Starting Anew (Atrax)

[Orinei]

1st day of Winter, 512 At the golem's instruction, Orinei began to walk in the prescribed direction, towards the carriage which awaited her past the Warehouses. The distance wasn't far, but Orinei walked deliberately, as if she calculated the energy each move would cost her. As she rounded the bend to pass the Warehouses, she set eyes on the carriage: it was old, paint peeling, without a beast attached to pull it. She smiled; it was just as she remembered it. She kept walking, and in the same measured movements, stepped up into the carriage. The door shut of its own accord behind her, but not before she noticed the partner she had spontaneously acquired in this journey. Her eyes widened almost imperceptibly as she sunk into the seat opposite this new...what was he? Symenestra. It took a moment, but his appearance registered, and the widened eyes were followed by another minute gesture: a little turn of her head. Orinei hardly ever felt herself quizzical about other beings (let alone living ones), but this one stumped her. What would a spider be doing in Sahova? She almost began to ask, but stopped herself. If this Symnestra had anything worth saying, he would say it, she reasoned. First of all, she hadn't been expecting a companion on this short ride. She'd seen others arriving at the harbor, but had immediately dismissed most of them as being alive, and therefore not worth her time--and this one was, she thought, most likely no different. The carriage lurched forward onto the path, and Orinei settled first on issuing a curt nod to her travel partner, however brief their journey would be.