Serpent Lake look toward your golden towers

the shadow hued woman parrots his greeting in a will-o-wisp tone giving hadrian the impression that it's not timidity as much as it is her regular speaking voice. though he does not know anything about her: he finds it befitting to her based upon appearance alone. a small lull slithers betwixt them and the legionnaire is content to let frostbound silver gaze dance over her again, deigning not to linger too long on one feature or another. help? she breaks the silence, an ear twitching forward to catch her soft voice.

could she help? possibly. these wilds were largely foreign to him and though he knew about them in the stories told by his father and the emperor, hearing stories is not quite the same as knowing the lands as they have. but where should he start? saarthal? noctisardor bypass? perhaps, hadrian surmises. i'm looking for my sister, saarthal and a specific territory called noctisardor bypass. though what, pe se, he plans to do when he finds the territory is not known. largely it depended upon whether it was claimed by someone or not. hadrian would cross that bridge when he got to it.

currently, he is intent to give his rapt attention to the shadowed woman and whether she could be of help to him, as she has offered.