Taalia Giovanni


Taalia felt her heart bash against her rib-cage as she quietly navigated that veritable maze of illusionary magic and make-believe corridors. That she couldn't hear the storm outside anymore was distressing enough, but when she re-emerged into the dining hall again, Taalia immediately swivelled her head about to see if the doors could be flew through to finally escape this mad-house.

Then there it was again - the shuffling!

Taalia could hear the "ghost" shuffling about, unable to fully see in the dark. What type of ghost could not do that? They were supernatural creatures, weren't they? What ghost had to stumble about in the dark inside an illusionary maze?

Unless...what if whatever that thing was, wasn't the shadowmancer? What if it was a pet or minion, or perhaps even some press-ganged creature of some sort, shambling about within the labyrinth of its masters own creation?

But it couldn't be. She had shot it! The shot passed right through! Now it was stumbling about, unable to see in the dark while poorly navigating its own illusionary home? But if it really was ethereal and matter phased through it, why did it need to shamble down hallways? Why didn't it simply move through the walls and straight to her?

But, naturally, the girl didn't try. She had already done so earlier, when seized of her terrified panic, and all it had taken her was down into a house of horrors. That left the painting, and the revelation of the short sword. had that robber been slain by this prior owner of the house? But why would his corpse be left there if such a thing had occurred?

Maybe that's what the Shadowmancer wanted, Taalia thought. Either the wizard was protecting something within this house, or he had gone mad, and her going through his little fun-house circuits was his solitude-based idea of entertainment. And, as the robber's corpse bore testimony, the wizard was already a murderer. Thus, her concern was with Bella and Cestie. If she simply escaped this house without dealing with the madman, he'd simply inflict his magics upon them, and they would all perish.

Suddenly, two ideas popped into Taalia's mind, one more severe than the first. Though she wanted to jump to the more extreme option, that was the last resort.

Taalia looked at two items in the dining hall. The first was one of the tapestries, or cloths available, that she went over to and retrieved. Wrapping it around her fist, she approached one of the windows and Smash! right through, using her protected, armoured fist to smash out the last vestiges of frame-bound glass, to make it look as if she had just smashed the window and escaped through it.

And then she quietly went back into that maze, in the opposite direction of the "spectre" and where she had come from.

She put the tapestry around her sword and used it like a stick to 'feel out' the walls as she passed them, the way one would use a long stick to check for the depth of water, the multiple layers of cloth diminishing any sound an otherwise metal stick would make clanging off the walls as the girl searched for any clues of 'hidden' doors or parts of the house that were shielded by the illusion.