A long sigh leaves Vail's lips as his boots sink multiple inches with each step. “I should charge collateral.” he mutters quietly to himself as he treks through the swamp. Perhaps this was his punishment for taking such an easy job, preying on some villager’s superstitions did seem a little cruel after all. Then again, it was their fault for thinking he could do something about these supposed ghosts. Assuming he was some manner of dark magician just because of his dark and brooding appearance was a rather rude gesture on their part. Nevertheless, he took the job. At the very least he wouldn’t have to worry about the usual savages of the Marsh Flats.

In truth, he was a bit curious himself. If you asked him during his time in Darkveil, he would have said that ghosts were bullshit. The idea of vengeful spirits sounded like wishful thinking from those who had suffered the world’s cruelty. Such things held no weight in that world. If someone wanted justice, they needed to take it for themselves.

He’d gladly admit he was quite ignorant back then.
It’s amazing what rising from the dead can do for one's point of view.

He wondered how his invasive guest would react to a spirit. It’s not like he could punch it to death like in every other life-threatening encounter. Perhaps the spirit would try to possess him, and they could brawl it out inside his body. Anything was possible considering he had no idea what his intrusive entity was. It was probably best not to think about it too hard.

Having walked through the Hauntwood for at least a good hour, Vail decided this was as good a place as any to observe these ‘ghost’. Picking one of the larger trees, he makes his climb into the canopy^[1], carefully testing each branch until he finds one that can sufficiently hold his weight. Now it was just a manner of waiting. If something was truly causing trouble here, he’d be able to hear it sloshing through the swamp long before it could spot him. Unless it was an actual spirit, then it could just float up to him no problem.

He really hoped there wasn’t actually a ghost.

---

1.Surface Scaling

The marsh kept calling at her, and she was stupid enough to answer. The amount of bad experiences she had at that place was starting to make her question her decision to come back. First there was the undead crocodile she had to fight to get some Blood Lilies. Then, the hag that stole her body for a couple of hours - the experience still haunted her dreams. There was also where she met a few oozes and got Bellighul hurt in the process, which... she wasn't proud of, but at least allowed for her to spend a little time with the necromancer. Yes, maybe it was not that bad. Bellighul, Gabriel, Socket, Caedes... All she met at the cursed swamp, one way or the other.

It warranted her some respect, at least, anyway. Last time she'd been there a strange situation found her, and she ended up uncovering a group of orphans playing pranks on travelers and merchants and scaring them while faking ghostly apparitions. And that, was that.

Or so she thought.

Apparently, this was happening again, and when she was asked to see into it again, the first thing she did was to come up to the orphans once again. They all swore to her that they learned their lesson, and their Mater punished them once she found out. The woman also said they weren't allowed enough freedom for the moment being to pull the same pranks once again, so this time, even she was quick to defend the boys and claim it was not just a prank that was happening in the swamps.

This somehow left her dissappointed. It meant it could be something serious.

So this time, when she stepped out into the swamp, on the general direction people were getting this sightings, she was a bit more on edge than usual. Her feathery cloak pulled up to hide her face, she advanced slowly on the swamp, taking no effort in trying to be sneaky - she had no talent for that. She hoped to trigger something and see this apparitions for herself, which sounded like a mistake in her head, but it was all she could think of.

In the distance, she could hear Mischief cawing, at least glad to know that if the raven spotted something or someone, he would report back to her.

An entire hour had passed with no activity, Vail was starting to regret taking this job. Sure, it was an easy paycheck, but it was a boring one. He was used to waiting for his work, sometimes for multiple days, but there was always a tangible goal at the end of it. For all he knew, he could be waiting out here for weeks with no activity. A low sigh escapes his lungs as he waits; the trek through the marsh had taken more out him than he thought. Perhaps he could rest for a bit, after all, the supposed encounters did occur at night.

A shadow passes over him just as his eyelids begin to fail. His eyes immediately shoot upwards scanning for the source. His ears catch his observer before his eyes can; a black bird circles high overhead, cawing as it soars. He glanced downward, hastily searching for anything that might have attracted the bird's attention. Finding the marsh empty below, his eyes widen as he realizes his error. The top button of jacket had a small glimmer of light where the black paint had worn off.

