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"Our tales are not entirely dissimilar. I myself am an orphan, and I grew up in Prime. Life in an orphanage is not as glamorous as you might think, and all and all I cannot recommend it. Still, it is a good bit better than starving in a ditch. Not, I must admit, that I’ve ever TRIED staving in a ditch.”
Lyssoryl paused to take a bite out of her own stew. Galdor felt her surreptitiously studying him out of the corner of her eye, as if trying to make up her mind about something.
“I was actually adopted once. I haven’t told that story to many people. In point of fact, you are the second person I’ve told, the first being a city guard who was of no use whatever. I’m not embarrassed about it or anything, it just isn’t a fun story. And if I’m being honest, I have a penchant for telling tall tales. I don’t mean to maliciously deceive, you understand, I just like stories, and they seem to make people happy. But the side effect is that people don’t always believe me when I tell wild tales, so in this particular case I’ve not bothered.”
“Anyway, there is a certain kind of man (if that word can be applied to such a person), who through some warp or quirk is, shall we say, romantically inclined towards children. I can’t think this sort of person is common, but in a city the size of Prime there must always be a few of them about. Now imagine such a person patronizing an orphanage. ‘Ah ha!’ he thinks, ‘that girl there is a Halfling! She’ll be childlike forever!’
“You can no doubt imagine where this goes. I was all over excitement to have a real family at last, and doubly so when I learned how rich he was, and what a nice house I was to live in. Imagine my horror when he made his requirements known that very evening! It was shear luck that I was able to escape out a window before I was victimized in all manner of startling ways.”
“Well, I could hardly go back to the orphanage after that, he’d know just where to find me. Luckily, I was able to sell some jewelry he’d given me earlier that day to get me all starry-eyed and pliant, and buy a little shack of my own. One way or another I’ve made due.”
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