<b>Re: The Magician's Apprentice (Leaquad, Qedesha, doom)</b><br/><br/>As she stepps through the portal, the doors seems to close behind her as if of its own accord. Her presence is immediately noticed as a hush falls over the crowd of drunken sailors and the few whores who cater to them. Then as if on que one of the sailors makes a comment about how the high and mighty have fallen in with the riffraff and the revalry begins anew, her presence all but forgotten.<br/><br/>A strange thing happen to her then, as if some switch had been thrown in her mind, and she sees clearly a single open table off center of the room. Her mind makes the connection, it is obviously guarded by some illusion spell, meant to keep the sailors at bay from the Dark Master's table. As her eyes flick about she notices shadows in the dark corners she had not seen before. Femanine shapes in dark cloaks...The Dark Master's Apprentices, the sama intermediaries he sent to the quarterly sorcerer's society meeting. Smiles spread with crimson lips across bright white teeth, and hand motions are made for her to seat herself. The world bends again and she is conscious of both the table and the drunken debauchery around her. One of the previous sailors, a mountian of a redhaired man clumisly asks if she wants to dance with him. Another takes liberty, pressing his hand against her stomach and attempting to pull her into his lap.<br/><br/>The larger man takes her by the arm, and a tug of war ensues as both men attempt to claim her as prize. Then another hush falls over the group as the bar tender, an big man in his own right, wrappes a heavy club against the oakened bartop.<br/><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#bf0040">"None of that you feckless maggots. She has an <i>appointment</i>!"</span><br/><br/>This immediatly causes both of her assailents to let go and even to pardon themselves. The one she faces has his chin against his chest as he scurries off trying to go unnoticed with tail tucked firmly between legs. She is then given a wide berth, allowed to move about in the crowded room with no further molestation. The empty table becones to her, and now there is a single occupant. That occupant is as aout of place as she, but for different reasons.<br/><br/>An old crone seated where no one was only a moment ago draws a start from the young sorceress. Can this be the Dark Master? Surely not...it is obviously someone who has stumbled through the illusion, right?