“Great...” he muttered to himself as he quickly maneuvered out of the tree. He might have been overreacting, but in his business attributing things to coincidence is likely to get you killed. If that was a wild bird, it was more likely to investigate its findings rather exercising any kind of restrain. No, it was definitely trained, and its owner was likely nearby. He’d met falconers in his travels whose birds could spot the enemy miles away, quite the pain for anyone trying to infiltrate their camp. This may very well be a bounty hunter on his trail. Last time he passed through Lilicors he embroiled himself in a gang dispute, playing both sides for a decent sum of gold. Perhaps the villagers had sold him out for an easy payment of their own.

Luckily the owner was headed towards him, which meant he still had the element of surprise. The forest was dense and there were ample places for him to hide in the shadows, it would take someone quite skilled to find him in this environment. He climbed into a large oak that was split open from the top of its trunk; its dense canopy would cover the bird’s eye view and the hollow enshrouded him shadow^[1]. 

He sincerely doubted that this was a Marsh Lander, animal training seemed a bit too sophisticated for the locals.
A small smirk formed across his face as the bird continued to circle overhead. At the very least he would be getting the excitement he wished for.

---

[1]Pass without a trace

The figure in the feathery cloak seemed completely unaware of another's presence, seemingly searching for something or someone as she carefully walked through the swamp. Well, as carefully as she could, since she stepped on twigs and dry leafs seemingly on purpose.

Her knowledge on spirits and ghosts was very limited, and she was hoping in the earnest it was not truly a ghost, else she wouldn’t know how to handle it. Not that she had much planned ahead.

Mischief cawed up above, making her look around. From the way he had been circling over a specific tree, she could assume he was looking for something, but even he couldn’t find it with his keen, beetle eyes. Kamille sighed, exhasperated at the Marshlands and its citizens as a whole. She would speak it was easy to keep a secret in that weird society of swamp dwellers if the swamp itself felt like a living entity, ready to scare off travelers or strangers - or swallow them entirely. Maybe that was a matter she could bring up to the Druids back at Moonglade...

But her attention was diverted as she heard a cry, making all the hairs of her scruff stand up. Besides the crying, she hadn’t heard any noise of movement or rustling of leaves, which only left her more on edge.

Oh fuck.... this is not good.......

She pulled down her hood so she could have a proper look around. Her half-elven features were frowned in a worried expression, her starry eyes attentive and troubled.

Mischief had suddenly abandoned the scanning of the tree, also drawn to the crying sounds they could hear from ahead. The Witch saw the raven fly directly towards the source of crying, landing on a tree nearby.

"CAWW! Hello!"

....so there was someone there! She put a bit of haste in her steps, quickly arriving at a clearing with a small pool in the middle. Mischief was near, curiously eyeing a mysterious figure haunched over the pound, face hidden in their hands. Once again, she felt a shiver running up her spine, the hairs of her scruff standing up.

"Uhm...... Hello?"

Vail sat in pure stillness as he awaited his fellow intruder. His eyes were unflinching, the moist insides of the rotting tree barely registered in his mind. He could feel the subtle sensation of various insects crawling across his clothes, their movement didn’t matter to him, what awaited in the swamp potentially bore a far greater threat. His vantage point wasn’t ideal but even the slightest movement risked revealing his position. On the left side of his peripheral stood a small clearing, the only notable landmark in the dense woods; he paid little mind to it. No one using a bird scout would be dumb enough to walk out in the open.

A heavy mist slowly rolled in across the swampland, both a blessing and a curse from his position. He would have to rely on more than just his eyes if he wanted to get the jump on whoever the bird belonged to. His eyes slowly closed as he focused his ears, searching for the distinct flaps of the bird’s wings. To his surprise another sound reached him before the avian's; it was crying. The sound was soft, almost muffled in a way, as if the person was trying to hide their tears out of shame.

The sound emanated from the clearing he previously ignored, in the middle of it sat a small figure hunched over in a kneeling position. Vail quickly bit down on his lip, his go-to method for waking himself for a dream. “I’m losing my edge.” He muttered to himself as the distinct taste of blood met his taste buds.

When the fuck did they sneak over there?

They definitely weren’t there when he first entered his perch, and he hadn’t heard any sloshing through the ankle-high water. No, something was off about this.
His thoughts are interrupted by the vocalizations of his winged observer. It called out from a perch on a tree near the figure, likely alerting its master.

