Shadows over Sigil - The Eternal Boundary

It begins

„Well, I suppose you could try to ride out of town, sir. But first, you'd have to find a horse - then, you'd have to find a portal big enough to ride through."

Geena Mirrathar, a tout in Sigil

Third Low Day of Regula, 126 HR

Sarin greeted Terrance as always with a rather deep bow, despite the numerous political and religious differences he had with the factol of the Athar. But he was a high priest, and although that ominous Great Unknown was more than suspicious to the paladin, an appropriately respectful greeting was irrevocably due to Sarin's understanding of the world. Basically, he liked Terrance. He had turned away from his goddess Mishakal, much to Sarin's incomprehension, but he still felt committed to the principle of healing and followed the path of good. This was more than he could say for many of his fellow factols. Moreover, Terrance possessed a calm and extremely humble manner that Sarin had to acknowledge. That he did not bother to peddle around his certainly considerable power made him rise in the paladin's esteem. The quiet cynicism he occasionally displayed, on the other hand, certainly annoyed Sarin when it came to religious questions. But today, fortunately, this was not the case. It was about something else ... possibly more serious. The Athar were the only faction he knew that also knew something about the ancient prophecy he wanted to talk to Terrance about. The Lost would not have been Sarin's first choice, if he had been allowed to decide. But it could well have been worse. Just as he was about to take a seat with Terrance at the long conference table in his office, the door was yanked open noisily. His Sigil legate, Tonat Shar, rushed in, followed by two people who, however, did not come into Sarin's focus for the time being, thanks to the less than proper entrance of his deputy.

"Sarin!" Tonat shouted. Then he faltered when he caught sight of Terrance and stopped dead in his tracks. "Factol, excuse me ..." he corrected himself, then hastily bowed to the high priest. "Factol Terrance ..." He took one deep breath, then turned back to the paladin, more controlled but still clearly agitated. "Sarin, this is unbelievable!"

The latter drew his brows together in displeasure. "I think so, too. What kind of an entrance is this, legate Shar?"

He could see Terrance's smirk out of the corner of his eye, and he was almost certain that the high priest was as amused by his disgruntlement as he was by his legate's somewhat uncouth demeanor. Tonat, meanwhile, was waving a parchment in front of him. A parchment that he immediately recognized by the hanging seal band ...

"I know," Tonat gasped out. "I apologize for my inappropriate behavior. But factol, I have someone here who can read this!"

"What?!" snapped Sarin.

Tonat lifted the scroll, the very parchment he had wanted to talk to Terrance about. That ancient, enigmatic scroll, the secrets of which he had inherited from Juliana and had never been able to decipher until now.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Shar affirmed in an excitement quite unusual for him. "He! He says his name is Kiyoshi!"

He pointed behind him, at a young man and only now did Sarin take a closer look at the two people who had entered the room together with his legate. One was a pretty young woman with shoulder-length blond hair. The other, Tonat now pointed to, a young man he estimated to be in his early to mid-twenties. He had relatively short, jet-black hair, dark eyes and a tanned, slightly bronzed complexion. Sarin stared at him as if he deemed him an apparition. The young woman immediately took a few steps away from him. Terrance seemed calmer, but no less surprised - though probably more so at Sarin's behavior and that of his legate.