Swamped

"Can you, um, can you teach me how to find all that stuff out so fast?"

"It'd take at least fifteen years of training, and frankly I'm not inclined to take on another apprentice. One's enough trouble. Good to show initiative, though, I'll give you that."

You figured it wouldn't be that simple. So you might as well settle for the more immediate questions.

"Why'd you take the wagon?"

The woman turns back towards the canvas.

"My creations can't handle complex orders. They wouldn't be able to conduct a proper search for what we were looking for. Anyhow, it's not your wagon, is it? You've hardly got grounds to criticize us for stealing it."

Technically she has a point, but you can't help but feel there's a difference, even if you're hard-pressed to explain just what.

"And what were you looking for?"

"Something," she says, very definitively. You suppose you're not going to get any confirmation unless you ask about the lodestone specifically, and you're not sure if that's a good idea, as you'd just be telling her about it.

"All right. Then what was that fighting I heard before these two found me?"

The woman glances at the pair behind you for just a moment.

"They don't know. Three enemies descended from the sky, fought them for a while, and then fled just as suddenly, even though they seemed to have the advantage at the moment."

"Descended from the sky?"

"That's what they saw. They don't know who it was, or why, though their best guess is that the outsiders were after the wagon."

"Maybe after the same thing you want?"

The old woman just shrugs.

"Could be. What's it matter to you?"

"Just curious, I suppose."

"Well. Then you'll just have to stay curious."

This feels more than a little odd. And you haven't exactly gotten satisfactory answers.

So you decide to ask something a little more immediate.

"What are you planning to do with me?"

"Nothing, yet," the woman says. "You're just going to stay here for a while. If the elders find out about you, they'll have a fit. Be grateful that these two have the sense to check with me first."

"The elders?"

"The elders are the ones who think they run things around here. Stubborn fools. They do a decent enough job of keeping the settlement running, but as soon as they start worrying about outsiders they lose their heads."

Well. That's not exactly comforting.

Do you have any more questions?