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| A month passed in the world of the living. In the tavern of the Bee and Barb, a man sat at the bar speaking in hushed tones to the Argonian bartender.

"Still here eh?" he asked quietly.

Keerava looked up at the ceiling reflexively. "Yes. He just won't leave. Every day he goes out searching, and every night he comes back and drinks himself into Oblivion." | |

| "Sad case. No sign of her I suppose?"

"Nothing. Just that bit of charred lock of hair we found outside the door the next morning," she admitted, shaking her head sadly.

"Have you told him? About... that night?"

Keerava suddenly looked at him with real anger on her face. "What about that night?! It was a normal night like any other, and damn you to hell if you say anything different!" | |

| Asgeir held up his hands. "Whoa! Back off Keerava. Of course it was."

"Good," she replied, calming down. "It's taken me forever to get Talen-Jai back to normal. I had to threaten to fire him if he kept coming on to me when I caught him standing over me while I was sleeping one night!"

"You were pretty good," Asgeir smiled at her.

She held up a mug menacingly, but smiled back. "I've got a pewter mug and I know how to use it!" she warned. | |

| "Well, you were. What the hell happened to us?"

Keerava shrugged. "Damned if I know. Something about that cat though. Made me wet just to look at her!"

Asgeir nodded. "Yeah, made me hard as a rock. Even made you look good to me!" | |

| "Hey! I'm the one that managed to take a bunch of scale-less skin-pricks up my.... Well. It's over now. And forgotten, right?"

"I suppose, though you sure felt good inside!"

"Shut it monkey boy. You won't be getting inside me again so you might as well forget it. As should we all." | |

| "Hell of a party though. One HELL of a party," he said, adding, "Still, don't you think he should know? Maybe it will get him to leave her memory be if he knows."

"I've thought about it. He's absolutely convinced she was some sort of virginal angel. Thick as a brick. If I tried to tell him, he'd call me a liar. Probably take my head off for sullying the memory of his cat."

"Whatever she was, she was no cat. So, how are you going to get rid if him?"

Keerava shrugged. "He's out of money, but I let him work for his board. Works hard too. If he had scales I'd trade Talen-Jai for him I swear. Worth the boarding, but it's no life for a man like him. And..." | |

| "You feel sorry for him," Asgeir finished for her.

"As much as this damned place lets you feel sorry for anyone."

"Yeah. Me too. All that drink is going to bring him down, and at the rate he's been going it won't be long." | |

| "Shh! Here he comes now."

"Damn, he looks like a walking zombie!" Asgeir commented quietly as they watched Sampson cross the room to the privy downstairs.

"Does he often walk around in just his underwear like that?" | |

| Keerava shook her head. "Only when he's so drunk he doesn't remember to get dressed. He won't last long like this. But what can you do? He's just pining away, and no mistake."

"I wonder what happened to her? A shame to see a man reduced to... that."

"Who knows. A dragon maybe. But one thing's for sure. Whatever happened to her, she's not coming back." | |

| The warrior returned, went back up to his room and shut the door. Bleary eyed, he looked around with the unfocused memory of the inebriated, as if the person he sought might be found in a corner or under the bed. He then offered up a prayer to whatever Gods might hear him, asking only that Devilah be safe wherever she was before crying out, "Oh Devilah, WHERE ARE YOU!?" | |

| Finally he sat back with his head in his hands and cried quietly before falling to sleep, trusting in the solid walls to keep his grief private. As he drifted off, he once again affirmed to himself that he would not leave this tavern till she returned. | |