--closed to Shinsou--

The light of the late evening flushed across the sky in ribbons of colour. Cyan, magenta, saffron and purple, spiralling across the mostly indigo sky as the last remnants of the sunshine. Tipping her head back Philomel breathed in the duck air, filling her lungs with near twilight and fully lay back to worship it in its entirety. Flat against the low graded slanting roof, resting back against the terracotta tiles. She was on top of one of her most wealthy establishments, one of the first she had ever taken over, and placed in the hands of one of her most trustworthy apprentices, Gosling.

Life often didn't get this better.

She thought about the recent battle in the high tower of the citadel, of the strange sandstone arena and the foreign beauty she had fought against. She considered the way she had, in all senses, left with an ally more than an enemy after it. And she remembered the way that after it the shimmering form of a stranger had come to her, glowing in her minds eye but also physically, telling her his name and purpose.

Shinsou vaan Osiris. A man of mystery and a man who needed her help.

It was curious how he had found her. Philomel made it deliberately difficult for those who sought her to never directly meet her first. It was nowadays always a meeting with one of her representatives, less it be Madison Briarheart or the master assassin Lye Ulroke. Possibly even Aurelianus Drak'Shal but he had apparently been holed up in his House of Sin for some time now, never seen by the public since the Crimson Hand had fallen apart. And not being found also meant her mind. After all she was directly connected to one of the most powerful earth spirits in existence, time had proved. He, like her, was blessed by Drys, their goddess, and thus the two of them were a force to be reckoned with. The fox and the faun, some spoke of - and beyond that the dragon. Definitely not able to be discovered easily.

So she had thought. Frowning with the memory she opened her eyes again and sighed to the blue skies. She wished night to come, and business to begin. Maybe even she would bestow herself on some lucky man tonight, for a very high price of course, but lucky he would be. Temptation came into her and she stretched, not able to lie here any longer. She sat up, grumbling to herself, though thankful she was at least in the Black Rose, one of her most prized possessions.