Delphine was glad to disentangle herself from the Dunmer as well as intrigued by the falling pie. She had heard of mana from heaven though the muck that was left in the muddy street didn’t exactly fit the bill. Although the Dunmer momentarily thought she was innocent she decided that she had best make herself scarce before he figured that a fine from a guard would spend just as well no matter who paid it. The square was busy in the early evening and the smell of roasting meat was thick on the air. The pie had reminded her that she had violently ejected the contents of her stomach a few hours ago and that she should probably replace that, preferably with something cheap. Tomorrow she could head out into the wilds, try to gather some ingredients and whip up a few potions for sale, while she was out of the city she could hunt for her food and that would save her a few pennies. Delphine paused as a trio of drunken Imperial soldiers passed, half staggering against each other. The woman in the lead wore an armband and seemed to be marginally less inebriated, dissading her companions from the random acts of drunken debauchery they were discussing.


“Daedra lover!” a panchy man snarled as she passed. Even in magically tolerant Breton society the backlash against mages omnipresent.


“I tried it but they were all too busy pleasuring your mother,” Delphine responded pleasantly. The man undulated to his feet but Delphine was already passed him, slipping across the street ahead of a wagon that was loaded down with dry goods. She was considering the Hound and Badger fro ale and stew when she noticed what she would swear was the man who had dropped the pie back in Flour Lane. She crossed to him and was met with an insouciant grin. She grinned back bemused. Briefly she wondered if he was Thieves Guild, petty crime like stealing food wasn’t something they policied, but he looked like he could handle himself. Most Redgards could, though stereotypes werent everything as her encounter with Paunchy Shitforbrains had just demonstrated.


“Well good to see you again,” she greeted as she got close.


“I’m pleased to see that you are taking care of our street level streets as well,” she quipped. She opened her mouth to continue but her eyes were drawn to the bounty board behind him by the almost glowing figure of four hundred septims. That amount of money would come very close to clearing what she owed the guild, then her eyes went down to the next notice.

“Jaque, Delbrae and Squeak,” she said with a sad sigh. She had known all three of them, local fighters trying to prove they had what it took to join the guild. She had hired on to a caravan with them taking goods to Knightsbridge once and on another occasion tried for a bounty  on a rouge bear that had been killing travellers. That had proved to be nothing more than wandering around the woods for a few days with nothing to show at the end. Well not quite nothing, she had managed a good source of duskbells when Delbrae had tumbled down that gully. It was a shame to hear that they had died, though the bastards might have asked her to come along and share the bounty as skint as she was. Realisng she had lapsed into silence she turned her attention back to the Redguard.


“Delphine Delapore,” she said, thrusting out a hand in the fashion of Hammerfell.

“Thanks for not letting me take the fall for the great pastry heist, or letting the great pastry heist fall on me.”