Arc 4: Chapter 22: Myrddin
I moved through the groves of the Dance estate, filled with scores of great minds and rich personages, like a tall, scarred shadow.
My powers aren’t meant for subtlety, but there are concessions made for practicality. I’d learned how to move quietly during the brutal war in Karledale, back when I’d been young and eager to prove myself. I’d learned more as a Knight of Seydis, blessed with the magics of the Sidhe. They’d taught me how to mask my presence, how to pull glamour over myself.
In my time as the Choir’s axeman, I’d learned well the importance of stealth.
I didn’t use Art. I focused on the inner fire in me, my altered aura. I steadied my breathing, calmed my heart, felt the false forest around me — not so false as it might seem on a casual glance.
There was life here. The wisps didn’t linger for nothing. The shadows had an awareness in them, all of it drawn to the merriment of the mortals. The ease of the nobles, bred into them by an upbringing in power. The intellectual energy of the creatives, exuded in their devotion to their crafts, their love of beauty shared with the highborn who indulged them.
Faisa Dance knew some elf lore. I reassessed her, and used the atmosphere she’d provided to my advantage.
I drank it all in, and became a ghost in it as I let the fire in me dim.
I didn’t become invisible, not exactly. I simply swam through the world, the same way any elf or irk might glide across the edge of a village during festival time, sharing in the merrymaking without drawing any lingering eyes they did not want.
It had been thanks to tricks like this that I’d managed to stealth into cities and fortresses across the land as the Choir’s Headsman. I’d used glamour in a very similar way in recent weeks, to blend with the crowds of Garihelm and avoid the attentions of the Inquisition. Though I’d lost some of it since returning to civilization, the od clinging to me from years wandering across the wild edges of realms remained, allowing me to wrap myself into the environment.
Not infallible. There were some who would be able to see me, if they chose to look or if I drew attention to myself with carelessness.
So I kept on the move, steady and calm, and I listened. I listened to talk of politics, and of new inventions, and of trade. I listened to philosophical babble, which I’d never had much of a mind for except in my darker moods.