“Well, now Hien and I need to remove the big fucker from the floor. You can go have a seat, cleric. Your food should be out in just a bit.”

The young lady stepped down graciously as the waitress and the cook went to drag the man out the door. He was whimpering now through a broken mouth and a nose that was already starting to swell to enormous proportions, and he went without protest. Chih stepped out into the main room, and Almost Brilliant alighted on their shoulder, her claws digging harder into their skin than usual.

“Southern Monkey,” Almost Brilliant hissed quietly, and Chih blinked at them.

“What?”

“That was Southern Monkey style,” Almost Brilliant insisted as if Chih had tried to argue. “The thing with her stole, my mother saw it in the Verdant Islands, I would swear to it. There were only eighteen practitioners of Southern Monkey style eighty years ago, and nine of them were in their early hundreds. It is absolutely Southern Monkey style.”

“Do you want me to get you her autograph?” Chih asked, biting back a smile, and got a swift retributive peck to their earlobe for their humor.

Deprived of her prey, the young lady had returned to her table, sitting back down to her tea even as her companion pulled out a worn leather pouch to count out some coins.

“Well, at least it was only a few chairs and tables this time,” she said. “And this stuff looks pretty old at that, so let’s see, ten and a quarter should cover it…”

“Are they going to make you pay damages?” asked Chih, taking a seat at their own table with their tea.

“Of course they won’t. They’re too afraid that Lady Heavyweight here will bring the place down around their ears if they piss her off.”

“And of course we will pay the damages,” said the young lady serenely. “We move through this world only with the grace of others, and we must pass without the least ripple.”

“No ripples, but broken chairs and broken heads, those are fine. We were trying to keep a low profile, sis.”

“Who is going to talk about a little lunchtime disagreement? That is all it was.”

The girl in hemp looked like she wanted to argue, but then she shook her head, giving up for the moment to turn to Chih.

“Are you all right, cleric? You took a pretty hard fall. Nice try on stopping things from getting out of hand, though.”

“Thank you, and I’m fine, just a little sore and a little foolish. I’m Cleric Chih from the Singing Hills abbey, and this is my companion, Almost Brilliant.”

Chih opened their palm so that Almost Brilliant could hop down to perch on it, sweeping her wings open and tocking her head in a small and utterly unhumble bow.

“My pleasure,” she said, and both women blinked at her speech.