During the course of eating dinner, a commotion near the entrance of the inn draws their attention.

“I said not to come around here again!” Jared the innkeeper says sternly.

James looks over and sees a young woman, obviously very poor and looking destitute turn around and leave. When their serving girl comes near, he asks her what that was about.

“Oh, she comes by here from time to time, looking for a handout,” she explains. “My father used to give her food but then she started coming every night and annoying the customers. That’s when he put a stop to it. Poor girl, I feel sorry for her but what can you do?”

“Thank you,” he says.

“You’re welcome,” the girl replies as she moves along to help another customer.

“Kind of feel sorry for people like that don’t you?” asks James to no one in particular.

“Some,” agrees Fifer.

Before the end of the meal, an itinerant musician sets up in one corner of the common room and places a bowl on the floor before him for any donations the patrons would care to give. Most musicians of this world have no paying patrons and just go from tavern to tavern looking for a place to play. If the proprietor has no one to provide music already, he’ll let the musician set up and play for tips, often supplying his dinner if he plays well.

They sit back after the meal and listen as he plays. Not nearly Perrilin’s standard, but who is? Still, he does play well and the songs he sings are on key. During one intermission, James goes over and puts a silver in his bowl.

Sitting back down, he notices Dave is gone. “Where did Dave go?”

“Who cares?” says Jiron. His feelings for Dave have hardly become better over the last couple days. While Dave has done nothing further to antagonize anyone, if anything he’s been trying hard to get along, he still has yet to allay Jiron’s feeling of distrust.