Fetch gathered up Cinder's stained clothing, leaving her the fresh set that Maeryll had brought to the cafe the previous day.  Maeryll slapped the boy's hand when he tried to take her clothing, snarkily saying,<strong>"I'll take care of my own thank you."</strong>A fact she was able to accomplish with a few minutes concentration and some magic.  It was only after the young man had left when she sighed at Cinder,<strong>"You know Cin, having a pet is a lot of work, you'll have to feed him and make sure he gets plenty of exercise, and I hope you don't think your mother and I will do that for you."</strong><br/><br/>Cinder smirked,<em>"Awww, c'mon Mae, haven't you ever wanted to have a pet?"</em><br/><br/>Maeryll rolled her eyes with great exasperation and replied,<strong>"What do you think you are my dear?  And just look how much work you are!"</strong><br/><br/><br/><hr/><br/><div class="floatright">(http://i.imgur.com/lbYuVAn.jpg)</div><br/>A short while later Cinder, now in clean clothing for the first time in over twenty four hours, and Maeryll made their way down Kings row, till they spotted Johnsia the blind beggar that Cinder knew.  By all accounts, looking at him, he was a rather shabbily dressed older man, though clean compared to some of the cities vagrants.  His milky white eyes let anyone who looked at him know his disability, and his body seemed thin and frail.  But Cinder knew better.  While his outward appearance was rather weak, his mind was sharp and his ears were keen.  More than that, he knew a lot more than any beggar should.  There were rumors that he saw to the cities young vagrants, the gutter rats, the children who were too young to be without a family but didn't enter the nation's care programs.  How he did that exactly was a bit of a mystery, and one he blew off whenever asked about it.  It seemed that while Johnsia sold secrets and rumors, some were too pricey to buy.<br/><br/>Joshnsia's head turned upwards as Cinder and Maeryll approached, his nose twitching slightly.  Cinder had the nose of a bloodhound, a bit of a legacy from her time in the dungeon.  But the blind old man seemed to have an excellent sense of smell as well.  Nothing like Cinder's of course, but good enough that as his milky eyes twitched around towards her, he croaked,<strong>"Why is that my favorite dungeon champion coming to visit this poor old man this warm morning?"</strong><br/><br/>Cinder nodded, then realized the stupidity of the gesture towards someone who was blind and said,<em> "Yeah, my young friend said you had some information for me Joshnsia?"</em><br/><br/>The old man nodded but sniffed the air again.  He seemed agitated, almost jumpy, which was not his normal attitude most days.<strong>"Is that Maeryll with you I would guess?  No one else?"</strong><br/><br/>Maeryll sighed, but said nothing.  Cinder confirmed,<em>"Just us two, why so concerned, Johnsia?"</em><br/><br/>He put one hand beneath him and stood up slowly, pushing along the wall as he stood up.  His legs trembled slightly and he gestured,<strong>"What I heard, is for your ears only.  It's not safe to speak it where other ears can hear."</strong>He gestured for her to follow to a nearby alley, still dim in the morning light.<br/><br/>Cinder looked at Maeryll who shrugged as if unconcerned, and Cinder said,<em>"All right Johnsia, lead the way.  Mae, would you watch the end of the alley for us, make sure we aren't disturbed?"</em>Maeryll nodded and followed the pair as far as the end of the alley before leaning against the corner.<br/><br/>Johnsia led them deep into the narrow alley, which turned slightly before dead ending.  He felt around with one hand and found a crate, sitting down with a sigh.  He looked blindly towards Cinder and said,<strong> "I've got some rather disturbing news about the woman you were asking about.  I'm afraid to share it, might be dangerous."</strong><br/><br/>Cinder knew this ploy, the shakedown as it were.  The blind beggar was looking for more money, it was all part of the game.<em>"Ok, I'll pay you double normal then?"</em>she offered.<br/><br/>He shook his head,<strong>"No this is the kind of information that gets a man killed, ten times."</strong><br/><br/>Cinder couldn't help but laugh out loud, ten times his normal fee for useful information would be a full platinum dragon.  No information could be worth that much... or could it?<em> "Two gold coins, and you can sniff my ass while you jerk off?"</em>She offered, knowing the old man's tastes.  She'd let him do it before, and he'd been nothing but appreciative.<br/><br/>His eyebrows over blind eyes quirked upwards.  She had his attention, but he countered,<strong> "Six gold and you let me fuck you?"</strong><br/><br/>Well the negotiations went on like that for a little while until finally they came to an agreement on the price.  Cinder dropped three gold coins into the man's palm, which he quickly pocketed, then bent over and dropped her britches as he unlaced his.  She bent over, away from him and braced one hand on a wall as he stuck his face between her ass cheeks.  His long nose prodded her asshole and he breathed in deeply, sighing and shuddering at the same time.  Then his tongue lashed out, licking at her pussy as he began jerking off.  Cinder had to admit, the old man wasn't too bad, and seemed to know his way around a woman's sex.  In fact she had to resist the urge to slide her free hand down and rub her clit as the old man's tongue lashed across it.