Dragon's Fire

First things first, she thought, as she cast several spells that would ensure that she not be disturbed. Now, to see if he's still here. She concentrated briefly, mumbling and looking deeply into a crystal. A blurry image that vaguely resembled the cleric appeared. Puzzled, she expanded her view to encompass the entire room. It was also somewhat blurry, but she thought it looked like the room she had met with him in earlier that day. Expanding her view one more time, she saw the inn she was staying in, still slightly blurry and hard to recognize. Extremely curious by now, she moved her view out even farther. The city appeared, clear enough to be recognized. With a single thought, the crystal zoomed in and then back out several times, each time focusing on someone else. At no other point was her vision blurry, even when focusing on the innkeeper himself. She attempted to go back to the cleric, and once again, it was blurry. Curious, she thought. Why is he like that?

With a shrug, she dismissed the images and returned the crystal to it's proper place in her pouch. Next, she counted the gold she liberated from the tax collector. More than enough, she thought. After a few minutes of consideration, she decided what she would do with the money. She counted out a small amount, put into a belt pouch, and then took out her crystal again. This was going to take a little more effort, but she needed to do it before she went to bed tonight. Concentrating and mumbling to herself, she sent her vision to the small, concealed room in the estate house she owned several kingdoms over. Next, she concentrated on the gold in front of her, willing it to be there, softly saying the words to the spell that would do what she wished. As she watched, the gold disappeared from the table in front of her. A few moments later, she watched as the pile of gold in her store room grew. Content, she relaxed and dismissed the images. She would contact the cleric early the next morning. Right now she was going to sleep. It was almost seven hours until dawn, and she knew he wasn't going anywhere before several hours after dawn.

About five hours later, she awoke, fully rested. For some reason, she never slept more than five hours a night, and she could function with significantly less than that if it was necessary. She often wondered if she didn't have some Elven blood running through her, that she rested so easily.

Having awakened so early, she knew she needed to wait about an hour before she should go retrieve her horse, so she decided to spend some time on her equipment, sharpening her knives and shortsword and oiling her chain mail armor. Once she was satisfied once again with the condition of the equipment, she was ready to leave. She packed everything back into her pack and shrugged the straps onto her shoulders.