She still doesn’t quite look Strange in the eye, or even at his face. But she’s listening very carefully to him. Of course, anyone could try to trick her, claim to be Strange to lure her into some kind of trap. Someone who had been paying attention for long enough might even be able to drop Bell’s name. But that stupidass name Strange gave that poor little dragon—only Strange could say that with a straight face. Shura doesn’t give a sigh of relief, but her shoulders relax, letting go of some of the tension she had been holding since her errand went south. Shishi ignores everything but Strange. Strange can help Shura, and that’s all he cares about, so he’ll happily keep rubbing against him and enjoying the scritches.

“It ain’t a stupid question,” she replies, sounding tired. She was acting oddly, it wasn’t unreasonable to suspect something or other. “I’ll explain later. Help me out. I didn’t plan on staying overnight, so I didn’t grab a room in town before this happened.”