Far in the distance above Korvosa, a perfect circle of dark clouds slowly forms in the sky. It swirls downward until it smothers the city. The distant booming of thunder reachs them.

The caravan guards and merchants are disturbed by this. Something is causing a magical storm! Did old Ornelos finally go mad? That sometimes happens to old wizards, doesn't it?

She timed her departure well, it seems. They're about... sixteen miles from Korvosa at this point? Probably just over that, maybe sixteen and a half. She could probably learn something from whether or not she hears the announcement, if she knew what spell it was. Unfortunately she does not.

"Are we safe if that comes this direction? I don't know how far magical weather tends to go outside of its spell."

"I don't think the wizard spell for weather can move, but I'm not sure. We'd better hope it doesn't follow us."

Over the next few minutes, the artificial storm covering Korvosa fades away. Tencednil doesn't hear any mage's decrees.

"Looks like it's fading. I wonder what that was all about."

Does anyone seem to particularly want to talk? They don't have that long if they want to travel another six hours before it gets dark (horses can no more travel in the dark than humans, apparently), but she's sitting for most of the next shift, so she should have the breath for conversation.

The ambient discussion is still mostly about the storm. Nobody is particularly worried about themselves—this caravan won't be returning to Korvosa until after they've passed through Janderhoff and up to Kaer Maga, and some of them won't be making the return trip at all.

Someone asks Tencednil why she always seems to be shaded, even in bright daylight.

"It's one of my cantrips! I don't know what it's called, I've never seen anyone else with it. It keeps the sun out of my eyes! I can see better in the dark than humans, but I don't think I handle bright lights as well. It's like having a little bit of shadow overhead, it doesn't do much, but it's enough."

"Can you cast it on other people?"

"Yes! ...but I've never tried it on a human. I don't know if it will work well for someone who can't see in dim light. We can try though!"

"Okay, please try it on me."

"Okay!" She draws on the shadow inside the wagon, reaches out... Penumbra.

For the next fifty minutes or so, the sun simply will not strike them. It will look slightly clouded, though with no visible cloud. There will be no notable effect at any single point. Over the course of an hour, though, they will feel the difference between marching in the sun and marching in just a hunt of shade, nothing enormous but definitely still there.

They can still see perfectly well.

(Her own additional shadow vanishes as she casts this. That's not a problem. She's sitting in the caravan, and won't be anywhere where it would really help.)

"That's very neat. I'm not sure if it'll help, but thank you."

"You're welcome! If it helps, you can ask any time I'm in the caravan. I can only have one at once, though, so only while I don't need it." A positive note to start off on, always good.

The caravan packs back up and continues onward.

The farms slowly become more and more spread out. The terrain arround them is a flat grassland. Their route is apparently called the "Dawn Shadow Path", a rather ostentatious name for the most common caravan route from Korvosa through Janderhoff and up to Kaer Maga. So far, it follows the Jeggare River.

Hours pass. The sun sets in the west behind them. The night sky lights up the grasslands softly. In the distance, a few lights twinkle from Korvosa. Some of them might be the continual flames that top the Acadmae's walls.

Soon after the sun sets, they stop and make camp. Dinner is served.

As the sun lowers, dims, and eventually sets, Tencednil becomes increasingly lively. At first it could just be resistance to the minor exhaustion which inevitably sets in over hours and miles of caravan travel. As the shadows grow, it gets more obvious: she is fundamentally not on the same schedule as everyone else here. The long shadows and gradual onset of the night is not an ominous threat to hide from around the fires for her, but a friend to welcome, an escape from the ever-present eyes of the world. 

As they settle down to camp (far earlier than her typical sleeping time, but that was why she shifted herself earlier over the last few nights), she looks much better than she did over lunch.

Well, that's good for her. Elves. The rest of the caravan is mostly quite tired. They eat and chatter and begin to get ready for bed. The unfortunate guard with the night watch sets up his gear.

What do they have against staying up in the night and getting to sleep through the sun? Humans. Oh well.

Food goes in mouth. She makes come conversation, gets a better sense of who these people are and who else she can rely on if they are attacked at some point, and eventually settles down to sleep herself.

Tencednil is woken up early in the morning by one of the other guards. The sun has not quite risen yet. "Good morning. We're leaving within the hour."

Well at least the day will start well, even if it gets worse over time. "Good morning."

Shadow blob pulled from her shadow, Prestidigitation-cleaned, and generally refreshed, she emerges within a quarter of an hour. "Where will this be most risky? I assume the first and last days are mostly safe. Is the risk just as we get farther away, or are there places in between which are particularly bad?"

"The most dangerous time is up in the mountains before we're near Janderhoff. Tomorrow and the day after. We should reach the feet of the mountains by tonight."

"I'll be sure to watch out when we get there, then!"

And to walking. She prefers the earlier shift, starting in a decent shadowed dawn and with some clouds and only having them burn off as they settle in for lunch. Definitely preferable to the later shift with its constant sun.

The caravan sets off right after sunrise.