As the carriage ground to a halt on the gravel of the front manor house circle, John looked from the shadowy interior like a shade himself tucked into the close walls of the coach and painted midnight by the black hooded cape and his own pool of shadows slowly winding around him.<br/><br/>When the door opened soundlessly, the shadows, so recently crouched inside the vehicle alongside him, rushed out ahead, fleeing before his feet as he stepped from the coach step below the door. They spread across the white gravel and manicured grass like hounds loosed. Beneath his mask darkness hid his eyes in a starless depth while shining forth its white planes as if cast into a harsh light. Inside the draping robe figures slide through the blackness among the shapes of his coat and arms.<br/><br/>John briefly looked left and then right talking in the other carriages and their cargo unlimbering after their long rides, similar to his own certainly. He notes their costumes each exactly like his own. Who was hiding from whom, he wondered absently as he made his way toward the house. Clearly he was not supposed to interact with these people yet. Someone had a message to deliver and the sooner he found them the sooner he would understand at last what was going on. There would be time for questions once the guise was lifted.<br/><br/>As he drew near the carved mahogany front double doors he saw that one of their costumed compatriots had already arrived upon the circular marble steps and was rapping on the door, and humming. John stopped short of mounting the steps as well. For some reason he found the mixture of the dark sinister cape and baleful white mask together with the sweet female voice humming along with the orchestra, unnerving. She seemed to enjoy herself and she knew the piece as well. She was a musician?<br/><br/><em>She is too short to be a dancer…she knows the music…she anticipates the key changes….her fingers, knocking on the door…strong and agile…a stringed instrument…not a guitar, wrong sort of calluses…cello? Violin? Viola?...</em><br/><br/>John looks back at the other masked guests advancing towards them. This would be an interesting night, without a doubt.<br/>