[center][color=lightsteelblue][h3][i]Shiara Cazarin, bone mage[/i][/h3][/color][/center]

The crypt itself held no fear for Shiara.  She was at home among the bones of the dead, even going so far as to let an ancient and nearly-gone echo twine around her fingers.  The action might look odd to those nearby, but she hardly cared.  She was increasingly frustrated by the lead knight's refusal to tell what, in her opinion, was essential information.

Even less pleasant was the crumbled wall leading into a sewer, and the stench that came with it.  Shiara pulled a fold of her tunic up over her nose and mouth to block the worst of it out, but even so it was enough to make her cringe.  Breathing lightly through her mouth, she considered letting the other three go on without her -- but then how was she to get any answers?

Over the course of the next minute or two, which were miserable enough to feel like far longer, Shiara thought to wonder [i]why[/i] a child would be in the sewers -- or the crypts, for that matter.  Something was wrong about the situation.  It was that conclusion as much as any lack of visible injury or restraint that kept her from objecting to the man's words, or his apprentice aiming a crossbow at the girl.

Another moment made her realize that it was no living child before them, though also nothing like she'd ever encountered before.  "That's not a child," she whispered, trying to get a feel for the forces animating what, in her mind, was no longer a person but a creature, and not a natural one either.  "There's no spirit there."