Ali’s bravery in the face of the monstrous thing shook Mave briefly from her fatalistic composure. He was willing to battle it with only the staff in his hands. Perhaps it wasn’t so surprinsng, his staff had seen of the bandits afterall and the simple folk of the Two Rivers solved problems with the simple tools they had, not much given to fretting or worrying about the unnatural.

“You can’t kill it with a staff,” Mave said quickly, “even steel is uncertain.” Ali merely squared his shoulders and reached for the door handle his face set. Mave wasn’t entirely sure that his belief the thing was after him specifically was justified but she couldn’t let him throw his life away. Fortunately the truth was evident enough in her state of detached contemplation.

“Even if you do it won’t save your family,” she said and Ali froze with his hand in mid reach. He looked back at her uncertainty, it was too dark to tell for sure but there was a look of suspicion in his eyes that cut into her. It had been the right choice to keep thing from him, secrecy was always the right choice the Tower, and in this case Mave, believed, but it still hurt.

“What do you mean?” he asked, glancing from her to the fade with quick flicks of his maroon eyes. 

“It isn’t acting alone,” she explained, her eyes tracking the things progress.

“Others will know what it knows, other fades, shadow eyes,” she went on. Ali was looking at her with dawning horror, though his grip on the staff remained firm and strong, not giving in to the panic the thing beyond the ward engendered.

“If this one dies, others will come here seeking you.”


“How do you know this?” Ali demanded, an edge to his voice that she couldn’t quite identify. Mave made a gesture towards the frustrated Fade.

“See how it dosen’t approach any closer,” she said, seeming to avoid the question though that wasn’t her intent. The time for secrecy, at least on this matter, was fading quickly. Ali flicked a glance at the shadow figure as it moved up and down the invisible line.

“If it wants me why dosent it come in? Some of the stories say you have to invite evil into your house…” Mave shook her head in dismisal.

“If only that were so,” she said with a sad smile. For a few heartbeats she was silent and then she plunged ahead.

“I have placed a ward around your home,” she explained in a quiet sombre voice.

“It dosen’t keep it out exactly but it would be blind if it stepped over the threshold, the Eyeless fear blindness as much as they fear anything. An irony.”

Ali didn’t look scared, which probably wasn’t a good sign.

“A ward?” he asked deliberately, obviously knowing enough of what that implied that it confirmed his suspicions. Without speaking, Mave reached into her pouch and withdrew the golden ring she carried there. The intricately carved golden circle caught the firelight, reflecting the image of a snake devouring its own tail. She slipped it onto her left ring finger, quite improperly for an Accepted who were supposed to wear it on the left. It was unlikely anyone outside of the Tower or a few scholars at the Royal Courts would know the difference.

“I am sorry Alidrin Baldyr,” she said simply