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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CanadienneBacon" data-source="post: 3344250" data-attributes="member: 11146">Arquesta smiles at Voadam but her eyes flick with interest back to Rancid, who appears to be shrinking back toward the throng in the marketplace.  "It looks like at least one of your number doesn't seem to have an appetite."  With a wink and a light touch to the forearm, the gypsy woman stays Voadam if he makes to stop Rancid from leaving.  "He really is of only small concern.  It's me you want.  A meal would be pleasant.  Yes, I would be happy to accompany you."  The woman glances down at one of the rats chittering in the brass cage. "Quiet, Felix.  I'm sure there will be a bit of boiled egg in it for you."   Arquesta looks back up at Voadam.  "Even as a small child, he always had a penchant for eggs.  To the Copper Coin, then?  They serve an excellent nutty brown.  It's a bit of a walk, but the day is nice enough, and the company fine."  Arquesta smiles again and motions to the west.  The Copper Coin Inn and Tavern is perhaps a half hour walk back the way the group just came, but the gypsy woman seems not to mind the walk in the least.  She answers no questions regarding the wand or herself during the walk, shaking her head no with a smile.  When the bright yellow roof of the Coin comes into view, Arquesta smiles again at Voadam and quickens her step.  The Copper Coin, run by the very welcoming Buttonslow family, is a round building with a slanting tin roof painted sunflower yellow.  Inside, Horace Buttonslow tends bar behind a polished wooden counter with a double row of coins, foreign and local both old and recent, sitting perched on two shelves behind the bar.  Clean tankards, both glass and clay, hang from a rack above the barkeep's head.  Mistress Buttonslow can be heard singing back in the kitchen behind the bar, and three of the Buttonslow boys are heading out the front door just as the group arrives.  One of the exclaims, "Oi!  Da!  It's Arquesta!"  The boy, a youth of perhaps 11 with brown hair, asks, "Arquesta, are you here to do a show?"  The boy's exuberance is tempered only a hair after being cuffed on the head by his elder brother, another brown-haired boy of 16.  "Knock it off, Heath.  C'mon, let's us to the green grocer for mother."   With that, all three boys hold the door open for Arquesta and company, then leave with a round of smiles all around.  Inside, Arquesta selects one of the room's vacant bench tables and seats herself, setting the brass cage with the rats down gently on the bench beside her.  "Cup of brown, Horace, and a bit of boiled egg for Felix, if you please!"  Looking around the group, Arquesta offers an especially kind smile to Pilgrim and Maelicent.  "So rare to see ones of your number in a city of humans.  How've you managed to avoid the attention of the Guard?  Maybe you know some tricks about hiding you can teach me?"   Arquesta leans in interestedly to listen to anything Maelicent or Pilgrim might offer.</blockquote>

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