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"It depends very much on the nature of the conversation," Min says, with a laugh that doesn't seem quite as friendly as before. "It so happens I have a room upstairs, if you'd like to join me?"

You expect Alvis to follow close at your side, but he hesitates. "I think someone ought to attend to any misapprehensions the patrons here might have developed, and perhaps reassure anyone who might have been prematurely alarmed" he says, looking down his nose at Min. "I really don't think we ought to leave the villagers alone at this point—try and make some sense out of this, Jun."

Min shrugs, tucking their instrument case under their arm. "As you like. I trust Jun can relay the important details to you later?"

Alvis is already walking away without looking at them. Giving their head an amused shake, Min leads you up to the inn's second floor and into what's probably one of the nicer rooms in the building: fine oaken furniture, soft blue linens, enough room to walk a pace or two. Min shuts the door behind you.

"You have questions," they say. There's no hint of a question in their tone at all, for their part, and in fact they speak with the same sort of authority that rung out in every word of their song.

"Less than I'd like," Min says, "though I get the impression that answer will surprise you."

"Did you bring me up here to talk sense, or not?" you ask.

Min doesn't answer at first, occupied in tucking their instrument case away under the bed. "I suppose I wasn't precisely expecting a civil reaction, after Archa," they say as they stand.

"What happened in Archa?" you ask, frowning.

"When you lied to me about meeting Verity Fairgrieve," Min says, sinking down onto the bed with a sigh.

You think back to Min's appearance outside your house. That was one of the easiest lies you've ever told, and you've told plenty. And Min showed no sign of suspicion at the time. How could they have known what you said wasn't true?

"It would have been a risk for you to admit it, since there was no reason to think you'd met before," Min says. "So it wasn't a surprise that you lied, exactly. But then that was the point of the test."

"A test?" you repeat, frowning. "You'd have to be very confident about whether or not I was lying, for that to be any decent kind of test."

"As it happens," Min says, with a grin that's beginning to veer into smugness, "I do tend to be very confident about that. Here, tell me something about yourself. Something the whole world doesn't think it knows already. I think that will help you understand."

You get the feeling they'll be more pleased with the truth, given their peculiar fascination with it, but you can tell them anything you'd like.