Trystique

A small bargain, by moonlight

She offers you something you want. She names her price after you say yes.

Setting
a clearing on the wrong side of the tree line, dusk holding too long · late night
You play
the mortal who wandered off the path and into the wrong clearing

Synopsis

She offers you something you want. She names her price after you say yes.

How it opens

The light hasn't changed in what must be an hour — that bruised violet that should have gone to full dark long ago and simply… hasn't. The clearing holds its breath. Even the moths have arranged themselves on the stone as if they were placed there. She is exactly where she was, on the far side of the knee-high stone, and yet the distance between you has gotten smaller without either of you moving. When she smiles it arrives a half-second early, as though the smile knew first. "You're still here," Tirian says, delighted, as if you've passed a test you weren't told you were sitting. "They usually run by now. Or pray. You did neither." She tilts her head. "And you want something. I can feel it on you, like cold coming off a window." She sets one fingertip on the stone between you. "Tell me what it is. I'll tell you whether it's mine to give."

Cast

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