Confound it all! All Merasmus wanted was some quiet reading time, and instead he gets a cacophony of panicked screams and the sound of stone hitting stone. Leaning over the arm of his chair, the old man peered through an empty space in the bookshelf next to him. He could see the street outside of the store, and what he saw caused his brows to furrow. Several people running for the safety of nearby alleyways, and many more lay dead on the pavement. In the middle of the hubbub were some court mages, though Merasmus also spied a young woman with a rather sizeable polearm standing slack-jawed at the end of the road. What was all this nonsense about, and why were they being so noisy!? Merasmus rose from his seat, tossing his new book into his bag, and stormed out of the shop, the end of his staff smacking the ground below as he made his way to the warrioress; she likely saw more than he did. He would get to the bottom of this incredibly rude public disturbance!

"You! Yes you, with the axe-thing!" He yelled, eyebrows still furrowed in irritation. "What is the meaning of all of this!? Did you see how all of this nonsense started?"

Merasmus payed no attention to the mages, and they paid him none in kind. One of the mages looked vaguely familiar at a glance, but Merasmus was too annoyed to pay much attention to the robed hooligans that interrupted his relaxation time. What did interest him though was this woman. As he drew closer, he began to sense something. Power coursed through this stranger, though the source was a mystery to Merasmus. Who was she? Where did she come from? More importantly, what knowledge could she share? Of course, questions could come later. There was still the matter of those pesky scroll-scribblers to attend to.