Neide:
"That sounds... interesting", Neide said, her eyes still keeping a close watch of the witch, "We *are* seeking a group of people who are up to no good. I assume these would be the... colleagues you speak of. So... what's the reason for your annoyance..?"
"It's you. You've found me. I don't like people even
coming in the house upstairs, let alone
finding me. Since I started living here, no one's
ever stood where you're standing without being invited. That means my record of unwanted visitors is good.
That means the problem of
you people originates with my colleagues. The plan sounded a little iffy from the first, although lucrative, but it was never,
never supposed to lead back to
me, and that means someone's messed up, to put it mildly. This is why I had misgivings about the plan in the first place-- it seemed a little
too ambitious, a little too
big.
Now I feel like I should move. And I mean,
away. And I kind of
liked it here-- it was the perfect place to live in complete obscurity. The problem, I suppose, was that it was
too good-- no one could do business with me unless I trusted them enough to tell them how to find me... And it appears I've finally trusted the wrong person or persons."
"So. Now you're here, and I don't believe it's coincidence. I think it's connected to The Goings-On. I don't want to fight you, and I will modestly suggest that you don't want to fight me. The fact that you haven't started doing so yet suggests that you might be intelligent, reasonable people...
So. Here's my suggestion: You tell me what you know, and what you don't know, and I'll fill in all the gaps about things you don't know about. The way I'd like this to work is that you, with the information I give you, go back to town and deal with the people actually causing the trouble that brought you here, and I pack up and go. How does that sound?"