By firelight the parlor was a shock of heat and hellish light. On a rainy summer night in the tropics, only smoldering embers were needed to warm the asylum's drafty heart. Instead, the fire waiting was that of a roaring winter feast, sufficient to cook goosefat into drippings. Out of the fireplace's wrought iron cage lashed tongues of flame, sizzling and snapping in the open air.<br/><br/>In the haze of heat, the parlor seemed to list, to sway as the<em>Charlotte </em>navigated the Sea of Sorrows. Pulse quickened, and although it agitated, that temperature, although the eyes dried out beholding the crackling flame, it was not too hot to inhabit.<br/><br/>Beside the guest room door, a chair had been pulled away by the fire's attendant. Her eyes were shining, full of faerie mirth and black humor, as she watched the entry door open and guests warm themselves before the fire.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Doctor Blanche</div><div class="spoiler_body">(https://i.imgur.com/KhLpG31.png)</div></div><br/><br/>For someone who placed herself an obstacle to reaching the slumbering passengers, she was too slight a woman to intimidate. Slender frame and slender fingers befit the polished violin rest against her chair, prepared to play the asylum's guests back to sleep. The dark fabric of her long dress absorbed such heat that a fragrance of laundered linen and faded wildberry revelry perfumes. Without a mask, she could only have been one of Heinfroth's peers, and only Doctor Blanche, the one woman yet uncatalogued.<br/><br/>"We may speak freely here," said Doctor Blanche. "You must have apprehended by now that we are all of us trapped here by the same evil. It must seem foolish superstition- I laugh even to think of it- but the fire wards away that evil. While the fire dances, we can know there are no imposters among us. If you were to open this door, and pull your bedfellows out into the light, you may discover they are not what you think."