Music in the Dark (Shale)

[Shale]

Shale's eyes went wide. It wasn't that surprising as she was well aware that her former Master did keep company with a variety of people, a number of who Shale had never gotten the pleasure of meeting.

The man was clearly doing well, at least in recent times. Shaled continued to look him over. Figures, her Master always did make friends with benefits. A thought flashed across Shale's mind. Did her Master intend for Alphonse to be a benefactor for the entertainment group at some point? It was a distinct possibility, one that gave her a very temporary reprieve from an otherwise confusing and distressing day. If the idea was true...

Shale's practiced fanged smile kicked in as she feigned recognition of someone she could not recall whether she had ever heard of or met before. "Oh of course!" She proffered a hand forward for him to grasp for a handshake. She could almost hear her Master's words echoing through her head as he extolled pointers for encountering important people. "A pleasure to meet you Alphonse."

Her features changed nearly instantly to those of sadness. She hung her head, looking at the ground. "Yes, my Master's end was very unfortunate," Shale raised her view, looking into the man's eyes, her lip near-to-quivering. "I broke down as soon as I saw the coffin myself."

The Kelvic looked away, wistfully. "But as you said, the past has happened, and all anyone can do is try to move with it."

Shale looked at the man once again. "My home? Well, as you can imagine with such a crowded place..." She spread out her arms, motioning to their surroundings."-Syliras itself is my home." She drew her left arm back to her side and raised her pointer finger from her right as if interjecting into a conversation. "For now, that is."

[Archon]

Alphonse's hand was strong as he gripped Shale's for the polite handshake, but his skin was the soft skin of one who did not have to do much manual labor. As Shale looked into his eyes with her lip almost quivering she realized that while his face showed sorrow his eyes did not. His gaze was more like relief mixed with excitement. Alphonse gave a nod of his head as Shale indicated she had no real home in the city, and smiled pleasantly at the Kelvic, "I have some errands I must attend to, but come to the White Swan Inn in about a Bell and ask for me. I'll let them know that I'm expecting you. As I said, I have something very important to talk with you about, but not out here in the open." Glancing back and forth quickly, as if making sure that no one was watching them, Alphonse quickly took a step forward, closing the distance between him and Shale, and whispered up to her, "It regards what Matthew was searching for when he died." Stepping back just as quickly Alphonse smiled once more at Shale, "I hope to see you soon, but I must go. I'm so glad I finally found you," and with that Alphonse turned and started to make his way back through the crowd, heading in the direction of Stormhold.

[Shale]

Shale stared after Alphonse as he took his leave. It wasn't that she was trying to look at him funny, it was more like her eyes were stuck in a perpetually shocked gaze. As soon as Alphonse had said that special name, "Matthew," her face had gotten frozen into its new continence.

The last time she had asked her old master about his special project was coincidentally also the last time that she had seen him alive. He got on his horse, turned with slow dignity, and patted her on the head. "Now now Shale, don't you worry, I'm just getting some special items that are sure to make us famous." He prepared to leave, unknowingly, for the final time. "I'll be back soon enough."

He was back soon alright. In a coffin. The embittered memory of that day wasn't any help to the already depressing morning.

But there was hope! The grand scheme of none other than her master, Matthew Edward Ignacious, was still in the works! Or what if it was already completed and ready for delivery? The thought was enough to immediately overpower the sense of dread from earlier this morning.

"Graaand." Shale let a big, toothy grin overtake her expression as the word slowly formed over a long breath. It took her a few moments to recall that her fangs made her wide smiles look disturbingly like she'd try to eat small children. "Ah, ahem." She cleared her throat and tried to suppress the giddy emotion that was roaring through her.

Shale had just been given the chance to fulfill her late master's plans! This was where her true mission began! She left the scene, walking with the footsteps one might find common among the Knights. They were the strong steps of determination and resolve, of a sort of vengeful and powerful feeling not uncommon to those who felt a heavy sense of vindication.

Her strides were long and here footfalls quick; Shale'd definitely show up to the meeting.

[Archon]

When Shale arrived at the White Swan Inn the dinning area was mostly empty. There were a few people scattered about the tables, leisurely mulling over the last of their breakfast. While most the people were fairly nondescript there was a pair that sorely stood out. They sat together far away from everyone else in the room. The most noticeable was a very imposing looking man with brown hair, his thick and well muscled body barely hidden by his simple clothes. His companion was a lanky man with practically white skin, clothed in a dark shirt and pants, and slightly greasy looking black hair. The lanky man's red eyes followed Shale for a bit as she entered the room, until his large companion gave him a rough elbow to the side. The two glared at each other for a moment, and then went back to picking at their food. One of the waiters approached Shale with a smile that barely hid the contempt he had for her at her appearance, and he cleared his throat lightly before asking, "And what brings you to the White Swan Inn today miss?"

