Note/L10N/KDQ/2.03/Books/povssglasskagouti1?
povssglasskagouti1 
原文
<font face=1><br>
<DIV align="center">Milbereth and the Glass Kagouti
<p>
By Lopnigart the King
<p>
Part 1 Valenwood
<p>
<DIV align="left"><IMG src="Book/fancy_font/m_65x62.dds" width=51 height=61>ilbereth surveyed the room crossly. There was nothing here at all. The chest beside the bed contained only a chitin left gauntlet and two iron arrows. The three enticing looking barrels mustered five large kwama eggs and ten saltrice. The huge wardrobe had common pants, shoes and belt. Even if she took the pillow off the bed she would be lucky to get 25 gold for the lot. It wasn't fair! People who had the resources to live in such grand houses with such elaborate security should have possessions commensurate with it!
<p>
She had broken a quality lock pick getting into the place, meaning she would be making a loss on the evening, even if she took everything portable in the place. She kicked irritably at a leg of the bed and succeeded only in stubbing her toe. Her mood did not improve. She was mainly annoyed with herself. There had been no reason to assume that the new tenants in the Hall were wealthy. The security had dated back to the time of the previous owner and meant nothing. The only information she had gleaned from local gossip was that the newcomers kept themselves to themselves.
<p>
The breaking of the lock pick too had been unnecessary. A dog had barked when she was in the middle of a delicate manoeuvre. It was hardly the first time that she had been startled by a sudden noise while working, they were part of the job. You listened, clocked them, assessed what they might mean and took appropriate action. You did not jerk your arms in fear. Such a reaction could have cost her far more than a broken pick!
<p>
The bedroom was in fact only the second room she had looked at but she could tell. It was very rare in her experience, to find only one room in a house well stocked with the kind of small valuable items in which she specialised. If an owner liked them, they were everywhere.
<p>
For the sake of form she gave a cursory glance over the rest of the property but her initial assessment had been right. The new owners were either commoners or used the place too infrequently to keep their belongings there. There was nothing worth taking. The night had been wasted.
<p>
Milbereth was not your ordinary thief. She had been apprenticed to Peterman Cracke, probably the most famous housebreaker ever and she had served him well. On his death she had taken over the business - acquiring goods to order. That she had come to this residence, for no official reason and when there were already plenty of paying jobs on the books, was down to the matter of the glass kagouti.
<p>
Milbereth lived and worked in the city of Hawle. She had been born there some forty years ago and apart from one year in her late teens when she had travelled throughout the length and breadth of Tamriel, she had spent her whole life there. From an early age she had discovered she could learn a place eidetically. Although she would get lost at first in a new area, once she had got her bearings she could navigate the streets blindfolded.
<p>
The decision to become a professional thief had not happened all at once. As a small girl, an only child, she had liked to pick up objects she found lying around and hoard them. They were not thefts as such as if anyone asked her for them she would give them back immediately. Her family saw the trait as useful. If anyone mislaid an item, the chances were high that Milbereth would have found it. She was always feeling down the sides of chairs, looking under piles of books and so on. They would often reward her with a sweet or a cake if she found them. This skill at detection, that might have taken her in a different direction completely, was soon being used by neighbours and family friends.
<p>
Her mother would say "If you've lost anything, don't worry. Milbereth will find it."
<p>
Somewhere in all of this came the subtle change. Initially she started 'borrowing back' where loans had been forgotten about. Then there was 'making better use of' items that were underutilised. Ultimately when she set up her own business it was theft pure and simple. It was not called that. On the face of it she did what she had always done, tracked down 'lost' articles. She never asked for proof of ownership or worried about obtaining them by legal methods.
<p>
The glass kagouti had first come into her life at the time she was setting up shop. A tall very thin mage called Emmenthaler had been one of her first customers. It was a major fillip for her business as locally he was the big cheese. It gave her operation considerable 'cachet' that he had walked in openly at the beginning of the morning.
<p>
She could no longer recall the conversation verbatim but he had asked her to track down a list of some ten items that had disappeared from his laboratories over the years.
