As I inspected my new figurine a man walked in, he was surprisingly average compared to the rest of the guests so far. He was all-around average in every way, height, build, face, clothing, everything. He could easily instantly disappear into any crowd, which makes him a shapeshifter of some kind, you cant be that average at birth. I have encountered many kinds of shapeshifters and they each have different tells that give them away such as glowing eyes, the need for blood, lack of emotion, etc. and judging by his slightly hairy palms, yellow eyes, and constant smirk I would say he is some form of were-hyena.

Interesting creatures were-hyenas, unlike many of the were-animals they actually were never human. Morally dubious tricksters most of them, I wonder if there’s a species that live in colder climates here. The hyena looked the room over and paid extra attention to the bald man, telling from the flash of recognition and the wave of disgust it seems like they know each other. After staring holes into the bald man, he turned and picked a seat by the gnomes area.

Things are starting to get interesting, I wonder what kind of history they have together? Soon two other hyenas joined the first after glaring daggers at the bald man, they almost always move in packs so it’s to be expected. I kinda want to go over and discuss pottery with them, after all, they are one of the best, it’s getting hard to find someone to discuss the craft with, but that can wait. I turned back to my figurine and put it away and pulled out the hair I gathered from the two sentries, though there weren’t as many strands of curses on them as mike and the others, they were stronger, probably due to their close proximity to all manners of creatures.

My goal was to make a curse doll, a very practical item. I waved over the servant girl and reordered the same thing before quickly beginning to intertwine the threads, and soon I had a humanoid figure. Though the sentries had hair on the shorter side that mattered little, after intertwining the strands with the curses and my own magic I could make them as long as needed. Once I had a solid human form I grabbed one of the hearts and cut the center out before placing it in the chest of the doll.

Once inside it started to frantically contract and expand, and the curses surrounding it began to converge. The heart piece turned a sickly black, and after infusing a bit of magic into it, the piece started to melt and wriggle until it became a perfectly formed miniature heart. I grabbed the other sentry's heart and held it over the doll, causing its chest to start wriggling and strands of curses and hairs to reach out. Once they reached the fresh heart they started to stab into it causing several blood vessels to turn black, and soon the heart started beating once more. The tendrils of hair slowly engulfed the heart until it was no longer visible.

Once engulfed the mass of hair and curses slowly started to shrink until it was back to normal. I slowly brought it up to my ear and a small chuckle escaped me when I heard the rhythm of two beating hearts. After determining the success of my creation I placed it under my cloak and let it do its thing.

POV shift——————————————

As I was preparing the tables in my section a sudden feeling of pure despair washed over the room. I froze in place but due to my extensive training I could still barely turn towards the source, the stairwell, and what I saw would haunt me forever. Shadows billowed out of the hall and engulfed the light, and I swore I could see faces in the shadows, each in agony and despair while shadowy hands reached out and pleaded for release from their torment. While a malicious gust, carrying the screams of the damned, picked up and blew through, sucking the warmth out of everything it touched.

Then, as if frozen in fear, everything stopped and the room was draped in a maddening silence. A burst of sudden mad laughter erupted out, breaking the stillness, and a menacing figure emerged from the darkness. It was so large its head scraped the top of the doorway, and its body was concealed under a cloak seemingly made of darkness itself. Though Its face was obscured by wriggling mass shadows I could still feel its heart-stopping gaze sweep over the room. My blood froze when it suddenly turned to my section and walked over to a table.

It strolled over while bringing a wake of a bone-chilling cold, and it sat down at a table in the corner. I quickly began hyperventilating and psyching myself up in preparation to serve it. I didn’t want to do it but I had to otherwise my cover would be blown. I tried to approach him casually but my fear kept getting in the way. After a bumpy trip, I arrived beside him and tried to take his order in the calmest way possible, which failed. He looked at me for a second before my sense of dread suddenly dissipated and I could finally take a breath and calm down, but my new sense of calm was suddenly disrupted when a voice emerged from within the creature. It was deep and raspy, weathered with age with filled with wisdom, though it seemed to speak with difficulty every word was filled with immense power.