>ne
You limp northeast.
[Empaths' Guild, Sorrow Garden]
A wide shrub-lined walkway leads to a small flourishing garden, offering a quiet retreat from the chaotic din of the guild proper.  Several low benches are nestled amidst the foliage and a whispering willow tree looms overhead as if creating a protective mantle.  You also see Guildleader Salvur Siksa and a white ash stand with a guild register on it.
Obvious exits: southwest.
>'I know you aren't exactly popular, but this has gotten out of hand.
You say, "I know you aren't exactly popular, but this has gotten out of hand."
>ask salv about annael

Salvur surveys his surroundings, then shrugs.  "My predecessor, I suppose you might say.  Annael was the guildleader of the empaths here in Zoluren, before she resigned.  Another tragedy to make our dear little Annael sadder than ever, poor thing."  He snorts.

He smiles mirthlessly, continuing, "You're stuck with me now, though, like it or not."
>ask salv about salv

"What?  Me?"  The greying man raises an eyebrow, gazing at you for a long moment.  Finally, he shrugs, planting the platinum-clad end of his cane in the plush crimson carpet.  "They packed me off when I was young and bright and full of promise, off to the hinterlands to study some -plants-.  I took it for a punishment then, and maybe it was, to spend the flower of my youth and the prime years of my life wrapped in coarse-woven, scratchy goat-felt, attempting to commune with vegetation."

Salvur adjusts the fine, soft spidersilk of his cuffs, his smile seeming genuine for once.  Satisfied, he continues, "But it honed my empathy to razor-sharpness, and I can climb and swim and fight almost as well as any ranger.  Can't say it did much for my manners though.  No, it did not.  And now I've finally come into the reward for my long service -- playing mother hen to a bunch of soft, peeping chicks who don't know their beaks from their backsides.  How am I to make anything of the dross they send to me?  Another impossible task is what it is.  No small wonder Annael stepped so lively on her way out of here."
>'Fine fine, but our first duty is to the wounded and dying.
>
You say, "Fine fine, but our first duty is to the wounded and dying."
>'Isn't it?
>
You ask, "Isn't it?"
>'Why else do we even do this?
You ask, "Why else do we even do this?"
>'Also, you should be drinking buddies with Kssarh.  You have something in common.
You say, "Also, you should be drinking buddies with Kssarh.  You have something in common."
>laugh not
You hold your hand up before your lips, trying desperately not to laugh.  Maybe your choking noises will be mistaken for a swallowed fishbone.
>

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>cough
You cough.
>'Well, anyway. Thanks for your time.
You say, "Well, anyway. Thanks for your time."
>bow salv
You bow to Guildleader Salvur Siksa.
>sw
You limp southwest.