Arven gave another crooked smile — Madam Cramming was not just a good listener, but a good co-conspirator in his telling of the story. He'd quite like to hear some of her own tales.

But for now his story of the Bandit Queen was centre stage, and he leaned backwards. "It was in fact a bit of both. I told her the wand was an ancient Assyrian artifact I'd picked up on my travels, designed to protect the bearer. She of course found this hilarious, given that it hadn't protected me at all; but she let me keep it, and once I'd healed up the three of us shared the road for a while. It might've been the start of a foreign romance, but our lady bandit was... not that way inclined", he explained with a slight smile, leaving Carmelina to read between the lines if she so chose. The bandit did have a lady friend with her, after all. Theirs was the foreign romance.

"When we parted ways, I actually gave her my wand — she was so fascinated by it. It wasn't my actual wand, of course", he added fairly. "It was one I replicated from —"

Just then, an interruption. In through the window, which was ajar, slunk a small ferret who bee-lined straight for Arven. This was Virgil, his pet and his friend. Many of the other patrons (or at least the ones who'd noticed) were not impressed; one lady even squealed softly and gathered up her skirts. Virgil had no interest in her, and climbed up onto Arven's lap.

"Oh, this is my ferret, Virgil", he explained to Madam Cramming with a slight chuckle. "And probably my cue to go", he added apologetically, for it wouldn't be long before the café manager noticed there was an animal at one of the tables.