Page | 13 Eris was speaking in an unusually humble tone, but the words were coming out a little flat and forced. I was beginning to suspect she’d actually memorized all of these lines beforehand. “Well, Eris Greyrat, I find your modesty most endearing,” continued Perugius, looking genuinely pleased. “Allow me to apologize for that unfortunate incident eight years ago, when my subordinate assaulted you.” Eris looked up with a dubious expression. Clearly the girl didn’t even remember what he was talking about. “Uh, it’s all water under the bridge!” “Is it? My thanks, then. You’re most understanding.” Chuckling softly, Perugius waved his hand in a lordly gesture of welcome. Eris rose to her feet and walked back to us with a satisfied smirk. I could practically hear her saying, See? I can handle this stuff just fine when I put my mind to it! The girl really had rehearsed this whole thing. I was fully convinced of that now. In any case, it seemed she’d left a good first impression on Perugius. He hadn’t been nearly so friendly to me the first time we met. I guess Eris’ openness was just naturally endearing. Well, whatever. At least it didn’t turn into a brawl… “Please follow me, everyone.” A little later, after Ariel had offered her own greeting, we followed Sylvaril back out of the hall. The teleportation circle we’d be using was located a little farther behind the one we’d come through. We found it in the rear of a large, empty hall, glowing faintly in the gloom. Sylvaril took the time to give us a lecture on the history of the hall itself, but I’ll just omit all that. The most important thing was that this particular teleportation circle would take us to a forest close