<p>
He thought a couple had been stolen but most had been borrowed where the borrower had simply forgotten to return them. Emmenthaler was inclined to lose himself in his research and he could never remember who might have asked to borrow things. He did, by and large, remember the names of all those he had dealt with over the years.
<p>
Seven of the items she had retrieved for him without trouble. One had been destroyed by accident, the culprit too nervous to own up. One 'stolen' item took a little more time. The acquirer simply denied having it but Milbereth possessed what she called a nose for truth ('a nose for lies' would have been a better description). It required a break in and the overcoming of fairly complex security devices but that was all in a night's work for her.
<p>
The one object she did not find was the glass kagouti. It was, she learned, not glass but quartzite of a kind so flawless it appeared to be glass. It had belonged to his mother. He remembered her talking about it often. He could not remember having actually seen it. It was for this reason he was unable to tell her if she was looking for something that could be attached to a charm bracelet or a garden statue. It made her search much more complicated.
<p>
Emmenthaler paid her well for the eight objects she did return and recompensed her for the trouble she had put in to learn of the ninth. He returned the following year to see how she had fared with the kagouti.
<p>
His interest prompted her to enquire whether it had magical properties. He told her he had no idea and she did not think he was lying. She made an extra special effort to locate it and was at great pains to tell him all about this when he returned the following year. Indeed she was so effervescent he had gone home looking somewhat punch drunk.
<p>
On his fifth visit she asked him why the kagouti mattered so much.
<p>
"That was something I was going to ask you."
<p>
She laughed this off, returning the question to him again. His answer was the kind of pretentious echt-arcane obfuscation she expected more from charlatans than respected practitioners of magic but she hadn't forgotten it.
<p>
"Perhaps it does not matter, my dear. The expression is overused and meaningless. We do not have omniscience and so cannot identify the part to be played by each object we encounter in our lives. Some will greatly change our perceptions, even our futures. Most will not. Yet, in the end, when we die, nothing will have turned out to have 'mattered' in the slightest. My advice to you is don't worry about it."
<p>
The size of Hawle encourages itinerant merchants, preachers and strolling players. Any one of them might have taken the kagouti away from the city, from the province even. Emmenthaler said that had not happened and yet he had offered no proof for such an assertion. She redoubled her efforts to find it.
<p>
One day his vagueness on the subject made her decide to try to establish whether it had ever existed or was simply a figment of his imagination. Emmenthaler had called it his mother's. If the mother had any friends she might have talked to them about it. Of course the family had been dead for hundreds of years but those who moved in a wizard's circle were often wizards too and they did not die so young. In researching the family background she discovered that one of the mother's friends was indeed a wizard. According to the very skimpy records she found this wizard - a woman - had succumbed to time and become plant mulch but her house had been left untouched. No doubt this was because the woman had been accused of necromancy and no one wanted to have to face the angry undead.
<p>
Milbereth herself was not ecstatic about breaking in. She had been forced to deal with a fair share of nasties in her time, usually one or other form of ancestral guardian, and they were never easy to dispose of. They could do a lot of damage too. She took a great many careful precautions.
<p>
They turned out to be a waste of time, too. The wizard, or according to some rumours, witch, was called Roscyxa. She had lived in one of the neatest and tidiest places Milbereth had ever come across. The place was full of chintz and damask, Fittany lamps, Croomfort pottery. The only evidence of enchantment at work was the absence of dust. As no one had supposedly been inside for 400 years, that could not be natural.
<p>
After a thorough search of the place she was rewarded with information in the form of three letters to Roscyxa. These were enough confirmation that the kagouti existed but did not give a clue as to where they might be. Milbereth arranged them chronologically and read them carefully.
<p>
</font> <font face=3>
Hi Rosie,
<p>
I've done some digging around about that item you're so interested in. I can't say I got very far but you can have what there is. It's been in the ownership of the same family for generations. Stories conflict as to how they came by it but all imply that it was a gift for saving a life. The gift is described as 'one clear quartz statuette of a kagouti on a bronze base, approximately one twelfth normal size'.
