"Okay, cool, thanks." 

She goes back down into the basement. 

The guy in the cell is making fun of his guards for having fallen for something, apparently, much to the guards' disgust. 

He beckons to Lusilla when he sees her, after the whole 'being threatened by the guards' bit has died down. "Hey, chief! Hey, gorgeous! Come over here, I wanna talk to you about something, something really important!" 

"Quit bothering decent people, Woljif, or I'll knock your teeth out," one of the guards says coldly. 

"That seems like a huge overreaction." 

"Thank you! That's what I've been sayin'!"

"You only say that because you haven't had to listen to him for hours," the guard says. 

"So what was it you wanted?"

"I'll lay it out for you: simple job, thirty minutes tops, we go someplace, talk to someone, and in return, whatever you want, I'll get it for you! Some extra rations? No problem! Armor, weapons, scrolls, you name it it's as good as yours. If you need my help with something, whistle and I'll be there. I'm handy enough with knives too, and even my magic know-how isn't too shabby!"

"Ohhhhhhh, you're not a cultist at all, are you? You're in here for stealing." 

"Chief. You wound me." 

"I mean, stealing is obviously less bad than being a demon cultist!" 

"Got me there. Not that I'm admitting to stealing anything, you understand." 

The guard who was threatening him earlier makes an incredulous snort, which Woljif valiantly ignores. 

"Of course not. Well, whether or not you admit anything, you are...in a cell. That sort of seems like it would be an impediment to us going anywhere." 

"Okay, well, I have an idea for that. You know Irabeth? Feisty-looking gal, always wears armor? You can't miss her, she's the meanest fighter in the whole city. So when you see her, you put in a good word for me, right, you tell her there's this guy, Woljif--that's me--locked up in the Defender's Heart for no good reason--well, for the follies of his youth--and he really wants to get out on bail so he can keep up his good behavior and make a contribution to society! Got that? Will you do it?" 

"...Well, if I tell her exactly that then she will decide I'm either in on something with you, or just a naive idiot--probably the latter, considering, uh, stuff--anyway, I don't think that'll go the way you hope. But I can say something more plausible, like that we've got bigger fish to fry than--" she turns to the guards. "What'd he steal?" She notices Woljif about to object and holds up a hand. "Allegedly steal," she says, rolling her eyes a little bit. 

"Well, hey, far be it from me to tell anyone how to do their job, as long as the job gets done." 

Lusilla decides it's probably a better idea to bother Anevia about this than Irabeth. 

"Hey, Anevia, you know how the classic adventurer lineup has a burglar in it?"

"I used to fill that role myself, before Beth and I settled down in Kenabres. Why?" 

"So there's this guy in the basement." 

"Ah." 

She raises her hands. "I'm just saying, there's, like, two guards down there, and having three more guys pointed at the demons instead of each other sounds good?" 

"...You think you can make it work?" 

"I think so! And, you know, if it doesn't work, I can probably find him if he runs off," she places a finger next to her nose, "the same way I found you, when me'n Seelah and Lann showed up at the garrison. My other form's got a great sense of smell."

Anevia nods slowly. 

"I'll talk to Beth, see what she thinks. I'm not saying it'll happen, but it's worth considering, you're right." 

"Thanks, I appreciate it." 

And now it really is getting late so Lusilla finds an appropriately out-of-the-way corner, spends some time whittling scavenged insect chitin, uses her dream SLA, and goes to sleep. 

She identifies her dream-message as being intended for Mama. She’ll do her brother tomorrow night.

”Hi, Mom. I don’t know how long I’ve been missing, but I’m doing fine. I woke up in a city called Kenabres on the other side of the Lake, and they’re having a monster problem but I’ve been helping. I…I showed them my true form—it was sort of an emergency—but they’re reacting well! There are loads of paladins here, so they know I’m not evil, and I’m fighting the bad monsters with them, so they’re happy to have me, and then by the time they’ve had a chance to think about things they already know I’m not horrible. I met some other people who look weird! They’re called Neathers and they live underground, below Kenabres. Oh, by the way, I found out what happened to Sarkoris…”

She continues on in this vein for some time, ending with, “Love you. Talk to you again in a few days or so.”