Scouring for Magpies

[Anja]

Benjamin's brisk walking had kneaded some of the swoon out of his step, and his slightly clearer mind was given cause to worry as he neared the bridge and, turning around, saw the farm girl engaged in conversation with an unsavoury type. Benjamin recognized the man as an affiliate of a well-known organization of unsavoury types, and his thoughts began to race. How did the girl know him? Why the sudden conversation? What was their game? The seemingly naive prairie damsel was suddenly not so far above Benjamin's suspicions...

Benjamin had not turned around long enough for the others to mark him having done so, unless they had been paying attention. A brief, sidelong glance as he turned off the road directly before the bridge, and onto a little dirt path in the tall grass that led off down the bank towards the water tower. He did not wait for Dianelopa to catch up, and was sure that she had not seen him turn off.

This would be a good test of his little theory. If she was what he thought she was, she would easily be able to track him down. So he continued, and when he came to a dried-up drainage ditch nestled under the embankment beneath the water tower, he sat down on the nearest rock, (as was his wont,) and relit his pipe.

[Dianelopa]

The thief slunk off and Dianelopa discovered that she was alone. Hmmm, she thought, the elf has gone off with the birds and the birdcage. I wonder why? I thought he wanted me with him to meet his employer. Well, maybe he didn't really mean all that with the job and such. That thought made her not only sad, but also a little nervous, because if there were no job, there would be no way she could survive in this city. She'd also come to like that classy elf, and his sudden disappearance seemed like a rather bitter rejection of her. I guess he doesn't like me after all, was her thought. She was about to slowly walk away, to head back to her tiny bedroom in the hay shed when it occurred to her that he in fact had the cage and the blackbird that she'd promised to return. Well, if he doesn't like me, that's that, she thought, but I still need to get the birdcage, so on that note, she turned abruptly again, walked back to where she'd last seen him, sniffed a bit until she caught the still lingering scent of his alcohol trail and then followed it, now feeling angry at him for doing this and preparing for a possible disagreement about her retrieving the birdcage. Before long she also smelled his pipe and then saw him sitting on a rock, the birdcage standing on the ground beside him. For a moment she had to consider what to do next. Either confront him verbally and ask for the cage, or simply dash in, grab it and run.

[Anja]

Benjamin smiled as he saw the girl approach, looking rather flustered. The elf stood up and slid an ornate key into a little hole that sat snugly in the ground before a tall, disused, iron-grill sluice gate, which the city had built when the river had a different, wilder demeanour, and which now stood dry and abandoned, cloying with weeds and shadow. The left grill of the sluice gate, which was set into the embankment, slid back gently into the darkened space beyond. The gateway was tall, shoulder-width, and though its bowels were cold and foreboding, one could make out a faint glow of warm and inviting light around a corner within.

"You're here. Then it is as I thought. Yes, we could definitely make use of your skills..."

He tapped his chin thoughtfully for a second before continuing. "I hope you don't mind me disappearing like that, but I would loath be mused over at great length by certain undesirable elements of Marn, such as your friend there. Would you be so kind as to accompany me inside? Take the birds with you, perhaps it will make a better impression if you present them yourself."

He strolled in through the aperture, turned, and waited for Dianelopa to follow.

*******************************************

A scant few feet away, Puck was settling into the earpiece-augmented armchair in the Parlor. The room's walls were sprouting horns rather similar to the one in the adjoining room, which Anja would be using to whisper into Puck's ear. These trailed off from their blossoming caps into thick cords of copper piping, which joined in a corner of the room, and passed beyond the concrete wall and into Anja's listening room. They united in a single earbud beside Anja's sitting chair, so that she might hear what was said in the Parlor.

Other decorations in the Parlor Room included a teak table, perched at knee height between four plush red chairs, finely upholstered in the buttoned satin style currently popular on the Western continents. The table was smoothly laquered with an oil that made its wood grain surface glisten and sparkle with crenulate rainbows. Set into each side of the square table were two pullout drawers with fine witchwood handles carved to look like human thumbs.

Atop the table was a tea-tray with a steaming, white ceramic teapot, fringed with silver, matching cream flask, sugar bowl, cups and saucers, and a matching tray bearing a tasty-looking cluster of caramelized dragonflies. The dragonflies were not chosen because Anja liked bugs. After all, she didn't really. But caramelized dragonflies happened to be the high point of opulent dessert fashion at the time, and no good dinner party was complete without the presence of the eldritch delicacy.

