Once all had been said and done in the audience chamber, the four divided, each to their own tasks and paths.  The women made their way to the dining hall, where meals were laid out for the chosen four.  It would be obvious that Aaric had passed through ahead of them, and his plate was nowhere to be seen.  Trenchers, stew, and a hearty amount of roast were ready for the remaining three.  As night descended throughout the Realm, door were locked, windows shuttered, animals secured indoors.  The more superstitious would paint their lintels with crushed mint, or the blood of animals, to ward off the things that crept in the night.<br/><br/>In the city, few would be about, although the opened windows of the castle would let all of the soon-to-be-heroes hear the sounds of the city at night.  Watchmen called out to each other as they patrolled.  Dockhands by the river would continue unloading until all the cargoes were debarked, before scurrying off to their chosen beds for the night.  Some braver women would ply their night trades from corner windows, calling out to those few who staggered the alleys on their way home from taverns.  Distant echoes of shod hooves on the cobbled roads would climb from time to time as one carriage or another was drawn between the houses of the nobles.<br/><br/>In the depths of the wilderness, the Realm took on a different tenor.  Animals fled to their dens, cowering from the creeping shadows that devoured souls.  Things that only ever appeared in the dark rose from their slumbers, and haunted the land, mingling their essences, and taking advantage of the magic of the moonlight.  In the farther reaches of the Realm, the village once known as West Fenton remained still and silent, the source of much mystery and trepidation in Kaerlud’s upper ranks.<br/><br/>Secured in the castle, the quartet of eager adventurers passed the night, never knowing of the murders and thefts in the streets below, never knowing of the secrets that crept through the shadows of the world.  They passed their nights alone (mostly), rose early, and prepared themselves for the task ahead.  Emerald stepped from her room, still smelling vaguely of chemicals, and surrounded with an aura of strangeness, collecting her things in bags and pockets.  Aiden had spent the last hours seated cross-legged on the last comfortable bed she was likely to experience for a couple of weeks, re-reading the words in her spellbook to affirm them in her mind.  Ashlyn, risen early, had taken care to eat well, and exercise, and even pray a little before donning armour that took nearly as long as the mage’s memorizations.  Finally Aaric, stepped free of his room, tucking in the tails of his shirt and blowing a kiss over his shoulder to the scullery he’d managed to talk into ‘room service.’<br/><br/>The four gathered in the main hall, provided with what food could be spared for their journey.  It would spoil in three or four days, depending on the weather, but no journey went more poorly for some smoked meat, fresh vegetables, and a few hard loaves of bread.  It would help them, also, to extend their own supplies longer, if needed.  It was with this preparation that they set out, marching and marched from the castle, and through the city streets of Kaerlud.  Those very streets that seemed so very different now that they were to leave them for a time.  It wasn’t until the four had passed the gate and stepped beyond the portcullis that they were left by their honour guard of King’s Men.<br/><br/>It was time for their journey and quest to begin properly.