"Then I will be brief-though you have been difficult to track down on the basis of rumor and heresay." She took a seat, pulling back her hood just enough to look Samata in the eye. "I am Mir. And I wish to know if the rumors are true. But that-" she nodded at the metallic arm "Says that they are."

Shady this person might be, but the face under that hood was fine as porcelain, and nearly as white. Her fingers were long and graceful, her cheekbones slightly unusual. An expert eye might look at that face and say 'elf'. But experts were rare, and an elf looked close enough to human that she could pass as weird or exotic. What might also give her away was the quality of her gear-elf-made boots and clothes would last for decades, and few human works of the textile and leathercrafter's arts could compare. But even that was, at best, just circumstantial evidence.