Darian looks at Kitten, then at Marionette. Kitten catches Darian's eye for a moment, then pantomimes licking and cleaning her face with her free paw. A fatuous display, and awfully skinny, he thinks.
Yet Marionette holds her limp, yet limber, position. There is a poise there, a sense of body control that few manifest. Darian remembers when she stood, unmoving, facing him in the alleyway with Temp. Her poise was there, too. This can only be from training, from discipline, like a professional dancer... A gnomish dancer...
...like that incident at some dive near Strahd Street in the Blackchapel district called Little Diversions. Darian remembers surveying the aftermath of a riot there, apparently where a patron and a dancing girl were torn to pieces. The owner, a small fellow himself--yes, a gnome--opened up the entire place in an attempt to show that it was solely the actions of three other patrons in the bar. They had clearly gone mad, and were busy arguing with each other about who the dead woman liked. The three patrons were arrested that night, and the case was considered closed that very night. They were eventually sentenced to death.
But Darian remembers seeing that gnomish poise when he spoke with the other dancing girls. He remembers three, all gnomes, all having received some bruising and scratches from the riot. One had quickly snagged magical healing from Fr. Abington, another police chaplain, who smiled broadly and appreciatively at the cleric. The second busied herself with covering the blemishes with make-up. But the third caught Darian's eye. He first saw her while stretching and grimacing, her foot pulled above her head.
"Hello, miss. I am Darian Rose, with the constabulary. Let's start with your name."
She lowered her leg and looked at Darian, annoyed at the break in her concentration. Her skin was pale like pine, and her steel-blue eyes glowered with intensity."Suktimooschi ko'Hogglefoon. My human name is Suki."
"Very good, Suki. What can you tell me about--" Darian began, then stopped as Suki raised her leg again, bending over at the same time so that her cherry-wood colored hair brushed the floor. "--well, what are you doing?"
"Stretching," Suki gasped. "I got pulled on hard out there, and I'm making sure my muscles don't tighten up. I can't afford a spasm now if I'm going to keep on the path."
"Path? What path is this, pray tell?"
Suki reached back, pulling her torso up by grasping her raised leg. She winced when she did so, clearly feeling the earlier attack. But she fought through it and reached the position she was looking for. Darian tried to push the mixture of thoughts it provoked from his head. "I practice Vondlegoon. It's a traditional gnomish dance form. Not much call for it among the giants, but at least this place lets me dance. No, I don't expect to be appreciated for this, I just do it to keep my people's traditions alive. It's also good for focus."
Darian practically breathed a sigh of relief when Suki released her grip and returned to a normal standing position. "Thank you, Suki. It is good to learn these things. But there are other pressing matters. What happened here, tonight?"
Suki inhaled deeply. She stayed silent a moment while the dancing girl with the make-up chattered on to Perrin about becoming a star performer. "What you see. We were on stage, one of the tables started brawling, then rushed us. That's all I know," Suki replied, almost calculatedly. "All I can say is, it's not normal." She then folded herself at the waist over the high edge of an overturned table, so that she balanced solely on her midsection, arms remaining at her sides.
The rest of the interrogation was uneventful, but there was something about Suki's dedication and focus that stayed with Darian, inspired him. That one rioting patron murderer never did walk straight again before his execution.
Darian looks at Marionette one more time, balancing carefully on the rail. That must be Suki.
