Triessa glances nervously at the windows, then says, "Give me a few minutes. I...just a few minutes alone." She hurries off into one of the bedrooms and closes the door behind her. Then she produces the book of drawings she carries with her, and begins to work. The quill moves quickly, creating the image of a large, well-muscled figure wearing an eerie white mask that occludes his features save only for a too-wide grin. She adds a flowing dark cloak with a hood that's pulled far enough forward that the details of the mask become hard to see in the shadows within.
As the picture nears completion, Triessa can feel the strain in the air around her, as if the world itself were getting thin, and something was pressing hard up against it. Her forehead burned, and it felt as if her brain were trying...successfully...to grow straight out the front of her skull.
And then...it was gone. The tension, the burning. Everything was normal again.
"At last. You have no idea how frustrating it is to watch from the labyrinth, unable to lend assistance."
Almost everything.
The drawing was gone, the page blank. The voice from behind her was dry and quiet, like grains of sand being blown over one another. As always, he spoke on more than one level. On one level he was being sincere...on another, he always seemed vaguely amused as if at some all-encompassing joke that only he was in on.
Triessa turned around, calming the butterflies in her stomach.
"It's time you met the others, Szare."
"Excellent."
When Triessa left the bedroom, she was trailed after by a large-framed man in a hooded cloak that hid most of his face, but not quite the wide grin on his mouth. His clothes were all the same charcoal-near black grey as his cloak, and he didn't appear to be wearing armor, or to be armed. Indeed, even his attire was a little 'off,' and when stared at too intently seemed to dissolve into patterns of dark and shadow that clung to him and obscured him.
What was more, there was a mark on her forehead that hadn't been there before. A complex sigil of some sort, or rune. It looked as if it was tattooed on, or perhaps painted with some kind of dye.
Triessa took a deep breath and said, "Everyone, this is Szare. He's...a friend of mine. Sort of. He helps me. I know he looks scary, but he's on my side, which means he's on your side too. I figured you should meet him sooner rather than later."
The 'man' took a faintly mocking bow and said in a voice like the turning of ancient parchment, "A pleasure to meet you all. No need for introductions." The grin...which never moved as he spoke...somehow, impossibly, grew wider. "I already know who you are."
(OOC - Ack, Szare's stats aren't in the RG! I changed a few things from his rough draft version...I shall fix this asap!)
