Cirice Forge doesn't know who she is. Other than a piece of paper with her name on it, she knows nothing about her time before she was dispersed into the foster system. Now, she bartends at a popular gentleman's club with plenty of ogling and still...
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Twenty minutes later, Cirice was clad in a warm cape in the cavernous kitchen of New Vale castle. It was unusually baren as Mason lead them over to a set of doors. They were angled into the floor and looked to be older than the castle itself. A cloud of black smoke engulfed him and Mason disappeared for a moment. The ancient padlock began to rattle as Mason--in the form of beetle--worked tirelessly to unlock it.
There was a pop and Mason reappeared, beaming like a cat that had just eaten a canary. He pulled open the doors and started in gesturing to them. Cirice followed, Alex behind her.
"Just like old times huh?" Alex asked softly as Cirice laughed. Down a set of stairs that were actually rocks was a large room. Mason was standing with a torch in one hand and a blazing match in the other. He shook the match hand and looked around.
"What is this place?" Cirice asked as Alex pulled the doors shut and came to her side.
"It's an old tunnel. Built about the time that the original Vale was." Cirice looked around. To her right was a brick wall with the same symbol that rested above the door, to her left was darkness.
"Come on, let's go before they notice we're gone." Alex clasped her hand, the action taking Cirice by surprise. He glanced at their hands as Mason started forward. The light was evading them and Alex pulled her forward. They walked for a solid ten minutes before Mason stopped and turned right.
A draft ruffled Cirice's cloak as Mason came to a small door. After a few hard pushes, it gave way and Mason fell forward into the powdery snow.
"After you," Alex said as Cirice climbed the stairs and squeezed through the door. The bright white light of the snowy afternoon blinded her momentarily. She walked forward and looked back, finding Alex appearing from the trunk of a tree. Mason extinguished the torch and shoved it into the snow at the base of the tree.
"Well here we are," he said, lifting his arms to the winter wonderland surrounding them. Dark trees stretched up towards the sky like skeletal hands as Cirice breathed in the frigid air around her.
"Won't someone see us?" Cirice asked, taking a tenative look around. Alex shook his head.
"Nah, the castle is back that way. No one comes this close to the lake anyway." Alex said as Mason morphed into a crow and took to the sky. Cirice watched him for a moment, unsure.
"It's fine. Mason is keeping watch." Alex said as he started away. Cirice sighed and came to his side as they started through the trees.
"How is your bride to be?" Cirice asked as they approached what she assumed to be the lake. The snowy landscape gave way to nothing then trees on a bank in the distance. Alex pushed his lips together for a moment.
"Well I suppose," he replied flatly, his tone bored. Cirice raised her eyebrows.
"You suppose? Haven't you spent any time with her?" Cirice asked curiously, consciously putting space between them. Yet every time she moved, he would close the distance she had made as if magnets existed between them. Alex wrote it off as old habit.
