It was a new day, a new mission. Didi was in search of food for Dominic, and books for herself. Though Dominic claimed he was fine and more hungry than traumatized, Kaylessa insisted on subjecting him to the same kindness Didi had been subjected to after her head injury. He was forbidden to get out of bed or eat anything but bread and soup. Didi had been deemed "back to normal," which meant she'd had to wake up early in the morning to help serve breakfast and wash the clean the vacant rooms, but she was free to spend the afternoon roaming the town.

It was a new experience to have coins in her pocket that she could spend on anything she wanted. As a child, she'd never gone without anything she needed, but she'd never been permitted anything her mother would have found frivolous. She'd had access to some toys, bought for the children of their mother's followers (who were actually permitted to be children even though many of them were nearly double Didi's chronological age) but never had the chance to select one for herself. And books? There had been a library in her home, but it had been curated by her mother. Didi used to have, hidden under her bed, an entire wagonload "popular literature" – romances, children's fiction, modern tales of adventurers – but she'd only been able to obtain them because she snuck into the dungeons when they were occupied by an unfortunate wandering chapbook merchant (who had seen too much, and was soon after ritualistically killed) and pilfered his stock. When her mother found out about the books a year later, they, too, were sacrificed to the sea.

If only Red Larch had a real bookstore. She'd never been inside one before; she'd only looked through a window once, in another town they'd come through when they were still on the road. The bookseller had seen the longing on her dirty face and chased her away. Didi imagined it would be the pinnacle of freedom to be able to walk into a bookstore with money and select one of her own accord.

They'd made the decision about what to do with their loot the night before, after Didi had snuck out to retrieve it from where it had been stowed. They would save most of it, in case they needed it later. Maybe someday they'd be able to afford a weapon that could help them rescue their siblings back home, or hire a mage powerful enough to kill their mother. That would be way down the line, of course - but was why it was so important to start saving now.

The other decision was that the money, and all evidence of their exploits, would be concealed from Kaylessa. Their cover story was that Dominic had gone out at night searching for the wanted criminals, got lost, and wasn't able to find his way back until he was able to ride partway with a party heading to Waterdeep. If Kaylessa knew they'd looted money from bandits she would want them to do the "honest thing" and turn it in to the constable. That wasn't going to happen. It wasn't like money could be identified as belonging to any particular person - it was finders-keepers, as far as Didi was concerned.

However, they did agree to turn in the other valuable objects they'd found - jewelry, armor, and even some magical things. These objects could be identified by their owners, and they might have sentimental value. She imagined that, for example, one of the stolen rings might have been the engagement ring of a woman whose fiancé died the day before they were supposed to be married, or that the metal helmet might have belonged to a knight and then passed on to his squire who was secretly in love with him but never told and then the knight married a princess and left the squire behind to travel alone. It wouldn't be right to keep something like that. On top of that, the items would serve as proof that they had killed the bandits, enabling them to collect the bounty.

Once they had the stolen money and bounty, they would allow themselves to spend a little bit on useful or pleasurable things.

-

Her first stop had been the town market, but there had only been one merchant there, Grond the half-orc pickle salesman. Apparently, the market was designated open three times a tenday, but Grond was so passionate about pickles he kept his booth open even when no one other merchants were around, but he preferred it when other merchants were around, because a blanket salesman always set up shop across from Grond and Grond liked looking at blankets. At least, that was Didi thought he was saying, but he had a very strong Red Larch accent, which would have been difficult to understand even his words had made sense. Grond did mention that the best place to buy fried chicken was Mandhyver's Poultry, which Didi decided to visit on her way back.

The only other place she knew that carried books was Gaelker's store, which, if given the choice, she preferred not to patronize for obvious reasons. None the less, if it was her only option, she would bravely face the villainous cretin to obtain the treasure.

Gaelker was watching her, arms crossed, even before she walked in the door. "What do you want?" he asked, with a sneer so exaggerated it slurred his words.

"Do you have any more books?" Didi said politely. This made him sneer even more, as he gestured towards the shelf in the corner where the same spell book and blank journal lay, untouched since her prior visit.

"Oh. Do you think you'll get more books soon? Do people trade them in very often? Do you ever stock boy-boy romance?"

His frown twisted more and more with each question, until it snapped and he bellowed, "Do I look like a damned librarian? Get out!"

"No, you look like an old, hairy troll!" Didi retorted before compliantly scrambling away.