Beside the tray of dragonflies was a copper saucer of bubbling white chocolate, blended with apricot extract, and kept warm by a little witchwood twig fire set beneath it. Also present was a bowl of mixed nuts, and a delicate, coloured-glass platter boasting a variety of small confections.

The walls of the Parlor were draped with silk tapestries woven with soft colours, blending soothingly into one another, and each corner of the room hosted a small stone statue of a child holding up an incense jorum, masking completely, to the untrained nose, the scent of the inner sewers that lay beyond the steel door set into the far wall. Torchlight made the Parlor light enough to read comfortably in, and the cold concrete floor was decked in polished hardwood and strewn with rich pelts and rugs.

It was in this lavish little nook that Puck waited for Benjamin and his charge to round the corner, and he looked up from his casual reading and smiled as he heard the iron grill shift. Now, we shall meet the mysterious magpie catcher...

[Dianelopa]

As the elf got up and turned to the gate, Dianelopa sidled up toward the birdcage and only as the sluice gate slid to the side and a shimmer of warm light came to view, did she stop and stare in bafflement at what stood before her. What Benjamin then said, didn't make much sense to her, except that he was asking her to follow him inside.
It took a couple seconds for her to reassess the situation. He apparently wasn't trying to get away from her after all, and this was where his peculiar employer lived, odd as it seemed. But everything had been odd the last couple of days. Dianelopa picked up the birdcage and followed him.
As much as the entrance to this underground place had surprised her, what greeted her eyes when they got inside was even more amazing. A room whose elegance exceeded anything she'd ever seen. She let her eyes wander over the scene, trying to fathom what it could mean. As if in a dream she could make out another elf sitting there in an armchair, smiling at her as Benjamin sometimes did. There were all kinds of edible delicacies spread out on a fragile looking table which reminded her that she was terribly hungry and then the strange blend of smells, tea, chocolate, apricot, sweets, incense and vaguely the kind of smell that sometimes exuded from the grates on the street or the drainage furrows in the poor part of town.
After looking it all over, wondering if she'd wake up and find it was indeed just a dream, she set the birdcage down and said, "Can I have something to eat?"

[Anja]

Puck smiled when he saw the girl, and laughed when the first thing out of her mouth was a request for food. "Please, help yourself. The dragonflies are quite nutritional, actually. At least, until you dip them in white chocolate. I'm Puck."

He stood up and bowed to Dianelopa as he introduced himself. "You must be Benjamin's... ah, source. Benjamin, you can take the magpies through to the appropriate quarters, then go meet our friend out by Shim."

Benjamin smiled to Dianelopa and put his hand out to her for the birdcage. "I then leave you in my friend and employer's capable hands. I have some business to attend to out east, but I shall hopefully return tomorrow before night falls."

Puck, having bowed, sat down in his armchair again, and leaned his head back so that the little earpiece, cleverly masked behind one of the upholstery buttons, was close enough for him to pick up the words of Anja in the next room.

[Dianelopa]

Dianelopa's angrily growling stomach was demanding food, and the first thing she did was to almost lurch toward it. She hadn't eaten, in fact, since when? The day before? But as Benjamin took the birdcage, she stopped herself. "Wait," she said. "You know, the blackbird. That I have to bring back and the cage too. I just borrowed them. Only the two magpies are for you. You will bring the cage and the other bird back won't you?" she asked.
Without waiting for Benjamin's answer, she then grabbed a handful of nuts and began chewing on them. In the other hand she took several of the small confections at once and soon had them in her mouth. Within a few minutes both of these plates were almost empty. Dianelopa was about to grab the last of them, but then she stopped and looked at Puck. "Oh," she said. "I'm so sorry. I hardly left any for you. I didn't mean to take it all. I was so hungry." She pointed at the dragonflies. "Do you eat those? I never ate a dragonfly. I don't know if I would. But, I wouldn't mind some tea. I'll try to be more polite," she added. But with the worst of her hunger satiated, her natural shyness returned and she suddenly felt terribly embarrassed about her behavior. "Can I go now?" she muttered under her breathe.

[Anja]

"...Only the two magpies are for you. You will bring the cage and the other bird back won't you?"

Benjamin nodded as he took the cage. "You can have it tomorrow evening. Meet me... hmmm. I suppose I'm going to have to find a new cafe to frequent now. I suppose we could meet by the water tower, if that doesn't inconvenience you."

He turned to go, taking the steel door leading into the sewers beyond. The darkened, subterranean alleyways of waste and muck exhaled a brief mantle of sickly odour into the finely incensed room before it was shut behind him.

