Cauldron Festival

[Anastasia]

"Sure am," The young woman smiles, kicking her boot clad feet. "We live near the main road a few miles to the south, so we come up here to sell our excess crops. Pappa also has to get some nails and a new family book."

[Ebiris]

"Oh? What kind of books do you like?" Marie asks.

[Corwin]

If a servant of Jergal wants to make his way to Balmuria, it isn't Seira's place to intervene. She does wonder whether he still exists. Did he ever do anything? Did Kelemvor actually do anything but fail first to Shar and then to Helm? Would this make the visitor a senechal of the senechal of failure?

It's impolite to stare, so she just gives the give ahead of them a cheerful wave!

[Anastasia]

"Oh, I can't read, Pappa can and reads to us," The young woman says, "Or sometimes Sterm reads to us. It's family stories about our family's past generations, like the time Pappa found and a dire wolf den when he was my age."

The muscled, armored man gives Seira the slightest nod to her wave.

[Ebiris]

"A dire wolf den? That must've been scary!" Marie seems more than happy to just talk about the random minutiae of this girl's life rather than get actual gossip. "How did he get out of that one?"

[Corwin]

"Here on business?" Seira asks the muscled man behind them, dropping back past Oraga. Even though it was just her thoughts, she does feel bad about projecting her thoughts over Kelemvor onto someone twice removed that she'd never met before.

[Anastasia]

"Oh, it was! But Pappa poisoned the water there to get rid of them," she says, "It was really smart of him! He's smart, and so's Sterm." Her smile flickers a bit at that, "I wish I was smart, but I'm like my Mamma."

Meanwhile, the man nods, "Yeah. Looking for work," he says, hand going to adjust his blade, "You can guess what type. Always someone who needs a good killing."

[Corwin]

"Even here in Balmuria?!" Seira exclaims in surprise.

[Ebiris]

That story already has a few holes in it, but it's just family entertainment to make the dull nights pass better so Marie doesn't pick at them. She knows what it's like to have people like Antenora try and unravel her own tall tales!

"You seem smart enough to me," Marie says. Sure she might not be literate but she can string a sentence together just fine. "So you planning on doing much while in the city or just helping your family at the market?"

[Anastasia]

The man gives you a dark smile, "'Course. They got here by the Crimson Guard killing the right people."

Meanwhile the farmer's daughter shakes her head, "Pappa tries to teach me to read, but I couldn't wrap my head around it. Gave me a headache."

[Ebiris]

"Some people just have trouble with letters. How are you with numbers?" Marie asks curiously, leaning towards the girl.

[Corwin]

She laughs. "That sounds about right! But with the peace and prosperity that came after, doesn't that sound like all the right people around these parts were already killed?"

[Anastasia]

"Um, I can count up to ten. One, two, three," She ticks off fingers, all the way up to ten. "It gets hard with two numbers together, like ten."

Meanwhile the mercenary smiles darkly again, "Yeah, something like that. But there's always more, and Balmuria attracts Sharrans. They pay good money for them."

[Corwin]

Seira makes a face at the mention. "Sharrans, right. They're such a menace and nobody likes them!"

[Ebiris]

"Ten's pretty good," Marie says. "So is Sterm your brother?"