The day following her return from Bael's Isle the sorceress Aurelia forgoes her usual habit of attending a sumptuous inn or accepting the hospitality of obliging lesser nobility, instead she returns to the Manor of her House. She forgoes her usual habit for visits to home, rather than sneaking in quietly she simply goes right to the main entrance and is announced by the doorman. As the word spreads among the household staff her 'body guard' Junarga makes a sudden appearence that starts her, and a bolt of frost only just avoids striking him. Admonishing the man for startling she brushes the incident off. That evening she leaves her meal untouched despite the miracles Chef Remsey can work with Potatoes and declines the offer of song to cheer her from Ellywick. Instead she asks the servants to draw a bath for her but the moment her foot slips into the water Aurelia suddenly recoils with terror. Quickly she rounds on the now equally terrified handmaidens, berrating them for the bath being the wrong temperature or some other clear excuse. Deciding instead on just retiring for the night. Sleep brings her no relief however, spending hours in the darkness tossing and turning with only a few fitful snatches of respite until finally she tosses the covers aside and stalks out into the manor's corridors. A few moments later she knocks on the door of another bed chamber before letting herself in. A single candle inside illuminates another woman, who sits crosslegged on a rug before the bed. Her appearence is much like that of Aurelia's, though it is recast with the slightly alien beauty possesed of elves. "Mother, I... [Mother]..." She switches from her native High Valmari into the Tarnellion tongue of her maternal family "[...I'm sorry to disturb your meditation but could we speak together?]"
