With a sigh, I looked back to her. She was watching me again, eerily silent. she turned the dragon mask over and pointed to a small speaker behind the teeth which obviously emitted the sound. Curious, I reached out for it. She nodded, so I took the mask up and found it was made of hellium. The dragon scales were real, and more amazingly, they had been bent and formed to fit the curves of a face that was no doubt much smaller than the one they had came from.

"How...?" I asked, looking to her. She tilted her head. "How did you bend dragon scale?"

She positively lit up, and opened the box, keeping whatever was inside hidden from me. I watched her then remove a small billet of Hellium, a perfect, tiny cylinder. She pointed at the metal, and then held it out to me. I took it, examined it, tested its weight. It was real.

Almost jokingly, before she took it back, she shook her lengthy, loose sleeves back to show there was nothing beneath them but arms - like a sleight of hand performer might do.

She took the cylinder back, held it out in front of her, and clenched her hand around the metal.

Red hot, malleable Hellium squeezed between her fingers. She grinned, squishing it out harder as if it were nothing more than clay. Eyes wide, I just watched her open her hand, gather it all in it, and blow on it. It cooled instantly in that shape. She then laid it out on her palm... and pressed her hands together. When she parted them, there was a perfect disc of hellium present. She poked it with her index finger, twice... then drew a small line.

Confused, I watched her lift bring it to her mouth. I flinched when she licked it, but nothing happened except her saliva sizzled on it.

With that big grin on her face, she poked a hole through the small disc using a metal pick from the box, smoothed it out by licking over it, and then she blew it cool.

I took the disc, staring at the little smilie face drawn on it, and then looked up at her. She pointed to me, then to herself, then to the medallion.

"Friends?" I asked.

She nodded, clapping her hands together. They made no sound.

"Okay. We can be friends, sure. You're very nice to give me a gift. Are you... Silenced? Curse silenced?" I asked, softly. Her face fell a moment, and she nodded, and then she lifted her hands and her smile returned. She wiggled her fingers, then pointed at the dragon mask and the medallion. "But you can still express yourself. That's good. Your work is really impressive, I must say."

She grinned at me, nodding again, and then brushed her hair behind her ear. Ronnie sat heavily beside me, but I was... entranced with this woman - and putting things together.

"You're a dragonkin, right? From the tribes in the Mexican Dragonfire Badlands? Those few who can commune with the wild dragons and live harmoniously with them?" She nodded brightly, clapping again. Obviously, she was impressed. I asked, "And you work for Artemis Graves?"

Again, she nodded. She pointed at herself, and then pointed up, as if to someone on a higher floor, and then pointed to the medallion.

"She's your friend, too. I'm glad to hear it. She seems tough to deal with."

The woman tilted her head, confused, and then shook it. No, she isn't hard to deal with. She pointed up again, and then pointed at me, then Ronnie, then the medallion. I didn't understand.

"Itzel is saying that she's nice, like you and I, and the rest of her friends. She's very talented, though. She works with the armorer, and the gunsmith, with Gref... she's invaluable. She can work any material with her bare hands," Daddy murmured softly.