Autumn was drawing to a close and Novus had been tossed into the midst of winter. With the winter solstice fast approaching the days were getting shorter and the nights longer. A blanket of cloud obscured the stars that night, the sky a dull grey-black that bathed the night court in eerie gloom. Where normally Castalla took solace in the unending darkness, tonight she couldn’t tell the shadows from her demons.
It wasn’t often that Castalla found herself in a bar for leisure. Not that she counted it as leisure in that very moment. But it was usually only work that forced her to endure the uproarious din of revellers and merry makers as she met with targets and informants alike. Where she could, the rogue would avoid consuming alcohol lest it cloud her senses but often meeting with hesitant informants meant plying them with liquor and that in turn meant joining in.
Tonight however, was a different story. The aftermath of Halloween was rarely an enjoyable time, not when reminders of him lurked in every shadow, in every brush of a spirit’s touch. Then there had been that strange voice, calling in fear form among the darkness of a mysterious forest. And the mist creatures that had assumed his form. To see his face once again, to gaze upon the eyes that had once held her whole world… her heart had broken anew.
No, tonight was definitely a different story.
Tonight she needed that burn at the back of her throat, that numbness that blanketed all the pain.
But, after only one shot of whiskey, she was beginning to reconsider. She was surrounded by strangers- not necessarily threatening strangers- but strangers nonetheless. The princess hardly wanted to make herself vulnerable in anyway, even if she was rather good at holding her liquor. Perhaps she’d buy a bottle of something and head to her room. But there was something utterly lonely about the silence of her rooms that deterred her from leaving the comfort of the rowdy tavern.
@Caine
