At the centre of a fork in a nondescript cobblestone path lay a typical wooden tavern.

From its
windows sprouted warm, flickering light that fled through the glass and cast gold-laced drapes into
the black ambience of night. Within said inn, at the bar, sat a man and a woman. They were close to
one another: clearly an attempt to shield themselves from the crowd and tumult that often plagued
– Or rather blessed – Such an establishment. Joseph motioned for the bartender with two fingers to
the air and an impeccably white smile. Alicia’s eyes followed him all the while, trying quizzically to
place the source of her burning intrigue.

When Joseph turned back, drink in hand, it struck her: The hatted gentleman had an impossible
glimmer to those bright, verdant orbs of his. But she already knew this. Rather, it was not the
striking gleam of his gaze but the hidden depth that lay beneath them. Indeed, beyond the
rhinestone surfaces stretched an endless span of veiled emotion that spoke of a labyrinthine mind
and a man whose thoughts ran a thousand different channels at once. Yet the only emotion that he
allowed to fully present itself through the windows to his soul was one of charming mirth; a paragon
of chivalry.

All throughout her inspection a moment had come and lingered for far longer than just a moment,
broken only by the warlock’s honey-lacquered voice.
“Copper for your thoughts?” He inquired. Alicia blinked, she wasn’t quite sure how long she had
walked the maze within his eyes, but knew it was too much.
“I’m merely wondering…” The auburn-haired woman began, casting a pair of acorn-coloured eyes at
nothing in particular. Her voice, smooth and well-pronounced, somehow still could not hold a candle
to Joseph’s seemingly effortless fluting. Just as her eyes, deep and captivating, could not emulate
great stars like his could. He took the glass of white wine which he presented, elegantly hiding her
uncertainty with a flick of her tresses and a smile that somehow managed to be both timid and
generously refined. “What a magnificent gentleman like yourself is doing in such a tavern, home only
to humble Hillsbrad farmers and tradesman.” Joseph grinned at that, he enjoyed receiving flattery
almost as much as he enjoyed gifting it. Alicia returned his enjoyment with a quirky, but restrained
smile.

She noticed, in the silence that accompanied their exchange of expressions, that she could no longer
witness that terribly bewitching chasm that were his emerald orbs – No matter how hard she tried.
Nevertheless, she made sure not to gaze for too long this time. She looked instead to her glass,
sipped and set it down on the bar top.
“I’m running errands.” He stated in a technically correct answer that gave Alicia nothing of what she
wanted.
“At this time of night, at a crossroads for travellers?” She returned, not one to be so easily
dissuaded.
“My business takes me North; it is urgent.” He continued to half-explain. It was hard to take any
annoyance in his closed-ended retorts, when they were wrapped in a voice so a lavishly loquacious.
He took a draught of the auburn spirit and set it down, just as Alicia did. He returned to the
conversation with a marvellous smile that reached all the way to his eyes and then some. Not only
this, but it momentarily shrunk the scar on his right-cheek: A burn, that looked something like a
small jagged starfish.