Neibhliernylia was summoned from the Astral Sea by an old widowed gnome named Myci Tinkwinder. Myci had previously received a box of papers from her recently dead granddaughter living in another town and was looking through them for a misplaced grocery list. Thinking she'd found it she read one of the papers out loud, before accidentally giving herself a papercut on one of the corners. The blood sacrifice coupled with the summoning scroll read out loud was enough for Neibhliernylia to be summoned to the room. When she arrived, having no idea what was going on, she was confronted with the old Gnome woman, who mistook her for her dead granddaughter. The old woman was overjoyed and all

"we thought you died in that carriage accident"

— Myci Tinkwinder

and "where have I put the cookies" and "have you grown taller?". Not really knowing what was going on, confused and out of her element, Neibhliernylia let herself be herded to the kitchen table. While drinking tea and eating cookies she slowly pieced together what had happened, and she just didn't have the heart to correct the old woman smiling through her tears. Besides, her last stint at another plane had not been nearly as nice as this one was shaping up to be. Thus she decided to stay as the old woman's granddaughter, Alba Tinkwinder.

 

The other villagers were sceptical at first, but Myci was glowing with happiness and Alba was kind and courteous, so who were they to say that she wasn't Myci's real granddaughter? Well, apart from the fact that she was an entirely different race, had scales on her face, never seemed to grow older, and looked nothing like the Alba they'd seen before (though, admittedly, the real Alba had only been three the last time she visited her grandmother)... So, okay, everyone apart from Myci knew Alba wasn't her real granddaughter. But no one was really mean enough to be able to look into Myci's radiant eyes and tell her that no, this fey creature was not her granddaughter because, just like her husband, her granddaughter was dead. Thus, everyone just adopted the polite fiction that Alba was Myci's granddaughter, and so what if she was a little different? Must be from the father's side, certainly. None ofMyci's other family ever visited to contradict this, in any case - apparently a few towns over was much too far to visit.

 

And so Alba spent the next twenty years in happiness, helping Myci around the house, tending a small garden out front. They had a few animals, a small plot of land, and no shortage of visitors. And Alba found that she was terribly, achingly satisfied.

 

Of course, it was not to last. Myci must have been keeping secrets because one day when Alba comes home something is amiss. There are signs of struggle, there is blood on the carpet, and the curtains are riddled with bullet holes. And her grandmother is missing. After some searching, she finds a sigil in the symbol of a Bear's Paw on the living room floor, right next to the blood-stained carpet. Some more searching yields a loose floorboard and some old papers, though she hardly knows their purpose. Some sort of spell? Something to do with guns? This is hardly her speciality. But her grandmother is missing and there is blood on the carpet.

 

She asks around town, but no one knows what she's talking about. They haven't heard anything suspicious, though they become worried when she tells of what happened. No one wants anything bad to happen to Myci, and so they start speculating. From some of the older inhabitants Alba learns that a few hundred years ago,

"when Myci was young, she left town in order to 'follow her dreams' "

, though they can't seem to recall what those dreams were. She returned half a century later, older, wearier, always looking over her shoulder. And with a husband and child in tow. But why should such an old thing have anything to do with what has happened now?

 

Discouraged she decides that the Bear's Paw Sigil and the papers are probably her best clues to the disappearance of her grandmother, and she decides to set out in the morning to try to understand what they mean. The nearest library will do, but this is a small town and the travel will take a few days, so she better rest first.

---

 

They come back during the night. She hardly knows what's happening before they have her by the throat. They killed Myci, they say, but make no explanation as to why her body is gone. Now they want to know what Myci wouldn't tell, or else she will go the same way. Where are the papers? Where is the special gun, the technique her grandmother spent her life perfecting?

 

She doesn't know what they are talking about, but she knows they mean business by their eyes, the way his hand clenches tighter around her throat as he demands. She also knows that she has no interest in answering.

 

She is not helpless. Has never been, really, and

"this is not her first stint outside the Astral Sea."

It is easy to take him down, retaliate, disarm and subdue. He doesn't expect it, and she's always done well with the element of surprise. But there are more of them, and they know she's dangerous now. She's agile and quick, slipping between them, avoiding their hits, hitting back. But they are many, many, and she's only one. Whenever she slips by one another one takes their place, and she struggles. There are more on the ground now, at least four, but there are more than that still standing, and she's tiring. It's been unknown ages since she did this last, and she has let her skills rust.

 

Then a shot, silent, quick. She wouldn't have known what was happening if she didn't see the blood bloom on the figure's chest, see the bullet come out the other side and lodge in the wall. He falls. They are surprised, wary, worried. She's not alone, even if she doesn't know who has come to her aid. Impressive though - she takes a precious moment to admire the level of skill it would take to hit through the window in this darkness. But she doesn't have more than a moment, because they are frantic now, panicking and intending to take her with them when they run. They still want the information they think she has.

 

She won't go easily. She wouldn't when they first came in the night, they are delusional if they think she'll just suddenly play along. Another one hits the floor, this one by her hands. He's closely followed by another felled by a bullet, and they are truly afraid now. She can see it in their eyes when they give up the fight. When they turn to run, she doesn't follow. Cornered animals fight fiercest, as she has proven tonight, and she's not interested in cornering them in turn. She has her own wounds to lick, a secret helper to unmask, and corpses to ransack for clues.

 

It takes a while, but he comes to the door eventually, as she knew he would. No one would shoot to kill and not inspect their handiwork afterwards, after all. He comes with his gun at the ready, and she doesn't relax when she sees him in the doorway. Just because he doesn't seem to be her enemy tonight doesn't mean he's her friend, after all. They stare at each other for a few long moments, before she wets her lips to talk.

"I had it under control."

— Alba Tinkwinder

---

 

He introduces himself as Mykiel Seraph, and explains that he's been looking for her grandmother. Her grandmother, whom he makes sound like a completely different person than the lovely, kind old woman Alba knows. To hear him tell it Myci is a genius. A legendary gunsmith of the past, capable of creating unbelievable weapons. Weapons that have contributed to the downfall of demons, armies, countries. All created in Myci'ssmall hands. All Alba knows is that her grandmother makes the best tea in town, not any of this nonsense.

In any case, her grandmother's not here. She's... Well, the people attacking Alba claimed to have killed her, but that's not something Alba's prepared to accept without any proof, and she tells Mykiel as much.

"So, as you can see, she's not here, and I'm busy. Find your weapons elsewhere."

— Alba Tinkwinder

She doesn't have time for this fool, no matter how pretty he is. She needs to find a library, needs to know what the Bear's Paw Sigil is, needs to see if she can track these people to where they came from, needs to see if they are carrying something to identify them, needs to-

She turns around hastily, swipes at her eyes. She needs her grandmother, not all this mystery and intrigue and horror. Not strange people murdering in the night, not strangers looking for a grandmother she doesn't recognize. But. She takes a breath. If she wants her grandmother back she'll need to find her.

Mykiel doesn't seem prepared to leave and helps her rifle through the corpses without complaint. No dice, though - they don't seem to be carrying anything she can use.