"You've had a rough day," Aspakos said as Jocelynn took her seat. "Let Erkembalt pour you a small cup to warm your stomach and ease the tension in your body. You can speak freely here," he added. "We're both accustomed to keeping secrets, so you don't need to bother about things that might slip past unguarded lips."
"I think she'd be happier with an ordinary cup of wine," Erkembalt said as he walked over to a small shelf in the back of the workshop. Half the shelf was covered by a strange, copper contraption that looked like a witch's cauldron with a lid that resembled a witch's hat, only the cone-shaped top had been bent over to one side.
"I still have a bit of the last bottle I opened," Erkembalt offered, lifting up a bottle with a label written in a neat, eldritch hand. When he swirled it around, however, it looked like there was little left in the bottle but dregs. "Hmmm… Perhaps not…"
