"You hand me paper," the mage scoffed angrily, his face twisting into a grimace. "Paper. What am I supposed to do with that?"
"It has value in the city of Gloam, and I think in most places where the House Nesh is present," Sonder said.
"Then take it back to them. I don't deal in foreign nonsense. If it doesn't shine, clink, or cut, it's worthless."
Sonder closed the pouch and slid it back into her pack.
She had been patient. Polite. She had crossed mountains, cliffs, and roads to come here.
"I didn't come here to insult you," she said, standing now. "And I didn't come here to beg. I am here to ask a few simple questions."
"I gave you an answer to all your questions," the mage shot back, "Leave."
He gestured sharply toward the door.
Sonder breathed out. "Would you please-"
"No, no, no, and for the last time, no. I want to be left alone. Now you're arguing with me in my own house."
The mage took his metal stick and drew more symbols into the air.
The chair Sonder sat on suddenly came alive, and its legs scraped across the floor, moving towards the house's exit.
She stood up, letting it walk on its own.
"Last warning," the mage said, raising his stick.
A stack of plates rattled, then rose, wobbling in the air, like arrows ready to be loosed.
Being threatened for asking simple questions was intolerable.
It was stupid and even dangerous.
She took her staff, and suddenly, a translucent cube snapped into place around the plates.
The mage still tried to send them toward her, but they shattered when they hit the walls of the cube.
The mage hissed in irritation.
"Oh, so that's how it is."
He swept his stick in a broader arc. The table shuddered, lifted, and hurled itself forward.
Sonder simply sidestepped it.
"And that," Sonder said, anger finally breaking through her restraint, "is enough."
Just as with the plates, a cube formed around the mage.
"What?" he said as he looked around.
He poked the walls with his stick.
"A prison, eh?"
With a sharp, practiced motion, he slashed symbols into the air, glowing briefly before vanishing into smoke.
In the same instant, the mage vanished in a larger puff of smoke.
Sonder looked around, tense to see what the mage might have planned next.
When he reappeared, he would clearly attack again.
She groaned.
"Would you please talk to me like a normal person?" Sonder said, lifting her staff with both hands.
"No. I like the way I do things and what I do or don't do to others. I deserve to treat anyone how I like," his disembodied voice said.