[Shale]

Shale entered the White Swan Inn just as anyone else would, although, perhaps the colored clothes of a performer were a bit unusual for most of the building's patrons.

She swept her gaze around, not finding Alphonse, but noticing the looks from the two men off to the side. Perhaps they had been to one of her shows? Or maybe they were less than satisfied with one. She glanced at them a few times, trying to evaluate them when the server approached.

"Hi there, sir. I'm meeting a man named Alphonse here. Is he in?" Shale wasn't entirely sure what to make of the waiter's behavior. A slight sense of foreboding wasn't exactly new to the Kelvic that day, but she tried to take it in stride.

[Archon]

"Ah yes," the waiter said with a small nod, "He said he was expecting you. He asked you to meet him in his room," the man gestured to a nearby staircase, "Up those stairs, third room on the right. He asked for you to knock and wait for an invitation in," with his instructions given the waiter hurried off without waiting for Shale's response, obviously eager to be doing something else. As Shale moved up the stairs a quick glance to her side would show the odd pair from before hurrying to finish their food, the pale skinned man's red eyes following her movements as he slowly drank from a mug. At the top of the stairs Shale was greeted by an elegant hallway with doors on either side. The third door on the right was slightly ajar, just enough to give a sliver of a glimpse into the room beyond, and from it drifted the sound of three chords being strummed on what sounded like a lyre. The notes seemed vaguely familiar to Shale, but she wasn't able to put her finger on exactly what they were from at the moment.

[Shale]

A musician of any sort was a potential asset. If Shale was going to put on a show as grand as the one she intended to, she would need musicians. Certainly, she could afford the brief time it might take to investigate.

Shale made her way to the door to carefully peek through the crack and see who it was that strummed.

[Archon]

Peering through the barely ajar door Shale caught sight of the fine room beyond. Bright fabrics were elegantly draped about the walls, and the chairs looked very well stuffed and soft. One of the red, fabric covered chairs was empty, but the second contained a familiar looking figure. As Shale moved to try and get a better look at the figure through the door the floor beneath her creaked, and the music stopped. Through the crack in the door Shale saw Alphonse glance suspiciously at the door before he slid a small piece of paper off of the table he was sitting at and out of sight. After a few moments Alphonse turned his attention back away from the door, and resumed playing music on the lyre. This time it was just simple strumming on the instrument, not the deliberate chords that he had been playing earlier.

[Shale]

Shale's first thought was rather simple. Must be the premium room. But the music that Alphonse was playing? Was it the same from the dream? She tried to recall fuzzily.

Regardless, she was thankful that she had shrunken away from the door as soon as the floor creaked. Being caught while doing some suspicious snooping around would not have ingratiate her to much of anyone. She uttered a few choice curses at the treacherous floorboard in her mind, daring not to say anything aloud.

Shale stood up to her full height and was about to enter the door when the recollection of the two rather dubious men from downstairs struck her like a particularly heavy punch. Were they perhaps following her?

The Kelvic froze, listening in for any footsteps. After a good two seconds, she couldn't help herself, and glanced towards the stairs.

Hopefully the two men were just curious about her when she first walked into the building.

[Archon]

Dredging up the memories of the mornings nightmare brought back the feelings of sorrow and despair over Shale's thoughts, a little stronger than before, but with some mental effort she came to a couple realizations. The notes from the dream and the ones that Alphonse had been playing were similar, but not the same. While Alphonse had been playing three major chords, a total of nine notes, the notes she had heard in her dream that morning had been the minor, melancholy sounding, versions of those same chords. The second realization she had was the memory of a song those three chords were the start of. It was an old song, crafted back when the people of Syliras were just starting to recover from the Valterrian. A chronicle of how they had survived the destruction and change that ravaged the world, entitled "Rebirth in the Darkness". The memory of the two strangers down in the dinning room drew Shale's attention away, and while she could hear no approaching footsteps she caught a brief glimpse of something when she glanced at the stairs. It might have been just a trick of the light, a shadow on the stairs, but it could also have been a brief glimpse of the black hair the red eyed man had possessed. Whatever it had been she could see no sign of anyone in the stairs now.