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Winter Solstice Night, 469 Barovian Calendar, Barovia All others est day passes and the slow slide of ever-shortening days ends in ht Not so for ht is done, givingshadows

Not that a shortage of time was a burden - eternity was before me, it seemed, but broken up into such brief increreatly resented having to stop my studies to retreat to my crypt every few hours Those studies consumed me completely, like the fever that had taken Tatyana nearly a quarter-century ago

Because of it no book in ain for weeks at a tiued their various ideas, trying to index everything into a recognizable pattern that could be exploited to help me escape my prison

One portion of the pattern had to do with the occasional trespassers who entered the country at irregular intervals As the newcomers were universally a bad lot, I used to kill them as I found the theht closely questionto build a picture of the lands and peoples there This was oftentimes easier said than done Occasionally such trespassers spoke a sily similar - and communication was relatively easy Other tiible that I was forced to cast an appropriate spell in order to coations I learned ofeach piece of inforh some of it was contradictory

Two prisoners had arrived separately at different times, but - and this had not happened before - they were apparently from the same country They each claimed it to be the saed a co the place By this I could deduce that there ined, perhaps piled on top of one another in some hbors It was intriguing to think on, though I was not quite ready to believe it yet, not until I obtained umentative murderers, but perhaps there were multiple worlds beyond h the Mists to the other side Perhaps if these other worlds did indeed exist, then it was not inconceivable that in one of those worlds my dear Tatyana yet lived The Barovia I knew had co Mists rising high and spreading far from its center at Castle Ravenloft How then was I to reverse it and escape? Co and hope for the best?

I doubted it would be that sih, and none, save one, appeared to have any inforht The exception was the book Alek Gwilyht ed He had never approved of ht of his since it had later indirectly led to his death at my hands

In that book I&039;d finally found what I had been searching so long for: A Spell For Obtaining the Heart&039;s Desire Ideal - except I wasn&039;t far enough along in my studies to be able to read it That had coer, frustration, and despair, made its visitation and offer, and we sealed our hellish pact I&039;d gotten everything I&039;d wanted, but each desire had its own terrible price

Age ceased to be a probles and luckless peasants to stay alive Sergei ceased to be my rival - after I had murdered him with the blade of a Ba&039;al Verzi assassin And Tatyana became mine - for a few moments of bliss until she It is indeed true that one should be very careful with one&039;s wishes, as they are likely to manifest themselves in a most unpleasant manner

Since then I hadn&039;t opened that particular book

Common sense told ic books in my possession; it had only been used as a tool to lureleft to offer Death Possibly I did have one thing of value to bargain with: myself, my life, or the emptiness that was my life I was reluctant to ask, lest I end up in a worse situation than the one I presently endured

Was I afraid? I would be a fool not to be

But this night, the longest in the turning of the year, when powers are afoot and endings and beginnings are all one, with treers, I carefully opened the book that had started it all And as before, I flung it across the room with a roar of frustration

It was unreadable Useless Every single page in it had gone black

So as it had on the night of our bargain I did not bother to turn, knowing there would be nothing to see

There never was Death was very good at hiding its face froht which was marked by any clock, but the truewhen its wheel is precisely half in one direction and half in another I launched froh my bedchamber s to the courtyard overlook, wrapped in ht was still, holding its breath for the next movement in the turn of the year&039;s wheel

The shoulders of Mount Ghakis were also cloaked, but they hite, not black

Therethe road to the castle It was part of the castle&039;s defenses, helping unwelcome visitors to maintain their distance

The most for of poisonous fog surrounding not only its base, but also the underlying village of Barovia as well No person drawing air could tolerate it for very long upon entering its choking grip, which reeh without my express per I fashioned soon after its appearance

Should the unlikely happen and they enter, they would find thehout the castle I could trust thehtfall when I would have a chance to assess the situationaround the outside base of the curtain wall and spreadto the cold heavy air toof fog a dozen feet orthe castle see from it, I struck out over the wide pale valley The snowfall there was s no human trails except for the Old Svalich Road, which was also unmarred by human tread A dark, thick ribbonits banks, but not in the center where the floas still strong

I had a restless feeling I needed to be soht be I a stronger, especially the closer I got to the river I shifted to the left, toward the lead gray plain that was the Tser Pool, frozen like the river at the edges but not in the reat to allow it

Still flying, I crossed the river just below the pool - free floater is an anathema to me only if I a over a dense patch of forest until it was broken up by a narrow road that branched off from the Svalich Just as it approached the pool, it ceased to be a road at all and devolved into a barely visible trail roughly paralleling the pool On the right, a bluff of land rose sharply up fros of this spur of Mount Ghakis On the left, a wide clearing bordered the pool

I coasted low and ca my transformation so my booted feet sank first into the untouched snow as I stretched to fill out ain

Silence enveloped me as I wrapped my cloak about my body I knew the deep silence of my crypt, and the lack of sound withinon some task This was the windless silence of a winter forest, as though the trees themselves held their breath No bird stirred in the still air; even the lap of water from the pool was hushed as if it feared to disturb the dead, lifeless air of the night

The coest here I looked about very carefully, but saw nothing out of the ordinary Trees, snoater and th even as I watched, growing thicker until a white roiling wall blocked off all sign of the trail

Midnight, or nearly so

Then the silence finally broke I heard the jingling of a bridle, the muffled clop of a horse&039;s hooves in the snow It came froerly watched to see ould happen Was I to finally witness one of the invaders entering h their portal while it was still open?

Louder ca Was the riderso fast in that white esture, I reached for my sword It was not there, of course

I hadn&039;t felt the need to wear one for decades, but old habits linger long

He was nearly upon ht toward the woods, and barely in ti, hooves throwing up clods of snow, the rider hooting and shouting like a lunatic as he guided the ani in

He stopped only a few yards away, facing htened protest, but he snapped a coain, clearly unhappy with its ears flat to its head, but under control

The rider, a young arded me a moment with eyes as black and hard as cut onyx, then nodded

"Hail, Strahd, Lord of Barovia!" he called

I was quite thoroughly dumbfounded, but had the self-control not to show it