Puck watched, amused, as Dianelopa proceeded to ravage the offered food. He looked at his timepiece and clucked his tongue. "Dear me, I feel as though I am terribly rude, not offering dinner at the customary hour. It is little wonder a growing girl such as yourself finds it necessary to overfill herself on sweets."

When she inquired about the dragonflies, asked for tea, and apologized for her haste all in one breath, Puck raised his eyebrow a little, and the crow's feet that lined his eyes crinkled with a gentle mirth. "The, ah, dragonflies are quite good, I assure you. One of these acquired tastes that somehow made its way over here from the East. Once you get over the crunchiness, they are a delight. My only regret in eating them is that they are rather nice creatures in life. If we had more of them down here, hunting flies, there wouldn't be such a bug problem."

At these words, a nasty gurgle from Anja trickled into the earpiece embedded into the lining of the chair, and he gulped visibly when he heard it. He made a mental note not to use the words bug and problem in the same sentence again. Obviously, the old girl was picking up more Marnian than he had previously thought...

When the girl asked to go, he scoffed a little. "Miss, I haven't even gotten your name yet. Please, remain seated, we have some matters to discuss. I live in the sewers, you need not be afraid of acting a little uncouth in my presence. This lavish little travesty of a room is reserved for our more posh business dealings. If you are to work for us, it is doubtful that you will be extended such hospitality on a daily basis. Come come, what is your name?"

__________________________________________

Benjamin, once beyond the Parlor, made his way past Anja's listening room, nodding smartly as he passed, and then traveled west until he reached a great long ladder, plunging into the indiscernible darkness that throttled the bottom of the four by ten concrete chute. Easing himself down it, cage in hand, he whistled tunelessly to himself. It echoed through the greenish gray haze, the reflections muted by the patches of moss and mold that arched across the stone walls.

When he reached the bottom, he lit a torch, turned east, and walked down a long, narrow, concrete hallway. At the end, the hall gave way to an expansive, high-ceilinged room, the walls of which were erupting with a vast array of spiderwebs, arranged in pairs. In the centers of these webs, there pulsed all manner of strange objects, from common rocks to live animals, all being Soused together. Anja's latest webforging projects...

Benjamin walked to a table in the center, took out a separate cage, and set it down, along with Dianelopa's cage. He gingerly opened the latch on the large cage containing the three birds, and with a gloved hand, reached in and snatched up the blackbird. It pecked at him viciously, and he almost loosened his grip in surprise. He practically slammed it into the other cage, and hurriedly did up the clasps on both. Leaving the cage with the magpies on the table, he took up the other cage and walked out of the Sousing room.

One ladder trip and a few twists and turns later, he was emerging out of a service shed in a disused park in the Old City. Glancing around, he saw nobody. He began heading for home. Time to get some rest. I hope this thing doesn't make a racket at night...

[Dianelopa]

Dianelopa found herself feeling confused again. It was all so strange and now Benjamin whom she'd grown to trust had disappeared behind a steel door which when opened had offered an unpleasant whiff which made her feel momentarily a little nauseous. Puck was expecting something from her. That was obvious. She couldn't just leave, even if that was what she most wanted to do. In any case, the doors were all closed. So the best thing it seemed was to talk. "My name," she said slowly, going over in her mind all the recent statements of both Puck and Benjamin, "is Dianelopa. I am not a growing girl. I stopped growing at least last summer or maybe the summer before. I don't know where the water tower is. I know another cafe where they enjoyed eating my mother's cakes. I like dragonflies too when they flit over the pond in the sunlight. But I will eat some now because I am still hungry. And I do need a job, but I don't know what the job is. Do you want me to catch more magpies? And what does Benjamin do with them? Blackbirds," she added, "sing very beautifully if they are happy." She paused. "And you are Benjamin's employer?"

[Anja]

Puck was able to field her questions, allowing Benjamin to go about his business uninterrupted. "The, ah- water tower, is directly on top of us, you will see it when you leave. Can't possibly miss it. As for the remainder of your questions, I am afraid you will have to exercise a modicum of patience. Here's how it works. This is your official interview. You stand to make a lot of money, simply for being on hand and fetching the occasional odd object or live animal. What is done with it is none of your concern. You are paid enough that making it none of your concern is expected of you, as is absolute secrecy in all matters pertaining to your job. Is that clear?"

Puck folded his hands in front of him, resting his elbows on the arms of his chair, and his chin on his hands. The slow crunch of a dragonfly was muffled by his closed lips, and he nodded to the bowl, indicating that Dianelopa could help herself.

