[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/RQaJfun.png[/img][h1][b][color=B22222]C L A R A[/color][/b][/h1][hr][b][color=gray]THE EOLDYSSEUS, IFRISE FOREST — SOVEREIGNTY OF DRYADALIS[/color][/b][/center][hr]
Clara was startled by the woman's harsh tone, but seeing how she looked, she was wasn't surprised. Clara simply smiled back, hoping she could ease the awkwardness. The woman looked like she needed someone to lighten her spirits anyway.

Before Clara could speak again, she froze as her eyes caught sight of the woman's arm. A [i]metal[/i] arm in fact, and it looked [i]expensive[/i], far too small and elaborate to be armour. What on Vitae could a woman of wealth, with a scabbard at her hip and a cautious, yet cold look in her eyes, be doing on a not so wealthy mode of transport? If Clara's burning suspicions were correct, she was ready to hit herself for not noticing the signs earlier.

She took a step back. Holding her breath, her light brown eyes locked with the other woman's grey pair. The animosity in the air was suffocating.

[b]"If you bring any attention to me from the Inquisitors, this ride is going to become much less pleasant for all of us. Move along, for everyone's sake-"[/b]

[b]“Did you say the Inquisitors? I'm after them, so please don't leave anything out.”[/b] 

Clara's eyes almost leapt out of their sockets. She would have turned around and fully slapped whoever had uttered such a thing, but that would have been just as stupid of a move as saying what this person had just said.

There was nowhere she could run or hide, she was surrounded by passengers on a moving barge in the middle of a bloody forest. Clara swallowed her breath and kept a calm face, planning and observing. But the blonde woman was faster, managing to distract the onlookers with a gust of wind [i]from her hand[/i] and taking the young misfit with her to the upper deck. So she was a woman of magic talent, too. Just how, how could Clara have been so careless?

As soon as she found herself standing alone inside the paranoid crowd, another commotion with the woman who had tried to report the incident gave her the chance to escape. As the passengers remained distracted, Clara slowly backed into the crowd. She had the girl with the head of fiery hair to thank for that.

[b]“[color=B22222]Oh dear, that must've been a hard fall. I could hear it from all the way here![/color]”[/b] she muttered to the people next to her, hoping to ease her way out without raising suspicion.

And with that, Clara managed to slip away into the carriage. She could breathe now.