Packed and prepared for the journey west, Gwenonwyn stood within the open courtyard that the Bailey Gate connected to the outside world, and as she waited for her travelling companions she found herself studying the slow-yet-continuous stream of people entering and exiting the city.  Between Adelost and the Westwegh was little save for farmland, which meant that most of the Bailey Gate's traffic were small horse-drawn-carts carrying local produce into the market each morning, and coin and supplies back to the outlying villages each night.  Largely human population then, with maybe one out of fifty of the travelers she saw belonging to another race.<br/><br/>This was fine by the elfe, whose purpose in leaving Coeden had been to see more of the world as she trained to become a diplomat (a process known as the Votive), and she found human culture rather fascinating.  Take for instance their remarkable ingenuity.  Although elixers were far rarer in humans than in any other race aside from the gygr, through diligent study and experimentation with<span style="font-style: italic">caith</span>mankind had advanced all of Allevent into the Modern Era, a time of heretofore unknown peace and prosperity.  Gwenonwyn occasionally wondered, somewhat facetiously, if the warlike mankind had done more for world peace than even the elfes, those most diplomatic of races.<br/><br/>From her idle vantage point seated atop a pallet of empty wooden crates, the elfe was able to see further into the city, where a bustling avenue connected the city's southern docks to the northbound gate.  Unlike the westwegh, which led to little beyond the Westwegh Fort and the guardian mountain range, the northwegh led from Adelost across open plains to the heartland of the continent, connecting to everything from nearby Armandy to far-flung Bokmakiri and many lands in between.  This road, then, was populated with every manner of person, from lowly bogle workmen to elfen dignitaries; gygr mercenaries to deor pilgrims, and even some races that Gwenonwyn was surprised to not recognize at all.  She smiled at the thought of traveling to every corner of Allevent as part of her Votive - but first and foremost was Adelost and her duty to the Guardians.  She bit her lip in pensive thought as she considered the grave news from the Westwegh Fort, and hoped that she lived up to the responsibility Porfirio had given her.<br/><br/>The young elfe girl's private thoughts were interrupted by a sudden commotion just below her, as a team of workhorses drew through the gate and into the city a wagon made top-heavy by its bundled stack of cargo.  His view obstructed by the tight confines of the Bailey Gate, the driver did not see ahead of him as a small child raced heedlessly into the path of the horses, in pursuit of an errant bouncing ball.  The sudden motion out of the corner of its eye startled one of the horses into bounding forward, upsetting the top-heavy cart too quickly for anyone to react.  Gwenonwyn watched in horror as the cart pitched forward and toppled toward the boy, as the driver tumbled to the pavement.<br/><br/>Screams from the child, and cries of commotion from the other onlookers, resounded in Gwenonwyn's sharp elfen ears, startling her from her inaction.  Squirelling down the stack of empty crates with reckless speed, Gwen came to the boy's side, where he thrashed and cried in agony as he clutched a broken leg.  Feeling oddly calm as she placed her small white hands on either side of the boy's injury, Gwenonwyn called forth the healing<span style="font-style: italic">caith</span>in the butterfly brooch pinned to her breast.  The golden crystals embedded in the jewelry flashed bright as the elfen elixer brought her healing magic to bear on the child's injury, which glowed in resonance with her efforts.<br/><br/>Gwenonwyn's familiars - ethereal golden butterflies that peacefully flit about her, visible only to any other elixer present - settled onto the boy's injury before disappearing with a golden glow.  When she was finished, the boy slowly stopped squirming as the pain left his body.  An alchemist or artificier would speak of the crystalline aurum matrix in her brooch, and of how she'd converted that sublimated<span style="font-style: italic">caith</span>from its trapped state to its primal state to effect a localized anomaly... but to the elfen Guardian the process was simultaneously much simpler and more profound.  All of Allevent was connected by<span style="font-style: italic">caith</span>, infused with a common life, a common purpose.  As an elixer she'd been blessed with the ability to see and manipulate these connections at their most primal level, and it was her responsibility to do so for the betterment of all.<br/><br/>Her self-congratulating was cut short when she realized that the driver, who'd been thrown from the toppled cart, was groaning in pain as he stood to his feet.  He clutched his head tenderly, and his hand came away bloody.  Eager to help (both to ease the man's suffering and somewhat selfishly to connect herself to the<span style="font-style: italic">caith</span>once more), Gwenonwyn reached a hand out as she brought to bear her healing magic once more.<br/><br/>Her butterfly brooch broke with a golden flash as the overworked aurum crystal shattered, releasing all of its stored<span style="font-style: italic">caith</span>to its primal state instantly, without guidance.  Free, chaotic<span style="font-style: italic">caith</span>always seeks to return to ordered form, almost invariably resulting in the creation of a Caithness monster.  When the blinding flash dissipated, Gwen stood warily from her kneeling position to see the Caithness before them - a Lampire Bat*.  The monster quickly took flight, swooping about the Bailey Gate's courtyard as it gained its bearings.  Weapons stowed in her travel pack atop the pallet of empty crates, Gwenonwyn was as helpless as the others, who fled for cover from the darting Caithness.<br/><br/>*Lampire Bat: a low-level aurum-type Caithness that takes the form of a golden-furred bat roughly the size of a dog.  Able to suck the life-force or aurum from its victims over time after a single bite, Lampires often strike quickly before fleeing to safely feast on their prey from a distance.