Pale was late.

An ordinary person wouldn't dare to arrive late for an audience with the king. However, Pale was not ordinary. On her travels to the throne room, she had managed to stumble upon a crypt - one with no signs of being explored. While it was her duty to meet The Emperor, it was also her duty to delve into each and every grave in search of treasures. After seconds of deliberation, she had decided to explore it. After all, what if it was some undiscovered vault of extremely powerful weapons? It would be her duty to acquire powerful items to defeat the scourge that had afflicted the land, after all. She salivated at the thought of some sort of powerful superweapon being hidden inside of an unmarked tomb, hidden away from humanity.

Of course, the tomb had nothing inside of it. Nothing except for a solitary skeleton, at least. Still considering her spoils of war, Pale took the dead man's skull. After all, her effort was worth at least something, right? Alas, her little diversion had wasted some time. No matter, the throne would make sure to at least [i]most [/i]people had arrive, right? What were the odds that all of the adventurers would arrive at the same time?

The answer to that, as Pale had discovered, was actually very likely. Her arrival, while escorted by a guard, had not been announced. After all, which poor guard wanted to ever be the one to interrupt the emperor? Despite this silent entry, Pale still seemed to get the attention of others. Being a swashbuckling archeologist wearing bright and ornate clothing seemed to always do that to a room. Pale listened to the Emperor intently. Well, she did so to the best of her ability. Occasionally, she would forget that she was listening and would instead focus on the other future heroes meant to be her companions. A righteous knight, a thin mage, a knife-ear, some plant girls, and two raggedy boys. Well, Pale was certainly one to judge on appearances. None of them really [i]appeared[/i] like Pale did - except, of course, for the fae. Already, she liked the two of them.

Before she knew it, the Emperor had finished his little speech and asked for questions. Of course, Pale had a question. A question that didn't [i]quite[/i] pertain to the situation. Opening her mouth, she began to speak.

[color=56C89C]"What hap-"[/color]

Just as impulsively as she spoke, she shut her mouth. Her question, of course, was incredibly distasteful. While she wasn't afraid to ask the emperor face to face, being flanked by a bunch of guards made the question difficult to ask. She pinched her fingers and dragged them across where her mouth should be, signalling that she should shut up.