Interrupted again?<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(184, 49, 47)">“Oh, oh! So, you do speak!”</span>she quipped loudly as the jittery tone of a tiny voice resonated from her stuffed bag.<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(184, 49, 47)">“Sir, if you will excuse me, I have important matters to tend to! We shall meet again, I assure you,”</span>she dictated as she waltzed away with hasty steps.<br/><br/>Fishing forth the cage, she watched, unblinking, as the thing spoke aloud. She glanced sideward towards the deadly still, chubby-cheeked man and scoffed,<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(184, 49, 47)">“Hmm… Don’t bore me with mundane sensibilities. What happened between a clunky culprit and his deceased wives is of little value to me now that the deed is done. Tragic, of course, but irrelevant. I need to talk to your master, it’s an urgent matter. Am I to assume that the city guards locked her behind bars?”</span>In any case, that’s the only clue she had to go on. Didn’t seem like the sock puppet had much useful information on the topic.<br/><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(184, 49, 47)">“New guests?”</span>she pondered under furrowed brows, languish eyes flickering with a concentrated effort.<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(184, 49, 47)">“What; she’s like a lightning rod for vengeful and distressed spirits?”</span>As unlikely as it was, the interaction with the gibbering man, some moons past, had taught her to subvert her own expectations. She paused briefly in her tracks to consider.<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(184, 49, 47)">“What immoral and depraved magic spawned you? What’s your origin, and what sort of occult practices does your master hone to give off such a uniquely unpleasant aura? I’ve had a few first-hand experiences with spirits and soul infusions, but none with this uncomfortable vibe.”</span><br/><br/>It took a second or two for the new information to sink it, even though it was right there, eyes shimmering, larger than life. The soft lines of her face folded into a warm smile, rosy lips spread wide, pearly whites on display. She eyed the blabbering little effigy with pointed intensity as they drifted down the moss-cobbled road, one hand clambering at the goblet in an attempt to stow it away into her bag, while the other provided the enclosure with a solid pedestal, held out analytically in front of her alluring face. The untold diabolism that lingered within the acute form fascinated her utterly. She could feel her horizon expand, her current knowledge but an insignificant droplet of water in a brimming ocean, the learned mind willing.<br/><br/>Awe-struck faces occasionally popped up as they passed unwitting townsfolk on their hop and skip towards the local prison; a title much too formal for a decrepit dungeon. The streets wind through the town like carelessly discarded belts, grey and cracked with age, yet, somehow, the town remained a lonesome beacon of hope in a time of degeneracy, its denizens reasonably happy despite the hardships they too had endured. Here, you could enjoy the wide avenues, the bustling markets, the leafy green trees and the relative safety of security guard patrols.<br/><br/>Elisa slipped past the guard of the outer perimeter with the elegant ease of a dancer, a simple exchange of curtsey allowing her uninterrupted entrance, creature out of sight. She had contributed to numerous arrests over the years, some executed, some still rotting behind the very bars she was peering through, as the inmate’s hostile eyes tore at her. She painted them unimportant.<br/><br/>The prison cell was small, tightly constructed. The walls were the same thick grey stone as the dwellings of the region, sturdy. In the summer the fresh air was a relief, helping to alleviate the stench of festering sewage, but in the cold seasons, it let in a wicked, freezing draft with plummeting temperatures to bear. It was no brighter inside than the gathering gloom of dusk, even at midday. The beds were planks of wood on legs, no mattress, no cushioning and no blankets. It was usually a one-way ticket. If disease didn’t get you, the elements and foul vapours would.<br/><br/>She stopped abruptly beside a man unbeknownst to her. He too was here to visit the gawking woman? Either way, she paid him little attention, as she knelt down in front of the inhabited cell. With a singular glance towards the unsightly scene, the cage tumbled out from her cloak and swiftly deteriorated, chipping away in hefty chunks.<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(184, 49, 47)">“Go. Reunite with your – whatever she is,”</span>she half commanded, punctuated by a dismissive hand gesture.