[i]A woman? Was the sorcerer this woman?[/i] Kire didn’t immediately answer, observing her. Her eyes were different from those Kartaians, but Kire had the impression that this one was like distant kin to them. Very distance, considering the diplomacy the Paladin was being shown and the absence of anything to skewer her with. [i]Pretty eyes.[/i] “I—er. I am not, but Rulitus is. We traveled from Ziad, but I’m a stranger to the place. Rulitus tells me he has a friend here? A sorcerer?” 

Now for the ‘why’, which was a harder question to answer, at least believably. “I am a hunter,” she said, a simple enough summation of a complicated truth. “I am looking for the person who helped destroy Ziad. A dangerous criminal. I am told there is someone here who could aid me in looking for him.” Kire kept her hands away from her sword. She was lucky this woman was sent to welcome her, but clearly anybody else from Ziad would likely identify her face. “May I ask for safe passage to meet the sorcerer? I—well. I might not be too welcome, but I can explain to him why. Rulitus vouches for me.” She considered adding that her companion was somewhere downhill, but decided against it for now.