Isabell sat quietly in the sitting room of her chambers, staring out the window and listening to the sound of gentle rain whispering across the roof tiles of the ancient fortress. There was nothing to see outside other than the occasional flicker of lightning in the clouds and the tiny lights of the fortress town beyond the walls, but somehow, she found the view of the dark night to be more calming and soothing than anything else in the room.
She'd been in the Vale of Mists for a week now or close enough to it, and she was beginning to feel comfortable with the unique rhythms of the place.
The night outside was darker than Blackwell City without the harbor to reflect the light of the sky or the city around it. More than that, the tall trees of the old forest around the fortress and its town, combined with the massive, looming cliff above, conspired to make the place feel like it had been draped in shadow even hours before the sun set.
