The Hand That Mocked Them

"Not far," he said. This man was not to be trusted to be reasonable.

"Do you recall the town? Surely he didn't go all the way to the capital!"

"Oh no, I had already been traveling for many weeks when I stumbled across him."

"Good," he sniffed. "I wouldn't want him going into such an illustrious place with my name in his wretched mouth."

"He didn't reveal anything identifying until after I was bound by my word to help if I recall correctly."

(if that's wrong then he just has my memory for events)

(That might be right)

"Even so. And to have someone from the capital come to my home..." He shook his head. "I apologize again for the mess. And the state in which you found me."

(rereading takes too much time so it's canon now ig?)

"You weren't expecting guests," he said charitably.

(What isn't canon makes us stronger)

"I most certainly was not. I left a note!"

(XD)

Kivvien sighed. "Where, precisely, did you leave it?"

"On the wall across from the table where I was lying where you found me," he retorted. "Next to my notes on potent immortalization elixirs."

"Out of his eyeline in a place he wouldn't check, especially while in a state of distress."

"He would have looked for a note, don't you think? It seems a natural thing to do in such a situation."

"An anxious creature like him? I wouldn't have counted on it."

"But he ought to know my habits."

"Perhaps if he had been in his right mind, and not quite distraught, he would have thought logically enough to search for one. But even so, it was not made to stick out in any way from all of the other miscellaneous papers strewn about the entire hovel."