Lysthiea had ended up in the Veil like so many others. She wasn’t born there, like some, but brought there by a power unknown.

She didn't remember when she had placed her hand on a door handle as she opened the rotten oak door. She didn't even remember seeing a door, but suddenly she stood inside a moving caravan. She felt the bumps of the wheels against stones and pebbles. It made her sway and nearly lose her balance.

A lantern hung above her head, swaying from side to side, casting a burning orange light around the room.

The cart was filled with boxes whose contents smelled of hot spices. A cage hung in the corner in front of her and inside sat a fat raven, staring back at her with intelligent black eyes.

"A new arrival." The voice of a woman reached her ears and in front of her a round table materialised, along with one high-backed chair and on that chair sat an old woman. She had grey streaks in her black hair and jewellery in gold decorated her face together with equally golden paint. Her eyes were dark and she watched Lysithea with intrigue. "A fallen light, no less."

The woman gestured towards another chair which had materialised on the other end of the table and without thinking, as if her body worked against her, Lysithea took a seat.

"Why have you come?" The woman asked but as the blonde-haired woman was about to open her mouth to answer the raven in the cage interrupted her.

 "Following someone’s humming." It cawed.

"I see… someone’s humming, hmh?" The woman leaned back in her seat and pulled a sheet of paper from the bookshelf which suddenly stood behind her. She then placed it on the table. 

"The voice of a man." She then added. "With wild red eyes." 

The woman reached for the raven and plucked a feather from its wing. The animal didn't seem to mind and continued to stare at Lysithea with one eye.

The woman handed the feather towards the girl and Lysithea took a hold of it between thumb and pointer. As she did, it turned into a quill.

"Where am I?" She asked, nervously as she looked around. She bounced in her seat as the wheel of the cart hit a stone, shaking it.

"Put pen to paper and the ink will tell us."

Lysithea looked at the woman and then around on the table, confused.

"I don't have an-... an ink well."

"Put pen to paper and the ink will tell us" the old woman repeated, intertwining her bony fingers as she rested her elbows on the table, leaning forward. 

The lantern moved above their head, casting shadows around itself as it swayed. The warming light flickering as the flame within its steel confinement moved along.

Lysithea took a quick look around the room before she stared down at the yellowing parchment. Carefully and with a shivering hand she placed the tip of the quill against the paper and watched as ink began to flow out, drawing a painting without her having to move it.

She gasped and dropped the quill which rolled off the table and gently landed on the floor, saved by the elegant black feather.

"From the world of Esselyn" the woman said, as the ink drew them a world map. A large landmass with dotted Islands to the South. An X appeared on one of the Islands and another in the jungles to the east. 

"Born from two creatures. One from the heavens, with the voice of the goddess." The woman continued as the painting warped and changed into the image of an elegant man, with flowing hair and large white wings. He looked gentle and wise.

"And one from the earth. Dark and cunning." The image changed and a woman appeared. In a flowing robe, short hair and with her gaze directed elsewhere. Skulls and skeletal hands which were pulling on her clothes. 

"A cursed child." A strange brand appeared on the paper and Lysithea instantly placed her left hand over her right. The woman looked from the paper to her hands and back down at the drawing.

"A child hated by many. Without the ability to lie and hide who she was." The drawing showed them a crying child, sitting on her knees with her face directed towards the sky

 Around her stood shadows, pointing and directing their weapons at her. 

"But there were many like her." The art moved to a row of faceless people, standing together with her hand reaching towards the child who looked towards them. "But like them she had no trust in her heart. Fearing the worst."

Lysithea pressed herself back against her chair, her eyes wide as pearls of tears began to appear. 

"Fear and hatred boiled and boiled, until it lashed out, burning all in its way." The art showed a village aflame, burning bodies, and a child standing by gallows, screaming as waves of darkness escaped from her person.

"She was hunted." A picture of a young woman, being hit by arrows, was painted on the parchment in front of them. "Scarred by fear and hatred."

Lysithea wrapped her arms around her, staring down into her lap.

"Then, like a sign from above, the father appeared. Taking the child away from the cruel world and unloving mother." The ink moved and showed an angel taking the young girl's hand while a shadow of a short haired woman, with her palm stretched out towards them as she looked the other way, was pictured not far from them.

"She was taken to the island of the goddess, where she lived in the care of her godly family." The image showed tall spires and people with wings circling it. "With the voice of the goddess they sang, bringing life to what was wilted and dead." The ink shaped itself into a dead flower, which grew and bloomed with life. 

"But voiceless she felt out of place." The ink showed a young woman standing by the edge of the island, looking out into the sea.

"And then a voice reached her ears.The humming of a man." The image warped to the girl taking a step over the edge with her hand stretched out towards a dark shadow.

The parchment then rolled up with a loud noise, startling Lysithea who stared at it as it flew into the grip of the old woman.

"You've entered the Veil, child. Some reach this place by the hands of fate, but more often than not I'm faced with prisoners; people thrown from worlds beyond for reasons of crime and injustice." The old woman placed the scroll, rolled up, into the bookcase and Lysithea stared at it with wide eyes as she noticed that it was filled with familiar scrolls  all wrapped in different coloured bands. Her own with green while the most had been tied up in red or blue. "I have seen what actions they will take. Many to turn mad by the darkness and horrors which lay before you. Or to die in an attempt to protect those who cannot defend themselves."

"But if I know you right, I'll have an inkling of what you'll do." The old woman turned her head to face Lysithea who stared back at her. Her bony fingers curled together as she leaned forward.

"Know me? How can you-... you know me?" The young woman asked nervously, her hands now pressing against the edge of the table.

"You will find those red eyes." The woman grinned towards her. 

"And your heart will go boom!" She gestured with her hands as if something had exploded. Her eyes were almost mad. 

"That look in your eyes. So familiar, so naive." The woman leaned forward and with one long finger she pointed at Lysithea's face.

"You will love him, in an instance." The woman rose from her seat and Lysithea did the same, her body acting on its own.

The old woman placed her hand on Lysithea's back and guided her back towards the door.

Lysithea's eyes grew wide as the humming reached her ears again. The old woman placed her hand around her own ear, cupping it like a deaf man would, in an attempt to catch some noise. "Listen to that… the sound of your fate." 

The old woman placed her hand on the door handle.

"Things are seldom what they seem, but.." She opened the door and with one harsh push she pushed Lysithea out into the darkness.

"I know exactly what you'll cause."