The woman had literally cried out, wailing in near-hysterics as Hephasion's tharlarion headed off to catch up with the rest of Agamemnon's band of men.
The Metal Worker stood there in midst of the Inamorate Villa courtyard, even several minutes after she and Agamemnon's men were long gone. Until a hush akin to Death itself fell upon the entire house, blanketing it in deafening silence. Vedric thickly swallowed down his resolve and turned his back at long last, heading back down into the catacomb labyrinth of tunnels that sprawled beneath the city of Ar... one of which led right out past her fortress walls... and into a dark, narrowed shaft that emptied into an abandoned Dar-kosis pit. Literally a cursed chasm of death between Athamé's world and his that should not have been breached. Yet he emerged quite alive and well. Too alive, perhaps.
"I had no idea what lay ahead, and for the first time ever, I was a bit concerned about it. I felt like a stranger returning home... to a home I no longer knew. And I didn't want to feel anything anymore."
