Tacita

[written on her slate] "Yes. Three years. No, it did not feel long. That is the problem."

Tacita is a Folder of the Denseshifters, one of the order's most trusted couriers. She runs the long triangle between the City of Or, Scholar's Rift and Quillnib's Handle, carrying letters, parcels, and now and then a very quiet passenger.

Her oath name means "the silent one". When she took it she was a talkative young Stepper, and her mentor meant it as a joke.

Appearance

An Iridian with skin the colour of wet slate, faintly flecked with pale points of light that grow brighter when she's inside the Dense. Lean and long-legged, with close-cropped white hair and a crooked nose from an old fall. She wears the order's grey travelling coat, patched at both elbows, and a small chalk slate on a cord around her neck.

She walks everywhere, even in cities, even when it would be faster to ride.

The Lost Step

Seven years ago, carrying a routine parcel between the City of Or and Scholar's Rift, Tacita took a single step inside the Dense and came out the other side. It felt like one step. When she arrived, the Rift told her she'd been reported lost for three years, her Empty Step had already been held, and her boots were gone from the crossroads.

She hasn't spoken a word since. She can. She chooses not to, and she won't write down why.

Personality

• Calm to the point of unsettling. She doesn't startle, doesn't hurry, and doesn't seem to feel the cold.
• Very funny on paper. The slate is full of dry jokes. People who expect a haunted mystic are always disappointed.
• Punctual beyond reason. She has never been late for a delivery since the Lost Step. She's often early, by hours, and waits outside doors.

Relations

• Poppy Handyleaf: A close friend. Tacita carries replacement parts for the Density Calibrator into the Glimmering Ashenburrow, and Poppy is one of the few people who can read her hand-signs fluently.
• Nokk: An acquaintance she avoids. He talks too much, and he makes her nervous in a way she won't explain.
• The Slow Pot: She eats there every time she comes through the Handle. Auntie Grel gives her the seven-day for free.

Abilities

Use a Mage stat block, with these changes:

• Denseshifter. She can cast misty step at will and dimension door three times per day, without speaking.
• Silent Casting. None of her spells need verbal components.
• Weight-Walker. She ignores the Dense's doubled weight and never has disadvantage from being encumbered there.