-

Her third stop was the constable's office, which was also the butcher shop. It had been quite alarming to Didi, back in those first few days in Red Larch, when they'd gotten caught stealing and were tied up and prodded to the butcher shop, into an empty meat locker. Sure, the constable had told her they were only being kept there until they could be shipped off to Waterdeep and put away in an actual dungeon, but the whole situation just gave off the vibe of a "small, charming town full of cannibals" genre of horror stories.

But, after having worked in the Swinging Swords' kitchens for such a long time she was fairly sure that the meat was not human or humanoid. And she'd come to like the constable. Any time a drunkard at the Swinging Sword had tried to get crude or handsy with her, Kaylessa would drag them to the butcher shop and the constable would hang them by the belt loop on the meat hooks until they sobered up.

"What can I do for yeh?" the constable asked automatically, before seeming to recognize her. He raised his eyebrows. "Miss... Didi," he added.

Didi pulled the satchel full of jewelry and weapons from her belt. "So, my brother got kidnapped by some bandits–"

"So I heard–"

"–And he killed them all and found a bunch of stuff they probably stole. Can we have the bounty?" She dropped the sack on the cutting counter.

The constable brushed his meat-soiled hands on his apron and inspected the items. "I – err – well, I'll be. This does look like that ring that noblewoman got robbed of a while back. Oh, and there's that halfling's missing harmonica – hmm, I don't recall anyone reporting a missing wand, but we can hold this here and see if anyone claims it." He put the things away and looked up at her with raised brows. "You say your brother was the one who found this stuff? Where's he?"

"We fought the bandits together, but Dominic's sick!" Didi said. "He sent me to claim the bounty so I could buy him some fried chicken!" A pause. "Don't tell Kaylessa. About the bandits. Or the fried chicken. She says he's only allowed to eat bread and butter with vegetable broth for a few days."

The butcher seemed to take a second to process her words, leaned back and laughed. "Well, if Ms. Kaylessa Irkell asks me a question, I ain't brave enough to try to lie to her! But I'll keep it between us other than that, if you insist." His laughter faded into chuckles. "Ha. So you're still stayin' in that inn, are yeh? I always thought Ms. Irkell was done with kids."

Didi wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but before she could, he'd gone for the bounty money in his safe. She left with another satchel of coins, and the possibility of more on the way, when the property was returned.

The last stop was Mandhyver's Poultry. She'd been there before; Kaylessa had sent her there to wholesale purchase some of the headless rooster carcasses that they kept dangling from a line in the shopfront patio, but the place also functioned as a restaurant that served pre-cooked chicken, usually to travelers passing through. Didi had not tried it, though it did always smell delicious. Mrs. Mandhyver, a stout and kindly woman, saw her approaching through the window and opened the door before she could knock.

"Good morning, Miss... uh... Didi, was it?" She had a look on her face as though she was trying out the name.

"Yep," said Didi. Mrs. Mandhyver was the second person today to hesitate before using her name. She supposed, in a town where people were so predisposed to social propriety, people would find it odd to use such a diminutive nickname on a non-relative, an outsider. Didi insisted on it anyway. Though Dominic had, in a moment of panic, given his real name when they were apprehended, Didi wanted to avoid being known by hers. Kaylessa had overheard Dominic calling her by her real name, Diana, several times – it had been difficult for him to get used to calling her something else – but she had never asked about it, or called her anything but the name she introduced herself by. So she supposed that was okay. But she didn't want anyone else to know.

Mrs. Mandhyver smiled, looking relieved, as if she'd been afraid she'd somehow mispronounced it. "We don't have chickens for buyin' whole yet today, but you're ready to head out back an' have a look. I c'n help you out with it in a bit." She held up her hands, shiny with grease, to explain why she couldn't slaughter any chicken quite right now.

"Actually, I came here because Grond at the farmer's market said you have the best fried chicken?" Didi said, with a smile. "My brother is stuck in bed and he sent me out for fried food."

"Oh!" said Mrs. Mandhyver, looking from side to side a bit awkwardly. "Well, you're a bit early for that. We don't usually have any meals ready 'til 'bout noon –" She glanced towards the door to her backyard. "You're welcome to come back in a bit, or –" She paused, as if something suddenly occurred to her. "Wait a minute, your brother, that's the boy who went missing a few days back, right?" When Didi nodded, she clasped her greasy hands together and continued, "Oh, I'm so glad to hear he's back! Is he all right – I was worried, there's some strange goings-on around here lately!" She started walking back to the kitchen after that, as though she hadn't thought about it but just expected Didi to follow, so she did. "There've been strange folk hanging around the graveyard, of all places, and even my granddaughter Pell –" She looked about, as if to make sure the child was out of earshot, and continued in a lower voice, "Well, usually I let her go out 'n play on her own – y'know, with all the adults in the family working all the time it's good for her to get out and play with other children – but no more. She's been having nightmares; says she saw a ghost down by Lance Rock."

