I must admit I was somewhat distracted when Paige was commenting on the advice I had given her. I had intended to have dinner alone so I could watch the night sky in peace, but was also not about to force a grieving person out of what amounted to public property. I sat with her, as was polite, and shared food, but I couldn't help the natural aloofness I gave off toward her as well as any number of strangers like her.
Throughout those initial moments, my guest depicted herself as the type of person who needed help but didn't want to ask for it. She was hinting at it – subconsciously, perhaps – while feasting on the raw beef I had conjured, but her plight did not really serve to move me. Truth be told, my mind wasn't even made up on what to do about her even after she asked why I was in the cemetery in the first place. The swarm of fireflies that suddenly began dancing off in the distance probably sufficed as an answer for that question, but I still explained further so as to buy time.
"Multiple reasons," I said while popping a caramelized Brussels sprout into my mouth. "I wanted to see the fireflies tonight, for one. Also, at my age, you tend to find more kinship among the dead than the living. I won't be here long, as I like to sleep in the comfort of my own home, but distance isn't really an issue for me; nor has it been for many years. So I go where my whims take me, which typically means away from society. "
A solution hit me then: one of sufficient neutrality to address my distraught guest. I had no interest in altruism so late at night, nor did I wish to profit off of someone's vulnerability when they had done me no harm. Yet that wasn't to say I couldn't let luck decide. My shoulders involuntarily shrugged with indifference as I thought of that, and I soon conjured a pair of die between my fingers.
"But enough about me. I've decided to play a game about you." I showed the trinkets to Paige, revealing that they were just common playing dice, and then placed them on the table between us. "I've no desire to profit off of your predicament, nor am I feeling particularly altruistic tonight. So we'll let luck decide. These die will determine whether or not I lend my expertise to you and your… cryptic past, if you'll excuse the pun. If they land even, I will help you. If they land odd, however, we shall simply part ways for the night."
Whether or not the woman in front of me agreed to the terms that instant, I don't remember. I had already made up my mind, and had rolled the dice without waiting for her response. The pieces clinked across the stone in that heavy atmosphere, eventually coming to a halt under the moonlight above. One decisively landed on 2, while the other lingered on an edge before landing on 4.
Paige had won, and decisively so.
I didn't initially act on my promise to her, however, choosing, instead, to finish the last couple bites of my dinner. But once I was done with that, I looked her square in the eye and congratulated her. "Luck seems to be on your side." My hand twirled a pewter knife as I spoke, and was quick to toss that implement into the nearby, open coffin once the niceties were done. There was a loud shattering noise after the two objects collided: like a window being smashed in with a stone. The knife had held a charge of dispel magic in the blade – something I had put there on a hunch – and the enchantment was just powerful enough to break the illusion that had been cast over the coffin. "And someone was apparently trying to play a trick on you."
Now free of the mystery mage's deception, the truth of the grave lay bare. Claw marks decorated the insides of the casket like something had tried desperately to escape from within some time ago; and there was mud smeared everywhere on the inner surfaces. That spotless shimmer from before, it seemed, had been a complete lie.