hypochaeris

You’ve just arrived in a swampy, dim town. As you look around, your gaze is met with shacks and cabins. It smells of rotted wood and wet moss. You duck and step into a tattered tent, illuminated by a series of candles suspended in the air. At the back of the tent, an old hag raises her head, “What brings you to this dingy town? she begins, then pauses to study your face—”Ah, it’s you. I’ve been expecting you. Sit,” she gestures at a cushion, “Tell me your story.”

"You dabble in divination?" Caspian asks, raising an eyebrow. His gaze quickly shifts from the peculiar enchanted candles dotting the room to meet the woman's. "For some reason I'm inclined to trust that you actually were expecting me." The young man takes a cautious step forward, allowing the tent's flap to fall behind him. This was a strange situation he had not expected to find himself in - Caspian held a great deal of respect for the magically adept of this world - but his ever-so-trustworthy gut feeling did not have the same qualms. "Usually I'm the one asking the questions and my customers telling the stories", he begins while heeding the woman's call to sit, making sure to fold his cape underneath himself as he does. "But I suppose change is in order. Caspian's the name. Caspian Isegwin, the spiritualist's incompetent son. My mother's the spiritualist. Or, uh..." Caspian's eyes would trail of to the side, a flash of grim seriousness showing on his face as he continued. "Was. I suppose that's why I'm here. Unfortunately she was also a human." He spoke the last part almost subconsciously, signing towards his somewhat pointed ears as explanation afterwards. "My father is the high-elf that fell for a human woman." He spoke the word 'father' with a tone he would substantiate the meaning of through gritted teeth - "Contemptuous as he may be. You see, being just half an elf does you no favors around the parts where I'm from. My mother and I never found a place in Haelun'or. Her craft was shunned as unscientific and her magics mocked as primitive. So we were forced to eke out an existence on the fringes of civilization. And we did it without any help from that good-for-nothing father of mine." Caspian's tone had gotten progressively sharper and his gaze more tense as he spoke. Noticing this he abruptly cleared his throat and corrected his posture somewhat apologetically. "But I've left that life behind me now."