Persuade

The head clerk's glare settled squarely on Defi. "Who are you?"

"Mestre, I am named Defi." He did not equivocate, and produced the letter. "I have sought introduction from one of your guild officers. He was kind enough to oblige."

Erel the head clerk ignored the letter in Defi's hand. "You say you can remove the impairment for me? Are you an apothecary?"

"I am not. I merely have come across a few salves by chance."

"Hah, everyone knows that's what the fraud medicine seller says in all the stories."

"So it is." Defi thought fast. Those words were indeed the words of swindlers in the Ascharonian folktales. "Do you believe any swindler would say those words if everyone knows the stories?"

"Your slippery words only make you more suspicious. Do you know, the man that just left is one of the best apothecaries in Agamarl? Agamarl! And he's failed miserably. Not even an apothecary? What do you know?"