Sure enough, the telltale sounds of leaves crunching confirmed his suspicions. His eyes widened as they took in the bird’s owner. Dressed in all black, she was clearly a witch of some manner. Her clothing was way too fanciful for this environment, and here he was complaining about getting his boots dirty.

For a brief moment he considered what she was doing here. He thought she might be some manner of necromancer, summoning spirits for a devious purpose, but those thoughts were dashed by the woman’s expression. Clearly, she was just as terrified as he was.

Well at least it’s not an assassin.

As the woman approached the kneeling figure, he dashed out from his hiding place. Something still didn’t feel right about this, but at very least the threat was tangible. He could punch this kneeling figure if need be… theoretically… he hoped…

The mist rolled around her ankles, certainly not a natural kind of occurence by the way it sent chills up her spine. The Witch approached slowly the figure haunched over, as much afraid as she was cautious. If she was asking herself how the girl just popped up out of nowhere it was hard to say; truth be told, she wasn’t the most perceptive one when it came to following tracks and signs in the forest, so she still could put it entirely on her lack of skills.

"Uhm..... Hello? Do you need help?"

The sobbing stopped. Whether or not she realized it, the Witch also stopped in her tracks, her hand hovering before her, as if wishing to touch the person. The airy, soft voice of a little girl reached her ears. She felt torn between lowering her guard or acknowledging that situation as a trap - as it certainly was, she was positive.

".........are you here to help?"

Her answer remained stuck in her throat, as the girl suddenly stood up. All the time she remained with her back to her, without revealing her face. She wore the simple dress of a peasant girl, and even if the Witch could see the girl was barefooted, a part of her registered with a hint of surprise how she didn’t make a sound when she started to run away.

"H-hey! Come back here!"

To the hell with it! Kamille wasn’t the stealthy type, no use in pretending to be so. It was probably the same reason she didn’t notice another figure stalking her as well, and when the little girl ran away, she didn’t think twice: the Witch ran after her. It occured to her that, while her running through the marsh was loud and chaotic, the little girl did not make a sound.

The raven, on the other hand, looked quite intrigued by a sudden movement his small beetle eyes caught...

"CAWWWW! Who!!!" 

Vail watches as the woman begins to converse with the hunched figure. He could barely make out her words as he rushed forward, but he was confident heard ‘help’. The crying had notably stopped with the witch’s approach, at the very least this wasn’t an illusion.

The figure rose to its feet in a way that seemed very unnatural to him. His eyes widened when he noticed that this enigma appeared to be a simple peasant girl, dressed in oddly clean clothes considering the locale. Stranger yet, the girl rose to her feet and began to run, in a way that seemed unimpeded by the wetlands surrounding her. The marsh was completely silent; until the witch took after the girl in a panic.

I can’t think of a dumber choice in this situation.

With a sigh he took off after the witch, running alongside the pond hoping to gain ground on her through the more solid footing. Catching up rather quickly, he decided to crack a joke, hoping not to frighten the woman by his sudden presence.

“Hey, can you do me a favor and tell me if you’re some manner of summoner who is experimenting with spirits? If yes, you’d be doing me a big favor regarding this ghost problem.”

He catches a glimpse of the woman’s frightened face as he runs parallel to her.

“I’ll take that as a no. Do you mind stopping for a second so that we can figure out what the fuck is going on?”

Whatever it was that Vail assumed her to do besides looking surprised, a fireball probably wasn’t in his range of expectations. It felt like a knee jerk reaction, as she was quick to assume someone following her to not have her best interests at heart: her surprised squeal was a word of power, and when she raised her hand to his direction, a fireball jumped towards him. Luckly, despite her reaction being relatively quick, it wasn’t nearly as precise as it could be. A tree behind Vail exploded in a shower of splinters and flames, and she stopped on her tracks, with almost as much surprise as there was fire in her eyes.

"Who are you?! What are you doing here?!"

She didn’t.... have the best past experiences in the swamp, and though she was much jumpier than she would be in a familiar forest because of that, it actually meant for things to explode around her more frequently. Even for someone who didn’t have talents with the arcane arts, it was possible to understand that the thickness of the air surrounding her all of a sudden wasn’t because of any natural phenomena. That, and her nebulous eyes with stars circling in her deep blue irises, should be enough of a hint that, despite not being the summoner he searched for, she was an arcane user.

And to double down on her suspicions, the raven croaked when he landed on her shoulder.

