97

That's what I like to hear," Alvis says, rolling his eyes at Min's back. "Maybe the mayor had something on her mind besides some meddling stranger's ballads. Imagine the scandal of it all."

Inside the mayor's mansion, you and Alvis are greeted by a nervous young woman seated at a desk, whom you assume is Sophia. "You spoke to Isidora?" she asks, surveying you with a wary expression that's already becoming familiar. You realize you recognize her face as the one that was peering out the window before. "Then I guess it's all right. We knew you'd be coming eventually. You ought to go back and see Mayor Dunn."

You walk past the desk down a thickly-carpeted hallway. A pair of servants carrying a heavy chest pause in their labor to stare at you, in a much less friendly manner than people normally stare at you these days. You wonder if you're going to have to prove to every person in this town that you aren't demons in disguise, and then you open the door to the mayor's office at the back of the hall and abruptly start wondering several other things instead.

Seated behind a thick oaken desk, lifting her head in surprise at the sound of the door, is a small, fair woman with close-cropped blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She's clad in something pale green and flowing, which is the only unfamiliar part about her appearance. You're used to seeing her in black. Otherwise, hardly anything else about her has changed, but then it wouldn't need to, for her purposes. Three years ago, no one in Elith would have seen her real face.

Fumbling with a large map spread on her desk, Verity Fairgrieve avoids your eyes. "I didn't think Isidora and Sophia would send you in right away," she mumbles.