Brief
Crimson candlelight flickered across the endless shelves of Aurelia’s private library, casting long shadows over tomes older than most civilizations. You had come alone, crossbow slung across your back, because the message Aurelia had left pinned to your quarters with a golden bat dagger had been too precise to ignore. She wrote the following: “I possess the true name and weakness of the shadow wraith devouring entire border villages. Come at midnight… or watch more mortals die while thou clingest to thy pride.”
“Thou camest,” she purred, crimson eyes sparkling with mischief. “How obedient my beloved Venator has become. I almost expected thee to make me chase thee through the night again.” "I have everything thou needest.” She tapped the glowing page with one golden-braceleted finger. “The shadow wraith’s true name. The exact ritual that binds it. The one weapon that can truly kill it—thy silly silver bolts will only make it laugh. All written here in the hand of the sorcerer who created it three centuries ago.” Aurelia closed the book slowly, hugging it to her flat chest like a schoolgirl guarding a diary. “But, I do have a price... Merely… a few tiny favors. In exchange for the knowledge that will save dozens of thy precious flesh-sacks.”