[Dianelopa]

"I guess I can do that," Dianelopa said. "At least if it's like catching birds. Yeah, I've done that all my life. Things like that." She then picked up a dragonfly rather gingerly, dipped it in the white chocolate and put it in her mouth. It's sweet crunchiness was strange, but it tasted OK. But then anything might have tasted OK at that point. So she put a few more of them in her hand and leaned back in her chair, relaxing a bit for the first time that evening.

[Anja]

"Yeah, I've done that all my life. Things like that."

As Anja heard this in the next room, through her lacework of pipes, she smiled to herself. She cooed and gurgled into Puck's ear in her thick and muddy mother tongue. "We'll take her. Keep her on a short leash. You know the protocol. Now we learn something about her."

Puck was still and silent as he listened to the words ringing in a tinny wash out of the earpiece and into his ear. He then looked down at the table, drew open one of its inlaid drawers, and refilled the various bowls, plates and dishes. "I'm glad you like the dragonflies. So tell me, Dianelopa. Where is it that you live? Do you have any family?"

Simple questions, ones that would give him a smattering of control over her, an overview of who she was, and what behaviour he could expect of her. This control was vital, as was the trust that came with it. He looked at the table and plucked up a nutcake, popping it into his mouth in one go and half-closing his eyes in appreciation of the creamy flavour.

Anja whispered to him: "Ask her if she's ever killed before..."

[Dianelopa]

"I live in the merchant's shed where he keeps the hay for his horses. The merchant named Barliozs. And the horses are in the stall when they are at home, and the shed is attached to it. I have a bed there and a little table. There are two of his servant girls who also live there. I don't see them very much because we are always working." She looked at Puck to see if that was an adequate answer, and as he said nothing she went on. "I have a mother and a father who live on a farm near Shim. That is where I grew up. My mother and father are very old and they adopted me when I was a baby. I don't know who my real mother and father are." She looked at Puck again. He was sitting in his chair, his head leaning against the back, not paying attention to her, she thought. It sounded as if some almost inaudible gurgling noise was coming from the place where he leaned his head. "What are you listening to?" she asked. "Can I hear it too?"

[Anja]

Puck had little need to take it all in, as Anja and her photographic memory would record the girl's words as precisely as they were spoken. So perhaps he did seem to be ignoring her, somewhat, even though he did, in fact, register most of it. But ever the polite host, he was quick to smile and nod, and offer some more tea before switching back to the role of stern employer.

"What are you listening to?" she asked. "Can I hear it too?"

Puck raised his eyebrows, thinking to himself, my god, the girl's ears are sharp. Other than this, he gave no indication of the chair, or of the girl being right in her query.

"Earlier, I mentioned to you the importance of absolute secrecy in all matters pertaining to your job. Your curiosity, though I respect it as a sign of intelligence and ambition, is rather counter-productive in that respect. Now..."

He sipped his tea gracefully before continuing. "I think we have reached a suitable arrangement, but there is one more thing. Have you ever taken on anything tougher than birds? Say, a human, or an elf?"

[Dianelopa]

"Oh no," said Dianelopa puzzled. "I would never kill a human or an elf. Why would I do that? I wouldn't eat such a thing. No, it wouldn't taste good, I'm sure. But just birds? Now a bird is a very small meal and we were three people you know. So I didn't hunt birds either, unless we were starving. Well, that did happen a few times when the harvest was bad. But deer, boar, now that's a really good meal." She grinned thinking about the succulent feasts they'd had, and then her glance skimmed the measly dragon flies, even the cream cakes made her turn up her nose. "I've also gotten a bear or two," she added. "That was a tough fight. They're a lot bigger than me. And actually, I don't like to kill bears either. I like them - alive. But if you're really hungry, it's good meat.... But they maybe would have thought I was good meat too if they had won," a thought that made her frown. She looked at Puck again who was watching her benignly. "See this scar," she pointed to a thin white line hardly visible on her chin. "Now that came from one of those bears. And I've got a few more, but not where you can see them."

[Anja]

This little lady before me tackles bears, does she? Very useful indeed...

Anja seemed to think so too, for she cooed in Puck's ear, a dollop of blackest Greatweaver vowels, saying "Give her time, she'll be of more use to us than just an errand-runner. It's high time we got some protection down here."

The elf grinned, eyes wide. "Well, Dianelopa, you are in a unique position for a simple farm girl from Shim, swallowed up by the big city. Consider yourself lucky, for you stand to go far in life. Again, I wish to apologize for not having prepared a proper meal, given the time of day. I wouldn't dream of keeping you any longer than necessary, so unless you have any more questions, this interview is over. Do you have bishani, or food?"