Sorry For The Mess

'I asked a merchant for the date earlier today, and apparently I turned twenty several weeks ago. Happy birthday to me, I suppose.

I'm spending my young adulthood traipsing through ghost-infested ruins, trying to confuse Vulpes and I's trail by hiding among other Mists-adjacent entities. Ashford is probably the best option for throwing the guardian off my trail long enough to give my bad idea a slim chance of working---plenty of ghosts, plenty of Legion presence. She obviously hasn't given up the pursuit, but I think I've put enough distance between us to breathe a little.'

‘The trip through Ashford has been unsettling, though. I continue to find myself disturbed by the restless ghosts, wailing as they relive their final, harrowing hours of life over and over and over. Some of them talk to each other, the same conversations on eternal repeat. I am reminded of the farm in Kessex, how it felt when I went back after the accident. Adelaide. Adelburn. Maybe Ascalonians should stop picking names with 'Adel' in them. It's not helpful to compare disasters, but I can't keep the thoughts from intruding in my head.'

'It's more than likely I'm not savvy enough to make my bad idea work, but I need to need to know who I'm dealing with, and that means getting information on this guardian by any means necessary. (Maybe not any means. I guess I could go up and ask her, but approaching someone covered in plate armor and twice my height while she's actively invested in fighting me is not smart. Her hand is probably the size of my torso- This is not a productive tangent. Moving on.)

What I know right now is that she's wearing an altered Whispers brigantine---specifically altered to replace the crest with the Tyrian Alliance, which makes me think she's either badly undercover or (more likely) a contractor with the Pact. She also doesn't seem very old; her horns are much smoother than the Legion soldiers I've encountered on the road and her coat is short and glossy like marble. If I had to estimate, I wouldn't say she's much older than I am. That strikes me as pretty young to be voluntarily hunting demons (don't look at me like that, Vulpes), especially for someone Pact-adjacent. Maybe it's because Legion charr train to fight at a younger age? But then why is she avoiding the Legions? I'm thinking in circles here.'

'In any event, my bad idea involves making some clothing dye, and to do that I need privacy from my pursuer so she doesn't catch on to what I'm planning, and also access to cooking tools.

Ashford Forum supplies all of that in abundance, plus all of the red plants I could ever ask for as materials.

I can’t actually dye my armor just yet—if I do it too soon, someone might catch on to my plan before I have a chance to execute it. I need to set things up in advance so I can time this exactly right. If I’m not immediately caught, the idea is to take out two moas with one sword: I’ll be able to access records that might have information on the guardian, and I’ll pull a disappearing act under the cover provided by the Black Citadel.’

'For now, I need to come up with a good cover story and maybe five-to-six contingency plans.

It's not going to be easy to infiltrate a Whispers safehouse.'