#elsewhere

Zara stalks to the Market, Bronte and 1122 each on a shoulder.

The Pocket is.... there is no other word for it, more solemn than before. Like the sort of feel one gets at a work place when news of someone's recent death has filtered all through.

She narrows her eyes, and goes hunting for her kithmate's stall.

Her kithmate greets her, of course, "Miss Zara, a pleasure"

"Sir." A bow. "It seems most... downcast... today."

"Alas, yes," The grump says "Happens every year. Chimerical companions often go missing. We do get so attached, do we not?"

"Aye. This Tithe." Her eyes narrow. "Some part of a bargain." She reaches up to pet Bronte, protectively.

"ah..." he says, "you know of it. Few non sluagh do..at least by that name."

"He tried to take what is mine."

"And I could not prevent him stealing the companion of a Dreamer. That... that is nigh unto ravaging, to destroy a child's dream so."

"You saw?" Intrigued "most often this occurs when they are unguarded, when they are alone."

"I did not see the theft. I... I was at school, I did not know there was a threat."

"Forgive us, but it's prized knowledge and rarely given freely. As a kith sister you should have been told, but I did not realize you had... mm my apologies. What did you see? I would know more please" He says as he works his potions and bottles.

"Bronte is not a pet. She is sentient, and a valued companion." Bristly.

"This happens yearly? What service could be so dear as to allow that creature reign to reap? I did not agree to it, I will not pay for someone else's foolish bargain."

"And yet, it seems locks unlock...wards are as nothing... it as if the walls of any sort that would bar the tithe simply do not work" he says

"Aye. A bargain - someone allows him to do this. Someone has invited him."

"But I? I did not."

"Guard your chimera for three days and it should be safe" He seems reluctant to discuss the someone and how her wishes are bypassed.

"And you accept this?"

"What is gained from this bloodletting?"

"What is to accept? It happens." A pause "As for what is gained? All is conjecture."

A sniff. "It happens. But that does not mean it must happen."

"Ah, you are young" The Doctor says "Wilders believe everything is solved by a quest."

"Oh. I am not so young as I look, Doctor. I know how much it can cost. Change is often paid in blood."

Along the high walk above, Madame Ana Biosis observes.

"Leave people who have lost chimera to their grieving," the Doctor near Zara advises, "And rejoice you have taken yours back."

A defiant tilt of her delicate chin. "I do not rejoice, though I am relieved and grateful. I do not rejoice while others bleed."

"i never meant to imply you enjoyed their suffering, only the fact you have a joy in reunion," the Doctor says "If I might? what..did the tithe look like?"

A voiceless coo, soothing Bronte before she answers. "The Reaper? Slender, tall, with a broad black hat. His chariot was of autumn leaves, and leaves formed the chains."

"amazing..." the alchemist ponders "you have seen more than I with your own eyes."

"He took what was mine." If it were any question that it was October....

"The Tithe does that , yes" as if one were speaking about how rain falls. Inevitable.

"So - for how long has this happened?"

"Six years" he says "A pity. It's been a time of great prosperity otherwise"

An eyebrow. "Was it not so prosperous before?"

"Oh, no. Banality seemed much more prevelant... for a time."

"And with the Tithe, something changed?"

"Aye... some speculate on that... but more kithain emerged, dream dances... Autumn People seemed less infractrious.... and rarer... it is as if.. ah, but conjecture is sloppy thinking." He shrugs "Can I interest you in a cordial to sooth the nerves for your book wyrm?"

"As if we were in Omelas."

"No one knows exactly where the chimera who are due are taken...perhaps in the end it is not an unpleasant new home for them?"

"...perhaps."

"if the benefit is linked to the loss? Well, then prices are paid true." The Alchemist shrugs.

Bronte hisses "It is our peculiar institution" with an exaggerated antebellum drawl

The older sluagh looks to his bottles

"shh." Pet. "Well, good Doctor, thank you for your time. Do you have any new teas? I would wish to purchase..."

"ah," at that he says "Yes indeed. I have recently aquired one India borne variety that I think you know but will still savor... but if you prefer something more exotic still.." He offers up his wares at more than reasonable prices.

Zara browses and bargains - polite, yes, but a touch distant.

As she gets the last of her purchases, an autumn leaf lands on her. Not a chimerical one, but a real one.

Well, real in the mortal sense