<p>
They don't keep it on display but then a kagouti is hardly a beautiful creature. Maybe they do not want to find themselves staring at it every day. There is no reference to it having any magical qualities. Those I talked to scoffed at the suggestion. That could have been because they were hiding something of course but I am in fact inclined to believe them.
<p>
If you really want to find out about it, we will have to trace its origins and learn the true story. This may be hard to do because it all happened so long ago.
<p>
The K?efabrikker family, the owners of the kagouti, claim to have started in High Rock in the mercantile centre of Port Salut. However their name bears no hint of the Breton tongue. I imagine if we were to start digging we'd find they have Nord blood in their veins.
<p>
I'm happy to go to High Rock if you wish me to but I'll need some funds.
<p>
Even your faithful servant,
<p>
Laire
</font> <font face=1><p>
The funds must have been forthcoming. The second missive was sent from an address in Cyrodiil.
<p>
</font> <font face=3>
Rosie,
<p>
I don't know why I ever agreed to come to a place full of Bretons. How I dislike their perpetual whining. And I think the whole expedition will turn out to be nothing more than a wild netch chase. Nothing I have been able to find here indicates they were given the kagouti while in residence here. They didn't do anything heroic. They were dairy farmers pure and simple.
<p>
I was right in guessing that they originated in Skyrim. I traced the first arrival who gave his departure point as Jarlsberg. When they arrived in Port Salut they stayed for five generations adopting an increasingly Breton appearance and life style. Six families of descendants still live in High Rock, more widely spread out these days. I visited them all but none knew of the kagouti. One does have an apocryphal family tale of a noble Nord giving a distant relative a wooden statuette of an alit. Perhaps this is a link to the kagouti, you know how oral traditions become distorted in the re-telling.
<p>
The main branch of the family was taken by the matriarch Brie to the imperial province which is where I am currently staying. The family appeared not to like each other very much and generations would move long distances from each other and not only within the Imperial province but even into Morrowind. One got as far as Iredior, a particularly difficult place to reach. Nevertheless I followed every lead. Sadly Feta K?efabrikker was no more helpful than the others. I believe the kagouti does exist and probably in our province, though whether in Hawle itself I wouldn't like to speculate. I have visited all known surviving descendants and got nowhere. If anyone is lying, and I don't believe they are, it would be nice to know why. Is there anything you have not mentioned to me that might cause them to want to hide it?
<p>
Anyway, if you want me to proceed I will have to visit Skyrim. As you are aware this province is very cold and I will need new clothes. You can send funds care of post restant Parmigiano. I am having a short rest here to recover the use of my tongue muscles.
<p>
Yours,
<p>
Laire
<p>
</font> <font face=1>
The final missive came from Skyrim.
<p> </font> <font face=3>
Roscyxa,
<p>
There was no need to make a threat like that! Of course as a sprite I do not feel the cold but I do not want to seem out of place. Fortunately Nords seem peculiarly susceptible to losing their apparel. Ensconced in their itchily uncomfortable fur armour I made a passable effort at being a local. I have to say the accent of the local males is beyond me. It doesn't seem to come from anywhere. And all that 'aaarr' - were they pirates in the past?
<p>
Well, I started by drawing a blank. The village of Jarlsberg was destroyed during a drunken party many years ago and was never rebuilt. Nords seem happiest when away from Skyrim - something to do with the climate no doubt - and those left alive after the 'party' upped and moved on. But it was long after the K?efabrikker family had gone from the place. I was able to trace four surviving branches of the family. Three have no knowledge of the kagouti. The fourth also claims ignorance but for some reason I don't believe him. Whatever he is hiding he isn't going to tell it to me. Perhaps you have skills that can unlock a man's tongue? If so you will need to get to the small town of Roblochon and ask for the ferry to the island of Haloumi.
<p>
Laire
</font> <font face=1> <p>
Sure that the kagouti had to be real, Milbereth redoubled her efforts to find it. Over the years she had been inside every building in Hawle but one. It was the reason why she was there now. Until today the security, magical, technical and in the shape of fierce dogs had kept her out. She had for some time been absolutely confident in her own mind that this was where she would find the kagouti. And she had been wrong.
