Bloodline Echo: Great Grandmother?

Your third echo is hard to hold onto. It trembles and parts of it are indistinct. You believe it to be your paternal grandmother’s mother, but there’s uncertainty there. She’s a striking woman with long dark hair and piercing emerald eyes. When she moves, it’s with the same level of grace and deliberateness that you’re accustomed to seeing from Alder. In the first echo, she’s stripping off dirt stained gardening overalls and changing into a featureless black tunic and pants with soft padded boots before slipping into deep shadows.   The town she’s living in dates to the early days of the empire - while she’s come into the center of town from a farm on the outskirts, it’s clear that this town was designed to grow into a much larger city. Once she’s reached the heart of the city, she slips onto one of the highest balconies of the lord’s manor, letting herself in silently before going to one knee with her head bowed.   The shock is that the lord she’s greeting isn’t an elven lord but an Osyr. One of his lower arms is missing and it’s clear from the way he grips his staff that it isn’t just a magical tool, but something he needs for support. His voice is low and carries the rattle of failing lungs while his movements are slow and stiff.   You watch through several echoes as this (probably) great grandmother of yours moves about the town and surrounding farms - sometimes openly as a cheerful neighborhood busy body, sometimes with stealth in the night. She keeps meticulous notes about everyone and everything, bringing reports to this ancient Osyr.   The Osyr in these echoes asks questions without explaining what he’s looking for. Sometimes he wants to know seemingly minor details - is this person drinking red wine or white when in public? Or - what color of brick are they using in constructing the new school? Other times, there seems like a driven focus around a few specific individuals with imperatives to report immediately if they do some specific thing (i.e. if this person ever leaves town, I want to know, or, if this person ever has more than two horses, tell me immediately.)   The last echo you see, the Osyr is weak and in bed when she reports to him. She asks who she should deliver her reports to when he’s gone, and who will she be receiving orders from. “No one,” the Osyr answers. “You’ve followed my most important order - you married someone you genuinely love, and the life you’ve built as a cover is one you can enjoy living. My family line ends with me. Your family’s debt to mine also ends with me. From now on, you are free - you have a life, go live it. If ever you are needed again…”