Umber

Desperate hope flared up in Ember's heart, as surely as the burning inn behind him. More lives ruined in his wake, but he spared not even a moment's thought for them. His heart pounded a little faster, and he could taste the anxiety, the iron-bitter bite of fear on his toungue, the light patina of sweat that covered his forehead, both from the heat of the burning building and the rising stress. He'd thought of this day for so many years - and perhaps now he would finally have a chance to put right what had been wrong ever since that fateful night all those millenia ago.

He smirked a little, shaking his head ruefully. Drama and fool's hopes. Very likely they would all die in the stink and the muck, buried in the bowels of the city. But he had no choice but to try. Motioning for Mellita to follow, he tore the grating to the sewer open and began to descend, nearly slipping on the slime-slick rungs of the ladder. The stench assaulted his nose - and for once, he was glad to have lost his vampiric sense of smell. He wove a brief enchantment to enhance his night eyes, and then, having helped Mellita down, began to walk, searching for signs of Fianna's passage. One way or another, this quest so long ago begun would soon be at an end.