"I want to know if there is an island, or something the like in that direction," Sonder said while pointing in the general area that the Dico thread was going.
The woman leaned back, studying her more closely now.
"And if I tell you, what are you offering in return?" She asked.
"Now hold on," the man said. "This is a simple enough question. Why you gotta ask money for it?"
The woman turned her head slowly to look at the man, one brow lifting.
"Because," she said, patient in the way of someone explaining something obvious to a child, "people don't usually walk in off the docks asking about directions unless they want information. And giving out information costs time. Time costs money."
The man scoffed and took a drink from his mug.
"Money?" he said. "For pointing at the sea and saying there's some land, or an island, or nothing there? That's barely worth the effort. Not even so much as buying an extra mug o' beer."
"You don't know that," the woman shot back. "Maybe I could've talked her into paying proper for it."
"And even if you could," he said, "that doesn't make it right, does it? Finagling someone who doesn't know the coast, just because they're lost?"
The woman clicked her tongue.
"Oh, don't get all righteous now. We've both done worse for less."
"You maybe," he replied.
"I, for a fact, know you did."
"Yeah, but not today, so it doesn't count. And not over directions."
Sonder listened, as if this wasn't about her at all.
There was a brief silence between them, only filled by the tavern's low murmur.
She waited until the moment passed.
"I still need to know," she said.
Both of them looked back at her.
The woman waved a hand as if brushing the argument aside.
"…Fine," she said. "It's free of charge."
The man glanced at her, surprised. "It is?"
"Yes, but still, inconvenient."
She turned back to Sonder. "You're pointing northwest. That stretch of water's got island. A fair number of them, actually. Most of them are small. Rock. Barren. Some barely more than places birds land, and ships just avoid. But there's one island people go to that has some value. Ain't that right?"
"Yep," the man said and nodded. "Fisher-folk know all the island. Except for that one, they didn't even bother naming the rest."
"Fisher-folk?" Sonder asked. "Just regular fishers or merfolk?"
"Merfolk?" The woman started to laugh. "You still believe in them? I guess you're still pretty young, is all."
"They're real," the man said. "I've seen 'em. Squid-men and mer-maidens. And all else in between."
"No, you didn't. You kept on talking that you saw them, but no one else in the claims to have seen them, even when they were standing right next to you."
The man lifted up his hands. "I don't wanna get into this again."
Sonder coughed loud enough to be heard. "You said something about an island?"