[ there's a pause, at the piece of information, before inej peers at the little girl, almost . . . analyzing whether or not she is telling the truth. and so, she gently takes the little girl's face in her hands, peering into her eyes, checking behind her hair, as if searching for something.

trick number one, kaz told her, is to make the person look another way. to focus their attention on what they think is going to happen, versus on what actually is. sleight of hand is not her area of expertise, but . . . ]

Do you hear something ringing, in your ear? My, my . . . something seems to be stuck here . . .

[ curiously enough, before she lets go of the little girl's face and moves a hand near the right side of her head and, with a flick of her fingers, a foreign coin appears between them, seemingly out of nowhere, out of the girl's hair, and inej offers a smile, amused at the other children gasping at the sudden appearance of the coin from her seemingly empty hands. ]

For you.

[ it's a coin from inej's world, a spare kruge she had on her person. worthless, here, and she hands it to the little girl to keep, with a warm brightness in her eyes. ]

A present, from my world.