It was one of the last villages before the Beyond. The people who lived here were the kind of people who wanted to be left alone, but not so alone.

Karidhi was lying to herself if she said that hadn’t been one of the reasons she came here. The other reason was that everyone here mostly kept to themselves, didn’t go poking around- which meant plenty of things for her to find. There were the caves that she wanted to go to: they weren’t natural, someone had dug them into the ground and built a metal framework for them, long ago; surely there must be something interesting in there.

Today, however, was not a day to be out and about, much less climbing through caves. Rain and wind, a lightning strike here or there- but none to the lightning tower. So instead she found herself at the local inn; she couldn’t be bothered to cook for herself. Lively music came from an oddity in the corner. You could put shins in to change the kind of music playing, but usually it was only the owner, Alandi, who did.

One of the lights burnt out as she ate her stew. “I’ll fix it for you,” Karidhi said with a wave of her free hand in between bites of food. She could recognize frustration when she saw it.

“Thank you, it’s just... you’d think he’d want to help fix his home, his livelihood,” the other woman sighed, resting her head on her hands. “You know we’re all glad here to have you around.”