After a moment, a handsome young Mar with satyr like ears and a cultured bearing stepped out of the crowd. Attired in cotton trousers and a silk tunic, he was dressed more in the manner of Faerun than that of the Utter East. He started chattering at his fellows and waving them back. When the tumult finally began to subside, he turned to Atreus and said, "Honored Guest, it is better if you keep your teeth hidden." This Mar's Realmspeak was modern, tinged with a Sembian accent, and-unlike Jyotish's-easy to understand. "The Mar are a backward and superstitious people who already think you one of Ysdar's fiends. There is no need to encourage them in this silliness." "Encourage them?"

"By implying you want to eat them." The Mar flashed a pearly grin and tapped his bright teeth. "This means you are hungry."

Atreus brought his lips together. "Please apologize for me. Tell them I am an ignorant foreigner who is not hungry at all."

The Mar spoke first to Jyotish, then to his jabbering fellows. Jyotish nodded, and the crowd stopped hissing and clapping, though they continued to warily eye the stranger's hideous face.

Atreus's savior bowed to him. "Honored sir, allow me to introduce myself. I am Rishi Saubhari, a bahrana only recently come to Edenvale myself."

A bahrana was a member of the Mar upper class. Atreus did not yet grasp the subtle differences of appearance between bahranas and the lower class taroks, but after coming ashore in the Utter East, he had quickly learned what a grave insult it was to ask a bahrana to do a taroks work.

"In his wisdom, the esteemed Jyotish senses that you nave need of a companion familiar with our customs," said Rishi. "He asks that I serve you in this capacity, if you will have me."