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**Riverside slums, Moonday evening, late summer of 962 AF**
The streets were quiet tonight. Or, rather, the river was. It was a strange neighbourhood, this one, built in the middle of a small branch from the great river Area. The tail, this little branch was called, a name Henna thought quite fitting, wiggling her own. The houses stood right in the middle of of the stream, suspended by wooden poles in the water. It wasn't meant to last; these buildings wouldn't be here ten years from now. But then again, as much was true for most of the shambling shacks here in the slums. You had to live in the now, enjoy it while it lasted. That was the motto of the establishment Henna currently found herself in. A house of earthly delights, particularly the fleshy ones, and those involving liquor. The young Trollkin had struck an amazing bargain with the hostess of the establishment: she would attract customers with her "exotic" heritage and style, and in return she could sleep and eat there for free. It had all worked out perfectly this far. All she had to do was drug her "visitors" with a little sprinkle of dried bog-moss in their mead, and she could go about her business while they slept and dreamed happy dreams for an hour or two. There had been a few close calls, but nothing yet that she hadn't been able to handle.
The arrangement was particularly good because it gave her time to persue the one pastime she found had any meaning at all these days.
Her glass.
She would peer into it for hours, exploring strange new faces and places, scanning the world for things that fascinated her. Eating, shitting, even sleeping had become irritating distractions from her hobby, and while she was vaguely aware of the mounting peril that put her in, the orb beckoned for her to use it. She could almost hear it in her head at this point. It called to her, begging her to touch it, to say the magic words. And more often than not, she did.
Tonight was a bit special, though. She wasn't looking at some unknown faraway place tonight. She was looking at the very city she herself was in. Tonight, she was searching Areapolis for something worthy of her gaze.