Sawtooth Spire erbärmlich

too surprised by her blatant use of his name to respond initially, mahler puzzled out why she had addressed him in such a way. surely she had gotten it from wylla, though it was not altogether seemly to blame the woman for her use of his title. all of sagtannet knew him by such a name, and phaedra was too much of a quickwit not to suss out what the word meant.
"thank you," mahler grunted in regards to her praise, pleased that she had heard at least a little of what had been said. her laughter, charming as always, provoked a chuckle of his own. "no, 'snake'," he repeated. "that is 'sneak,' and you are very good at it."
"a snake is a wriggly thing, like a lizard, but vithout legs. he crawls upon his belly, and his voice sounds like 'sss, sss.'" though he felt altogether silly for imitating a serpent, he wished to impress its sound upon phaedra, a gift which could be unwrapped for further lessons.
"we vill look for one," he declared, casting the searchglow of his gaze across the leaf litter. putting himself to the task, mahler began to pace over the loam, satisified that his gaze as yet had not been abated by his years. and when a little coiled thing was invariably unearthed, he grinned at its tiny menacing jaws and glanced to phaedra. "a snake. but do not touch. it vill bite you."