<p>
She was about to leave when her heart nearly stopped in shock. Out of the empty air a voice spoke to her.
<p>
"If you'd knocked at the door, my dear, I'd have let you in."
<p>
An elderly woman materialised in front of her. "Someone breaks into your house, you don't sit around waiting to be hit on the head. But you take nothing. I find it intriguing."
<p>
Milbereth talked of her search for a missing artefact without mentioning what it was.
<p>
"My dear, what a strange tale. But what is this artefact to you?"
<p>
"It's the only item that I have been asked to find that I haven't retrieved."
<p>
"Really? Still you shouldn't let it become an obsession. It's not as if it mattered."
<p>
Milbereth shrugged. The words were eminently reasonable and yet somehow while the glass kagouti should not matter, Milbereth knew that it did.
<p>
She told the old woman about it in case she had come across it when she moved into the house. There was the briefest of hesitations. Milbereth was sure that she had heard o the glass kagouti in spite of her denial. All she said was "Beware obsession my dear. Do not become obsessed with something that does not matter!"
<p>
Good advice is not always easy to follow.<p>
<DIV align="center">***********************
<p>
<DIV align="left">
Three days later Emmenthaler made his annual visit. She didn't even give him the chance to say hello before pushing and pushing on the subject of the glass kagouti. He seemed too bemused to give her any help. He did react to the name Roscyxa.
<p>
"Her! She hasn?t been heard of in years. Had she been around she would certainly have been high on the list of 'borrowers' but she disappeared before my mother died and I still had the kagouti at that time."
<p>
Milbereth challenged him on this.
<p>
"It conveyed a sense of peace in the house. It was later that the feeling went away."
<p>
There was in his attitude something that made her convinced he was not telling her the whole truth. She became more intrigued than ever. She was financially secure, with more business than she could reasonably cope with. For many years she had not taken a holiday. It was time she did.
<p>
訳文
<font face=1><br>
<DIV align="center">Milbereth and the Glass Kagouti
<p>
By Lopnigart the King
<p>
Part 1 Valenwood
<p>
<DIV align="left"><IMG src="Book/fancy_font/m_65x62.dds" width=51 height=61>ilbereth surveyed the room crossly. There was nothing here at all. The chest beside the bed contained only a chitin left gauntlet and two iron arrows. The three enticing looking barrels mustered five large kwama eggs and ten saltrice. The huge wardrobe had common pants, shoes and belt. Even if she took the pillow off the bed she would be lucky to get 25 gold for the lot. It wasn't fair! People who had the resources to live in such grand houses with such elaborate security should have possessions commensurate with it!
<p>
She had broken a quality lock pick getting into the place, meaning she would be making a loss on the evening, even if she took everything portable in the place. She kicked irritably at a leg of the bed and succeeded only in stubbing her toe. Her mood did not improve. She was mainly annoyed with herself. There had been no reason to assume that the new tenants in the Hall were wealthy. The security had dated back to the time of the previous owner and meant nothing. The only information she had gleaned from local gossip was that the newcomers kept themselves to themselves.
<p>
The breaking of the lock pick too had been unnecessary. A dog had barked when she was in the middle of a delicate manoeuvre. It was hardly the first time that she had been startled by a sudden noise while working, they were part of the job. You listened, clocked them, assessed what they might mean and took appropriate action. You did not jerk your arms in fear. Such a reaction could have cost her far more than a broken pick!
<p>
The bedroom was in fact only the second room she had looked at but she could tell. It was very rare in her experience, to find only one room in a house well stocked with the kind of small valuable items in which she specialised. If an owner liked them, they were everywhere.
<p>
For the sake of form she gave a cursory glance over the rest of the property but her initial assessment had been right. The new owners were either commoners or used the place too infrequently to keep their belongings there. There was nothing worth taking. The night had been wasted.
