[Desmodus]

Ethilde responded to each of the party in turn, although in some cases there was little to respond to. She gave Venn something of a puzzled look since he was so taciturn. To Jade she flashed a briefly startled expression as the huge black beast at the human's side rose from beneath the table into view. The beast made the ranger somewhat wary, in spite of the fact that she was normally quite comfortable around beasts.

She watched with mild interest as Avrie read her cards. Ethilde did not completely trust gypsies, nor did she believe in fortunetelling, but it was diverting to watch the woman do her reading nonetheless. Avrie's question struck her as slightly odd, and perhaps ironic considering what she had just been doing. "I don't really know what to expect, unfortunately," she answered. "I only know to look for you and take you to your next contact. Every outing has taken a different route, and experienced a different outcome." She pointed at the cards. "In all seriousness, those can probably tell you as much about what to expect as I can. I will say this much, though. The person I am taking you to see will be able to tell you a great deal more."

Ethilde was not certain what to make of the way Austin was looking at her. She was not bad looking, and it would not be the first time a man had stared at her. But she was actually a bit shy about such things, and the man's attentions made her a bit uneasy, causing her to fidget and avoid looking at him in ways he might be tempted to misinterpret.

Still, when he issued his challenge, her striking grey eyes snapped directly onto his. There was just a flash of annoyance in that look, though not really anger. More like exasperation. "I can certainly appreciate your suspicion of my intentions," she said after a moment. "But it's a bit silly to question my identity." Ethilde gestured around the room. "Everybody here knows me. Even with all the newcomers, this is a village of perhaps only a hundred. But if you need somebody other than Mila here to vouch for me, we can always go bother the Aedile, or the druids down a the grove, or Jon Litate at the Ranger hall."

"Or you can just ask *me*" came a gruff male voice from just behind the half-elf. A grizzled, middle-aged human came into view. "Matthes Aleander at yer' service," he said by way of introduction. "These people giving you a hard time, Thilly?"

"Not at all, Matthes," she responded, wincing slightly as if he had just shaken her hand too hard. She *hated* that nickname. That he liked to remind everybody of how cleverly it rhymed with "Philly", the pet name he had given the other young female half-elf Ranger, only made it more grating. "If anything, I am bothering them, though it's on Hall business."

"Oh!" the man exclaimed, a flash of recognition lighting his eyes as he seemed to really see the group from Natura for the first time, "so these are the guys you're taking to see Ka-oof!" A half-elven elbow in his gut cut his sentence short.

"Security, remember, Matthes?" hissed Ethilde sharply.

"Right, right. Of course." the human choked out somewhat breathlessly, now bent over slightly. "Well, it's nice to meet you," he said by way of farewell, then hunched back over to where he was sitting.

Ethilde turned her attention back to Austin. "I did not mean to be short with you, sir," she said after a moment. "Yours was a fair question. But as far as who I am, that is fairly easy to establish, to any extent that you like. Beyond that, you will simply have to trust me, and the only reason I can offer for you to do so is that you really haven't much choice. None of us do, if we are to accomplish anything."

The ranger looked around expectantly at the rest of the group. Provided they had no further questions or challenges, she would take them to their next meeting place. She led them outside the tavern, into the warm, soft summer evening, and they walked a little ways among the old part of Acumin, consisting largely of abandoned, burnt remains of Acumin's old dwellings sparsely studded with the curious green masses of vegetation that were the village's new dwellings.

If Austin was looking for reassurance that nothing suspicious was going on, he would find little in where the ranger was taking them, for she led them to an abandoned, dark quarter of the town. Finally, she stopped in front of the charred square outline of a house inside which the door leading to some sort of root cellar was visible, lying flat on the ground. "I am about to test your trust in me even further," Ethilde announced to the group, looking especially at Austin, her grey eyes glistening faintly in the twilight as she did so. "I am about to lead you into a dark cellar, in which a vysstichi is waiting for you. It will just be you four, me, and her. Follow, if you trust me."

She stepped nimbly into the charred ruins, even blacker in the growing dark, and bent over to open the cellar door. "It's me, Kali," she said into the dark doorway that led into the ground. "I've brought our four intrepid companions." Perceptive ears might have picked up just a slightly artificial emphasis on the word "intrepid". A faint, rather high voice came up from the darkness, saying something the Naturans could not quite make out. Ethilde looked up at the group. "Follow me if you will, please." She then turned and disappeared into the dark cellar, presumably descending some unseen stairs.