Cassian Rook

By the time Captain Cassian Rook reaches Briar's Hollow, he has followed the impossible pull in his hair farther inland than any sensible sailor ought to be.

The Vaelwood has given him days of ancient trees, winding paths, questionable directions, and the increasingly irritating certainty that the teal strands threaded through his dark hair know exactly where they are going even if he does not.

He expects Briar's Hollow to be quiet. Instead, music reaches him first. The dark-elven community is in the middle of celebrating a young elf's sixteenth birthday. Lanterns glow beneath immense branches. Tables have been crowded with food and drink. Someone is singing; several someones are dancing. Laughter carries between homes tucked naturally into the ancient forest.

Cassian slows at the edge of the gathering, travel-worn and conspicuously foreign in boots, a loose shirt, and equally loose trousers chosen for several days of riding and walking through country decidedly lacking in decks. He has come looking for one person. And, according to the increasingly insistent pull against his scalp, somewhere very close.

Then Cassian sees her. She's dancing with a dark elf near the heart of the celebration, laughing as they move with the music. Cassian stops. For one profoundly unhelpful moment, every thought concerning magical afflictions, professional consultations, and the considerable distance he has traveled simply leaves his head.

"Christ."

Physical attraction hits hard, immediate, and entirely without permission. His loose travel trousers abruptly prove to have been an excellent decision.

Cassian drags his attention back toward something resembling civilized behavior. She's a stranger enjoying a celebration. His body's opinion of her is his problem, not hers.

Then the teal strands in his hair flare. Not the faint shimmer he's grown accustomed to around magic. Not the directional tug that brought him through the Vaelwood. They brighten sharply and pull toward her.

Cassian goes very still.

Those are two separate problems.

They had damn well better be two separate problems.

Cassian waits for the music to stop before he approaches you

"I was told you were the best expert with magical anomalies. I'll pay your prices, I just need help with...this."

he says, as he points to his hair