<p>
Milbereth was not your ordinary thief. She had been apprenticed to Peterman Cracke, probably the most famous housebreaker ever and she had served him well. On his death she had taken over the business - acquiring goods to order. That she had come to this residence, for no official reason and when there were already plenty of paying jobs on the books, was down to the matter of the glass kagouti.
<p>
Milbereth lived and worked in the city of Hawle. She had been born there some forty years ago and apart from one year in her late teens when she had travelled throughout the length and breadth of Tamriel, she had spent her whole life there. From an early age she had discovered she could learn a place eidetically. Although she would get lost at first in a new area, once she had got her bearings she could navigate the streets blindfolded.
<p>
The decision to become a professional thief had not happened all at once. As a small girl, an only child, she had liked to pick up objects she found lying around and hoard them. They were not thefts as such as if anyone asked her for them she would give them back immediately. Her family saw the trait as useful. If anyone mislaid an item, the chances were high that Milbereth would have found it. She was always feeling down the sides of chairs, looking under piles of books and so on. They would often reward her with a sweet or a cake if she found them. This skill at detection, that might have taken her in a different direction completely, was soon being used by neighbours and family friends.
<p>
Her mother would say "If you've lost anything, don't worry. Milbereth will find it."
<p>
Somewhere in all of this came the subtle change. Initially she started 'borrowing back' where loans had been forgotten about. Then there was 'making better use of' items that were underutilised. Ultimately when she set up her own business it was theft pure and simple. It was not called that. On the face of it she did what she had always done, tracked down 'lost' articles. She never asked for proof of ownership or worried about obtaining them by legal methods.
<p>
The glass kagouti had first come into her life at the time she was setting up shop. A tall very thin mage called Emmenthaler had been one of her first customers. It was a major fillip for her business as locally he was the big cheese. It gave her operation considerable 'cachet' that he had walked in openly at the beginning of the morning.
<p>
She could no longer recall the conversation verbatim but he had asked her to track down a list of some ten items that had disappeared from his laboratories over the years.
<p>
He thought a couple had been stolen but most had been borrowed where the borrower had simply forgotten to return them. Emmenthaler was inclined to lose himself in his research and he could never remember who might have asked to borrow things. He did, by and large, remember the names of all those he had dealt with over the years.
<p>
Seven of the items she had retrieved for him without trouble. One had been destroyed by accident, the culprit too nervous to own up. One 'stolen' item took a little more time. The acquirer simply denied having it but Milbereth possessed what she called a nose for truth ('a nose for lies' would have been a better description). It required a break in and the overcoming of fairly complex security devices but that was all in a night's work for her.
<p>
The one object she did not find was the glass kagouti. It was, she learned, not glass but quartzite of a kind so flawless it appeared to be glass. It had belonged to his mother. He remembered her talking about it often. He could not remember having actually seen it. It was for this reason he was unable to tell her if she was looking for something that could be attached to a charm bracelet or a garden statue. It made her search much more complicated.
<p>
Emmenthaler paid her well for the eight objects she did return and recompensed her for the trouble she had put in to learn of the ninth. He returned the following year to see how she had fared with the kagouti.
<p>
His interest prompted her to enquire whether it had magical properties. He told her he had no idea and she did not think he was lying. She made an extra special effort to locate it and was at great pains to tell him all about this when he returned the following year. Indeed she was so effervescent he had gone home looking somewhat punch drunk.
<p>
On his fifth visit she asked him why the kagouti mattered so much.
<p>
"That was something I was going to ask you."
<p>
She laughed this off, returning the question to him again. His answer was the kind of pretentious echt-arcane obfuscation she expected more from charlatans than respected practitioners of magic but she hadn't forgotten it.
<p>
"Perhaps it does not matter, my dear. The expression is overused and meaningless. We do not have omniscience and so cannot identify the part to be played by each object we encounter in our lives. Some will greatly change our perceptions, even our futures. Most will not. Yet, in the end, when we die, nothing will have turned out to have 'mattered' in the slightest. My advice to you is don't worry about it."
