Mission:
The other day, a strange beast came to Sampetra. It was a very odd looking vixen, a seer. I hadn’t gotten a good look at her, but she seemed to radiate an odd feeling; she walked with an airy sort of arrogance that didn’t seem right. I… I don’t know, I feel uneasy around her, yet I feel strangely drawn to her, it’s weird, and I don’t like it. She was sort of a light cinnamon-brown color, and she had a thick brush with pieces of glass and tailrings woven into it that jingled when she walked. She also carried two things, a large, bulky haversack, and a large, black, cylindrical case that the monitors seemed to want to avoid.

Normally, I would go down to the taverns around this time, but I’ve been given an assignment that’s quite important. You see, yesterday, when the seer was granted permission to use the taverns, beasts started to act strange, as if they were under a trance. Two others before me had been assigned to the task of getting rid of the seer by the emperor. However, they both returned to him, wide-eyed and trying to talk him out of getting rid of her, one of them even asked him to see her. The emperor, of course, said no. There had been no volunteers, except for me; I was lucky enough to have skipped the taverns yesterday, and to have escaped the trance which is creating Sampetra’s downfall. So here I am, thinking my own thoughts, tonight I plan, tomorrow, I do.

It is the next night, and I’m now waiting for the seer to leave her room. I now know her name, it is Shenthi, and she was picked up by the Bloody Scarlet over in the Far East, and claimed she longed for a master to serve.

I’ve been getting odd looks from the weasel at the front desk, it’s actually quite funny to watch. Funny, I’d never seen him before. Oh… Wait… Right, Shenthi has passed, leaving her room, hopefully, empty. I will record what happens later… If I am able to. Dawn has come, and my task is complete, I’m only lucky that I’m alive. I will now relate to you what happened between now and when I left you off.

I had hidden my book and quill on a windowsill by the seer’s room. When I got to her door, I realized I hadn’t had the key; luckily she forgot to lock it. Almost as soon as I entered the room, I was overrun by a thick wave of powerful incense. I distinctly remember yelling out loud “Good groggies! How does she breathe in here?!” Heh, now that I think about it, it was actually pretty funny… It reminded me of the time when my mom… Never mind…

Back on track now, I had pushed myself further into the room and felt around in the gloom for a window, I found one after tripping over multiple objects. As soon as I opened the window, I could see much better, and breathe better for that part. I looked around the room, there wasn’t really much looking at. A bed, a small rickety table, some dusty old books and herbs, about three incense burners… And that case… The cylindrical case I had seen when she first got off of the ship.

At first, I was all for opening it, but then I remembered how the monitors had acted around it, and I was a little afraid about what might be in it. I stepped towards it, nothing happened. I kept moving closer until I was right in front of it. I hesitated, reached towards it, and flipped the latch. The top popped open a crack, I jumped, and sat there breathing heavily for a minute or two. Paw shaking, I reached towards the case again, this time I started to reach towards the top, to open it again. Suddenly, the case issued forth a great hissing noise and the top opened itself to reveal a large, evil looking snake. I gasped and withdrew my hand quickly. I began to slowly back away from the snake, keeping my eyes down, never looking into them, much like when I was speaking to Emperor Ublaz. An unearthly sound came from behind me, I whirled around, the seer! She was standing framed in the doorway, laughing. It was the weirdest laugh I’d ever heard, but I was sure as hellsteeth it was a laugh.

She closed the door and looked down at me, mockingly. She spoke to me, her voice different than anything I’d ever heard. “Well little Lunata,” I was quite taken aback that she knew my name, I stared up at her, wide-eyed and slack-jawed. “I see the Emperor has sent another little beastie to get rid of me, eh?” The snake hissed loudly behind me, darn, I’d forgotten about the snake! I began to breath deeply and quickly, more afraid than I’ve ever been before. She smiled again, “I see you’ve met Natanlani, yes?” She laughed again, she was referring to the snake. I thought about winding up like almost everybeast else on the island, I didn’t want to wind up like that. I glanced back at the snake and looked back to Shenthi. Suddenly, a feeling came over me, I wasn’t under the trance, I knew that, but I felt bigger, stronger. Shenthi was still talking, I wasn’t sure if she saw me staring at where the snake’s neck would be. In my sitting position on the floor, I felt around in my pockets for my dagger. Shenthi saw me draw it, she called Natanlani on me. The snake got out of the case at started towards me, the seer sat down smugly, she knew I couldn’t win against the giant snake. I knew it as well, but I lunged at the snake with my dagger, it wasn’t until I was tangled up with the snake that I remembered that snakes had fangs. I panicked, and began to stab the snake repeatedly with my dagger. Shenthi began to scream once I started doing that. Natanlani had coiled itself around me and was squeezing hard. It was getting harder and harder to breath. I kept stabbing. With every stab, the snake’s grip got looser, I stabbed until eventually the snake was too weak to even coil around me. I looked around, Shenthi was getting up, cutlass drawn. “You little scamp! I’ll make you pay for that!” I hesitated, once again, and acted on impulse. I grabbed the snake’s tail, and began to push it out the window.

“What in HELLSTEETH are you DOING?”

I pushed it out faster until I came to the head, it’s eyes looked at me, pleadingly. I looked away, and pushed it out.

“NO! You… You...” Shenthi pushed me out of the way and looked out the window at the snake’s body on the rocks below. I thought “what the heck,” and pushed her.

Screaming, the seer fell to her death, never to put another under her trance.

Which reminds me, how DID she do it? Was it the snake, her, or a simple coincidence?