Give Me Asylum

"Trezlan Lorentino." Her voice cooed, it would almost be sensuous if there wasn't an aura of cold behind it.  Like an executioner's loving embrace right before they chop your head off. There were two of them, a stern looking man and a lithe female, both were dressed exactly the same, black suit coat and pants, white shirt, black tie.  Their faces looked off, not just because they were fairly narrow, but the coloring was all wrong, like they used a lot of make up to appear skin tone, but didn't do it well.

"Welcome to the shop, if you want to place an order I have to warn you I'm about a week behind due to a silk shipment thats been delayed." I gave them my sales speech even though I could guess neither one of them were going to be actual customers.

"Not what we are here for Mr. Lorentino." I noticed the male companion was now blocking the front entrance, I also noticed his boots, black metal looking things with spikes on the end, they also gleamed a little to bright for black metal.

"Curisoties?" My voice cracked a little bit I'll admit, while only two of them, I could feel a sense of dread coming washing over my shop like sweat down a whores back. She had moved to my front counter area, well almost like teleported, one moment she was by the door like her companion, the next right next to the counter.

"No Mr. Lorentino, our boss would like for you to find something you lost in the sewers of Dunlok." Boss, something I lost in the sewers? I'd heard the new government had went down there to purge the area of a blackness, but had ultimately found nothing. Now it was seemingly confirmed and this thing wanted me to try and find the creature that had crushed my ribs and almost killed me? How pleasant.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." When in doubt play dumb, its something I excell at. She put a hand under my chin and I could feel a chill run down my spine, suddenly it felt like the whole room was incased in ice.

"Trezzy Trezzy Trezzy, you know what I'm talking about, don't make me ask nicely," At the word nicely a stab of cold went through my insides, I figured nicely was not actually nice anything.

"I don't know where it went, or how to find it, its gone to the best of my knowledge." It was hard to talk, the air felt heavier squeezing each word out was a strain.

"I do know where it went, or at least where to look, and you'll come help." I didn't understand why, why if they had such power they needed me, but when confronted with the extremely powerful you don't ask too many questions lest they realize they don't really need you.

"My shop, I have work to do."

"My associate will take care of your customers while you are on vacation, he's actually looking forward to it." The man at the door scoffed when she said that but nodded his head.  I don't know if my customers would appreciate being served by someone who looked like a prettied up corpse, but it would have to do.

"I'll have to get my horse and some gear together."

"Already done Lorentino we leave immediately." She snapped her fingers and the room returned to normal, I followed after her as she indicated and her companion moved from the door to behind the counter.  I dreaded what business would be like when I returned, but that was making an assumption I would return, and I couldn't be sure of that either. My horse was the one I'd stolen from a Ronerawth officer before (it was mine now, most of the things I have came from previous owners anyway).  I could see my new traveling companion had loaded it down with a lot of different supplies.  I could see wherever we were going it was not a short trip. My companions horse was pale and white, for some reason I'd assumed it would be black like her suit.

I followed her out of Rolak, I felt a small twang of fear as the town disappeared behind us (we traveled west towards the coast). She didn't talk at all during the trip, a week of nothing being said as we traveled.  I talked, I never really shut up, but it was weird being told to not be quiet, she simply listened as I rambled on about business, about Rolak and its struggles.  In a way it was like having my own personal bartender to listen to me, minus the drinks and the social atmosphere of course. As we got closer to the coast we headed north into some rocky cliffs, I could see we were kind of following a road that looked to have gone unused for a while. I did notice the atmosphere of the area got more twisted and wretched the closer we got to what appeared to be a large cliff side installation.  Like grass stopped being grass and became dirt with weeds in it.  Wildlife sounds dissappeared, the whole area felt empty.

We came across the remains of a town shortly before the cliffs shot up towards the sea.  I could see a burned out sign that declared it "Caraway", most of the buildings were post torch. Blackened husks, about twenty in all that dotted the road side, my companion kept going unphased by whatever ever disaster had destroyed Caraway. She stopped outside of town and dismounted, I could see a large metal sign that advertised Caraway Asylum, the metal appeared all rusted, far too rusted for this to have just happened post war.

"We walk from here, gather the supplies from your horse and follow me to where I'll rest mine." It was the first thing she'd said since we'd left and I did as I was told, it wasn't like she was the repeat herself nice type anyway. She walked her horse over to the one patch of grass I'd seen anywhere, I swear it wasn't there before we'd arrived, but I wasn't about to question whatever dark power this lady had with her. I had taken off my horses saddle bags and slung my belt and sword sheath across my waist when I my companion changed in front of my eyes. One moment she was in the black suit, the next a dark suit of armor, complete with a large spikey mace, and a pair of pistols on her hips.  I knew that she was not of this world, but her outfit spoke to something I didn't want to cross, also made me wonder why they even needed me if they had such power.

"We'll make camp down here, tomorrow we'll enter the Asylum, with any luck this will be over before you know it." She directed me to ignite some tattered boards near where the horses were and as before I followed her lead.  I had so many questions of this being, but I figured better to sleep on it, you never pass up that calm before the storm, and in my mind I knew I heard a gale ready to blow through (oh how right I was).