He appears, quite suddenly and all at once, outside the gates to the sanctuary, without any warning at all. If not for the fact that he had appeared, he might not have been there at all - he didn't even leave a footprint on the road leading to the main gate, and as he steps forward, there are - oddly - still no footprints to be seen. He might be a ghost.

Or a Wraith.

He opens his sight to the astral, looking the place over as he steps up to the gates. Oh, this place has some fierce protection, all right - the wards around the entire premises stand out on the astral like a beacon in a coal shaft. They don't stop him as he enters, though, so it must be safe to enter. Or so he hopes.

He's tracked his quarry this far, though, and he isn't about to give up his chase so easily.

Despite the wards outside the place, he is surprised at the sense of peacefullness inside the grounds - usually places with such heavy magic guarding them have a more charged, tense feeling to them. The descriptions of the place must be more accurate than he had first supposed.

He doesn't pause to look around, though - he's here on biz, and the message he had gotten had indicated that he could find the one he sought here. Or at least, the people who had set this place up would know where to find him.

He steps up to the doors of the sanctuary and raises his fist to knock at the door, three times. The sound reverberates in the silence, a loud, rythmic pounding that is so exquisitely timed it might have been set to the rythm of a metronome.

Hopefully, there's someone here who can answer his questions.

::Shea did not live there but she did suddenly appear there at thsoe doors, just beyond them in fact,the winds dropped her off again.Still with news to give and all and she had to give it before she went home.So with the winds will she came here,and on her supposed day off too..Jade hues looked to the figure there at the doors. Slent as the death had shea appeared there with nothing mroe than that sudden wind to give her away.She ehard the knocks he gave to the door.::

"Looking for Someone?" :: Dark blue locks tucked behind her elven ears witha gloved hand as she stood behind him. Jade hues kept a keen gaze set upon him,as her arms crossed across her chest,no she was no Scath Sister,no priestess of their order,but she was a'hired' with out pay hand,and she was doing this job willingly,so if she had to play guard duty here as well shea would.::

The Empress chose that moment to make her grand entrance that was in no way grand.

Her sleep cycle, always inconsistent, was so out of wack. Between switching residences, hellish nightmares, and scouting duties, sleep had become a precious commodity. When someone disturbed the little amount of sleep she was actually able to get? No no, Jewell was not happy. She had waited for someone else to go see who was at the gate; with so many women living in the Sanctuary someone had to be awake, right? Wrong.

She stumbled out of bed, literally as her feet got tangled up in the blanket. Pushing bed-head blue curls out of her face, she padded bare foot to the front gate of the Sanctuary. Too deep in her sleep funk, she didn't notice that the knocking had stopped. Opening the gate a crack, goosebumps running over her skin--so fully exposed by a simple, cotton, shorts and cami set--she eyed the man on the other side now speaking to Shea.

Leaning against the gate, she stared first at the man and then at the familiar Shea. The man, Shea. "What does he want?" She covered a yawn and rubbed at her eyes.

He turns as the front gate opens, looking simply to see who was at the door, more out of curiousity than anything else. He isn't prepared for the lady in her underwear with the blue hair - from what he had heard of the place, he was expecting someone looking a little more...well, like an Amazon. His steady gaze looks this one over quickly.

An elf of some kind, he thinks to himself - very attractive, even just out of bed. He's seen women in skimpier clothes, made-up to go out with wilder hair colors and just as good-looking, but this one puts them to shame, and she's not even fully awake yet. But then, there's something else, too. Automatically, driven not just by curiousity but by years of ingrained habit, he looks at her astrally, and just avoids stepping back a pace only because of his great self-control.

His first thought is that she's not human - her astral signature is at least as powerful as any of the greater magical beings he's met in his own world, with maybe the exception of the few great dragons he's run across in his years of running the shadows.

All this is taken in by him in the space of a moment or two, and a rare smile just touches his lips as he bows his head to her and turns back to the lady-knight on the other side of him, just in time to hear her utter the name he said under her breath.

Nearly anyone would have missed the tones of recognition she said it in, would have passed off the utterance as the simple repetition of someone scanning their memory to see if the name sounded familiar.

He's not just anyone, though, and what she says next is simply full of drek.

"Say's hes looking for someone, Gabriel Wolfe?"

Sighing, he turns away from the elf-knight and shakes his head. "Y'know your eyes just turned brown for a moment there, right? You should stick with the truth, 'specially since you lie like a rabid hellhound."

