highvalyrian | cair pavel: it begins to unravel

[The ruins of the long, maze like city are harrowing enough. Set at the base of the mountain range to the north, a small fog has already set over like a blanket by the time Natasha has trekked all the way here. There are magical ways of traveling, even some tech that could get her so far, but this city has been so buried to time, to the way even her own magic seems to fizzle out, that she is sure nothing is meant to be here.

She'd been sent to the settlement that some of the Desired had built up over the last few months. There are whispers of magic being pilfered off, potentially even sold to the other side. Natasha has heard enough rumors in the streets of the main city, but there have been other secrets, too. What other magic could exist outside of the Scathé and Oiva.

It seems promising. Too promising. It's taken her far over a week to get here herself, deciding to physically get here instead of using something potentially traceable (though of course if one knows the right markets, the right mages, the right shadowed magic traveling could be a lot easier). Nat doesn't expect to see another soul out here. It's not even one of the old settlements or cities the Council had told them about when the Desired struck out months ago. That isn't alarming in itself. Surely this is a whole planet, a land with enough uncharted places.

But then that draws her to it even more. She's careful to not touch, as much as she could feel the antiquity even in the air. She has some scrap of paper with some sort of temple at the middle, something that is meant to help her through the Pavel, the maze, but stepping further into it feels almost even more binding, like if she does turn back she will only find more tall structures where the space she did walk through has now disappeared. It's not the greatest feeling, but she turns back forward, ignoring the pit in her stomach. She's come this far, and she's sure there has to be answers here for a place to be so shrouded in mystery, and yet, so protected.