[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

Dead. Everything here was dead, you could just feel the nothingness of it all on the skin. The fear of wild beasts was soon banished, though only to be replaced by a subtler and more unsettling feeling, something... ominous. Clearly Shiandi wouldn't have painted herself if she hadn't been expecting something out of the ordinary to take place here. And just as clearly, her apprentice was wearing none of the witch's spirit wards. Apparently Shiandi wasn't too concerned about that simple problem, though.

Wrong choice of shoes, as well. The shoes Amelia had bought with Skay were ideal on the paved streets of Nexus, but here one would need boots, heavy, knee-high boots. Of course if Shiandi had said so from the start instead of letting her assume things - something she'd probably done on purpose - now she wouldn't have been stumbling on each step of the way, nearly landing face down in the snow. Evil, evil Lady Shiandi. Breathing heavily due to her slightly anemic body's lack of stamina - it appeared that her Human and Elven sides hadn't merged in the best way possible, as though Nature hadn't approved of it whole-heartedly - every pace was torture to her. Even when she realized they had come to an ancient graveyard, simple survival occupied her mind for the most part.

Finally, when she thought she was going to collapse and her limbs started to feel numb, Shiandi seemed to have reached her destination. It was hard to say what drove Amelia forwards now, but she did reach into the bags and pulled out the shovel, leaning against it as she planted it into the snow to catch her breath. 'A little longer... just a little longer...' The mantra apparently worked, or maybe it was just sheer survival instinct. Helping herself with one foot, she created the opening Shiandi required, and if anything all the practice she had had in Nexus had made her an excellent snow shoveller. She could probably pack a decent punch now... if only that weren't so unladylike, that is.

Things did at last begin to look better with her legs out of the white blanket of snow. Even if the interior of the crypt was even more ominous than the outside, the girl had seen her fair share of ominous places, courtesy of two Nexian Adjurators, so she had developed a clinic eye of sorts. The Half-elf held a torch in front of her, enjoying what little warmth it emanated. Even the cold, cold bed she had left behind at the manor now seemed like paradise lost as she descended behind the ebony witch, down to the lowest level. She would catch a fever, it was just inevitable after such exposure to the elements.

'There are probably entities here that I can't see,' the exiled maiden thought, casting a glance at the mummified bodies. The sight would've made her cringe when she was smaller, but now it was just a corpse, an empty box. Something of yours that you couldn't bring along on the last ride. As she approached the middle of the room, filling the braziers with coals, Amelia finally began to put two and two together and realize just what the room had been used for. Even if she hadn't noticed it, the cracking noise of a human tibia under her shoe was a sure giveaway.

Bad omen. She stifled a gasp at the sight, and a second, less successful attempt at stopping the sound came upon spotting the bloodstains on the altar. She turned to Shiandi, laying the bags on the floor. "Human... sacrifices?" Her usually honeyed voice made dull by the harsh weather, a part of her mind was racing in a very alarming direction whereas the other was trying to reassure the first that it couldn't be, that she hadn't done anything to deserve it. Unless... unless one counted her behavior with Snake. Was she being... sacrificed for hindering Snake, or something?

'Materna, oh ancient Mother, deliver me from the violence of man and the blade of chance, that I may live and give birth in thy great name,' she recited mentally, watching Shiandi wide-eyed with her back to the altar. "What is this place for, Lady Shiandi?" It came out in a thin, strained voice but an audible one. If Shiandi really meant to sacrifice poor Amelia for some reason, the Outlander had been truly diabolical about it, even going as far as tiring her out completely so that she wouldn't be able to fight back. What would happen now? Was there a simple way to explain why Shiandi had the key to a crypt where human sacrifices were performed? And if there was one, was it the obvious one?