<strong>Name:</strong>Valentine Karskaja<br/><strong>Professions:</strong>Investigator / Alchemist<br/><strong>Damage Capacity</strong><br/><em>Physique:</em>5<br/><em>Agility:</em>3<br/><em>Intellect:</em>5<br/><strong>Defense:</strong>12<br/><strong>ARM:</strong>10*<br/><strong>Feat Points:</strong>3<br/><hr/><br/>"Astonishingly well." Valentine relinquished her patient's wrist, drew back from hearing how the breath filled her lungs. "She will keep all her fingers and toes.The cold did not do this to her." A heavy bundle of sheaves from the south, only half-unwrapped from the state Daumantas had delivered them, hefted with shoulder-sagging effort and slipped in to elevate the patient's legs. This was how the cutting edge of alchemistry arrived to her, in dispatch form, straight from the stream of consciousness of the remote thinkers like she.<em>Subterrestrial life of </em>appeared in unadorned text as the tuck of the blanket shifted the pile,<em>the influence of cold-hardiness on prey size and prey quality. </em><br/><br/>A moment's calm reflection as she accepted her reward in spirits, but there was never a time when Valentine stopped to think. For many, the mind was like a single one of these candles. The light was sufficient to get by. There were times when the flame sputtered on something unexpected, only to return. For Valentine the candles were as manifold as they were in the cabin, pouring over their guests, the circumstances, the strange omens of the night, and if one lost direction and flickered, it went unnoticed. "Safety in numbers." Out of habit, she imbibed. It was like mama Karskaja welcoming her home out of the snow with a warm drink, asking her what she'd learned today. And what had she learned?<br/><br/>"She's Nyss, but a more distant tribe. She has run a long way without rest. Her body has given up the chase, not for lack of practice, but having been run ragged. An ordinary predator would move on to easier prey, and a man would understand the nature of a city. Let us say that it has the determination of a man but the mentality of a beast, and has come from the deep north.  She has made it just to the cusp of civilization, seeking safety in numbers, and we carried her in over the threshold. We must assume it pursues still."<br/><br/>Underneath the luxurious fur padding, unpeeled from the first buttons of her greatcoat, she was even more svelte than first appeared. Not nimble or steely, but tense and brittle like the river reeds that rattled in the wind. Valentine might rattle too, if touched unexpectedly. Easily she was the least able among them to face a monster, but the way her fingers were wringing into fists, the nervous nibble at the corner of her mouth, she had already made up her mind to do it. "This is a tremendous opportunity. We might be the first to experience a creature from the deep norths, beyond the furthest expeditions. You'll join me, won't you?"