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ooc: Speaking of lurking dangers [img]graemlins/blueblink.gif[/img] .... It's time for this lurker to settle into the villain's role. I must admit to being a bit nervous about jumping into a thread that has been so well-played over such a long period of time and I'll do my best to play up to the high standard that has been set.
Steeplewood Forest
The leaves in the shorter maples have just begun to shed their green color and there is a greater activity among the animals as they gather food for the coming winter. It is a cool and damp morning with a light fog filling the lower lying areas. Bending, Iphigenia places the earthen pitcher in the stream filling it with swift and cold water. She moves with a nimble grace to where Claudia and Miriam have prepared the basin and fills it with the water. As the first splashing sounds rise from the basin her companions softly chant the words of the incantation. The rustling movement of tree limbs in the slight breeze lends its notes to the chant and she sprinkles the crushed fragments of several oak leaves into the water. As the misty air over the basin grows clear she adds her own voice to the chant and gathers her strength – it is a great distance over which she must send her sight. Adding the feather of an eagle to the water she grows still as the others continue their chant. She then places a small scrap of cloth, a piece torn from the woman’s clothing, into the air above the basin allowing it to slowly drift downward into the water. Her eyes open wide but she sees nothing of this cool and misty grove.
She sees rather the dim interior of a tavern in a city beyond the thickly wooded hills which shield Korup Shun to the north. The woman is within and there are others with her. She marks each of them well but something about the young man who is with them troubles her. Concentrating, she focuses her attention upon him until she has a name - Raymond. “Ullalume,” she whispers and a pale woman steps quietly to her side. “The young man is called Raymond,” she says softly and steps aside allowing her companion to draw near to the basin.
Removing her glove, Ullalume places her hand within the water. She closes her eyes and breathes in sharply as her companions shift the tones of their chant. It is difficult to reach so far, but she can touch him. “Raymond,” she whispers. Her touch finds him, seeking out the movement of his life in time. She sees it then, the disruption within his recent past, a disruption so great it is easily found. He has been bitten and has become someone other than the one he had been. And there is more – there is something between him and the woman. Her breathing slows and she lingers with the violently clear images of the young man’s recent past. There is another with him! A female shapeshifter of no small power. She will take no chances with this news and withdraws her hand from the basin. Turning to her companions she speaks a low and placid voice, “There is much we will need to discuss.”
ooc: Possibly Raymond will feel something of Ullalume's strange touch, but it is very unlikely he would know its nature or origin.
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