While they were on their way to search for their lead, Metou answered Gin's questions in a plain and to-the-point fashion. "Any instrument you don't recognize is a possibility we can investigate," Metou said, assuming that there wouldn't be so many musician women that they had to be picky on who they talked to. "And if she's not here, then there's nothing we can do, is there? We'll have to find some other way of tracking the thieves."
It was later than Metou realized when she and Gin arrived at the town square, and there was no longer any music to be heard at all. Nobody was left but some people passing through and traders noisily peddling things that Metou couldn't care less for. Gin was being swamped with traders as well, almost to the point of separating them, but at least he was being pelted with snacks. One merchant rushed up to Metou waving a bottle of unidentifiable fluid in her face, and began saying, "Buy my miracle tonic, and look better than you have in decades! This oil will make you look twenty years younger, I guarantee it!"
"Thanks for the offer, but I already have something like that," Metou responded. With the woman they were looking for seemingly absent, Metou felt a need to ask someone who was here the whole day where she might have went. However, these merchants seemed pretty preoccupied with making a bit more money before setting out, and Metou got a vibe that they wouldn't be inclined to help someone who turned them down. She spied a cheap-looking trinket the man also had in his hands, a small wooden emblem on a string to use as a necklace. Metou pulled a single coin out from under her cloak and said, "However, I'll buy that wooden necklace you have there, and maybe you can help me find what I'm really looking for."
After getting the information she needed, Metou pulled Gin out of the crowd and started taking them both in the direction the man had pointed her in. "One of the merchants told me where we can find our woman," Metou said, letting go of Gin when they were out of the town square, not that Metou had anything close to the strength she would need to pull Gin against his will. Once they were free from the pack of merchants there was no longer cause to hurry, so Metou slowed to a more comfortable pace and told Gin what inn they were headed to.
"Our target might be relaxing at the inn if she was playing in the middle of town, and might not have her instrument out. Look for anyone carrying an unusually shaped case that could be containing an instrument as well, maybe something this big or this big," Metou said to Gin on their way to the inn, and with her hands she made an imaginary shape to demonstrate the rough size and shape of a case that could carry a lute or guitar, and then a case that could carry a smaller instrument like a flute. After thinking for a few seconds she added, "If you don't see anyone with an unusual musical instrument or case, look for someone with an unfamiliar style of clothing." It wasn't long before they were at their destination and headed inside, and Metou scanned the inside of the inn, paying particular attention to the patrons near the walls, looking for someone playing a foreign instrument, sitting near their instrument in a box, or someone who looked like they may be a traveling player.
