Sigil: The City of Doors

"I can help you, but you can also help yourself by reading in our library. Until next time then." She simply nodded, trying not to show that the meeting was leaving her distraught for reasons not directly related to Gizby.

She'd dallied too much here, there were other duties, and then meeting Dhall again. She'd probably have to take some paperwork home.

/scene

Gizby hesitates, and notices Akh looking his appearance up and down. "It's handcrafted, made it myself. I could make you one, if you'd like. Or anything else, really. I'm a leather-man." Although it seemed Gizby was trying to promote his business, he was self-conscious of her obvious judgement. "I have only been in Sigil for six months, and the Dustmen speak to me. I clearly have much more to learn, both the customs of this world, and the teachings of the Dustmen. I hope we can meet again, and I would gladly accept your guidance regarding the dead. Farewell, Dead Hoon. It was a pleasure."

"His status is sadly way more complicated than that." She reacted to his emotional reaction with stoicism. "The link between the body and the soul is rarely cleanly severed upon ordinary death, not to mention a violent one like in his case. If it were otherwise, funerary rites and many other practices would be redundant. If one is a Dustman with conviction, they should always assume that mortal coil isn't vacated until proven otherwise."

She gave his garments a careful look, drawing some disturbing conclusions from the observation. Why not a Dustman's robe?

"If my judgement was too harsh, my apologies. I have no firm way of telling whether it was indeed foolishness or manipulation. But I'd rather not see the dead disrespected on my watch."

If the gnome still wanted to leave, she'd let it.

"Well Excuse me, Akh Uur Hoon, but I indeed did not intend to learn nothing. If I wanted a feast, I much prefer aged sewer ham, not long pork! It's not every day I meet someone with similar proclivities as myself and was excited to share in it with you. I had sincerely hoped to learn more about his death, but I misjudged my own abilities. That is a fault of my own, and by admitting it, I am shocked at your quick judgement of character! Rhaunades isn't there! That is only his corpse, his temporal vessel! He has shed this life, praise Charon and by His grace, perhaps earned his right of True Death!"

Gizby was uncharacteristically enraged. He felt shame at misjudging his own abilities and consequently eaten crow, and not of the delicacy variety. He was cursing himself internally, for all he wanted was a friend and he had flubbed it.

He straightened his robes, and stood as tall as he could, for a gnome. "My apologies, my lady, I seem to have doubly made a fool of myself." He bows, courtly, and turns to make his leave.

"You are talking to someone who knows how it works, Gizby Brightshadow, and recognises excuses. I tend to assume the best of any berk, but you have just earned my distrust. I hope Rhaunades will forgive me this error of judgement. My own findings will be sent to the investigation." She spoke calmly.

"Unfortunately, no, perhaps if the corpse was fresh, I could gleam some insight. Furthermore, I am at a loss. Did you gain any insight from your own consumption?

"Anything beyond the obvious and discernible without transgressing his body?" Akh's sigils flared up.

Realizing Akh was studying him, Gizby shouted, "Murdered! He was burned and his jaw removed!" He hoped his conclusion based upon his supping would prove satisfactory.

Akh waited if any added value would result from Gizby's grotesque indulgence or it was entirely self-serving and she had been fooled into agreeing to it.

Gizby pulled out his most prized possession, his skinning knife, and proceeded to slice a paper thin length of skin no more than an inch or two long from the dead wizard's thigh, Gizby's favorite bit of flesh, and held it above his mouth, taking it in like a piece of fine prosciutto. His jaw moved up and down once or twice before an audible gulp.

(Memory of flesh ability)

"Welp, he's been dead longer than I realized. It appears I have nothing new to gleam from consuming his flesh. I apologize. This was not a deception, but rather a misjudgment on my part, my lady." Gizby kicks the ground, frustrated with his poor first impression.