Grund

Grund is an urchin who huddles nearby where Veil settles on a wall in the city of Kholinar. He watches the line of people waiting for their handouts of grain at Secure Keeps with hungry eyes.
Veil offers him a meat stick and he sizes her up, probably trying to determine her angle. Finally he creeps over and takes the offering, quickly stuffing the whole thing into his mouth. He waits, eyeing her to see if she has more.
When she asks him why he doesn't stand in line with the others, he tells her that the soldiers have rules. That one has to be a certain age. That if one is too poor, one gets shoved out of line.
When she produces a second meat stick for him, then starts to ask him how far Velalant's influence reaches, the boy is already gone in a heartbeat.
Later, Veil finds him inside a building in Ringington Market.
She'd returned several times during her time in the city, getting information from Grund. He seemed to always be hanging around there, and Veil was well aware of the value of having a local urchin to ply for information.
On this day, he's alone in the room, drawing on a little board with charcoal, using his one good hand, the deformed one hidden in his pocket. He perks up as soon as he sees her. He'd stopped running away; it seemed that city urchins got concerned when someone was actively looking for them.
He tries to look uninterested until Veil drops a sack in front of him with a sausage peeking out. Then, his dark eyes practically bulge out of his face.
When she asks him if he has any news for her on some specific books, he tells her that he hasn't heard anything. When she then asks him if he knows of anyone who could use a little food, he is incredulous, but then tells her that some folks he knows are deserving.
He gives her an extensive list of people including Muri, Jom, and the refugee kids that live in the park over on Moonlight Way. She thanks him, then reminds him to keep looking for the book she'd asked for.
Later still, when she looks for him, he isn't in his normal spot inside the corner of a broken shop.
After she calls out for him again, Grund finally stumbles into the room, tucking his malformed hand into his pocket. He scowls at her, which is odd, because he normally seems so happy when she arrives.
She tells him that the information he gave her on that particular book was very helpful.
He asks her what he can do next, but when she tells him nothing at the moment, he presses further. She determines that he is too desperate.
When Pattern asks her if Grund tells lies, she tells him that he does, but that she's not sure why, or what the lies are about.
Shortly thereafter, when she returns to Grund's shop, yet waits outside, she hears a voice say " ... we shouldn't have given her the book." After she hears another voice, she then hears a grunt and a whimper, realizing that it's Grund. She looks through a window too see a group of thugs and Grund in a corner holding his stomach.
She shouts at the men and dashes for the doorway. They immediately scatter, though one slams a cudgel onto Grund's head with a sickening crunch.
Though she reaches Grund, he then tells her that he hates her, that they all do because she made herself so obvious bringing food, and that the thugs killed all his friends. That she drew them.
Further, he says that he had to wait for her every day, all day, because if he wasn't there when she came, or if he tried to hide the food she brought, the thugs beat him.
She sat with him as his breathing slowed, then cut off. Finally she knelt back, bloodied cloth in her hands, tears in her eyes.
Grund's head had been opened up.
==Appearance==
One of his arms ends in a twisted, unusable hand: three fingers mere nubs, the other two crooked.
==Notes==
Wit later tells Shallan that the thieves who killed Grund have been seen to.
Further, that when some of the men in the market heard what had happened, they finally formed the militia they'd been talking about. They rushed the Grips, forcing them to give up the murderer, then disperse.
==References==
Category:Alethkar (people)