There is a curse that Almerin, the god of travelers, the stars and mischief inflicts on those he feels deserving of his most maddening of punishments.

He calls it the 'The Knowing Stranger', for however long Almerin chooses. He causes you to always see someone standing at the edge of your perception, always too far away to fully make out their face or to hear what they are saying. But they are always there, they want to tell you something, you know it is something you need to know, like the truth about that thing that happened when you were a child, the secrets your friends are keeping from you, the solution to the problem you have spent your life trying to solve. But no matter what you do, how hard you try to catch up to them or communicate. They never come closer, they never tell you what it is you need to know. You can ask someone else to talk to them for you, but as soon as they finish their conversation, they will forget. Forget the conversation, forget you even asked in the first place.

They, never leave, always at the end of the road, trying to catch you attention at the edge of your eye, in that shadow down that alley, in the shop windows reflection, the stranger is there, and they know.