Pact of Blood
Rain streaked the cobblestones, blurring the world outside into a soft, cozy watercolor of gray and green.
A woman walked in, shaking her umbrella. She was carrying a leather portfolio, her hair slightly damp from the drizzle. She looked around, found an empty table near the window, and sat down with a sigh of relief. She pulled a parchment sketchbook from her bag and opened it, her quill poised to capture the geometry of the room. She was an artist, just an artist, with no memory of starlight or broken dimensions.
A man stepped into the tavern a moment later. He was dressed in a simple wool tunic, his hands calloused from his work at the carpentry shop down the road. He ordered a dark ale