#fenixtj

"Comtessa?" Adler whispers

"Yes, boys. Come in, please take a seat if you like. What can I do for you?"

They enter in, and takes seats nervously. Then Ahpuch says "We found something, Miss Jessica. Something an elder would envy"

"Do you want to share that with me?"

"We should tell her" Adler whispers to Ahpuch

"We should but it is proper to charge her or ask for a boon" He points out "The death gods must have sacrifice"

Adler rolls his eyes, but looks at Jessica "If we tell you, may we have a specially rotted meal? Something fancy? We... have heard stories of a Korean meal... The Denier himself is said to partake of it."

Jessica nods. "I don't know the Denier, but I can arrange to get Korean food, yes."

Excited whispers, then ... Ahpuch says "Nunehi have Thallian too"

"Like trolls have ogres" Adler adds

"They do? How did you find this out?"

"We heard Jonny two feathers talking about stories, about how they can take the forms and power of animals...." Adler says

"So we decided ...what if?" Ahpuch said "What if they could take the form of other Nunehi as well?"

"They could be the ones behind the bomb, or maybe at least mislead the nunnehi who planted it when they killed the vigilante?" Adler goes on

"So we found it, the skinwalker... and we spied on it" Ahpuch says exxcitedly

the kids were spying on a thallian

Jessica tries not to let her dismay show. "And what happened?"

"They collect bits from what they want to impersonate, and for animals" Adler says "That is enough..."

Ahpuch nods "But not for replacing people. For that, they need more than their regular tokens. They need a treasure"

"And this one? It had one" Adler nods

She nods "What was it? What did it look like?"

"A lower jawbone strung on a leather tether, each tooth on the jawbone filed to a sharp point " The boys both say, excited and admiring the artestry

She nods. "Do you know what type of animal it was?"

"Human jaw" Ahpuch is sure

"Or.. kithain if you think about it" Adler adds

Another nod. "You said this Nunnehi Thailain was ... a... skinwalker? Tell me about that." She thinks, trying to remember what she might have heard before this.

"They...walk in the skins of aniamls they kill? Kind of?"

"Kind of?"

"They take a token from the animal and leave the rest behind, and then they change into it" Adler says "They can't do that with not animals unless they have that tr3asure"

"What he said" Ahpuch nods

"And you think this skinwalker used the treasure to impersonate another Nunnehi and set the bomb?"

"Well, he can use it to impersonate people...the rest we're not sure of. So we want to go steal the treasure" Adler says

"It will be our quest, so we maybe known as great mong the sluagh, like the Witch of the RIvers, the Denier, and Scabby knees Nixon"

Jessica looks at them soberly, seriously "I am very concerned about that plan, gentlemen."

Ahpuch glares at Adler "Told you we went to the wrong countess for the goahead"

"Why do you say that, Ahpuch?"

"He thinks Elle would let us go" Adler says "Seh might, but she'd want to lead the mission herself and go along. "

"Which would be an even bigger problem for me." Jess does not disagree. "I think you should be involved, but we know so little about these skinwalkers....do you know how to defeat it?"

"We just wanted to steal it's treasure, not defeat it" the boys say after a bit of exchanged looks

"Mmm." She considers this "See, for my part, I want to defeat it, perhaps capture it and learn from it what is going on and why it might have done what it did. If, indeed, it did what you suspect."

"Well, We can TRY To defeat it instead" Adler says

"I suppose, but I think we'll lose" Apuch says but says "Death comes young. LEt us get sticks"

"Well, wait. Maybe we can work together?"

"You might be a bit loud" Apuch says

"So might the skinwalker." she points out "Do you know where it lives?"

"That might take more than korean food to buy" Ahpucch says

"Ahpuch" Adler says

"Well, we are sluagh" Ahpuch reminds

Jessica nods. "No, that's fair. What would you like?"

"Can we thinik about it?"