"Be careful what you wish for, the Gods are always listening..."

The whisper echoed. It was all she could hear, all she could believe, all she knew. The one truth. It touched her every dream and invaded her mind, the voice of the whisper sad, lonely. The ghostly murmur caressed its tendrils around her. She knew the voice, but it hurt to try and remember.

Saskia awoke, the echo slithering through the air around her and trailing off. She shivered, exhaling a breath she hadn't held, like awaking from the dead. The embers of a pointless fire sputtered, glowing a warmth she couldn't feel anyway. But such things made her feel connected.

Saskia shook her head free from the last of her sleeping visions - she didn't dream, not really. What little she saw and heard were echoes. She knelt, then cast her gaze about her camp. Her companion had not returned, even though the sun was beginning to rise, but she did not worry. The Lady would meet her here, soon, and her companion would hide while she visited.

Finally she stood, stretching her legs and back. Turning over her hands, she scowled at the tinge of blue: she would need to feed, unfortunately. It couldn't be put off much longer now. She stepped over to the stream and splashed water against her face, then rebraided her hair along her scalp. It had stopped growing long ago. It got in her way and cost her time to upkeep it like this, yet she was loathe to cut it. The colour was gone, stark white in its place. Her hair was not grey - it was almost translucent, drained of pigment. What colour it used to be tickled inside her mind but she pushed it aside as she wouldn't really remember anyways.

As she finished, she felt a presence. Saskia straightened, her grey, almost lavender eyes, casting towards her prized weapon. It was close if it was needed.

"Daughter of Darkness."

She rolled her eyes and turned. The Lady always approached from behind. "Archaic."

The Lady smiled under her hood, her face in shadows. "Yet we are." Saskia did not reply. She barely moved, that tenseness returning to her like it always did in the presence of The Lady. "As hospitable as ever, Daughter." The Lady clasped her hands in front of her, ever the embodiment of grace.

"I have no questions."

"I did not ask if you did."

"Then why else-" Saskia sighed, crossing her arms, scowling.

"Why else would I come? Why can't an old woman visit a time?" The Lady approached a tree stump, sitting with a flourish, that patient smile still on her smooth skin.

"You always want something. And you always confuse me."

"I do want something, yes, Daughter, but that is not your confusion. Confused thoughts do not serve me. In fact, I've brought you a gift. For enlightenment." Grey eyes narrowed as Saskia placed a hand on her chest. The hollow echo there haunting her mind like all the others. After waiting patiently for a response, the Lady simply pulled a small box from her robes. "I believe this will guide your path. While it wasn't yours, its owner almost was."

Finally the curiousity got the better of her and Saskia warily approached, snatching the box as The Lady chuckled. Her fingers trembled as they fumbled the latch and Saskia forgot to breathe. The lid was thrown open and she grasped its contents, pulling out... A button? She turned it over, the growing light catching delicate gold knotwork atop an azure velvet. "Is this a joke?"

The Lady shook her head. "I have many senses, humour is not one of them." 

Saskia quirked a brow, "that sounds like a joke."

"Well I must be off. Sleep with it under your pillow, then follow its echo, child."

Saskia was entranced at the details. It tugged at something, but she felt nothing. When she looked up, The Lady was already gone.