The meeting with the matriarch went as well as could be expected.  She seemed inscrutable, offering neither judgement nor consolation on the acts of the night previously.  Though she did mention that while the majority of the village showed disdain at his choice of saving the digger woman, there were a quiet and not insignificant number of people who felt he showed great compassion and goodness in his acts.  Then with a whisper she added that she was among that number.  But she also expressed her fear that such an act might be ultimately worthless.  Certainly she could not stay in the villiage forever, and she could not return to her home with the other diggers.  It may be best simply to put her down quickly, as a lone kobold would not survive long in this part of the world.<br/><br/>When Nirael asked about the source of the waters, the matriarch got very quiet for a time.  When she finally answered it was in a voice that sounded as if she’d made her decision about something.  She said that she trusted Nirael and wanted to know if he felt the same level of trust towards her.  When he answered that he did, she said that she would be willing to tell him, but not yet.  First she needed to explain more about their people and the curse of lust that gripped them, and this was not the time nor place.  She wanted to know him more intimately before she shared the deepest bits of secrets from her people.<br/><br/>Nirael’s attempts to learn more were rebuffed politely and gently, and it was with a kiss on his cheek that left his whole face feeling flush that she excused herself for other business and left him with his escort for the day.  Nilari had been a fair distance off but collected him with a smile and a wink,<strong>“A kiss from the matriarch eh?  You’re really quite popular you know.  Now lets see if we can’t figure out who else you were popular with last night shall we?  I have a few ideas on where to start.”</strong><br/><br/>Nilari and Nirael questioned several people in town, including Lunari’s half sister by the same father, Yezela.  While they were civil and even friendly, there was a distance between Yezela and Nilari, and while Nirael sensed she was a half changeling like Lunari, the lavender skinned woman gave no sign of it while they talked.   Nilari went around and spoke with several other women she identified as half changelings, but their investigation got them nowhere.  Finally Nilari asked,<strong>“Is it really so important?  It sounds as if my daughter was not upset by what happened, more concerned for your embarrassment than anything else.  Certainly we are not going to find anyone to admit to what happened, and we waste the day in this search.  I personally feel you’re letting your pride get in the way of what is more important.”</strong><br/><br/>Nirael, unable to fault her logic, asked to be taken to the digger woman, Pooit.  He spent the next three hours talking to her, and she seemed eager at first to converse with someone who spoke her language.  Though it became obvious that the elven guards that were watching her kept her in a second floor locked room and had nothing but sneers for her.  They fed her and she had access to a chamber pot, but otherwise was sleeping on the floor in an empty room with two rather old blankets for bedding.  Not mistreated, but certainly not given any ounce of courtesy.  Nirael knew he could say something about it, but didn’t know if that was a good idea.<br/><br/>Nirael noticed that the kobold had used her sharp claws to carve into the wooden floors and walls of the room, prayers, intonations, and what seemed like a very crude journal.  But his attempts to speak with her seemed to bear no fruit.  While she was willing to talk about herself and her life, she still seemed hesitant to completely betray her people.  It was obvious that she didn’t trust Nirael yet.  Though when he made to leave after several hours, she seemed saddened and pleaded with him to return again soon.  So maybe some progress was made after all.<br/><br/>After lunch back at Nilari’s home, he retired to the guest room to study the note book more.  His hands seeming to constantly find the staff Lirialla, he read and read, making notes to himself on a seperate parchment.  How long he studied he hadn’t been keeping track of, until finally he found a passage that drew him in.  It spoke of when Alher first found Lirialla.  It spoke of how at first he only had a sense of the staff, the feeling that there was more to it.  But that eventually he became aware of the fact that the staff was ‘alive’ in it’s own way.  It wasn’t until he’d completed a ritual, a task, something the staff approved of, before it fully opened herself up to him.<br/><br/>Nirael read on, finally having found the clue he needed.  It took a while of decoding for him to piece together the sense of the ritual but eventually he found it.  It wasn’t a magical ritual he inacted, it was one that the staff finally decided he was worthy.  Alher had been in a battle for his very life with an orcish berserker.  He defeated the berserker, barely, but did not land a killing blow.  Instead he healed the orc’s wounds with his own potion, then sat and spoke with her.  Instead of taking her life, he befriended her, for a short time.  Nirael got the strong sense that he and the orcish woman mated, and parted as respected opponents, both alive and satisfied with the time they’d spent together.  It was after that, when the staff finally spoke to him and said that he was worthy.  To take an opponent who wished him death, to defeat but spare her, and then turn her to a lover, even if only for an hour, was the ultimate expression of the staff’s desires.  The staff disliked violence and abhorred killing of natural creatures.  Though the notes said that abominations, undead, and the like were not ‘natural’ and had no place in the natural world.<br/><br/>But the notes came with the warning that once the staff bonded with him, he was much more powerful yes, but it came with a price.  After that day he too began to share her distaste for killing fellow humanoids, and did anything in his power to avoid it.  He also found his libido increased and every opponent he found attractive, he desired, if possible.<br/><br/>It was a cautionary tale in a way.  Great power lay inside the staff, but it meant a not insignificant task and with a catch as well.<br/><br/>Sighing he put it down and began to study the half of his artifact.  Again it pointed south west.  He began reading the journal again, seeking information.  But as the time moved, he noted the artifact half moving.  It swung slowly, eventually pointing north west.  He watched it and noted it’s movements, and it again swung south west.  The speed it moved was slow, but it told him one thing for certain, the other half of the artifact was close by.  Very close by.<br/>