One day. Two. Or was it a week? Just how many times had the sun risen, only to be replaced again by the moon? Odd site it was, the first time, a fiery globe of light overhead. Instantly, something felt different.

She had gone east, or possibly it was west. There were no tunnels, no familiar darkness to lead the way between point A and point B.

Nothing was familiar, and everything simply seemed like one big, red storm. The red was most definitely rage, and Khaelsie knew it. The Stormblade Academy was gone, by the hands of her own father in a last ditch effort to destroy those who had destroyed his beloved Iren. Iren, her mother. Oh, but that was something she hadn't known until the woman had passed on. House Kanith, it would fall, yes, and that was what fueled the red rage of a storm.

Trees passed by, each one teasing her to draw the only sword she had escaped with and hack viciously at it. Such rage for the child who once apologized when she made the first strike of her blade against a test dummy. It rained for a bit, there was a day or two when that sun almost broke through the ever so dark tree cover, or was it simply her imagination? That red, raging storm simply roared in her mind, almost to the point that she didn't see the unknown beast leap out at her. It fell swiftly, just as sharp teeth were about to sink into the flesh of her arm. Khaelsie imagined it being one of the assassins, and it was all she could do not to rip it to shreds.

There, off in the distance, focus, lights - or was she having delusions again? Fingers patted the pocket where she had stashed the small bit of coin she had come across from a corpse. A corpse? Oh, yes, those innocent fools who had dared to weather the storm that was Khaelsie's rage. Two of them, not much of a loss, they seemed like vagrant wanderers, nobody would miss them. Miss, was that the emotion she was feeling? Everything had been taken from her that night, Iren, Kindayier, the Academy, everything that was home and her life, gone. Settle down, you're almost there. Yes, the faint glow had become more clear now, announcing itelf as a city. The red faded, just slightly, the rage went with it, and Khaelsie worked to compose herself as best as one in her state could.

Slender fingers slid through the lengths of hair that fell down over her shoulders, working their way through the tresses that had dried together after the rain storm. Ah, what a chance rain storm, just after the slaying, washed away all of the blood, all of the guilt, if there ever was any guilt over that deed.

There it was, just out ahead, the edge of the city, lanterns decorating its edge, giving it an eerie look, as if the place was plunged into the middle of a ghostly festival of sorts, and yet there was no music and there were no people in sight. Blue eyes looked off into the distance, down a street to which she knew not the name, searching for anyone she might question about this odd place. There were windows with lights in them, none seeming like they were open for wanderers such as herself, and so she continued inward, following that same street that had led in from the forest, knowing that sooner or later there just had to be someone, anyone who could answer a simple question. Of course, it sat back in the corner of her mind that whomever she approached just might turn and shun the odd sort of elf. She seemed almost like a colorless shadow, her skin taking on the tint of whatever lantern she just happened to be passing under at that particular moment, her hair jet black and those blue eyes giving her the only real natural color. What an abomination, the daughter of two enemies who somehow became lovers, and now she was no longer hidden away in the tunnels of The Dark Lands.

She drug herself from such depressing thoughts when her eyes came upon another shape moving along the street, one that happened to be moving almost straight for her. Straightening up, giving herself just as much of a respectable look as possible, she attempted to hail the passing person, finding words just as they came within two arms reach, "Eve to you. What name might this city go by? Have you a moment?"

Alice had been walking around the town for all day now, she had been listening for information about anything she could use and yet she had not heard anything at all. "Well I guess this is simply a bad day for us" she said to herself as she walked out from a store, she stopped and looked around the street. not many people in this part of town. "No problem about it, we don´t care about it now. There are biger thins to do." the voice said. "The lines around us are moving"
Alice shook her head, whatever she meent she did not understand it.
She calmly began to walk down the steet slowly, stopped to look into some windows. "I think we have been to long in this town, let us rest at the inn for the night and leave tomorrow morning"

She then began to walk across town towards the inn, and it was around that time that Khaelsie arrived to the city and tried to get her attention. ((If that is okey with you?))

"Eve to you. What name might this city go by? Have you a moment?"

