The silvery piece of string lay forgotten in the muck, its once haunting glow now gone. Alistair skulked back into the forest, courched low and stepping softly. The forest soon swallowed him in its black maw, his black clothing melding with the shadows of night. He moved in the general direction of the monastery according to his map and kept the other Seekers to his left based on what he gathered from using the crow’s sight. It was a relatively simple ritual to prepare, only needing a mixed concoction of powdered barberry root and calamus root and then the use of wine to act as a catalyst for the mixture. After doing that it was a simple feat of soaking a loop of silver thread in the wine and powder and then plucking a piece of the creature or husk you wished to see through and potentially control. In Alistair’s experience is was much easier to control weaker-willed beasts, like the crow. It was also much easier to get a piece of smaller beasts.

As he made his way through the forest, Alistair checked over his bandolier of vials to make sure they were all secure and intact. So far, he had come through unscathed, though the same couldn’t be said for his guide. He didn’t dwell on the memory too much. It was the boy’s fault for following when he had repeatedly been told to leave. He had been the one to make too much noise and draw a group of those things right to him. Still, Alistair had managed to turn the disaster into luck and skulk away as the Decayed attacked the guide.

Something disturbed the undergrowth ahead of him, and he froze in place. He controlled his breathing as one of the Decayed hobbled through the thick brush. It turned its head side to side as it limped. Vines grew up around its body, leaves budding from each vine, and its skin looked to be covered in a strange mix of mud and bark. Half of its head was overgrown with brush and leaves. As it turned,Alistair saw the eye on the overgrown half was completely covered, and its other eye was glass and white. He sucked in breath slowly and quietly, waiting for the thing to pass by. Its left drug the ground as it slowly made its way across Alistair’s intended path. It turned its head toward him once but didn’t seem to take notice of the Seeker standing near it. Another, louder disturbance drew its and Alistair’s attention. Five more of the monstrosities limped out from the brush.

“Shit,” Alistair hissed and made for one of the trees. His footsteps were quick but light so as to not disturb the twigs and dried leaves. He leaned against the tree and hunkered down, listening to the things shuffle ahead of him. None of them seemed to have spotted or heard him. Peaking around the tree, he watched as the group disappeared from view in the forest. He let out a soft exhalation of breath and leaned his head against the tree.

“Too close…”

The remainder of his trek through the forest was uneventful, and he eventually made it to the base of the path up to the monastery, but he did not immediately hike up. Instead, he leaned against a tree off the right of the path and watched as others approached and made their way up. He noted what he could about the others summoned to this hidden place. When there was enough of a pause in the other arriving, he made his own way up and was greeted by the maidens there. He gave them a curt nod and continued past them without a word. Finally within the walls, he wondered the halls. A door banged open ahead of him, and a scraggly-looking fellow flew out of it. Alistair raised an eyebrow at him and stepped around a corner in the cross section of halls to not be seen himself. He watched the man a moment before taking back to the halls.

He found his own way to the meeting place and saw all the other Seekers and they him. As the Vicar explained her reasons for summoning the group, Alistair watched his surroundings and chose to stay to the back of the group. He saw the movement behind the Vicar before the creatures fully emerged. As its grotesque shape came into full view and it lunged forward, Alistair was already moving away from it and darted behind a chipped and crumbling pillar. He pulled a vial from his bandolier; this contained a mixture of dandelion and asafoetida. With a soft [i]pop[/i] Alistair pulled the cork out with his teeth and spat it away while pulling out two knives balanced for throwing. With a steady hand, he poured the mixture over his knives, and they began glowing with a faint green light. Taking a deep breath, Alistair ducked out from the opposite side of the pillar and took aim. He waited for an opening in the melee between the beast and other Seekers and then launched his knives. They spun through the air, leaving a faint green afterimage. Alistair ducked back behind the pillar as one of his knives found purchase in the beast’s flesh, and the other grazed it. Should his potion take affect, the Pallid Maiden would now be seeing false images of the Seekers appearing near the real thing.