Fiona wanted to get this underway as fast as possible. She wasn’t really a religious girl and she was pretty sure the ruined village had nothing of actual value in it. It looked like a complete dump after all. So the blonde took a deep breath and started walking her way further up the road, leaving the zone of comfort near the church. The mists swirled around her, seeming to swallow her up as she made her way up there. There was a feeling of intense dread that was filling her with every step closer. 

Soon enough as she walked her steps brought her to the mouth of the gates of the city. A vast stone structure with its gates flung wide open. It really was like the mouth of some great beast ready to swallow her up. There were no guards posted, no undead milling about in front of the gates waiting to fight her. No archers took aim at her from on high. She was being invited inside of Istrel. Beckoned to enter and try her luck and test her skill. She swallowed hard and forced herself to keep walking. 

“Oh ho? Not a whiff of the Church on you hmm? What a strange one you are! Fufufufu!” 

Fiona spun around, her hand on her sword. Behind her she could see a pale glow of some strange light and it surrounded a woman of brown hair. She was easily as tall as Fiona herself and wore a rather lovely blue and silver ballroom gown. There were the slightest signs of age around her face, a seasoned, mature woman by all appearances. Everything about her was immaculate, from her posture to her attire. Completely at odds with the rest of this place. It immediately put Fiona on edge. 

“W-who, who are you?” She demanded. 

“I daresay a visitor should be the one to announce that first rather than a resident. Simple manners no? When you walk into someone’s home you generally introduce yourself first, do you not? Come now, we are civilized out this way.” The woman said with an amused smirk on her lips. 

All kinds of alarms were blaring in Fiona’s head. Resident. That implied this woman was a native of the city. Plus her appearance was at odds with everything she had seen thus far. It didn’t take a genius to guess this woman might well be aligned with the Countess. Yet she wasn’t attacking yet. So at the least she wasn’t hostile. Not immediately at least. If she was threatened by Fiona’s hand on her blade it certainly wasn’t showing. 

“Fiona. I’m an adventurer answering the challenge of the Countess.” She answered slowly. 

“Fiona is it? Pleased to meet you, Fiona. I am Maribelle de Temrath, a humble witch of Istrel. My, we have had a lot of visitors lately ever since the Countess issued her little challenge. All of them usually enter with the stink of the Venerated on them. You are rather refreshingly stink free however. How very pleasant!” The woman remarked as she inspected the back of her nails. 

So she was indeed a servant of the Countess. Fiona felt ice fill her veins as she considered the distance between her and the woman… 

C-2a: Fiona attacks the witch

C-2b: Fiona continues conversing with the witch