@tabardalon
This is much worse than not-Velas. This is almost as bad as the Mark of the Erasure. Hadrian shudders and sloshes through the mixture of snow, water, and dirt covering the streets of Crises. He really wishes he still had his cloak. Tries not to think too much about what happened to it.
He arrives at the tower before nightfall, not that it makes a difference in daylight, but he can only imagine what kind of foul creatures prowl the streets after the moons rise. He casts a light spell on a poker he finds by the fireplace and begins combing the first floor, shuddering as he passes the creepy smiling portraits lining the walls.
It’s strange, but so far, this is the closest he’s felt to his old life. Slaying evil, looking for powerful objects at the tops of towers… At this point, it feels more normal than whatever was happening in Hieron when he left.
A man emerges from the library just as he’s passing, and Hadrian holds up the poker to get a better look.
Yellow light gleams off the hard edge of stone. Oh. Oh, no.














