the Man

Andrea was not sure who this man was; neither his House, his station in the Duchy, nor his intent. She was feeling...strange. Indeed, this entire morn had been odd. How was it that the death of her coachman rang not a call of fear within her? Who had dispatched him so... thieves, yet that made precious little sense.

"If'n you want horse, I know where a wild troupe do live." The ancient man did not further his approach, but Andrea's feeling of unease did not abate. She began to feel as if she would vomit.

"Ye must go northwards from here, missy," continued the old man. "Go to the sharp peaks of the Mountains Obsid, and beyond that to the Faye Wood."

The words were strange in Andrea's ears. The Mountains Obsid were some ancient, some newborn; the children of Vash and Timbl (the gods of fire and ash). Within that range was the isolated Peak of Cicatrice and the den of the Necromancer.

Deep in a mountain cavern, a wizened man in black robes kneels before a reflecting pool carved by deep springs into the rock. He waves hands traced with now-faded arcane symbols long tatooed into the skin of his flesh with damned inks by quills that cut blood. The man observes the results of his scrying. He sees the girl Croix, feels how his mischief has led her into fearlessness, and now that the magicks are at their hour, her normal senses return. The old man looks at the face of the girl and a strange wistful smile spreads across his face.

"I... I must find the inn..." said Andrea not sure of herself.

The man whose skin looked as if it were parchment said little in reply. "If'n you don't go north, then I suppose--" and with that he pointed a boney finger southwards. Andrea hoped he was pointing in the direction in which she would find the inn. Either way, she began to walk hastily from that eeire place, almost at a run.

1. She soon finds the inn....
2. While still in the woods she collapses in exhaustion...
3. All the while walking she can't help but think of her coachman, his death, and how she must get word to her House...

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