"I appreciate it." 

Though honestly Anevia could have done without one of the people that got brought back being Count Arendae. Not that she's going to say it out loud. He is a useful healer, when he actually decides to participate, and also if he hears authority figures complaining about him it makes his day. 

Luslla wanders over to where the Storyteller is warming his old bones by a roaring fireplace. 

"How are you doing?"

"Ah...Lusilla. Much better, thanks to you and yours." His hands are wrapped around a mug of something steaming. "Allow me to thank you again for saving me. Please accept this humble gift as a token of my appreciation." He presses something into her palm. 

Her first impression is of warm metal, heat transferred from his palm to hers through the intermediary of the gift. 

She opens her hand and looks and her first thought is sparkly. 

Are rings a traditional thank-you gift in Mendev? First Daeran, now this--wait, hang on. 

She doesn't have Detect Magic in this form, and she hasn't in fact seen enough magic items to be able to pattern-match it, but something makes her hold the ring up to the light and look at it more closely. "Is this..."

"Magic? Yes. It gives the wearer a little more luck, when it comes to fire. Certainly I would have needed it had your party not arrived in a timely manner, but I find such things easier to come by than most. I have little need of it now." 

Lusilla's first impulse is to clutch it tight, slip it onto her own finger and admire how pretty it is, but--she is, actually, already fire-resistant. It would be at best inefficient to wear it herself. ...Not Nenio, Nenio is too likely to take it apart for science. Not Daeran, Daeran is rich and can afford his own fancy sparklies. Not Camellia, she doesn't fully trust Camellia. 

Lann, maybe. He runs around shirtless, which is a great way to get fire on your bare skin if fire is happening. Better than wearing something extremely flammable, obviously, but metal armor isn't that. 

"Wow. Thank you."

"You're most welcome. That having been said...I think we should continue the conversation we began at the library." 

Lucy looks down at the ring in her palm and back up at him. "Is this a bribe?"

"No, no. You don't strike me as the kind of person who needs bribing to do what needs to be done." 

"I sure hope not, but not everything everyone asks me to do needs to be done. I'm going to escort Horgus Gwerm to his townhouse at some point because he offered me a mind-boggling amount of money." 

Chuckle. "That's as may be, and there are favors I may ask of you, but they aren't what I wanted to speak about, and they're unrelated to the ring. That gift is given with no strings attached, as thanks for services already rendered." 

"Okay." She squirrels the ring away in her satchel. She can give it to Lann later, before they head out again. 

"In truth, I would have insisted on continuing to speak then, but my old bones were weary and I very much wanted to get somewhere safer with all due haste." 

"I can understand that." Being old seems really inconvenient. She hopes the-thing-she-is doesn't do that. Even as much as elves do, apparently, although it'll be a while until that distinction comes up. 

Nod. The Storyteller sips contemplatively at his hot beverage. 

"As I said before, the Wardstone must be destroyed, unless you can find some way to excise the corruption instead. But even the destruction of a Wardstone, while simpler than mending it, is no easy feat, or else the demons would have done so already."

Slow nod. 

"If the demons didn't think there was anything we could do about it, there wouldn't have been any reason for Minagho to stay behind to guard it instead of chasing us while we were escaping from her."

"That is good news indeed. The demons may have something which will suffice...it would have made a reasonable back-up plan if corrupting the Wardstone further failed. However, there is another possibility... when I heard the dying roar of Terendelev, I also felt an unfamiliar power wash over me...if you go to where Terendelev died, there may be some clue to point you towards that power."

"Well...if you think it might help...the square is pretty central, a lot of routes through the city go through it, or could, so it shouldn't be too inconvenient. And...um...I don't, yet, know what powerful magic is real and what's made up--would collecting any part of her body be useful? If that's not too macabre." 

"If her entire body is still there...I somehow doubt we will be so fortunate, but it may be wise to have a scroll of Raise Dead on hand, if one can possibly be obtained. I am quite certain that there is no one in the city with the power to cast Resurrection, but if we make it through the crisis alive, some small part of her remains would allow that spell to be cast, instead of the even more formidable and difficult to obtain True Resurrection."

"I appreciate that those spells exist even if they're hard to come by. Anything else?" 

"...It isn't only grasping at straws that makes me think it might be a good idea to search where Terendelev died," he says slowly, "I have--a feeling, about that place." 

"Oh. And you're the kind of guy who gets neat visions, so your feelings are more reliable than most." 

He chuckles slightly. "That's one perspective on the matter." 

"I'll make sure to check it out. Oh, and--what was the other thing? The favor you might want to ask me."