::Shea stood there arms crossed across her chest,jade hues shifted to the man now flaring silver for a moment at his comment to her.She wouldnt say anything just look at him and let Jewell do the talking. But that icy stare was set on him now,nodding to Jewell's 'better yet who are you?' Shea didnt lie,she just didnt answer fully,why bother in this town,to tell the turth to everyone you meet,got you in trouble half the time. Shea leaned now sideways upon the wall,silver hues shifted between Jewell and the man. Shea always picked the worst moments to show,that well proven now:: "Perhpas you should watch your tongue and answer the ladies question" :;an upnod to Jewell then::

::Shea noted that he was ingoring her now.Shea hadn't meant to be rude.Not really. Shea just wanted to kind of test the waters so-to=speak.Then as she saw that necklace and amulet shea cursed in elven under her breath.She knew that amulet,and the one who wore it,not to say they were friends of any kind. Silver hues shifted to Jewell then again,then back to Wraith::

"Lupinius..." ::Shea sighed then,leaning off the wall. Hues looked to Wraith then:: " He not exactly staying here. But he is in Rhydin.Try the West End." ::Honest now,looking back to Jewell::

"I had some info for Issy.But its late,and I am heading home ina few days,its dealing witht he whole West End,thing. Mr. Wolfe is one of the many of us who is helping out." ::Silver hues shifted back to Jade,as Shea shifted away from the doors. This was not the time nor the place,but Shea had things to do. She would speak with Issy later,hopefully before she left for home.Shea just leaned there.::

The wolf appears, much as the stranger had, without warning - he seems almost to slip out of the air itself, his form at first wavery and indistinct, fading in and out for a moment before settling into firm and solid reality as he nears. He pads up to the gates and halts, eyes fixed on the trio there, before the dark amulet at its throat glimmers with its own light, violet in color, a faint pulse that suddenly flashes with scintillating brilliance, consuming the form of the wolf entirely before fading to reveal Lupinius himself.

"Someone called...?"

He had, as always, heard his name called from where he had been resting, near the Rhy'Din library. He'd found an old, ruined building there to call - for the time being - home. But someone he had told his name to had called, and he had come.

He stands there for a moment, eyeing the three standing there. One of them - Shea - he knows. The Empress, Jewell, he knows by reputation only...and the last is a stranger. As his eyes settle on what the stranger holds, however, his eyes widen. From the amulet around his neck - identical to the one the stranger holds - comes a glimmering of amethyst light from the center.

For a moment, he merely stands there, speechless. The stranger is holding the first Amulet of Avalon - which he had thought lost forever. His voice, when it finally comes back to him, is low, husky - a mixture of reverence, suspicion, and memory.

"Where did you get that?"

His attention had been focused on Jewell, trying to think of a reason that he was looking for this Lupinius...other than the dream. For a moment, he considers telling her about it - the strange dream he had had upon his arrival here in Rhy'Din. Just as he opens his mouth to do so, however, the voice stops him.

"Someone called?"

He turns away from Jewell and looks at the new arrival, who for a moment fails to see what is in his hand as he looks around the group, it looks like, and he takes that moment to look the man over.

So this is Lupinius, he thinks - from what he had been told, he had been expecting someone who was a little less...ordinary-looking. Someone bigger, maybe. Once again, trained habit kicks in and he switches his sight, looking at the man astrally.

What he sees is enough to make him close his eyes as they water and look away - all that is there in the man's place is a brilliance of shifting purple light that shines like the sun, nearly blinding and painful to look at.

He blinks several times to clear his eyes before looking back at the new arrival, just in time to hear him ask where he got the amulet.

He doesn't miss the tone, either. Demanding, but reverent...emotional.

"Well...actually, this one and three others like it were given to me in someone's will...it's kind of a long story."

Her freckled nose wrinkled up as Lupinius entered the scene, she recognized him from the other night. She opted not to speak, listening to the two men converse over the amulets.

An up-nod was given to Shea as she moved to leave. Jewell made no indication that she too was going to remove herself from the scene. She kept that lean against the gate even though neither man had shown any interest of entering the Sanctuary yet.

"So, you gonna kill him or something?" Looking to Wraith and indicating Lupinius with the tilt of her head.

He turns back to Jewell as she speaks, and grins.

"So, you gonna kill him or something?"

He isn't usually big on magical beings - in his experience, they're too busy working out their own schemes and plans to even consider those they think of as 'lesser beings' as worthy of notice except maybe as pawns on a chess board - but this girl, despite her obvious prowess and power, he finds charming. More down-to-earth, as it were.

"Well, I suppose that depends. I don't usually go out for wetwork, but if you have a compelling reason..." He chuckles.

Still, in the back of his mind, he remembers all the information he had gathered before leaving to find this guy. That he was supposedly invincible, or close to it. That he had been stabbed, shot, even had an arm hacked off, according to one story - only to have the wounds heal and arm regenerate in seconds. That fighting him was like fighting your shadow - only worse, because your shadow didn't display the ferocity of a demon.

But then, he reminds himself, I'm no slouch in that department, either.

He turns back to Lupinius in time to hear him ask what he intends to do with the amulets in his possession.

"They called you because I told them I was looking for you - though I didn't expect you to show up. It's been difficult enough to find you - I didn't think it was as easy as simply calling your name. As for these..."

He looks down at the amulet, dangling from his hand by its thick silver chain.

"I was...told...to find you and ask about them. I haven't been able to find out anything about them since I got them, and the...source that told me to find you told me that you would know what to do with them."