The Knight and the Moth

Six struggles to ride Rory’s horse, Fig, as she’s never been on horseback before. He tries to tell her to relax and hold onto him, but Six feels uncomfortable—she now believes Rory to be the Artful Brigand due to his possession of the coin. She hopes that there is an alternate explanation, as Rory seems to be flesh and blood. 

Rory and Six reach the bridge into the Seacht that crosses the Tenor River. Rory approaches the scribe at the tollbooth to pay for their crossing. The scribe sees Six’s Diviner shroud and asks her if his spilled ink is a good omen. Six gives him a vague answer, which pleases him. 

The bat-like gargoyle lands from the sky, and Six takes it to look in the river. They see a sprite, and Six reaches out to it, but it bites her. The scribe pours ink on the sprite, burning it, as he explains to Six that the sprites eat the plant that the scribes use to make their scrolls, but ink is poisonous to them. Six thinks it’s wrong to deprive the sprites, who are clearly starving. Rory throws some scroll paper to the sprite, much to the scribe’s chagrin, and then the group passes over the bridge and into the hamlet.