"When do you plan to retire?" A question directed toward no particular individual, but one asked no less and seeking answer.
Retire.
The word was as familiar as it was foreign to the witch hunter. Long ago it had been the prize for the wars long fought and the homeland lost to the forces of the Horde. A little farm. A beautiful wife. A handsome son. It had all been perfect before it had been stripped away again by an army that he had no chance against. So many lost years.
Eld would gently rub the back of his head as he surveyed the controlled chaos that Gampre and himself had ended up on the edges of the Eversong. Why they were here, he still was trying to figure out. He knew that Welles and his crew were already investigating thanks to their contact with the elf they'd taken in. Dewitt had a plan or at least was being told what to do at this point by the Council in Drustvar, he just wished it didn't involve such world shaking issues.
"Guess we don't get a choice," the old man muttered as he slid his hands into his pockets, not sure if that was meant to answer Susan or was it just him complaining. A heavy sigh and kick of a stone down the hill would bring Candell about to face the madam again before stalking to their meager campfire.
"For your sake, I hope it's not tonight."
@susan-gampre
For her sake... It truly was lucky for her to have ran into a familiar face this far deep into the woods. She had heard plenty of the mischief that could go on this deep. It had been an unfortunate accident that her horse spooked and dumped her this far from her designated camp.
With some silence in her retrospection, eyes skimming across the many faces and happenings in the makeshift camp, she answers the old man back with a doubtful tone to her voice, "Of course we get a choice. It's a matter of timing, though. When the truth of the matter is there will never be a perfect time to just up and do the damn thing... Especially not for the workaholics like us, Eld."
In the chill of the night Susan had bundled herself beneath a padded, thick quilt. It did well to protect her from the cold and from the intensity of the night. At her heart, though... She knew she felt safest solely due to the crew who'd taken her in when she had ended up turned around in the woods. Without them she would still be stumbling through the dark walking on broken feels and left to the cold with her riding dress compromised by thorny brush and sharp edges throughout the forest.
"It's not quite like the woods in Drustvar," Susan remarks, surveying the delicate spindly branches of the Eversong canopy - even in complete darkness the trees reflected some semblance of warmth and life. In truth this was the complete opposite of the dark, haunting woods of the Kul Tiran islands. "I think I prefer those woods, I think. The monsters in the dark are a predictable bunch - but the hauntings in these woods are unlike anything I've experienced..."
A steadying breath is had, a hand delicately combing through tussled locks, snagging against tree sap caught in her hair from her tumbling through the forest floor in such dim lighting. Through her fidgeting it was obvious how uncomfortable Susan was in this predicament, though she managed a brave face.
@embersoftheorder
