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[sub][color=8E939E]✧     Location: Soft Haven Cemetery     ✧     Purse: 12 copper     ✧     @Everyone I guess     ✧[/color][/sub][/center]
If the armed stranger disbelieved the lie, he didn’t argue it, instead correcting his comment on “aetheric entities.” Kyreth couldn’t help but frown. Their “essences” stood out to this man? That was the talk of fortune telling swindlers, not a rugged hedgeman who looked like he’d never walked the streets of a city in his life. Kyreth had to wonder what on earth the man was trying to sell them, but he spoke earnestly enough to satisfy the Tainted boy that he was telling the truth. Or his own understanding of the truth, anyway. 

Kyreth’s already-frayed nerves were piqued further as the plucking of an instrument reached his ears from all around, just loud enough to be heard over the rustling of the underbrush. For a moment he wondered where Lilann suddenly found the confidence to start playing her little lyre, remembering how it plucked itself the night before. But far as he could tell, its strings laid still on her hip, and the sound came from no discernible direction. It made Kyreth uneasy – or uneasi[i]er[/i] – but it was soon drowned out by the clomping and creaking of a cart approaching on the adjacent road. 

Kyreth gasped when Lilann suddenly halted, but she was only scoping out the road, donning a painted mask before she broke the tree line. A clever disguise, it hid her eyes well enough to mistake her for a tall halfling – or a short human – but he wondered if the mask itself had ever gotten her into trouble. People were distrustful of those who covered their faces, after all. But evidently, it worked well enough to get her this far. 

While the other two broke out onto the road, Kyreth stayed behind, lingering just a few feet back from the tree line. Securing his hood with one hand, he watched the exchange on the road; they’d come across a strange trio indeed, though he supposed the same could be said about his little party. Most notably, there was a frightening green-skinned woman towering above the rest, speaking with a deep voice the likes of which Kyreth had never seen nor heard before. She was talking to a blonde, elvish woman who looked very much out of place, her looks and posture speaking of high breeding and clothed in some of the finest traveling garb Kyreth had ever seen. An official from Soft Haven, perhaps? Maybe checking on the Bounty House? That might have explained her presence, but her companion was her opposite in every way – skinny and sunken-faced, he looked like he’d fit in well in Urchin’s Run if not for the swirling mass of black shadows clinging to his head. Now [i]that[/i] looked more like an “aetheric entity”. 

Contrasting Lilann’s caution, the stranger – as yet unnamed, not that Kyreth cared to get to know him after having been on the business end of his sword – walked out onto the road with all the confidence of a normal traveler, asking for directions. If the scrawny kid’s comment was anything to go by, it seemed they were all headed to the same place. It occurred to Kyreth that this was his chance to turn around and leave this tense hostage march behind. A year ago he would have taken it, turning tail without a second thought. But to his surprise, his feet stayed planted; he wouldn’t leave Lilann alone with their dubiously sane ‘companion’ after all the kindness she’d afforded him.

Hey, maybe that was progress. 

Nerves still positively buzzing, Kyreth forced a deep breath and mustered the courage to step out of the trees, pulling his hood down over his eyes as best he could. [color=8E939E]“Yeah, we're on our way there too,”[/color] he answered the teen in passing, barely loud enough to be heard as he shot an apologetic glance to Lilann for making her wait.