Alexandra took a deep breath, glancing at a nearby puddle to make sure everything was correct and proper. She adjusted her hat, straightened her robes, unfolded and refolded her letter of introduction. Then, with all the excuses she had to delay over and done with, she opened the door to the inn and went to meet a legend.
The first thing she thought about seeing The Dämmerlichtreiter was that she should have been taller - the woman had summoned a dragon of smoke and flame to lay the necromancers in Drakenhof low. She had cut down vampires with a sword forged of darkness by the greatest Dwarven smiths. She had burned one to ash with the weight of her gaze. And that wasn't even getting into the things she had heard about Karak Eight Peaks, more than half of which she discarded as nonsense, especially about her being so terrifying to beastmen that they opened their throats rather than face her. She knew beastmen too well for that.
A figure who did all that should stand as tall as the Heldenhammer did. But instead, she was a slim figure, practically a girl, barely taller than a dwarf. Any notion of underestimating her vanished as soon as Alexandra saw her eyes though.
They were an eerie amber. Her gaze was ancient and mischievous by turns, like she had seen the worst the world had and dared it to go further. Like she saw right into the heart of you and found it amusing. Meeting them made Alexandra swallow and hastily shift, her focus moving to an undefined point somewhere over the Lady Magister's shoulder.
There she saw a torch, guttering low, the smoke drawing itself to wrap around her shoulders like a lover's caress. The other wizard seemed not to notice in the slightest, instead asking a few questions. Even those simple answers took all her focus to answer properly, and she nearly stumbled over the titles.
Still, she did not seem displeased and dismissed her cordially enough. Alexandra backed away and turned to find her own lodgings when she noticed the shadow stretching across the floor to her...was this another mark of magic, or simply The Dämmerlichtreiter letting her know she was being watched?
Either way, Alexandra had the feeling this was going to be a very long trip.
I saw someone make a post a while back about why Alexandra might have seemed uncomfortable with Mathilde, and decided to write this.
