** Two months ago **
Flamekeep, Thrane
Siranina had no plans to stay in the city long after she pledged her final vows to the Church and the Keeper of the Flame. Surely the bishops knew she was better suited in the world than some administrative post here in the capital. She didn't know why someone from the Archivists' order had invited her to lunch afterwards. She had heard that they were all dry old sticks, more concerned with their research than anything else, but the invitation had been sealed with the sigil of one of the oldest noble families in Thrane, and there had been nothing for it but to accept.
She had not expected her host to be a woman younger than she was. The intelligence of a born researcher showed, but so did the faint scars of one who either had a far rougher life than one might expect of a high noble -- and everything else about her seemed to deny this -- or one who took a very personal part in the church's war against the things that came from Khyber.
"I suppose you wonder what this about." Khalia ir'Indari said. Siranina had only nodded. "The Keeper can't meet with newly-raised acolytes without drawing a lot of attention, and my father is almost as bad. Besides, he'd give you a stack of ancient tomes -- or copies of them, really -- to help prepare. And father sometimes doesn't quite accept that not everyone's minds work that way. But the Keeper had a vision a few days ago. One that concerns you."
And she had explained the shadows of what Jaela Daran had seen at Winterhaven, and that Siranina was somehow important to preventing even more serious problems.
Sharn, Breland
This time, Dalaran was going to do it. He'd seen too many pass through Morgrave on their way to one lost ruin or another -- in Xen'drik or the Demon Wastes or just possibly somewhere less remote -- who had come back having made their fame and fortune. He hadn't really paid attention to those that had not come back; they weren't him.
But if this Keep had what Parle Cranewing said it did, it could be very, very interesting.
** One month ago **
Korth, Karrnath
Titan and Khoros were sitting in a tavern, and not a particularly nice one at that. Titan, being a warforged who did not need to eat or drink, didn't see much point in the activity.
"Why did we come here again?" The warforged asked.
"Work." The half-orc responded.
"And why can't we go back to Breland now that you've finished the job?" Titan replied.
"I didn't realize how much it cost to get here." Khoros said. "But I've got a line on something here in Karrnath..."
And so the pair had found themselves hired to discretely find out why one of Kauis' agents had disappeared in Winterhaven.
** Two weeks ago **
Lakeside, Karrnath
"We should never have come here." One of the performers compained, looking at a broken cart.
"It wasn't far off the main road, and they loved us in Irontown." Another said.
"But it's going to take us a while to get this fixed." A third said. "And half of our equipment is wrecked, too."
Which was why Delia had even heard that Theda Staul's husband was missing for the first time.
** Present time **
Lakeside, Karrnath
They had all had their own reasons for wanting to go to Winterhaven, but a few questions and the way rumor flew among travelers had made them all aware they had a destination in common. They were in yet another tavern as they discussed their plans; traveling together seemed safer, at the very least.