<em>"Nnnngggh ok so what's the information then?"</em>Cinder said, biting one corner of her lip.<br/><br/>The old man's hand didn't stop stroking his cock but he did pull his mouth away from Cinder's sex long enough to answer,<strong>"I put my ear to the ground about this woman Lillian Windblossom.  Apparently she's connected to some powerful people.  Some of my eyes knew who she was, not because she seemed especially important, but because several important people have been seen going in and out of her home." </strong>The old man's tongue drove back into Cinder's pussy, making her moan softly.<br/><br/><em>"Nnnngggh, what kinds of important people?"</em>she asked, again resisting the urge to add her own fingers to the man's tongue.<br/><br/>He pulled back again, his tongue running upwards to swirl around her tight asshole as the sound of chuffing coming from his fisted cock grew faster,<strong>"All sorts of people, some constabulary, some people from the academy, even a member of the city council."</strong>His tongue pressed into Cinder's tight asshole, and the champion could no longer resist at least sneaking two fingers down to stroke her throbbing clit.<br/><br/><em>"People from the academy?  Like a blonde elven woman?"</em>Cinder asked, thinking of Virella.<br/><br/>The old man nodded and withdrew his tongue from Cinder's asshole long enough to say,<strong> "Yeah a blonde elf was mentioned, but also the headmistress herself." </strong>Any further information was cut short as his tongue once again dove into her slippery sex.  With the combination of her fingers on her clit and the way the man's tongue licked and probed her honeyed hole, it was too much.  Cinder bit down to hold in a scream of pleasure and came.  It wasn't the strongest orgasm she'd had in the last twenty four hours, but it was nice, and she felt her sex clench and spray the old man's face as she came.<br/><br/>He groaned as he lapped at her, and a few moments later his seed arced out over the top of his fist to land on the alley way below, joining the champion's juices that had already begun to puddle there.  Cinder sighed in pleasant relief before fishing into her bag to find a small hand towel and wiped herself up.  Then pulling her pants back up she noticed two dark spots on her shirt about the size of a large coin directly over each nipple.  She pulled her shit away for a moment and looked down at her nipples, yup, they were leaking small droplets of milk.  With an exasperated sigh she let her shirt fall back into place before asking,<em>"Anything else?"</em><br/><br/>The old man was lacing his britches back up, and smiling despite the femjuices dripping from his face,<strong>"Yeah, one other thing, there's another woman that lives in her one bedroom apartment with her, building 25 on Kethin street.  This woman is a pretty girl apparently, dark skinned, frizzy hair.  Rumor says she goes by the name Lotus Darkroot.  But the two ain't never seen together."</strong><br/><br/>Cinder patted the old man's damp face and kissed his forehead,<em>"Thanks Johnsia, you've been a big help."</em><br/><br/>He called out to her as she began walking back down the alley way,<strong>"You have too!"</strong><br/><br/><br/><hr/><br/><br/>Cinder and Maeryll sat inside an abandoned building on Steamfont ave.  The old building might have been a shop at one point, but the thick layer of dust coating the otherwise empty front room said it hadn't been in quite a while.  Cinder's skill with picking locks had come in handy as the two found it a perfect place to wait.  It was just up the road from the store that Kahiel owned.  A book store by outward appearances, "Bawdy Books," was the name of the establishment, and the faded sign above the door had a winged succubus laying seductively holding a large book in her lap that managed to cover her nipples.  It was obvious what types of reading materials Kahiel might sell.  The pair had wiped away enough dust from the window that they could sit and look down the road, watching the front door as they played cards on the dusty floor.<br/><br/>Maeryll sneezed again and glared at Cinder as if it were somehow her fault.  They'd gone over the likelyhood that "Lotus Darkroot" was probably just another identity for the shapechanger.  The name itself was too similar to Lilian Windblossom to be a coincidence.  But the fact that the two women hadn't been seen together made it all but certain.  For about the hundredth time, Cinder adjusted her shirt with a groan.<br/><br/><strong>"Nipples still hurt?"</strong>Maeryll asked.<br/><br/>Cinder grunted and discarded a card,<em>"Just sensitive, tender." </em>Then with a smirk she asked,<em>"You didn't bring any of Virella's herbal salve did you?  I'd let you rub them wi..." </em>Her voice cut off as a figure walked right by the window.  Dark skin, frizzy black hair, walking with a stride that said she owned everything she surveyed.<em>"Look Mae!"</em>Cinder whispered as she dropped her cards and moved close to the window to watch the woman.<em>"Think that's her?"</em><br/><br/>Maeryll looked out the dirty window and watched as the woman entered the Bawdy Books store and closed the door behind her.  The sign in the front window turned from 'open' to closed and Maeryll nodded,<strong> "Seems like your stakeout might have been a good idea after all.  What's the plan?"</strong>