I need a not-eaten fingerbone."

Nikole turns back to the head urchin. "Here's a penny. I'll be by the well for an hour. If you can bring me Werle by then, I'll give you the other." She passes over the penny.

The little urchin sniffs, dramatically, and suddenly tumbles down the stoop and runs away with all its might. Several of the other urchins give chase, yelling.

The head urchin smiles with satisfaction. "Aye, miss." He and the remaining urchins set off at a run.

Nikole heads back to the well to find Darklis and wait.

Irkvin laughs, a sound just as disturbing as you'd think. "Don't eat the bones, missy. Give the bones back."

Darklis shivers violently. "Um. Do you, um. Can you tell me who, um. Um. Do you know what a lethe-snifter is?"

The huge figure shakes its head. "No, missy." It reaches up a clawed hand to catch a thrown coin, suddenly.

Darklis droops. "Do you have any wizard finger-bones?"

"Give the bones back, missy," Irvin repeats patiently. "Men want bones. Irvin wants fingers."

It's only a short distance from the church to the well, where Nikole can see Darklis in conversation with the troll.

Nikole hurries toward Darklis, then stops short as she recognizes the troll she had the run-in with before. Uh-oh.

Darklis shudders again. "Well. Okay. Thanks for your time." She stands up, and tosses another coin, before backing away. Backupbackupbackup.

Nikole cannot resist sneak into Darklis's line of retreat, and tapping her on the shoulder when she gets within reach.

Darklis SHRIEKS!

Darklis leaps up into the air and comes down flailing and shrieking. "NIKOLE!"

Irvin giggles, horribly.

Nikole giggles and giggles!

Nikole puts her hand over her mouth and still giggles so much she can't stand up straight. It's been a long night.

Darklis *smacks* at Nikole! "That was mean!"

Nikole jumps back! "But funny!"

Darklis clutches at her heart. "For YOU, maybe!"

Darklis scowls darkly at Nikole. "Fine, I won't tell you what I found out, then."

Nikole looks faintly abashed. But only faintly. "You would have appreciated it if you had a mirror!"

Darklis takes a vicious bite out of her bun, and glares.

Nikole lowers her voice. "You found a - food!"

Darklis sniffs. "I was *gonna* give you the other one."

Nikole says "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Darklis looks skeptical.

Nikole says "I found some kids who say they know where Werle is. He wasn't where they reckoned he was, but they might turn him up."

Nikole says "I said I'd wait here for an hour."

Darklis takes another bite of her bun and chews noisily. "Mmm. Yum. Good."

Nikole sniffles pathetically!

Darklis hmphs, and digs the other bun out and gives it to Nikole. "Werle's dead."

Nikole beams and stuffs the bun into her mouth! She mumbles something that might be "Really?" or might be "Yum!".

Darklis says "The baker told me so. Werle was the dead man with no fingers. I think you should talk to the troll. You're better with trolls than I am."

Nikole tears out and wolfs down a chunk of bun. "You're sure he's dead?"

Darklis nods. "He said Werle had brown hair and was the right height and had soft hands. I'm pretty sure it's him."

Nikole says "Oh."

Nikole says "Well, did the troll have his fingers?"

Darklis says "Um."

Darklis says "I didn't actually ask that..."

Nikole says "Why *munch* *mumble* not?"

Darklis, inanely, says, "He has big teeth."

Nikole looks over at the troll. "And long claws. That's the same one that grabbed me earlier."

Darklis says, "He likes you. Go talk to him."

Nikole says "What do you mean he likes me?"

Darklis shrugs elaborately. "He grabbed you?"

Nikole says "Only to get me to give him money!"

Irkvin chooses this moment to hold out a hand to Nikole. "Alms for the poor, missy?"

Nikole wittily responds, "Uh".