A brief report sounded softly on the wooden door, the noise muted in a measure against undue zealousness and thus annoyance.  Stoneheart’s irritation was piqued regardless upon the interruption, his perpetually dour demeanour deepening into a full-blown scowl.  “What,” he demanded curtly of the intruder, whose failure to respond could feasibly be attributed to Stoneheart’s low volume, or perhaps a reluctance to enter fully the frigid atmosphere forecasted by his clipped interrogative.  Nevertheless, the grimmer of the pair—for despite the interloper's speculative identity it could, as a general rule, be safely presumed that of any assembly, Stoneheart would be assuredly the most ornery—bristled at the absence of audible response and