Her face, as more often than not, was a mask of calm, breached only by the thoughtful crease in her brow. As of late Misery hadn't been able to keep all her emotions under control, but she was working on that. All the... interruptions... in her life were starting to wear her down, especially that of The Stranger.
Time after time she returned to the Inn, searching for this stranger...
(Dagger... his name is Dagger...)
...and time after time she had found nothing. She had only met Dagger on two occasions, their first meeting was when she had mistaken him for her dead lover, Pen. The second meeting hadn't gone as well...
Quinn had gone into the Tap Room early that night, not really expecting the stranger to be there, and she was surprised. As always, her blind gaze passed right over his nearly invisible essence, and only after a second glance could she distinguish it: the faint green ring around a faded black aura. The black marked him as having a dark past, or a dark present... Murderers, theives, the soul-less had such dark-tinted auras around them. This mans was pure black. The light green was another matter...
The thoughtful frown deepened as Quinn tried to piece together what it could mean. Pens aura had been the exact shade of this mans, the same flickering verdant ambience. Yet the stranger denied being her love...
She sees The Stranger in the corner as usual, and heads straight for him before he can leave. Misery is determined to find out who he is and what it is he had come for. Beside him is a bundle with a dying aura around it, but she ignores that for a time.
They start with small-talk, but Quinn begins pressing him as soon as she can. Voices raise in frustration and anger, tears of loss and regret flow openly. Eventually she loses control, ready to burst.
Quinn pulls the silver ring out of her belt pouch, holding it in his face. Fury overtakes her, and she screams at him, "Then what is this? If you are not Pen, why did you have this ring?"
Dagger pauses for a moment, and answers slowly. "A friend... a close friend gave that to me."
This startles Misery and she studies him intently... a cautious whisper, a word so carefully spoken, almost fearfully... "Pen...?"
A longer pause from the stranger. "No..." His voice firms. "No. I dont know anyone named Pen."
Her heart sinks. She doesn't notice him stand, and gather his bundle. He presses a piece of paper into her hand, and turns to leave. Misery stands... "Wait..." but he is already gone.
With trembling fingers she unfolds the note and runs her fingers over it, feeling the words...
My dearest Misery, death is only a beginning. I love you. Watch for the stranger with the silver ring. Pen~
It is her note... tearstained and crumbled from nights of reading and re-reading it in her mourning. At the bottom she sees a light aura, dying... the one she had seen around the bundle in front of Dagger. With a shock, she realizes it is blood. The pads of her fingers touch it gently, and one word forms in her mind...
Soon...
A sob of confusion and distress building its way up in her throat, she fumbles open a portal home and steps through, howling in her suffering.
Quinn shuddered, note in hand. Sitting languidly in her study, she had supressed the emotions... for now. Recalling the events had stirred up enough anger, though, that she was beginning to slip. Opening her hand, she saw four deep grooves where her fingernails had bit into her skin. Blood welled up and spilled down her palm. She stared in odd fascination as the crimson essence ran down her faded blue aura, and then violently jerked her blind gaze away.
Even one slip and she may lose the only link to her beloved.
She had to keep in control. She had to.