<p>
The size of Hawle encourages itinerant merchants, preachers and strolling players. Any one of them might have taken the kagouti away from the city, from the province even. Emmenthaler said that had not happened and yet he had offered no proof for such an assertion. She redoubled her efforts to find it.
<p>
One day his vagueness on the subject made her decide to try to establish whether it had ever existed or was simply a figment of his imagination. Emmenthaler had called it his mother's. If the mother had any friends she might have talked to them about it. Of course the family had been dead for hundreds of years but those who moved in a wizard's circle were often wizards too and they did not die so young. In researching the family background she discovered that one of the mother's friends was indeed a wizard. According to the very skimpy records she found this wizard - a woman - had succumbed to time and become plant mulch but her house had been left untouched. No doubt this was because the woman had been accused of necromancy and no one wanted to have to face the angry undead.
<p>
Milbereth herself was not ecstatic about breaking in. She had been forced to deal with a fair share of nasties in her time, usually one or other form of ancestral guardian, and they were never easy to dispose of. They could do a lot of damage too. She took a great many careful precautions.
<p>
They turned out to be a waste of time, too. The wizard, or according to some rumours, witch, was called Roscyxa. She had lived in one of the neatest and tidiest places Milbereth had ever come across. The place was full of chintz and damask, Fittany lamps, Croomfort pottery. The only evidence of enchantment at work was the absence of dust. As no one had supposedly been inside for 400 years, that could not be natural.
<p>
After a thorough search of the place she was rewarded with information in the form of three letters to Roscyxa. These were enough confirmation that the kagouti existed but did not give a clue as to where they might be. Milbereth arranged them chronologically and read them carefully.
<p>
</font> <font face=3>
Hi Rosie,
<p>
I've done some digging around about that item you're so interested in. I can't say I got very far but you can have what there is. It's been in the ownership of the same family for generations. Stories conflict as to how they came by it but all imply that it was a gift for saving a life. The gift is described as 'one clear quartz statuette of a kagouti on a bronze base, approximately one twelfth normal size'.
<p>
They don't keep it on display but then a kagouti is hardly a beautiful creature. Maybe they do not want to find themselves staring at it every day. There is no reference to it having any magical qualities. Those I talked to scoffed at the suggestion. That could have been because they were hiding something of course but I am in fact inclined to believe them.
<p>
If you really want to find out about it, we will have to trace its origins and learn the true story. This may be hard to do because it all happened so long ago.
<p>
The K舖efabrikker family, the owners of the kagouti, claim to have started in High Rock in the mercantile centre of Port Salut. However their name bears no hint of the Breton tongue. I imagine if we were to start digging we'd find they have Nord blood in their veins.
<p>
I'm happy to go to High Rock if you wish me to but I'll need some funds.
<p>
Even your faithful servant,
<p>
Laire
</font> <font face=1><p>
The funds must have been forthcoming. The second missive was sent from an address in Cyrodiil.
<p>
</font> <font face=3>
Rosie,
<p>
I don't know why I ever agreed to come to a place full of Bretons. How I dislike their perpetual whining. And I think the whole expedition will turn out to be nothing more than a wild netch chase. Nothing I have been able to find here indicates they were given the kagouti while in residence here. They didn't do anything heroic. They were dairy farmers pure and simple.
<p>
I was right in guessing that they originated in Skyrim. I traced the first arrival who gave his departure point as Jarlsberg. When they arrived in Port Salut they stayed for five generations adopting an increasingly Breton appearance and life style. Six families of descendants still live in High Rock, more widely spread out these days. I visited them all but none knew of the kagouti. One does have an apocryphal family tale of a noble Nord giving a distant relative a wooden statuette of an alit. Perhaps this is a link to the kagouti, you know how oral traditions become distorted in the re-telling.