Mrs. Mandhyver turned away from her to retrieve something from her cupboard. Didi raised her eyebrows. The strange people in the graveyard could have just been the bandits, but Lance Rock was somewhere else. "Do you believe her?" asked Didi. "Sometimes kids just scare themselves." Her little siblings had all scared each other with ghost stories, she remembered a little wistfully. One day all the little ones went together down to the dungeon under the library, trying to scare each other with stories, only to all get spooked by some apparition that had been probably just a rat. They'd come running at her at once screaming hysterically.

"Well, I don't know if it was a ghost, but I do think she saw something. She was serious about it, n' she even described the thing clearly. For all we know, there's things worse than ghosts down there." Mrs. Mandhyver sprinkled some spices on the raw strips on the counter in front of her. "I'll try to have this ready for your brother soon as I can. You can stay and wait, or go – but I might be able to work a bit faster if you go out and entertain Pell for a bit. She's a bit stir-crazy, not being allowed to leave the yard – she'll come in here 'n start pestering me any minute now, and that'll slow me down."

"Sure, I'll play with Pell! Thanks!" Didi said.

The curly-haired girl was in the backyard, playing with the chicks. Didi had seen her before. Like Mrs. Mandhyver had said, she used to roam the town, doing whatever entertained her. She was younger than most of the children who were allowed to wander the town freely, and often tagged along with a group of older boys who seemed to alternate between indulging her and trying to ditch her. The last time Didi had seen her, all the Red Larch kids had been in one big group. One of them had shot an arrow into the Swinging Sword's Inn's wooden outer walls, and Kaylessa had gone out to yell at them. They'd denied being involved even as they stood around looking guilty, until finally one kid blamed someone else and another kid objected, and Pell stood behind another boy, entirely ignored.

Pell was about the same age as Dahna, or maybe Dilly. And suddenly Didi could not help but think about other times archery practice had gone wrong, arrows lost, things broken; and there were times her siblings had all blamed each other and she could always tell the who the real culprit was and she was more bothered by the fact that the kids wouldn't stand up for each other. She remembered sitting them all down, Dahna on her knee too little to understand, and lecturing them: "We are all allies! You are each other's only allies! If you've really done something so terrible that you couldn't suffer the consequences, blame me for it. You can do that, because I agree to protect you. I want to protect you! But I want you to protect each other."

"Who are you?" Pell asked in the real world, looking Didi up and down.

Don't think about them, Didi told herself, Pell is nothing like them, anyway, besides being young and brown-eyed. Don't think about the kids; you have no reason to.

"Why are you crying?" Pell looked uncomfortable.

Didi blinked the tears away. She'd gotten good at dismissing her tears and her memories; it was a necessary skill. During her initial days on the run, she'd suddenly be hit by a memory and end up drowning in it, utterly helpless, as though she were laying on the ocean floor and the guilt and anxiety and despondency were washing over her like waves. She couldn't function when that happened, couldn't hunt or use her magic; she could only amble mindlessly behind Dominic like golem following its master. That wasn't a safe state to be in while trying to evade someone as cunning as their mother; she'd had to learn to force herself out of it. For Dominic's sake, she told herself, to rebuff the part of her that thought she didn't deserve to feel anything but misery.

"It's just the spices your grandma is cooking with, getting in my eyes. My name is Didi. Will you be my friend?"

Pell accepted the offer without further question, tugging at Didi's hand and leading her to the coop to introduce her to each bird by name. She'd been making dandelion-chain crowns for the tamer of them, though the birds did not seem particularly inclined to keep the things on, and they loosened and fell apart as the birds pecked at the ground. Didi followed the child's lead, letting Pell teach her how to braid the grass and handle new hatchlings. She didn't let herself think about her siblings. She didn't let herself wonder about the consequences of brushing away those tears, that with the tears went the memories and the guilt; she didn't acknowledge her sinking worry that dismissing those feelings required her to blink away the promises she'd made them, too.