[Airerûthiel]

Airerûthiel has had an increasing sense of feeling as though she is not wanted here any longer as her cousin tells the story of how he came to the Green Dragon. 'I thought this place was different,' she muses to herself. 'Clearly, I was wrong. Without a family and a home, I am truly nothing - even if that family is the legendary White Horse.' She appreciates that her thoughts are painting a bad picture of what seems to be a genuinely hospitable crowd of people, but still she drains her pitcher and stands up.

"Friends, my time among you is greviously short; I desire to stay here much longer than I can. Derakis, I sense I have offended you, and I can assure you this was not intentional. But your tales are fascinating, and mayhap one day the paths of our guiding stars will cross once more. Cousin, the time I have spent here with you has not been enough, but I believe that I shall see you all again one day. Now if you will excuse me, I must away."

She pulls up her hood and almost runs towards the door and out into the night, where a bitter wind has begun to get up. Mounting Sérë, the grey horse she only recently managed to obtain, she heads east and does not look back at the welcoming lights and her new-found friends, who sit in silence as their companion's sudden departure impacts - or fails to - on them.