<div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/5/5e/Clarisse_by_bilopsis-d5xgb49.png)</div><div align="center"><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: georgia;">Aelys Wimpenny (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=159096)</span></span></strong></div><br/>Aelys' hands rose to draw back her hood, releasing the heavy mass of shining black hair from its confines to hang in twin tails above and slightly behind her ears.  The strategically arranged style masked the pointed tips, hiding the most overt sign of her mixed heritage, and the straight bangs gave her an almost girlish charm that, in combination with her frilly clothing, made it quite easy to dismiss her as inconsequential.  She took a moment to draw a pair of soft, black, lambskin gloves over her elegantly-wrought hands, before moving to the casket to take up her position.<br/><br/>"I would be honored to bear your father, my friend, to his final resting place, Kendra.  Once, on an expedition to uncover a lost carving, I suffered a fever that left me too weak to travel and briefly delirious.  Some of the others on the trip wanted to leave me behind in a local village, and continue the journey without me, but your father insisted that I was vital to the recovery of what was sought.  So, he had them construct a litter and with the help of others, he bore me for a day and a half, before I was recovered enough to continue under my own strength.  Carrying him the short distance to his grave is the least I could do to repay him for his loyalty and sacrifice."<br/><br/>She glanced around at the others as they take up their posts, studying the faces, remembering stories the professor had shared with her.  She wondered which of these people had played a part in those tales, recognizing the faces vaguely from descriptions, or from shared adventures, in the case of the elf.  The small, robed figure with the odd speech pattern perked her curiosity to an alarming degree, and she had to bite her tongue to hold back the string of questions that longed to spring forth.  Now was not the time, though she hoped that the figure, and the others, would linger after the funeral and give her the chance to sate her curiosity.  There was little she disliked more than being left to wonder and obsess over unanswered mysteries.