town that would ever dare to point out my follies. One needs that kind of person in their life to keep them straight.
I grabbed my glass of buttertap and gulped it down, feeling the smooth liquid fill my innards. Usually I would have savored it, but as a favor to my old friend I would make the potion as soon as I could. As I moved to leave, Morrense gripped my arm with more strength than was evident in his crooked hands. “One thing before you go, lass. There’re some evil rumors stirring about you.”
I found myself rolling my eyes. When wasn’t there?
Morrense noticed and chuckled softly. “Naw, you should go see Gorn and ask him about it. Shouldn’t talk about such things here, but I’ve come for a drink and I’m not leavin’ ‘till I’ve had one.” The old man released my arm and hobbled over to the barkeep where he began to chat animatedly. I watched them for a moment before I left.
I had to shield my eyes as I stepped outside, the off-white walls of the houses gleaming in the sunlight. Spending entire afternoons in the tavern was not unusual for me, but I did not usually leave until after dark. I blinked until my eyes adjusted, and then patted down my coat, doing a quick inventory on the contents of my pockets. Two newly packed Sop-bombs, a Cloud-bomb I made last week, a pair of scissors, and a small pouch. The pouch and scissors were good enough supplies for collecting silver milkweed, so I headed straight north toward the forest.
The streets were mostly empty. I nodded in greeting to a pair of farmhands that had stopped to chat together, but I got no more than a vacant stare in response. I smiled at them anyway. Further down the road, a woman leaning out of her windows to tend to flowers in her window box ducked inside and slammed the shutters as I approached. I frowned then.
This was a little worse than normal behavior. On most days, I would at least get a tentative response instead of complete silence, and I would just be ignored instead of avoided altogether. I could not help but worry it was due to the rumor Morrense had mentioned. After a moment, I shook my head and charged north, keeping my eyes to the light-colored stones beneath me.
I slowed as I neared Gorn’s house, stopping just short of his front porch to stare up at the sleepy second-story windows. I shifted from hoof to hoof, thinking that perhaps this rumor nonsense was just making me paranoid. It was not as though I had