It still must be very early for I can sense the coming of the dawn, but it has not yet arrived. The room we occupy remains quite dark. A rustling noise comes from nearby, awakening and alerting me to another presence in our room.

"Who is there?" I ask in an audible whisper, knowing that it is not Julian moving about the room, since he is still laying next to me in bed.

No response is forthcoming.

"Julian, wake up! I think someone is in the room!"

I hear a shuffling noise and then nothing until Julian grogily responds.

"Mari? What is going on?" he asks.

"I think we have had an intruder. Quick, get up please. We need light!"

I hear him sigh heavily but then he reluctantly obliges me. He moves to the window and pulls open the covering. A dim, red glow fills the room from the sun just approaching the horizon. A parchment scroll is revealed to be sitting at my feet on our bed.

"What is this?" I ask, picking it up.

I get out of bed and join Julian at the window. I turn the rolled parchment toward the light in an attempt to make out the seal.

"This seal looks familiar but I cannot place it at the moment," I tell him.

"May I?" Julian reaches for the scroll and takes a closer look at the seal. "It is Corwin's seal."

I look at him in disbelief. Julian breaks the seal and unrolls the scroll, holding it up to what little light there is so that we may both observe what is written upon the parchment.

"How strange! This is written in a script I do not recognize. Julian, are you able to read it?"