"CAWWW! Following us! Following!" 

Vail’s eyes widened at the impending flames headed straight for him. He dashed a few feet to his left, causing the fireball to miss and instead explode into the tree behind him. He caught himself as he almost lost his balance, luckily none of the shrapnel had impacted him, at least not in any place he could feel. He let out an exasperated sigh as he looked to the frightened woman with an annoyed expression.

“I’m out here trying to find the source of these supposed ghost sightings. So could you stop trying to eviscerate me for fuck’s sake?”

He glared at the raven perched on her shoulder. The avian annoyance seemed almost smug with its obstructive input.

“And no, I wasn’t following you and the bird knows it. I was about to fall asleep in a tree until your corvid companion spotted me and started making a racket.”

Looking her in the eyes, he could definitely see some form of magic within her, as if the massive fireball wasn’t enough. She definitely wasn't here entirely by choice, more likely she was behaving on the whim of the villagers, but he knew he'd better do some digging before making any assumptions.

He pointed to the fanciful, but I'll suited dress she was wearing; He honestly didn't care about the woman's attire, but it served as a suitable mask for his questioning.

“What are you doing out here dressed like that?”

As the woman spoke, Vail walked over to a nearby tree and leaned on it. His adrenaline was still high, too high for him to focus. Both of them need to calm down if they are going to accomplish anything out here.

“That was some manner of child right? Something was off about it. You might not have heard in your panic, but it was moving unimpeded while also not making a sound. Have you ever seen something like that before?”

CAWWWW! FOLLOWING!"

The raven was clearly not on his side, and after the accusation the bird flew away again straight on the direction the girl went. But despite that, and the woman’s suspicious glance, she stopped long enough to listen to him - and not to launch another fireball, which could only be a good sign.

"I wasn’t trying to eviscerate you. I was trying to set you on fire. There's a difference."

Not that it was much of a difference for him, of course. Her heart still racing, a few deep breaths later had apparently managed to calm her down enough to be smug back to this strange person that was certainly following her. She still had her doubts over his intentions, but at least he was not trying to attack her, right?

.........right?

The remark about her clothes caught her attention, and she even managed to flash a smirk at him.

"If one can't be fashionable when running through a swamp, then life is not worth living! What the fuck are you doing here?"

It was... certainly a strange person. But he was not from the swamp, that's for sure. Somehow, that gave her a bit more of confidance, given how they were now two outsiders frolicking around in thr marsh, and he clearly wasn't trying to set her up. Or so she hoped.

Was he also after the ghost? He mentioned the child, so he had been following her indeed.

"I can only assume that to be the ghost the people are talking about. Last time I saw a ghost around here, it were a few scouldrels pulling a prank on the travelers... Are you here because of that too? What do you know about it?"

Once again the bird showed up, landing on the woman's shoulder.

"CAWW! House! There!"

They make a wonderful pair, an accusatory avian and madcap mage, what could possibly go wrong? Vail wondered if this was some manner of karmic punishment for taking such a job when he had zero experience with the supernatural. Outside of his own condition of course.

“Ah, my mistake, you were just trying to warm me up as night begins to set in. My apologies.” He remarked with a sarcastic tone.

He could see that the witch was still somewhat on edge. Hopefully his sarcasm would help ease her nerves somewhat, or just annoy her, it's hard to be both panicked and annoying simultaneously.

His eyebrow furrows at her retort concerning her clothes. Is this woman all there in the head? Maybe she is just rich enough that she can afford to dress so fancifully with such little concern.

"Listen, if I was going to rob you I already would have done a snatch and grab. If I was going to attack you, I certainly wouldn't drop the element of surprise by talking to you. So could you calm down already?"

Perhaps this could work to his favor, if she was out here hunting the ghost as well, he would at least have some magic on his side. She could handle any magical bullshit and he could punch anything solid that came at them. Hopefully one of the two could deal with a supernatural threat.

"Yes, I am here to investigate the supposed ghost. I don't know why the villagers thought I would be able to do anything if there was a ghost. I guess they just thought I was spooky looking enough to deal with it. Rather rude of them."

The bird’s sudden exclamation drew his eyes in the direction the ghastly child went. Through the dense marsh he could make out the outline of a decrepit shack. It was the kind of place you would enter expecting to find some crazed pariah to be dwelling in; shortly before being stabbed of course. He looked at the witch with a bewildered expression.

