"Ah, I don't think that'd be the best idea; she wouldn't take implications at one of her people too well from someone who's not a tiefling."

She wouldn't take it that well from Woljif either, admittedly, but he's sure he could talk her around. Sending the one person on the outside who might be willing to help him to piss off the head of the local thieflings, on the other hand, is the exact opposite of a good idea, especially since she'd also be mad at him for sending Brenda her way.

"If you gathered the testimony before the shopkeep's memory fades on the details, I'd be grateful, but getting me out would be a lot to ask of a stranger."

"That makes perfect sense; I don't want to intrude where I'm not welcome. Which shop was it? I can ask for a description, though I should warn you, people's memory for that sort of thing is often terrible." Or maybe she doesn't need to warn him; fantasy novel logic says the description might be utterly useless but will more likely reveal that the culprit has some single distinguishing feature that the shopkeeper will remember perfectly. Or both, if it's "all I know is he has horns".

"The ancientries and wonders shop. And if he doesn't have a clear memory, that's almost as good, since at least that way I might be able to convince some of them that I'm not guilty."

That sounds like a really cool shop name she now wants to go to anyway!

"Sounds good; I'll stop by and ask around."

"Think about what we talked about, okay? And take care of yourself, too, I know not being able to run away if you have to is stressful."

At the Vermlek's nod, Ember will give him another smile, and then head out with Brenda.

Once they've left the eagle's watch jail behind, she'll turn very seriously for Brenda.

"Thank you for trusting me to try that, I really appreciate that. And for helping other people, that's very important too."

"I'm glad you're willing to try. And that you're good at it. If there were thousands of you, maybe there'd be something better to aim for than closing the Worldwound."

The ancientries and wonders shop is housed in building on the north end of Kenabres. It stands out from its surroundings both due to the signage identifying its name and the fact that its windows are constructed of relatively large sheets of glass when compared to its neighbors, and that it has rather more of them. Unlike many other buildings with glass windows this far away from the city center, however, its windows are unsmashed, a fact that might have something to do with the large, mobile stone statue standing by the entranceway.

Ooooh. "Hello!" she says to the statue. "Is this your store?"

"Negative. Greetings; this one is a golem, securing this location for master Frulliatros. Please by advised that theft will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of law."

"Understood. May I use a magic ability to copy some of your abilities? This will have no direct effects on you."

"That action is: not forbidden."

"Thanks!" She figured them for a straight shooter. Her skin takes on a visual texture somewhere between skin and granite, and she suddenly feels zero tired. Better, like she'll never get tired. Sleepy, maybe, but not exhausted, even if she runs all day.

"I came here to investigate a previous attempt to steal from this store. Did you see anyone steal jewelry recently?"

"Disseminating security information requires confirmation from master Frulliatros."

As though summoned by those words, someone else comes up from inside the store to the front door. They look vaguely like the necromancer she just fought, if you replaced everything nondescript about them with riotous colors. Their shirt is bright purple with silver stars and moons, their hair colored like a rainbow, and upon their head is a bright red hat with a wide brim.

"What brings you lot up here? Don't mind the mess, we're open."

"I heard that this place existed and wanted to go shopping here, but also I heard you had a theft recently and was hoping to get a description of the thief."

She nods thoughtfully. Seen through the eyes of the shopkeeper, it's suspicious as all get-out. Seen through the eyes of fantasy novel logic, it's exactly what she'd expect to hear if Woljif was innocent: circumstantial evidence partially driven by prejudice with enough room for alternative explanations to drive a truck through. Except for the mention of an eyewitness.

She looks at the golem again. "He said the thieves nearly destroyed you; do you remember anything about the people who attacked you, either what they looked like or what they did?"

If Woljif is innocent and fantasy novel logic--really more like detective novel logic--is operative, either the golem will have incomplete and confused memories that won't seem useful immediately, or the golem will say it was Woljif and it will turn out to have been someone Alter Selfed into him (the latter is unlikely; if that was going to happen Woljif would have had a weak but extant alibi), and either way the subtle details will eventually prove to be inconsistent with something else and make the whole story in which Woljif is guilty fall apart. If Woljif is guilty and this whole thing is an attempt to mess with the players or the readers or something, the golem will identify Woljif and it won't be a disguise. If realistic causality is operating unhindered, things will be more complicated. Also, side note: if there really is a tiefling organized crime ring called the thieflings that would be a delightful pun.

"Negative: the attack came from inside my field of vision, but the user was not visible. It temporarily suppressed this unit's defensive abilities and matches description: transmute rock to flesh. The followup magical attack rendered them visible but disabled this unit's visual apparatus."

So it's detective novel logic, then. She should make sure not to discuss her inferences with anyone so she can do the big reveal at the end that's ridiculous on several levels and she will discuss her inferences with her party momentarily.

"Do either of you happen to have personally observed anything relevant to the spellcasting capabilities of either Woljif or the blue-eyed tiefling?"

She'd ask if there were any other suspects, but it's a magic item shop; pretty much anyone inclined to crime would have a motive. She'll just have to keep in mind that it could theoretically be a lot of different people including 'Frulliatros himself, for the insurance money'.

"I know he's got some talent; enough to do some tricks with that shadow of his, at least, and I'd occasionally detect something from him when I ran him out. Not enough for a stone to flesh, but it's not too hard to cast from a scroll if you can get your hands on it. I dunno about the other one, I'd never seen him before but I wouldn't put it past them to have picked up the basics, and it could have been a compatriot with the scroll anyway; they made off with more of my display case items in more cases than I'd have expected one person to manage in the time they had."

She nods. "So, multiple people but we can't confidently rule either of them in or out and there could have been a third person. Thank you; I hope the Eagle Watch will find it useful." Because she's definitely telling them as well as Woljif and Woljif probably won't find it useful at all, poor guy.

And now it's time for magic item shopping! She has one open ring slot, four friends to potentially buy presents for, and a pocketful of cash and bank drafts. Wow, she's going shopping with a group of girlfriends, her life got so weird it wrapped around to more normal than it's ever been. 

If there's one kind of customer Fyllemen Frulliatros likes more than the rich polite kind, it's the extremely rich polite kind. Unless he's losing his touch, the girl's wearing over two hundred thousand pounds worth of magical items, and that's not counting the ones he doesn't even recognize. Even if he doesn't make a sale today, if he's lucky he can get her interested enough to drop by again whenever she next has a big payday.

"Is there anything in particular you're looking for, or shall I suggest things? I mentioned earlier that I happened onto some genuine aasimar-made mithral chainmail; as protective as full plate and a mere fraction the weight, and that's before you use it to fly! Or perhaps a luckstone, to help avoid the worst?"

Most of the items on display are not especially powerful; rings of protection, amulets of natural armor, cloaks of resistance and so forth, weaker versions of the ones she's wearing. But there are also a fair few more unusual items like a ring that promises to minimize wasted time asleep and eliminate the need to eat, or boots made out of leaves promising to make the wearer more acrobatic. There's also placards noting that more powerful items can be retrieved from storage on request.

Oh, there are so many cool things here! If she was shopping for herself it would be easy, those boots are great, but she really wants to get things for her friends and five thousand crowns split four ways isn't enough for any of the really awesome items. Is anyone staring at anything in particular? Is there anything relatively cheap but really weird and obscure, because she knows what Nenio wants and it's something novel to do experiments on.

Nenio has been rather thoroughly distracted by the golem; she might evince an opinion on magic items later, but for the moment you would have to first get her to realize they exist.