She smiled at him as he sat, leaning forwards slightly to speak to him easier.

"A lot of our stock was damaged or rendered unsafe by the wave of blight, in times like that you get many charlatans, selling you birch and calling it sacred oak. Most of them are obvious in their idiocy. But there are always those who slip through. I had wondered about the fire beads, but the seller was not one to be caught out it seems."

She shook her head, anger darkening her gaze.