He is going to have to stop her from scarfing it down fast enough to make herself sick.

... Yyyep. Yep, he is.

"Hey," he says, gently. "It's all right. It's not going anywhere, you don't have to rush."

She looks at him suspiciously but slows down a little.

That'll have to be good enough, for now. He bets that she'll slow down once she's assured that he's not going to take her food away, or only give her bread or something. Until then he'll just gently remind her to slow down so she doesn't hurt herself.

She relaxes a little bit when she has finished eating and at no point did he take any food away.

Yep, that's about what he expected. He's totally going to buy this kid some candy when he's in town. It's clearly required.

Unfortunately, he should probably go handle the surviving cultists, and maybe let the townspeople know that the cult problem has been fixed. He does not want to bring Annasarelle to the town, at all. Neither does he want to leave her alone, though. It's times like these that he misses Deekin; Deekin would be great here.

He thoughtfully considers the ground while chewing on this conundrum. Hmm, how to not leave the small child unsupervised without letting her anywhere near the town that mistreated her...

She drinks some more water. That, at least, is not heartbreakingly wondrous to her.

Right, okay. She's old enough for him to just ask her about her opinion, he's being ridiculous.

"Would you rather stay here with a friend of mine and wait until I've handled the this," he waves vaguely in the cultists' direction, "or come back with me to town? Probably while invisible, so you could avoid, uh. People."

"What's your friend like?"

Uh, Ksxksskrth is probably too busy for emergency child watching duties, who would be a good substitute...?

"One moment, let me check which one's free." He smiles at her, then turns and takes a step away so he can quietly mutter to the air in peace. Sssaktsth is the kind of language that's easy to whisper quietly to oneself.

"Hey, Ksxksskrth, is anyone currently free that would be okay with watching a small traumatized child for a little while?" he says

".... Ssaskxssix mentioned wanting to see a material plane some time, and isn't in the middle of her research. And I do not think she would be very frightening."

Oh. Yeah, she'd be good at this. He mutters a thank you, then turns back to Annasarelle.

"Her name's Ssaskxssix," which is a word he shouldn't be able to pronounce but does anyway, "and she's a shadow person. Which means she looks a bit strange and scary and is from a place far away, but she's perfectly nice and won't want to hurt you. She's quiet and sweet - she could probably teach you a cantrip or two, she's studying to become a wizard. But she'll leave you alone if you'd like to be left alone."

"Okay. I want to learn a cantrip."

"All right. I bet she'll be happy to teach you, she likes wizardry. Give me a minute while I bring her here."

He takes a few polite steps away so the summoning itself won't freak the girl out too much. The Plane of Shadow is a plane of connections, of shadows of places that exist in material planes. Compared to most planes, it's good for travel, but aiming can be tricky. At least, without an anchor on the plane one is travelling to. Luckily, Veron knows how to be that anchor. It's difficult, like grabbing hold of something small and slippery in a pool of sticky muck, but he can do it.

Nearby shadows draw together and darken, and a small shadowy shape rises from the floor.

The shadow bows politely to Veron, then steps closer to Annasarelle. It's - thinner than a human. Shorter than most humans, too, with glowing lavender eyes.

"hello," she says, whisper soft. She glances at Veron, then seems to gather her courage from his reassuring smile. She continues on at a slightly louder volume. "i'm Ssaskxssix. but, um, i should probably have a nickname within human vocal range. umm. is Saskia okay?"

"Perfectly pronounceable," he assures her.

"okay. good. um. m'lord mentioned you wanted to learn a cantrip?"

"Yes," she says earnestly, staring at the shadow-woman in fascination.

"i'll be happy to teach you," says Saskia, cheered by the earnest answer. She sits carefully next to Annasarelle. Her dark sheet of ink-black hair moves, slightly, like if she were underwater instead of in air.

"prestidigitation is a good one to start with for practicing with magic for the first time, and it's pretty versatile. it can change things in little ways, like changing a color, or making a small illusion, or a sound. little things. does that sound okay?"

"Yes," she says firmly.

"okay."

Wizardry is a tricky subject; there's a lot of factors to keep in one's thoughts, but Saskia is a patient teacher, and Annasarelle is an attentive student. The lesson goes very well.

Veron, meanwhile, has the fun of dragging cultists back to town. Well, not that there's much actual dragging involved. After making sure that they are very well tied up, gag included, he dumps both of the surviving unconscious cultists into his portable hole, because that is how an adventurer solves a logistics problem. Thank you, magical items. They have enough air in there for the short trip.

He walks back into town as casually the second time as he did the first time. Is there someone important looking he can go dump these cultists off at?

There is a mayor. People will direct him to her if he asks.

Cool. He finds the mayor. Is the mayor currently having any important meetings or anything? This is reasonably time sensitive, but he doesn't want to interrupt.

The mayor is not in any meetings!

Excellent! He still knocks. Manners.

"Hello, sorry to interrupt. I'm Veron Chandler, I uh, I handled your cult problem. There were some survivors, do you have a place to put them for trials and testimonies and such?"

"...We have a jail," the mayor says after a minor stunned pause.