"Who are you people?" Zella's grandmother asked as her eyes tore into the two unknown people in her shop.
"Grandma! Grandpa! You're back!" Zella chirped, rushing forward and throwing her arms around the old woman. "These are my new friends! They're researchers!"
The grandmother, Hestra, raised a skeptical eyebrow, her gaze not leaving Riku and Sherry. "Friends? Zella, we leave you alone for half a day, and you've already made friends with a battle-mage who looks like he's wanted in three different vassal states?"
"They're very nice!" Zella insisted. "And they're looking for a very specific, very rare artifact for their important research! And," she leaned in and whispered loudly, "they have the most amazing treats!"
The grandfather, Gror, finally looked up from his chamber pot. He saw the chocolate smudges near Zella's mouth. "Treats, you say? Zella, how can you be so careless? What did we teach you about strangers?"
