Rusk watched anxiously down the road as a black figure approached from the west. Something about the symbolism of a featureless form approaching, the sun rising behind him (or her?), struck him as significant, though he couldn't place why. It's not like the person was approaching<span style="font-style: italic">him</span>anyway, but few enough lone travelers moved between cities that it raised a few questions. He'd run into this same thing himself - why not hire onto a caravan, or hire protection on the road? It could be dangerous between city-states, as there was very little stopping bandits from ambushing you on the road once you got outside the walls. Rusk had left alone as a form of leaving behind - leaving behind a life he had little attachment to these days. He'd lost many of his friends over the last few years and needed a change of scenery. He'd put away most of his money for lodgings and rations and preferred to save it and travel alone rather than spend it on protection. It was a little under two weeks' journey, but he traveled fairly light and moved quickly, stopping at roadside inns or abandoned structured at night.<br/><br/>Today would be the last day of that journey. The figure approaching up the hill finally resolved into a girl - no, a woman, who waved at him as she approached. He angled toward her cautiously and halted about fifty feet from her, asking her name and business as she did the same.<br/><br/>"You may call me Alisa. I am a Royal Messenger. Do you have any identification, traveler?" She presented a badge with some flourish upon revealing her status as Royal Messenger, the sun's rising rays glinting off it. Rusk pulled from his pocket some folded-up papers, which he held out as he slowly approached Alisa. Always best to be careful when dealing with official people, or those who claimed to be. Rusk was well aware that any sign of aggression or unease could be taken as a threat, so he slowed his breathing a little and concealed his nervousness as best as possible. Now that his journey was nearing completion, he suddenly felt as if the whole thing was a mistake, that he'd left behind everything and the fulfillment he sought would be even further here... but it was just a fleeting thought, and passed from his mind quickly. Rationally, he knew he was doing the right thing, but the tides of emotion always play up when beginning a new stage in your life.<br/><br/>Alisa handed his papers back and beckoned him back toward the city. "You've saved me a lot of time," she said, "you're the one I'm looking for." Rusk was taken aback - looking for HIM? He had loads of questions, but shyness prevented him from asking but the one - "Do I have a choice, or am I simply coming with you?" Her silence was all the answer he needed. As they traveled toward the city - back for her, forward for him - Alisa gradually revealed more about why he had been sought after. Rusk was apalled; he thought he'd kept his magic use pretty well a secret, but apparently news of his strange gift had reached foreign lands. He hardly considered himself the 'master illusionist' she described, but he thought better than to say so. Eventually they arrived in a warehouse, where Rusk heard Raymond's short speech.<br/><br/>"Isn't this the business of your crown? I'm but a simple traveler and craftsman, I don't know how I've been mixed up in this business. In honesty it seems as though the Guard or some other official delegation should handle this, because if I'm at all representative of the group gathered here, we have very little experience acting in official capacity. And about being the best - well, I just don't know where you get that idea. Have I been scried without my consent?"