"I don't like it," Rinoa said, wrinkling her nose. "It sounds like they were up to something. They were really just a group of Sorceresses who looked out for one another."

A friendship circle. Sure, they had their disagreements -- like that time one had apparently stolen the other's intended beau -- but they had a kinship nonetheless. It made her feel lonely, suddenly, to know that she was the only Sorceress, and would be all her life.

"Anyway. The town was worried about them, because they were the Descendants of Hyne, that old claptrap, but they also liked having them there to rely on. Has the summer been dry? Ask the Sorceresses to make it rain. Trouble with your crops being eaten by wild goats? Get the Sorceresses to put protective charms around. So there's this weird tension where they expect the Sorceresses to do whatever they'd like, at the drop of a hat, without payment or more than an offhand thanks, but they also don't trust them, because apparently some years before ..."

She gestured. He could imagine. Adel was hardly the only Sorceress to wage a war, after all. Plus, she really needed to shove more of that burger into her mouth, now.

How many burgers had he thought to bring, anyhow?