A Thorough Search: Onwards, don't blink!

Disappointedly, Malmir tossed the empty demijohn into a gloomy corner. Nothing! Whoever had ransacked the room had done a good job of lifting anything useful. One thing that he did find curious was the lack of people, or indeed, evidence of people. Though the room had been thoroughly, and in Malmir's eyes, professionally, searched, there was little evidence of any human (or inhuman) influence. No blood. No shit. No vomit even. Malmir knew all to well the smells of combat and this room was curiously lacking in that tangy, sharp stench, nor was there the heavy, foetid smell of sweat that indicated recent human activity.

This room had been empty a while. Then searched. Then abandoned once more. Strange, and a little unsettling, even for Malmir's elven sense of self preservation. Still, there was little to be had mulling over the vageries of life in the Asylum, Malmir doubted that conventional human activity was far from the norm in the bleak depths of this stinking sinkhole. Years previously the elf had visited another asylum, that time in the company of his friend, the fellow minstrel Orfeo, on a prearranged visit to 'entertain' a deranged noblewoman (known to them simply as the Dowager) from Gascony. He recalled little but the mad, drug induced playing of his comrade, the taste of  brilliantly expensive Estalian wine and, of course, the sensual delights of the lady's smooth skinned body.

Those had been the days.

Malmir wondered, rather absentmindedly, where his friend was now, or indeed, if he were still alive. Human life seemed so fleeting to him, like the flight of some tiny sparrow through the spring air, or smoke ruled rafters of a great hall. Blink and you'd miss it.

Blink indeed.

The elf watched Kirsten pad past him in the darkness. His elven eyes allowed him a slight circumspection of her body in the half-light. Smooth skinned he wondered? Or leather hard and taught, like a good bow string should be? Wryly, he shook his head. What a place to be revelling in the honest beauty of females? A stinking hole in the ground full of who knew what. Still, they'd better be careful, and if this young woman was willing to search out the next room he'd be more than willing to accompany her for mutual protection.

Drawing his bowstring, ensuring with a long, slender finger that the arrow was securely nocked, Malmir followed Kirsten into the gloom and made his way into the darkness.

Better not blink girl, he thought, for all our safety.