“Coming?” Amelia paused. She was waiting for Aidan to respond. He had paused in front of an old woman who was making pots along the road that would lead to the main palace entrance. He had a peculiar look on his face.

“I’ll be along shortly.” He replied.

To her amazement he went to the old woman and sat down next to her. Amelia didn’t recognize the old woman and had no idea what she had done to gain his interest. He smiled at Amelia and wagged his fingers at her.

She shrugged, going on her way after that. Aidan always found her, always. He had even told her he would always come for her. Couldn’t ask for much more!

“Your young lady is displeased.” The old woman smiled at Aidan, turning her face toward him. She wore a simple purple blindfold under her hood. At a glance she might have passed for a certain type of person. A person who worked hard and toiled hard. A woman of simple means who had seen much of the world over a long time and now gathered simple pleasures, such as the pottery she was forming with her old and wrinkled hands.

“On the contrary. She is quite pleased.” Aidan argued before nodding to her pottery wheel. “Is that fun?”

“I find that forming the clay pots with my own hands is quite enjoyable. It’s dirty and muddy and no one seems to care when they approach me and I’m dirty and muddy.” She laughed lightly. “Would you like a pot young man?”

“What are the benefits of your pots?” Aidan asked airily. “I’m an important man you know.”

“Oh? Are you one of those adventurers then? Come to save the world?” The old woman didn’t scoff despite her words. Her Resident pane shone brightly even though he could easily see she was only about level 5. Yet his attention was slowly turning fierce.

“I was thinking of buying you out, but then money wouldn’t seem like much to you would it?” Aidan sighed, apparently having decided to ignore her jab.

“You are an unpleasant young man..” She harrumphed at him.

“I’m your favorite kind of man. We could practically marry.” Aidan countered. He smiled then. “I didn’t think to see you here.”

“I didn’t think to be noticed by the gaze of an important man such as yourself. I can count on my muddy fingers the number of people that try and talk to an old woman who makes pots.” She said, almost chortling. Her face was tracking him like she could see right through the blindfold.

“Are you hideously maimed?” Aidan asked, staring at her blindfold.

“You can’t just ask if someone is hideously maimed, young man.” The woman chided him.

“I can ask you anything I want!” Aidan declared. “Your guise may have fooled everyone else, but I see you for what you are!”

“What is that?” Her hands stilled.

“An old god. One of the oldest. A traveler from another world.” Aidan smiled and leaned in conspiratorially. “My world.”

“I am afraid such speech is beyond my ability to comprehend it.” The old woman admitted, falling into a rote Resident speech pattern. Her hands began moving skillfully as her foot worked the wheel that turned the pedestal under the pot she was forming from the liquid clay.

“Do you want to come to the palace with me?” Aidan asked.

“I wouldn’t make it past the door!” She laughed then.

“You have a beautiful laugh, old god.” Aidan smiled. “I didn’t think you could laugh like that. I never did hear it when we met before.”

“Riddles again. Who do you think I am child?” She shook her head as if uninterested in his answer. “Go and come back with your young lady. I will sell her a pot. Stop saying things that are beyond my ability to comprehend. You Transients, so glamorous!”

“Time’s are changing,” Aidan replied mysteriously. “I would probably take you up on that. except you see, I’m quite insistent. Why don’t you come with me to the palace? Why bring my lady later when you might meet her now?” Aidan persisted.

Her hands stilled once more and this time the humor left her face. “Why do you continue this? I am just an old woman.”

“You are a hero of the realm.” Aidan countered gently. He nodded and smiled as someone stilled in their walk to casually look over at the pots. For a moment it seemed like they would approach but at the last second they continued their journey onward having changed their mind.

“You are scaring away my customers,” She actually clicked her tongue at him.

“You are Shadow Fall. You are family. You are Order of the White.” Aidan continued gently. “You are friend. You are never enemy. You are dauntless. Heartfelt. Comrade. Beloved. You are Half…” He paused. “Your hands tremble.”

“Go away,” She whispered miserably. “There is a reason I look like this. There is a reason I wasn’t the one to approach you, young man. You are an unpleasant young man. I should have...”

Aidan reached out and took her hands in his, mud and all. She stilled, uncertainty making a line of her mouth. Aidan kissed the tops of her hands, mud and all, and ignored the warning messages that began to crop up on his screen. He was dangerously close to suffering from penalties and fines from harassment.

“Stop.” She whispered again.

“Come with me.” Aidan didn’t release her hands. “Come join Shadow Fall. Come join us. You are one of us.”

“Not today,” She whispered, obviously feeling that half-agreeing was the only way to get him to go away.

Aidan finally let her hands go and stood up. He laughed as he did so and made no effort to wipe the mud off his hands or to find a way to cleanse them. He flexed his hands and marvelled at the way the mud was already drying and flaking off. “The game is so amazing! I like your name by the way. Zaeryl. It’s so beautiful! I always thought so.”

“You have lost me again.” She shook her head. “Someday I wish I could speak the language of you Transients. Maybe then I would know what nonsense comes out of your mouth. Now go, you are terrifying an old woman.”

Aidan smiled and bent over so that he looked directly into her hood. She startled but did not pull away as he gazed earnestly at her. At last he pulled away, as if satisfied with his look. “I’ll be back tomorrow! I see you there. Don’t run away!” He tossed a wave over his shoulder and didn’t look back.

The old woman did not move even as her clay turned on the wheel, slowing as it toppled under its own weight and fell uselessly to the ground.

For his part, Aidan’s face turned into a grim line when he turned away. He pulled his hood up as he walked through the streets, immediately causing the vendors and performers who were reacting to his high levels of fame and reputation to turn away from him.

“Catherine Waide. You and I are going to have to have a chat, aren’t we?” He wondered aloud.

He soon disappeared into the throng of people headed toward the thoroughfare or perhaps even Palace Way. Despite the brilliant white robes he walked effortlessly into the large crowd and soon disappeared inside of it.