Titania quietly returned to the room, closing and locking the door behind her for fear of what murderous demons might emerge after dawn to hunt. As it stood, her thoughts did not travel far enough in the future to wonder whether going to sleep with a locked door would be good for the poor unfortunate who was supposed to share her room.
With a sigh, she sealed the windows and closed the drapes as well. For one so unfamiliar with the world it is hard to imagine what horrors the outside might hold, and so it is often found best to merely shut it out.
Her room a little safer, she sat on her bed and stared down at her dirty feet, wishing that her flight to the eidolon wall had taken place when she was wearing shoes.
Who could imagine that a hurricane had sent her so far away from home! Letting herself fall backward onto her uncomfortable mattress, she thought of everything she’d left behind, and soon realized that it would be a long time before she ever saw it again.
This new world was sickening. It was full of confusing cities, demons, darkness, and air so thick it stole your breath. The ground was rocky, foxes came to life as human spirits, and men went mad with hallucinations. The group was already established and she felt like an outsider, finding the only person she could really talk to so far was Malice. The entire journey to the town had made her aware of how much she was only watching the group- she was not yet part of them. So where in all of this chaos did she fit in? Why had she come here? Was Phoenix punishing her for some deed she never knew had been committed? …Perhaps then there
was a way to return... maybe if the eidolons were appeased! But what would they want?
She thought for some time, letting the minutes pass arbitrarily.
Goodness perhaps? Or strength? Maybe devotion to the traditions of Madain Sari as some kind of proof of trust in the eidolons?
Crawling beneath the covers, she considered a hundred possibilities, the several voices of reason chattering on in her head like hungry vultures ready for a kill. Unable to think, unable to sleep, the Madain Sari girl climbed out of her bed, and took up a quill. People here seemed to
speak the same language, so why shouldn’t they be able to read it?
Gone out. Don’t worry. Will be back before sunrise.
-Titania
Tying up her once-white robe, she stepped outside, placed the note in a crack in the door and took off for town.
Some time later, she arrived and waited on the ledge of the fountain, digging through her pockets for a small chisel that was once used to carve on the eidolon wall. Picking up a stone, she began to shape the crude figure of a bird, skilfully avoiding her fingers with the sharp edge. When at last her job was finished, she removed from her pocket a small jewel that had been given to her.
Oh well she thought, and cut off a piece, pressing it against the petrified bird to make a makeshift eye.
Suddenly something did not feel right.
Before she could ponder longer, she saw a shadow moving near an alley, and made for its direction
“Excuse me!” she called and ran barefoot in its direction, obviously having grown up in a fairly small community “Do you know whom I could trade for a pair of shoes? I have this...”
She produced the bird from her pocket and tried to get a better look at whoever it was she was conversing with, his momentary silence making her uneasy. With her free hand, she laid her fingers on her flute, just in case.