<p>
The main branch of the family was taken by the matriarch Brie to the imperial province which is where I am currently staying. The family appeared not to like each other very much and generations would move long distances from each other and not only within the Imperial province but even into Morrowind. One got as far as Iredior, a particularly difficult place to reach. Nevertheless I followed every lead. Sadly Feta K舖efabrikker was no more helpful than the others. I believe the kagouti does exist and probably in our province, though whether in Hawle itself I wouldn't like to speculate. I have visited all known surviving descendants and got nowhere. If anyone is lying, and I don't believe they are, it would be nice to know why. Is there anything you have not mentioned to me that might cause them to want to hide it?
<p>
Anyway, if you want me to proceed I will have to visit Skyrim. As you are aware this province is very cold and I will need new clothes. You can send funds care of post restant Parmigiano. I am having a short rest here to recover the use of my tongue muscles.
<p>
Yours,
<p>
Laire
<p>
</font> <font face=1>
The final missive came from Skyrim.
<p> </font> <font face=3>
Roscyxa,
<p>
There was no need to make a threat like that! Of course as a sprite I do not feel the cold but I do not want to seem out of place. Fortunately Nords seem peculiarly susceptible to losing their apparel. Ensconced in their itchily uncomfortable fur armour I made a passable effort at being a local. I have to say the accent of the local males is beyond me. It doesn't seem to come from anywhere. And all that 'aaarr' - were they pirates in the past?
<p>
Well, I started by drawing a blank. The village of Jarlsberg was destroyed during a drunken party many years ago and was never rebuilt. Nords seem happiest when away from Skyrim - something to do with the climate no doubt - and those left alive after the 'party' upped and moved on. But it was long after the K舖efabrikker family had gone from the place. I was able to trace four surviving branches of the family. Three have no knowledge of the kagouti. The fourth also claims ignorance but for some reason I don't believe him. Whatever he is hiding he isn't going to tell it to me. Perhaps you have skills that can unlock a man's tongue? If so you will need to get to the small town of Roblochon and ask for the ferry to the island of Haloumi.
<p>
Laire
</font> <font face=1> <p>
Sure that the kagouti had to be real, Milbereth redoubled her efforts to find it. Over the years she had been inside every building in Hawle but one. It was the reason why she was there now. Until today the security, magical, technical and in the shape of fierce dogs had kept her out. She had for some time been absolutely confident in her own mind that this was where she would find the kagouti. And she had been wrong.
<p>
She was about to leave when her heart nearly stopped in shock. Out of the empty air a voice spoke to her.
<p>
"If you'd knocked at the door, my dear, I'd have let you in."
<p>
An elderly woman materialised in front of her. "Someone breaks into your house, you don't sit around waiting to be hit on the head. But you take nothing. I find it intriguing."
<p>
Milbereth talked of her search for a missing artefact without mentioning what it was.
<p>
"My dear, what a strange tale. But what is this artefact to you?"
<p>
"It's the only item that I have been asked to find that I haven't retrieved."
<p>
"Really? Still you shouldn't let it become an obsession. It's not as if it mattered."
<p>
Milbereth shrugged. The words were eminently reasonable and yet somehow while the glass kagouti should not matter, Milbereth knew that it did.
<p>
She told the old woman about it in case she had come across it when she moved into the house. There was the briefest of hesitations. Milbereth was sure that she had heard o the glass kagouti in spite of her denial. All she said was "Beware obsession my dear. Do not become obsessed with something that does not matter!"
<p>
Good advice is not always easy to follow.<p>
<DIV align="center">***********************
<p>
<DIV align="left">
Three days later Emmenthaler made his annual visit. She didn't even give him the chance to say hello before pushing and pushing on the subject of the glass kagouti. He seemed too bemused to give her any help. He did react to the name Roscyxa.
<p>
"Her! She hasn稚 been heard of in years. Had she been around she would certainly have been high on the list of 'borrowers' but she disappeared before my mother died and I still had the kagouti at that time."
<p>
Milbereth challenged him on this.
<p>
"It conveyed a sense of peace in the house. It was later that the feeling went away."
<p>
There was in his attitude something that made her convinced he was not telling her the whole truth. She became more intrigued than ever. She was financially secure, with more business than she could reasonably cope with. For many years she had not taken a holiday. It was time she did.
<p>
