"You sure none of them is you?"

"...no but I don't think so."

"Shame. Ask to speak to Phinis Gestor when you're there and tell him about where you found these, he'll be interested."

"I will."

They spend a few minutes in silence, but then Ruby asks, "Why are you helping me?"

The elf smiles. "It pays to be kind. People remember you later. And when strange things happen, it's always good to make yourself part of them, so that you'll know how to learn from them."

"So you don't want me to pay you back?"

"If your conscience moves you to, I'm not going to refuse gold, but I see these things as investments."

"An interesting mindset."

Nelacar smiles but doesn't reply.

And Ruby finds himself in the uncomfortable position of not particularly enjoying silence but not having anything to say and not wanting to be annoying. So silence it is, and he tries to be quick and efficient with his scrubbing and soaping.

It helps that he really hates the feeling of stickiness on his skin and in his hair. By the time they're done he's pretty sure the owner will need to change the water, but presumably that's included in the price, so he tries not to mind it.

Nelacar steps out of the bath, then, and once Ruby's done the same he says, "This might burn a little," before casting a spell.

It does, in fact, burn, but not very much. The kind of burn of being put into very hot water, but not hot enough to actually cause damage.

And then he's dry.

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it." He reaches into whatever magic subspace he has to grab his "clothes"—if they can even be called that, they're not concealing much—and form them around his body.

And Nelacar doesn't offer Ruby the furs again, so presumably he was the one who loaned Ruby them. He grabs the book and the dagger from where he placed them and follows Nelacar back inside.

The guard is no longer there, it seems, and neither are some of the patrons from before, while some new ones have taken their place. One of them in particular grabs Nelacar's eye: another elf, with a purplish skintone, in very similar garb to his own.

"Enthir, friend, how good to see you."

"Just like every other night," Enthir replies dryly. He notices the human following Nelacar, then, and eyes him suspiciously. "Who's this, then?"

And now that Ruby's mind is no longer occupied by other worries he finds himself aware that he's stark naked in the middle of a tavern, even if it seems like no one seems particularly bothered by this fact. And it's not that he dislikes this fact, but some feeling unattached to any particular individual memory finds him starting to stiffen. Enthir's gaze doesn't help matters, for all that the elf could himself as well be said to be naked.

"I'm Ruby," he says, looking for all the world like he's unbothered. "—I'm a mage," he adds, because this person is clearly also one.

"So it would seem," Enthir says. He also looks entirely unbothered, and turns to face Nelacar once more. "I know that look. You want to foist this green boy on the College?"

"So astute." Nelacar takes a seat at the table Enthir is sitting at, otherwise unoccupied. "I think you'll find his situation interesting. And to be sure, he isn't one of the four missing students?"

Enthir blinks and looks at Ruby again, more intently. "I am not the best at the faces of men but I am fairly certain I have not seen this one before. Why would you suspect this?"

(Ruby also takes a seat.)

"It's probably best for you two to talk about this on the morrow, when you take him with you."

"I will not be here on the morrow."