Feena blinked. "I…" she stutteredthen met Manas' eyes as he looked back up.
Both of them flushed and glanced away.
Julith stepped into the conversation smoothly: "Have your investigations turned up any other clues about the death in the Stiltways, Captain?"
"No, ma'am," Manas replied as promptly as he would have to a superior in the city guard.
Feena could hear the relief in his voice at the change in topic. She had to admit that she felt a certain relief as well.
"Are there any indications of another werewolf in the city?" she asked.
Manas shook his head and replied, "No. We haven't been able to figure out why the man was in the Stiltways, either. He only had a few friends we've been able to locate, but they say that the Stiltways isn't somewhere they'd expect him to be. Apparently he pretty much kept to himself."
"If you find out more," Feena said, "will you let me know?" Her voice came out with a breathless rush. She snapped her teeth together, but of course she couldn't recall the words. "If there is another werewolf involved…" she added quickly, but the flush had already sprung back to Manas's face.
"You'll be the first to know, Moonmistress!" he said. He bobbed his head in a hasty bow. "If you'll excuse me, I… I see someone I need to talk to."
Manas turned and darted away down the nearest path.
Julith looked at Feena and smiled knowingly. Feena flushed again as well and gulped from her goblet. "It's your fault," she said.
Julith snickered, "You both just clean up too well for your own good, I suppose." She looked after Manas. "And he appreciates you as a fighter. I think I'd spar with him for a few rounds." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. Feena groaned.
"Who's the bad influence now? Let's just move on." Feena looked around and gestured to a trio, an older man and woman and a second, younger man, strolling along a path well away from the one Manas had taken. "Who's that?"
Julith looked, nodded, and said, "Strasus Thingoleir, possibly the greatest wizard in the city. That's his wife, Dagnalla, also a wizard. The young man is likely one of their sonseither Roderio or Keph." She led Feena toward them. "Master Thingoleir!" she called. "Mistress Thingoleir!" The old couple stopped and turned. Julith bent respectfully and gestured to Feena. "May I present Moonmistress-Designate Feena Archwood of Moonshadow Hall."
Strasus smiled kindly and extended a wrinkled, leathery hand. "Well met, Moonmistress."
Feena took it and smiled back as Strasus gave a little bow over their joined hands.
"Well met, sir." She shook Dagnalla's hand as well. "Well met, madam."
She turned to the young man. He nodded to her soberly and reached out his hand as well.
"Roderio Thingoleir," he said. "Well met."
The skin of his hand was smooth and very soft when she took it. His face had the same soft look as wellthe aftereffect of massive magical healing, Feena realized. She wondered what had happened to him.
"Well met," she said. She looked back to Strasus and Dagnalla. "And your other son, is he here tonight as well?"
The smiles on the old wizards' faces faltered, turning thin and strained.
"I'm afraid Keph seldom attends events such as this," Dagnalla said. Her voice was flat, and Strasus's eyes filled with a deep sadness.
Feena cursed herself silently. It didn't take a wolfs nose to know she'd stepped into a dung heap.
"I'm sorry to hear that," she said. "Perhaps another time." She fell back on Julith's advice and asked, "How is your research, madam? What are you working on?"
Dagnalla glanced to her husband and a little life struggled back into Strasus's eyes.
"Historical research," he said. "A cache of artifacts recovered from the depths of one of the tunnels in Yhaunn's cliff walls." He swept his hand around them, taking in the bowl of the city, his voice gaining strength as he warmed to his subject. "Few people realize how ancient the quarry that gave birth to Yhaunn truly is. Most historians date the first settlement here to about a thousand years ago, roughly concurrent with the establishment in the 380s of the Chondathan colonies that would become Selgaunt and Saerloon. However, it's known that humans, refugees from the devastation of Jhaamdath to the south, were colonizing the Dalelands to the northwest almost five hundred years before that and it seems highly unlikely that such a vast source of fine quality stone as originated here should be entirely ignored. In fact, I've found supporting architectural evidence for this in Westgate, where a monument erected by the city's ruler about fifty years before the beginning of Dalereckoning is constructed of what is clearly Yhauntan stone."
Feena struggled to keep an interested smile on her face. Hadn't Julith warned her that could happen? Unfortunately, the dark-haired priestess was actually listening to Strasus's tale with interest. Feena couldn't very well tear herself away.
"And the artifacts you're studying?" she asked.
Strasus stroked his beard and said, "Well, that's the really fascinating thing. Almost three hundred and fifty years before Dalereckoning, the northern empire of Netheril fellquite literally. The floating cities that were its greatest achievement dropped out of the sky in a moment of terrible catastrophe. There were survivors among ground-based settlements, of course, but the last cities of Netheril faded over the following centuries as the Anauroch Desert expanded and swallowed them. The last survivor-state, Hlondath, was abandoned to the sands in 329 or the year 4188 by Netherese reckoning."
Strasus's eyes were fully alive again, any hint of Feena's gaffe clearly forgotten. Feena was afraid, however, that she was about to make another. She scanned the gardens, looking for a way to escape the old wizard as Strasus droned on.
"The artifacts that were brought to me recently are clearly Netherese and had apparently lain undisturbed since they were deposited in the deep tunnel where they were found. What interests me is when they were placed or lost and"
Dagnalla chuckled and interrupted her husband with an elbow in the ribs. "What interests you is the Netherese magic!"
"Well, that goes without saying," grunted Strasus, "but the implications for Yhaunn's history…"
From the corner of her eye, Feena spotted a pair of figures standing a little way off, watching them. Watching her. Lantern light shone on a stark gray robe and glinted off silver hair. Velsinore and Mifano! Feena cursed silently. If she and Julith broke off conversation with the Thingoleirs, the priest and priestess would be down on them like vultures.
Dagnalla, however, had followed her furtive gaze. She must have recognized the clerical vestments that Mifano and Velsinore wore because she cut Strasus off with another elbow.
"My dear, enough with your history. The Moonmistress-Designate has followers waiting to speak with her." She nodded to Feena and said, "A delight to meet you."
Feena's silent curse turned into a blasphemy. At her side, she could feel Julith stiffen as she spotted Mifano and Velsinore as well.
"No, please go on," Feena said, but Strasus was already sighing and nodding.
"I'm sorry," he apologized, "I tend to get carried away. Another time?"
Roderio and Dagnalla drew him away, and Feena blinked numbly.
"The best of luck with your research," she called after them, the response drilled into her by Julith. "When you complete it, I hope you'll call on me at Moonshadow Hall and present the results!"
There were footsteps behind her. She turned to face Velsinore and Mifano. Neither looked pleased.
"I didn't expect to see you here," Mifano commented with a scowl. He looked her up and down. "You've got a new dress."
Velsinore scowled as well, but her eyes were fixed on the filigree web in Feena's hair and the opal crescent hanging against her forehead. "Who gave you approval to go through the regalia chests?" she seethed.