When her leg crosses the threshold of the trunk and her foot tenderly touches the first step,

Lorelei Gumede vanishes.

When her leg crosses the threshold of the trunk and her foot tenderly touches the first step,

Lorelei Gumede vanishes.

"Yeah, I think we should. Hell, maybe she had some spooky-ass ritual down here, like those old ghost stories about the old world." She stands and hefts her leg onto the lip of the trunk, bracing herself on the open lid and his shoulder.

"Just be careful down here, alright? I don't know what kind—"

She can see no sign of trigger or attached mechanism, so, carefully, she undoes the latch and lifts the lid.

When the pair peers over the edge, they find a vacant staircase descending deep into some unknown depths of hewn stone, lit by torches that never flicker.

"What in all the hell..."

the faint doubt in her eyes.

"Hey, I'm as surprised as you are. Good eye, though, that trunk was definitely hers. She had it hauled in here when she arrived with Vivian."

She crouches and moves to open it - then thinks better of haste and looks it over carefully without touching it.

She's nothing if she's not perceptive, and something in the explanation offered feels... lacking, somehow. It doesn't mesh at all with what was in the note.

Then again, what the note offered made the situation sound particularly personal. She's not going to pry, even if she can't manage to hide

"'My sincerest apologies for the delay, dear, but the currents of change shift as often as the tides here. Here is the item we discussed; I pray it offers you clarity. Should you tire of it, simply linger by the lake and a friend will see it away.'

Can you make any sense of that? It's just a belt."

It sure is a lot of damn mirrors though. She'd forgotten since the last time she was in here. She takes the belt and examines it as he eyes the note, then takes it as it's offered.

"'To be delivered to... Arlo'?" Arlo? "You two met? She's been gone a while now..."

It unfolds and she keeps reading,

is her target, and she again finds it unlocked.

She turns the knob, then gently shoulders it open. With no one inside, she steps in and starts looking around.

The first thing to catch her eye is a trunk, and an out-of place, shiny-as-new belt. There's a note on top of it.

"...Huh. Fancy."

"Not really mine, either, other than poking around where I probably shouldn't. I'm just looking for anything that looks insane, honestly, or something I recognize as hers."

She leads the way down the hall, resisting the urge to crouch and duck into the shadows. The door at the end of the hall

if I'd recognize anything she left if I saw it. But checking can't hurt, right? We're heading down the hall."

With how much Vivian smoked– smokes, she'd remind herself– he probably could light up without any problem.

"Hell if I know. I never saw her do too much, except turn Tirum into a horse." The doorknob turns freely and she steps inside the kitchen, waiting to close it behind him. "I don't even know

and I don't think all of these are wholly natural. Might get worse than a little rash."

to the lab and no one bats an eye as she lets them in. This part she's spent a fair bit of time in, with Vivian and without. She murmurs, weaving her way through shelf after shelf to reach the interior door,

"Don't touch the plants in here. She does a lot of experiments,

"Alright, long as I'm not keeping you from anything. This way..."

It's not really snooping, she tells herself. She has free reign of the lab building to allow her to do her job. And... having that sort of access, if Ril left anything behind, would make it that much easier.

So she leads him