Fadewalk

Sigrun planted her fists on her hips and glared up at the ridiculous human.

"What do you mean, the Commander's gone?" she demanded of Nathaniel. "She's a mage, not a rogue. She's not sneaky enough to just up and disappear from her bedroll in the middle of the night!"

He sputtered, and Sigrun threw her hands into the air.

"Did you check the perimeter? Maybe she just...snuck out to relieve herself on your watch."

"He was too mortified," Velanna called from where she sat next to the fire, poking the morning's breakfast. "Typical."

"Can you do it?" Nathaniel pleaded. "I really would prefer not to stumble on her if that's the case."

Sigrun rolled her eyes and tucked her daggers into their sheaths.

"All right, all right, I'll take a look. I'm telling you, though, there's no way she could have just vanished, Nate."

She wandered off into the underbrush, muttering about the idiocy of tall people and how you would think after all these years of impromptu camping trips, the man would have relaxed a little. "Commander?" she called. "Neriiiiiaaa, where are you?" Nothing. And if Sigrun didn't know better, she would have thought her voice was echoing back at her, which was impossible. They were in open air woods. She took another step and felt the ground lurch beneath her, like she'd caught her foot on a root and gone tumbling.

"Oof. Uff. Ow. What the." When Sigrun stopped rolling, the woods had vanished, as had the quiet sounds of conversation from the camp and the smell of cooked sausage. Instead, when she got to her feet and dusted herself off, she found she was standing in the courtyard of a very large, very creepy, and very empty castle, the sheer size of which put Vigil's Keep to shame. She stared at the steps before her, leading up to a door that probably led into some kind of great hall.

"O-okay, now that's freaky."