Jason tossed his pack onto the cot inside his small rented room. He busied himself by starting a fire in the small fireplace, and changing out of his travelling clothes. As soon as he was comfortable, he sat on his cot and began unpacking the rest of his meager belongings. He was simultaneously upset and grateful to have a light pack, because while it was easier on his back travelling, it made for extra expenditures once the final destination was reached. His clothes, bedroll and travel supplies took up the bulk of the room inside his backpack but he never left anywhere without also taking his drawing papers and charcoals.

Many sights from his adventures had been made into forever mementos within his many scrolls back at home. His love of danger was only equaled by his love of putting charcoal to paper and immortalizing his fellow adventurers and their many treasures, places they have seen and dungeons they have crawled through together. As he often does, he began looking through his drawings, taking himself back to the moment that each picture represents. He spent a few hours taking turns, drawing absently and looking at his finished works.

He jumped as a light knock on his door, brought him back to the present. He set his supplies aside and raised himself to answer the door. A smiling barmaid greeted him with a nod, "Sir, the innkeeper sent me to inform you that your guest has arrived, she is waiting in the back room." Jason blinked, unsure who could be waiting for him.

"Thank you, miss, but I am not expecting any guests. Do you know who she is?"

"Oh no, sir, but she looks to be a right and proper lady from the Keep District. She is beautiful and well mannered," the barmaid added whispering, "would you like me to inquire after her, sir?"

"That won't be necessary, I will be down momentarily, thank you again." He bowed his head and the maid curtsied politely and hurried down the corridor to return to the kitchen. He shut the door and checked himself in the wall mirror beside the door. Deciding that his current clothes would suffice, he exited his room and latched the door, and began making his way down to the dining hall and its back room.

The innkeeper kept it for groups of adventurers, especially rowdy patrons or nobles to meet in secret. Jason made his way past many drinkers in varying states of inebriation. When he reached the door to the room, he laid a hand on the latch and took a deep breath before pushing it open. Warmth and floral perfume hit him as he entered the room, lit only by a hanging lantern and the fireplace. A noble woman dressed in a light green gown with short sleeves and white petticoats sat in a chair on the other side of the fireplace next to a large round dining table. She rose as he came in and curtsied in greeting. He bowed before her dutifully.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of meeting you, Madame…?"

"Please call me, Aria. There is no occasion coming that you could think of that might explain my presence?"

"Well, Miss Aria, unfortunately you have me at a disadvantage. I am merely a traveler in this region of the realm. I am completely unaware of your local holidays and special occasions, which can be celebrated by meeting a seemingly random stranger at an inn on the seedier side of the settlement in the middle of the night," Jason took a chair opposite her, and gestured for her to return to her seat. He decided that there WAS something familiar, or at least some connection between him and this woman before him. Her small smile, loosely coiffed auburn hair, and deep blue eyes were familiar to him, but not enough to recall their previous encounter.

"Well, my presence has nothing to do with a local custom or occasion, and everything to do with you. You are the one who has summoned me, Jason," she chuckled slightly as if amused by him.

His body snapped to attention at her use of his name, which he was certain he hadn't given yet, but she must have known it to find him at the inn at all certainly. He stared at her face, certain that he MUST have made her acquaintance before this night. The silence loomed as he searched his memory, surely with beauty and manners like hers he would remember her forever had he met her previously.

"You search your memory for me but you will not find me as I am today. You will find me as I was in the past, a broken slip of a girl, locked in a bug bears' cage, inside an abyss of a dungeon. My cage's lock was…difficult…for you to open. My body was lying at the back of the cage battered and dying," her voice grew quieter as she spoke and Jason bowed his head as his memories flooded back to him. "You spoke to me as you worked the lock, you told me your name, and told me that you were going to save me, you told me that I would not die a bug bear's captive."

"A year ago tomorrow, I unlocked that cage and held you in my arms as you passed into death," Jason whispered, as a tear rolled down his cheek, "I failed you, Ariathas. I couldn't save you. You never left that cage alive."

Aria shoved back her chair, rushed to his side and knelt next to him; she placed a hand on his cheek and turned his head to her. "You saved me from the fate of dying alone, and had I been able to walk I would have been free as the cage was open before I died. You mustn't blame yourself; you did not place me in that cage, beat me within an inch of my life and then forget about me. You freed me from that prison and gave me peace in my final moments. I could not have asked for more than that." She got to her feet and pulled him to stand as well. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him as tears streamed unabated down his face and he clung to her waist. She raised her head and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek and his eyes fell shut in an effort to stem the tears.

Jason opened his eyes and saw his room around him. The fire was dying, and his papers and charcoals still on his lap. A sharp pain down his neck the only evidence that he had clearly been asleep for some time with his head bowed. He touched his stiff cheeks and felt drying tears there. He looked down finally at his lap to find a perfect rendering of a dungeon lock, from a bug bear's lair he chanced upon one year ago.