“That wasn’t there before, was it?”

The sarcasm did seem to make her relax a little bit, as weird as it sounded. In a complete 180, she seemed to have quickly come to the conclusion he wasn't, indeed, following her with ill intent. He made sense - if he was to rob or attack her, he wouldn't have revealed himself like that and lost the element of surprise.

"What are you talking about? I'm as calm as I can be. You're the one that need to chill the fuck up. Just... be cool, man."

Of course she ignored that she had just tried to fry him with a fireball. The information that he came here after the ghost didn't come as a surprise - in fact, it explained a lot, since the villagers had been asking several adventurers to take care of the "ghosts" that haunted the swamp. It seemed to lift a weight off of her shoulders, since it also spoke of how he was not out there to murder her.

If just a moment ago she was trying to blast him with magic, now she approached with assumed confidence and, for a hot minute, the Witch looked him up and down with a frown, clearly measuring him. Her eyes carried the weight of her arcane might, stars wirling in pools of deep blue, which might speak as to why she walked alone without much concern about anything else - but jokes on her, his sudden appearance seemed to have shown how frail her confidence was. Damned swamp. Her eyes lingered on the scars of his face for a moment longer.

Then, she offered him a smile. Not a smirk, not a sarcastic twist of the lips, but one of those smiles that felt... genuine. She was definitely one of those people that smiled with the eyes.

"Jokes on them, you're not that spooky. This is not the first time there has been complaints of "ghosts" around here... But the first time they complained about it, we found out it was just a few kids messing around... Looks like that's not the case this time..."

Was that... an unspoken agreement to work on this together? If he wanted to interpret it that way, she would agree. She would be the first one to agree to being happy for not being alone on the swamp. It was then that she turned around to see what Mischief was up to. Just as she was about to answer that, no, that house wasn't there the last time she saw, with a loud creak of old wood, the front door swung open slowly.

".....................Yeah. No. Fuck no."

Yes, that looked like a mistake. A haunted house inviting them over: What could possibly go wrong? Why was she walking towards it? Something about curiosity and cats, right? She didn't even realise she was approaching, but stopped a couple of yards from the doorstep, trying to listen in. Then, she looked over her shoulder.

"Are you coming or not?"

She... definitely sounded like the kind of mage that needed some babysitting. Without waiting much, she entered the house, head on. If she hesitated, she would not find the courage to face it.

Vail tilts his head as the witch remarked that he was the one who needed to calm down. Was she serious? Or was she suffering from memory issues just like him? Either way, she herself had calmed down, at least somewhat, so maybe she could actually be reasoned with.

As the witch approaches and begins inspecting his person, he makes no effort to stop her, nor to change the frown she holds. He was more than used to being looked at this way, an ash lander couldn’t go anywhere without at least some form of suspicion, and he didn’t do himself any favors lurking in the shadows. At very least this gave him an opportunity to examine the witch as well. He could feel the air itself change as she approached, and her eyes also reinforced the immense power she held within. He wondered what she saw in his crimson eyes, seeing as they weren’t entirely his own. Could she see some power that hinted at his condition? He quickly decided that this wasn’t the proper time to pry into it.

As the witch looks up with a smile, he is suddenly taken aback. He does his best to hold back a smile of his own, an effort that quickly proves futile. His face forms a smile briefly before letting out a heavy sigh to mask his feelings.

“One way or another, I’m going to need a drink after all this.” he replies to the woman as he holds a smirk.

As the odd pair finally begin to calm down, they are once again set to high alert as the front door to ghastly residence slowly opened and beckoned them forth. To Vail’s surprise, the witch made the first move toward the building, in a show of confidence she had previously not displayed. Perhaps his presence was actually more helpful than harmful for the woman.

“It’s not like I have much of a choice, do I? I’m not skimping out on a job over some condemned cabin, and besides, you can always burn it down if there is some manner of danger” he replies with a smirk as he follows her lead.

As much as his instincts were telling him to turn back, his curiosity was dragging him forward with an unstoppable force. Maybe Zarius was right about his thrill-seeking tendencies after all, there was a chance he was getting way in over his head when it came to the supernatural.

