Title:  The Shadow and the Spyre
Day:  147
Location:  Travelers Hill

    It was morning.  Esimed woke up and reached for his sword.  Where 
am I, Esimed thought, then he remembered.  He was at the serving 
girl's house, her name was Beth Rose.  After he had left the pub the 
night before, she had came out after him and asked him to wait 
for a few minutes then went back into the pub.  When she returned she 
had his stew, his ale, and asked him to follow her.  So he followed her
to her house.  
    He was shocked by the sight of it.  The house was not the home of a
serving girl.  It was located a short distance from the town and 
seemed to be on private grounds for privacy.  It was two stories tall
and richly decorated.  She told him that her parents had been 
merchants in the town and when they died they had left the house to her 
and her brother.
    When Esimed had asked about her brother, she only said that he was 
a traveler, and only came by to give her talics to help with the taxes.  
Esimed and Beth talked for hours.  Beth was very happy to talk to a 
guy that wasn't touching her bottom.  Esimed didn't talk much though, 
he mostly listened.  She was a nice girl, if nothing like Seda.  He 
felt something for her but wasn't sure what...  One thing was certain 
though, her company put him at rest.
    Esimed got out of his bed and walked over to the window.  He looked 
out and figured it would be an hour before first light.  As he started 
to turn around, he thought he saw a shadow move, but dismissed the 
idea.  But something flashed in his memory.  Last night at the pub, as 
he was leaving, he thought he had seen shadows where there should not 
have been any.  But Esimed was not worried even though he knew the 
Shadow-Tal were excellent at stealth.  He just figured it was his eyes 
playing tricks on him.
    Esimed walked down to the first floor of the house and noted that 
Beth had little wood left.  He walked around back to the wood pile and 
started to cut some.  Strangly though, he felt like he was being 
watched.  After a time while he was still cutting, Beth came around the
back and thanked him for cutting some wood and said breakfast was 
ready.
    As they ate, Esimed asked more about Beth.  He found out that her 
brother's name was Ashdon Rose.  Esimed knew he had heard the name 
before, but could not place where. Esimed figured that if the name 
sounded familiar then her brother could not have been good because 
most of the people he knew where not exactly what you would call nice.
As time past, the more Esimed learned about Beth, the more he liked 
her.
    Esimed continued to work around the house all day and brooded over 
the name Ashdon Rose.  And the whole time he worked, he knew he was 
being watched.
    When he went to bed that night, he knew that he was close to 
remembering who Ashdon Rose was.  In the middle of the night Esimed 
jump out of bed, grabbed his weapons, and started getting his pack
together.  He remembered who Ashdon rose was.  He quickly turned to  
leave but it was to late.  Five shadows appeared around him.  Three, 
Esimed thought, I can kill three, but the last 
two will get me.  Why did it have to take so long to remember Ashdon 
Rose, the right hand man to Panther himself?  Esimed knew that he would 
die, but he would die with weapons in hand.  One of the shadows took 
shape and showed that he only wanted to talk.
    The man introduced himself has Ashdon Rose, and wanted to know why 
Esimed was staying with his sister.  Just then they heard Beth scream, 
and Esimed knew why even before the Spyre stealth Corps dropped in the 
window.  Esimed dispatched two of them before they knew what got them. 
Remembering his symbol, he reached for a shirt so he could cover his 
back.  He knew that Ashdon had seen it, but at the moment Esimed was 
more worried about Spyre seeing it then the Shadow-Tal.  As he turned to 
the window, he could see more Stealth Corps heading for the 
house.  Esimed looked around, and saw a few Spyre agents standing, but 
most were dead.  The Shadow-Tal started to teleport away, so Esimed grabbed 
one and told him that he would not be left behind.  The Shadow-Tal member just 
nodded and both he and Esimed teleported away.
    When they reached their destination, Esimed was in a circle of men 
with swords.  He looked around and saw Beth with some other Shadow-Tal 
members, and one of them was bleeding.  Esimed assumed that the Stealth
Corps had got to Beth but a Shadow-Tal agent saved her. 
As he finished looking, he noticed that Ashdon was nowhere to be seen.