Alice turned and looked at the stranger, she did not say anything for a moment, she simply looked at her for a moment, "Why this is the city of lanterns" she said. "Yes I might have a moment, depends on what it is" her voice was not angry or rude, but it was not happy, she was just calm.

"The City of Lanterns," repeated the elven woman, "fitting." Those blue-gray eyes shifted away from the woman before her for just a few moments, glancing about at all the lanterns that hung idly along the street upon which they stood. That dark, eerie look continued to hang about them, as if they were standing in the middle of a haunted city, rather than a living one. "I don't mean to trouble you," she began, noting what seemed like a slight hesitation in the woman's voice, "just that I was curious as to what sorts of folk might be found here? That, and where one such as myself might find room, board and potential work?" She gave a slight tap at the hilt of the longsword which hung still at her hip. That simple touch sparked a tiny bit of the rage that had taken over her when she had attacked the two wanderers during her travels to this place, though she was able to keep control of it this go around.

Her gaze shifted about once more, noting the passing of another stranger, the streets still oddly quiet for this being named as a city, and not simply some pass through place that occassionally saw visitors. Then again, the day was late, with windows showing lights inside of buildings.

There was something to be said for the state in which the city stood, as it gave a certain level of comfort to know that she could roam in relative peace, as nobody seemed to take notice of the two women talking. The passing stranger simply passed on by, not even lifting his eyes to gaze upon the two females, and off he continued towards whatever place it was he was heading before encountering them. Yes, this just might be the perfect place in which a hunted one, such as herself, could lay low while she planned out the next stage of her shattered life. The slightest of grins played at the edge of her lips as the shadows within her mind played tricks and created images of the coming slaughter, the time at which she would return to the Dark Lands and seek revenge.

Those thoughts were quickly pressed aside though, as they threatened to bring about the rage, and the woman before her was no vagrant wanderer, and this was not the place for her next act of violence. Khaelsie simple gathered the calm about her, and took in all that was told to her, all in good time.

"I don't mean to trouble you," she began, noting what seemed like a slight hesitation in the woman's voice, "just that I was curious as to what sorts of folk might be found here? That, and where one such as myself might find room, board and potential work?"

Alice smiled. "You do not trouble me at all" she said, this time a little more friendly. "If you don´t ask you will never know anything, well this is a town for people that has no place in the other cities, and it is not a secret that many of them are wanted around the land for different crimes, like murder and stuff. But all of that is forgoten here. It is also a sanctuary for creatures of demonic blood that is not welcomed out in the outside world." she looked around on the people walking around them on the street. "Well there is many places you could go to, there are inns a little here and there. Many of the close to clean, and I´m sure that you will have no problem with find something to work with"

Khaelsie was the picture one would see if they were to look up the definition of not belonging anywhere else, which led to her mind deciding that this would most definitely be where she stayed for some time to come. There was something almost alluring about the City of Lanterns, as if it was calling for her to stay, to explore it. The soft glow of the multicolored collection of lights reminded her of Lith My'athar in some perverse sort of way. Lith My'athar was much the melting pot of all those who wanted to be away from the surface, and those dark elves who grew weary of Menzoberranzan's way of life. It was a city of outcasts, and from the explaination just given, it would seem that the City of Lanterns was exactly the same.

As for things being forgotten, Khaelsie had doubts that her bloodline would ever be something she managed to shed. At least in a city such as this, she would be forgiven for defending herself against any who sought to cleanse her from the pages of Menzoberranzan's history. "Yes, I do believe I have found a home then. Your help is very much appreciated." There as a voice somewhere in the back of her mind that added how this meant she would not do unto this woman as she had the two wanderers. So much rage, when would it ever end? Before said voice had a chance to think anything further, Khaelsie offered the woman the best of smiles she could, tipping her head slightly as if to excuse herself and speaking once more, "Perhaps we'll pass by each other on another day."

In the short length of time that the two women had been talking, the streets had filled with a couple of new figures, and Khaelsie somehow began to feel restless, as if she had to find a place to hide away for a bit until her mind was a bit more settled. Shades of green and crimson played over her ashen skin as she turned away and into the different lanterns, adding color where there was none before, and off she faded into the distance.