scott casper

"Would you do me the honor," Tenser said, "of accompanying me to the
residence of my tutor today? We are having a gathering of friends
this afternoon."

Ehlissa had become much more comfortable by now with Tenser only
calling her "friend," so she wore a heartfelt grin as she accepted.
Even if she had not been willing to follow Tenser anywhere, she was by
now so curious about Tenser's mystery tutor that she would have been
willing to Gleed there. And yet, as Tenser turned to leave, she had
to stop him. "What, now?" she asked. "Tenser, I am dressed for
running errands, not for paying social visits."

"No one will care if you are not in your best clothes," Tenser said,
his voice less impatient-sounding than it could have been.

"I will care," Ehlissa explained, keeping her good humor, "and you
must accept that this is the risk one takes being friends with a
woman. Propriety demands that I present myself as a proper lady."

"Adventurers don't worry about propriety," Tenser grumbled, but in a
tone Ehlissa recognized meant that Tenser was done fighting. He
waited patiently outside for Ehlissa to finish preparing. While he
waited, Tenser picked up a pebble out of the mud by his feet and
tossed it as far as he could over the roof of a house across from
Ehlissa's, satisfied to hear it clatter down the far side of the roof.
A moment later, a man exited that same residence and gave Tenser a
suspicious stare.

"Propriety demands I wait out here," Tenser explained sheepishly.

Shortly, Ehlissa emerged. She had a new, white headdress on and tried
to elicit a compliment from Tenser about it. He told her it looked
fine and they moved on. Ehlissa let the matter drop because she was
so curious about this mysterious tutor Tenser had dropped hints about
for so long. Their path through the city seemed a long one and
particularly circuitous for a route that wound up only taking them as
far as the Foreign Quarter. Ehlissa had a suspicion that Tenser had
taken her on the long route so she could not find her way here again
on her own later, but it was just a suspicion and she did not give
voice to it.

Ehlissa had expected a wizard's tower (there were quite a few in
Greyhawk, including several in the Foreign Quarter). Instead, their
destination was a large, but mundane-looking boardinghouse.

"Is this it?" Ehlissa asked, incredulous.

"Yes," Tenser replied.

"Is it something else? Like a castle concealed with illusions to look
like a boardinghouse?"