As the pair entered the building, the door suddenly slammed shut behind them, causing Vail to react with an uncommon flinch. Luckily for him, the witch had no way of knowing his reaction, seeing as they were now left in pure darkness, unless of course she had some manner of shadow sight^[1] like him. Even so, his own vision was strangely limited compared to your average dark interior, the darkness they were currently experiencing may not be entirely natural. He begins to speak to not only look for a solution to their predicament, but to also reassure the witch of his presence.

“I don’t suppose you have some manner of light, do you?”

---

[1]Shadow sight

"Me too. The tavern looks like the only possible stop after a haunted house, right?"

She did seem a bit more calm being accompanied by someone, even if she barely knew him. There was some comfort in at least knowing they were onto the same objective. Kamille also visibly jumped back when the door shut close, but regardless would stand firm. At the mention of some light, Kamille rose her hand and with the snap of her fingers her hand became envelopeed in flames. The fire bathed the place in a warm, orange light, but... it didn't seem to go as far as it should, as if the shadows of the corridors and corners of the house were pushing the light back. Certainly they were shadow magics there. Kamille chuckled softly - even if nervously - at his comment about burning the house down.

"Fire does solve most problems, right? Anyway... We should not split, whatever happens. Agree?"

Regardless if he agreed or not, the Witch rather unceremoniously grabed Vail's hand, so no amount of distraction or magic shenanigans could divide them. That had failed before, she could remember, but anyway... The Witch, however, was clearly a Pyromancer at heart, as the cold seemed to never gather too long around her, and she was always warm.

The house itself had nothing out of the ordinary. It smelled to dust and mold, and something like iron? A very faint, sweet smell of putrefaction permeated the entire place, but it could've been anything. Small critters like rats, a dead cat or dog...

People...

"...Can you hear that?"

A faint, dragging and turning noise could be heard in one of the rooms in the darkness. The layout of the house was your ordinay peasant's house: a small, once cozy living room with a few once comfortable chairs facing the fireplace, a few family paintings here and there, including one big painting over the mantle piece that caught her attention. It was the painting of a family, nearly erased by time, clearly showing a regal man in the center, with a wife sitting in a chair and a lovely small girl on her lap. Okay, maybe they didn't look like peasants, but something more. Everything around them was covered in a good layer of dust, except... For a recent trail on the floor.

Kamille quickly pointed it to Vail, starting to follow it. It wouldn't take long for them to find the source of the noise, as they entered the next room and the light of the fire found a bundle curled up on the floor. The bundle grunted and turned.

It was a man. A living one, made of flesh and bones. Looked like he was kinda beaten up, grabbing his legs and sweating profusely, barely conscious.

Feels like a trap, so watch out.[1]

Despite what Vail could hear her voice say in his head, the Witch promptly approached the man to see if she could help, letting go of Vail's hand in the process.

[1]Message

Before Vail could agree to stick close to the witch, he was suddenly pulled forward by her hand, nearly tripping. The witch had the unfortunate luck of grabbing his wrapped right, which he had no feeling in. Whatever annoyance he felt was pushed back as he noticed the witch gained at least a small amount of comfort from his touch.

The house was stranger than he originally thought, hiding under a facade of normalcy. The interior, while relatively normal, contradicted everything about the Marsh Flats. Between the portraits, fireplace, and the fanciful furniture, it was clear that this residence, despite its size, was the home of a rather well off family. He thought for a moment that it might be some manner of summer home for them, he had robbed a few of those before, but who would vacation in the middle of a swamp?

His thoughts are soon broken by a scent he knew all too well. It was one of the few things that actually caused him to feel discomfort, rot. It reminds him of the Deadwood, a place littered with bodies courtesy of Darkveil’s many sins, and where his life was irreparably changed. He summoned as much bravery as he could as the pair continued, hoping whatever horror lying within didn’t bring out his other half.

The witch’s question caught him by surprise. He focuses momentarily, catching what sounded like a small crackle deeper in the house. “Yeah…” He replies with an unsure tone.

Entering one of the backrooms of the residence, he immediately spots the wounded man through the darkness. Something about the man seemed off. His movements seemed unnatural, as if he was possessed, or the victim of some far darker magic.

Vail’s hands begin to glow slightly^[1], something that causes him a great deal of shock, albeit he took care not to show it. He agrees with the message the witch sends directly into his thoughts, which only causes him greater surprise when she begins to approach the strange man.

Don’t. Vail replies within his own mind, hoping the witch receives the message before it’s too late.

---

[1] Bare hands: Holy Enchantment