Bianca descended the stairs from the Piazza del Fuoco dei Fuochi. She allowed her left hand to trail along the red brick wall to orient herself within the dim light trailing down from distant everburning lamps. About halfway down to the underground cistern the wall gave way sharply, almost putting her off balance. She called up an orb of dim light, which revealed a small alcove terminating in an unmarked wooden door. Just as Andreas had described, the door itself was notable only for a well-fashioned iron knob in the shape of a gargoyle biting a ring.
Bianca pulled on the knob, but the door became wedged almost immediately. She briefly considered whether to force it, but after only a short pause it creaked open of its own accord. Beyond it lay another down-sloping brick tunnel. A smokeless torch ignited a few feet inside the tunnel, and she could hear a few more lighting outside her field of view. She dismissed her light and rapidly descended the well-lit stairs, which ran perhaps another sixty feet deeper. She must be well below the level of the cistern, she thought.
The tunnel opened into a large, warmly lit room with numerous rows of slender stone columns joined at the ceiling by smallish, intricately painted vaults. The room's lateral dimensions were obscured by a confusion of packed tables and shelves.
"Please leave your sword in the cloakroom," a sweet feminine voice ordered from nowhere in particular.
Bianca left her sidearm and her cloak as well. She had come in a plain tunic with no scapular or surcoat, her long chestnut hair unbraided to conceal the distinctive double side shave of the order. Shelves radiated from the entrance chaotically. She chose a corridor of bookshelves directly in front of her for lack of a better option.
The shelves here were lined with codices with a smattering of scrolls. There were a handful of stacks of what looked like thin wooden slats, covered in squiggly writing. A few codices had titles in Ausonian, Kydonian, or the sacred tongue, most with titles suggestive of technical manuals of magic or poetic works. Most of the volumes, however, were unfamiliar in language, and many even in script.
The corridor bifurcated at unequal angles. She took the right-hand path on a whim and wandered along at random. Through inattention, she soon lost track of direction, able to orient herself to a limited extent only by the columns. Whatever principles may have been followed in organizing the layout of the shop, Bianca could not discern them.
"Hello?" She called out, but received no answer. She strolled through sections dominated by powders, colorful liquid-filled flasks, crystals, semi-precious stones, and peculiar clockwork devices. With a stroke of good fortune, she wandered into a relatively open area bounded on one side by a proper wall. The area was overfilled with low, round tables heavily laden with a variety of merchandise. Along the wall ran open cabinets displaying a mix of paintings, statuettes, more clockwork devices, and objects fashioned from gold, silver, and precious stones.
One particular cabinet caught Bianca's eye, topped as it was with a cluster of suspiciously phallic-looking objects. Closer inspection indeed revealed a variety of humanoid penises carved from translucent pink stone. Stone dildos?Or some misguided form of decoration? Some of the smaller ones might serve, she supposed, but most looked to be on the painful side given their size and hardness. She picked up a medium-sized one out of curiosity, and almost dropped it when it immediately softened and transformed into a warm, disembodied, flesh-and-blood cock and balls at her touch.
"My Lady has excellent taste," came a melodious voice from behind her. Bianca felt her face become quite warm. "This line is very popular with aristocratic ladies and merchants' wives." Bianca turned to find a beautiful, strikingly fair-skinned young woman leaning against a nearby cabinet.
"They start at six hundred gold pieces for the smallest models," she said, then added apologetically, "Our supplier assures us it's an issue of component costs." A charming black eyebrow arched skeptically over a lovely dark eye. Glossy, jet-black curls framed a heart-shaped face. The girl was barefoot. She wore only a simple, fitted blue kirtle over her chemise, though Bianca noted that the buttons were made of silver and pearl.
"How can I help you, my Lady Knight?"
"I've come with questions," Bianca replied as she carefully replaced the dildo, which shortly reverted to stone, "and a request for help." She was even more irritated at being so easily recognized than embarrassed at the situation. "Did Andreas tell you to expect me?"
The girl laughed. "Sir Andreas has a very big mouth, but just this once he is innocent." She tucked a stray curl behind her ear. "What sort of questions did you have, my Lady...?"
"Bianca."
"Very pleased to meet you, Lady Bianca. Please call me Zdenka."
"And you as well, miss... Zdenka." The girl's skin was extraordinarily pale, even for a northerner. Not a freckle or trace of translucence. And she'd evaded her question. Bianca closed her eyes, whispered a prayer to Asa, and reopened them. The girl looked almost unchanged, apart from a fingernail-sized semicircle of orange paste like a thumbprint on her lower lip, and a pair of long, pointed ears.
"Are you an elf?"
Zdenka's eyes widened in surprise. She quickly regained her composure and cocked her head with a smile. "Never seen one of us before?"
"Not up close," Bianca replied. "To my knowledge."
"I'm impressed you can see through my glamour, even with assistance. What made you suspicious, if I may ask?"
"My childhood tutor was a Wendish woman. She was very fair. But not like you."
"Ah. Well. Not many here have personal experience with Wends. I think I'll be safe," she said, meeting Bianca's eyes, "since I trust I can rely on your discretion?"
"Do you have permission to be here?"
"The Duke and the Abbess have consented to my presence."
"If what you say is true, your secret is safe with me."
"Thank you, my Lady," said the elf, making a slight bow. "Now, as to your questions..."
Bianca hesitated. "I was attacked by a strange creature in the Valley of the Mills," she said eventually, "which neither I nor my companions have been able to identify." She described her fight with the thing from the grotto, and what it had done to her afterward. Zdenka listened attentively and sympathetically to her tale but remained silent for a while afterward.
"I don't know of any magical beasts that match your description," she said at last. "It was probably some minor spirit of earth or water, grown fat on worship from the peasants. That would explain the protean physical form. And they've been known to take a sexual interest in humanoids from time to time. With your permission, I'd like to discuss the matter with my mistress."
"Your mistress?"
"Yes, the shop's owner. I'm her apprentice. She comes to the shop sometimes during the day. I can make an appointment if you like."
"Maybe. It would be difficult for me to make it during the daytime. Or even again at night, for that matter."
