“How am I to trade for glass? No telling when another Fallieni merchant will come to our market. What kind of father boards up the window of his children?” Shaseth questioned with exasperation.

“A worried father,” Yvonne whispered under her breath as she hurried into the corridor. She had to get away from that magical horror. Her breathing had quickened, her heart raced. No telling who would scare children out of their beds without an obvious reason, seemingly out of no other desire than to cause damage. If the vandalism had been a means to an end - to break and enter for instance - to steal valuables the hybrid could understand. They would have disturbed more of the hovel in that case, the parent’s room being a most likely place to find stashed wealth, yet everything appeared in its place there.

Destruction for destruction’s sake? Why? That be so… so dull. Wouldn’t tha vandal need an intention, a purpose? What could that be? This be a show of magic ta inspire distrust between drakari and fae? What could someone gain by dividing tha people and setting them at each other’s throats? These citizens don’t pose a threat even if they banded together into a militia. They live in poverty. Giving them a shakedown wouldn’t rattle any valuables loose. None of it makes sense ta me.

It must have been a message, but to who? This home wasn’t the only building weathering an unnatural blizzard, so Shaseth and his family weren’t being individually targeted. It could have been an attempt to draw the attention of the fae rulers, make them focus on the state of their city. The people of these slums desperately needed help and the government ignore them. Was this vandalism a cry for attention?

In that moment Yvonne felt them. Fingers even smaller than her own touching her trembling hand. Her thoughts disrupted, the half-and-halfling turned to notice who made the gesture. The silent child wanted to hold her hand, give her some reassurance. Kindness from one so young took her by surprise.

A scaled baby face and narrow draconian eyes looked up to the dark-skinned stranger in her home, concern plain as day in spite of concealing snake-like features. The little one took Yvonne by her hand and quietly walked toward the children’s room, pulling her ebony arm. The dwarf hybrid expressed her unease with going back in there, near that icy shatter-magic, but the drakari girl had made up her mind.

“Show you,” she said. Nothing more. Why were the quiet ones those which you had to keep an eye on? They were always full of surprises.

“What do ye need ta show me child?” Yvonne asked hesitantly, slowly following behind her new leader.

“Kelzys? What are you up to sugarplum?” Shaseth wondered as the two of them passed in front of him and reentered the room.

“Showing,” Kelzys responded, rolling her eyes at her father. She took Yvonne matter-of-factly toward her drawings hanging on the wall, ignoring the ice sculpture window in the far wall, pointing at one scribbled individual in particular. She rapped her tiny spiked nail upon the drawing a few times, giving the impression the scribbles held all the answers. “Him,” she revealed.

“He be tha vandal?” Yvonne asked, confirming for clarity.

“He did,” the drakari youngling stated and as soon as those two words left her lips she walked out of the room again, returning to her sister’s side most likely.

Yvonne stared intently at the juvenile, slapdash markings, attempting to commit every detail to memory. The drawing wasn’t detailed, the lines wobbled and the creature had a disproportionate head to his limbs, but every clue would be important. The hybrid’s mind shouted gremlin, but the longer she looked at it the more she resettled on fae. His face had a single, too big teardrop at cheek level. It wasn’t much however she would thank Kelzys for trying to capture a picture of the vandal as best she could.

Searching for Felicity brought Yvonne outside. The redheaded half-neanderthal seemed to lost in some kind of hazy, glassy eyed daze, perched up in the nearest tree. A sight to see, that one. What exactly had she been doing out here? What had Felicity found that seemed so intriguing, it held all of her attention? A moment of thought jogged her memory.

“Oh! Right, we be going ta fix tha seesaw for tha wee tikes,” Yvonne said, catching on mistakenly. She had a tool for just such an occasion! Unhooking the cogwheel saw from its attachments to her backpack, she wound the device up with a small, rotating handgrip, around and around until it didn’t wind any more. After that she set the spinning blade horizontally against the base of the tree, taking bits and pieces out of the trunk with a loud searing noise. The drow-dwarf would have the tree toppled in about a minute’s time.