<scene 1>

Usually, the problem was getting the witnesses to talk.

... he just walked down the street looking at buildings and they caught fire. No he
didn't do anything, like wave his hands or anything like that, he just, I don't
know, looked at them....

this time the problem was getting them to shut up.

... stared at this old guy, and his head just crumbled, you know, like a piece of
parchment when you crumble it into a ball? Just stared at him, sort of annoyed,
really, like the guy had trodden on his foot, and then his head just ....

As he listened, the observer made notes; Usque ad Peric; Unam Sanc (twice?); Mundus
Verg (variant).
He also nodded his head and made vague noises of sympathy and regret and tried not
to let his distaste show. But the smell bothered him; burnt flesh, which
unfortunately smells a bit like roasted meat (pork actually), which was a nuisance
because he'd missed lunch; burnt bone, which is just revolting. He stopped to query
a point- when he made the old woman vanish, was there a brief glow of light, or -?
No? No, that is fine. And he jotted down; Choris Anthrop, but no light?
Strachylides?

The witness was still talking, but he'd closed his eyes -- and then Thraso from the
mill came up behind him and shot him in the back, and nothing happened and then he
turned round real slow, and he pointed at Thraso, and Thraso just ...

He frowned, stopped the witness with a raised hand - "He didn't know ..."

"What?"

"He didn't know he was there. This man ..." Always hopeless at names ... "The
miller, He didn't know the miller was there"

"No, Thraso crept on him real quiet. Shot him in the back at ten paces. Arrow
should have gone right through him and out the other side. And then he turned
around just like I said, and ..."

"you are sure about that? He didn't hear him, or look around?"

"He was busy" the witness said, "he was making Cartusia's head come off, just by
looking at it... And that's when Thraso.."

"you are *sure*?" "yes"

The witness carried on talking about stuff that clearly mattered to him, but which
didn't really add anything. He tuned out the voice and tried to write the word, but
it was surprisingly difficult to make himself do it. Eventually when he succeeded
it came out scrawled and barely legible, as though he'd written it with his left
hand.

Lorica?

</scene1 wc=426>