Gareth reassured Sophia with a hand on her shoulder. "It will be alright." He said, reading her expression carefully. She seemed to also read him equally well, and they sat there for that moment, comforting each other. Harker also noticed the hawk circling above, a peculiar thing for them to notice, particularly because birds of prey only flew in such a pattern over a carcass. Something nearby was certainly dead. "That hawk..."

Hadryn dodged the jab with little effort, it would most likely only have grazed his shoulder if he had let it through. This Elf was taking his time, if the fight solely went this way then it would get very boring very fast. Hadryn quickly moved close enough to his opponent so that he could raise his sword and swipe it down onto him but still have enough space to move back if his attack went wrong. His opponents head was now unguarded and he could end the fight rather quickly if this swipe hit it's target, but then again it could be blocked or dodged. He at least hoped it hit the Elf on the shoulder or arm.

Thomas quickly sidestepped the blow, to the left. While, not as quick as he could move, due to his armor, it was still sufficient to dodge the downward slash on his head. Thomas quickly tried to set himself up for a quick disarm. He managed to reach out with his longsword, and touched the inside of Hadryn's sword, and attempted to disarm by sweeping his sword in a circular motion. It was likely this could be easily dodged, due to Thomas' current slowness, but counter-strike and parrying was a lot of what Thomas was taught. Thomas could tell his opponent was a lot faster than he was, which could spell bad fortune for Thomas, once his armor started to weigh him down and tire him out.

The man seemed more concerned with her statement on the nature of the continent, indicating his astuteness a guardsman. Still, she was a bit perplexed by his question. Why was Estovet prone to war, and why weren't things 'going well'? "That's just how people are. It's a big continent but there aren't many people content with what they hold on it." She shrugged, unable to clarify further. As he answered her question, she nodded her head along in thought. Neither her answer nor Jezin's proved to be any satisfaction to the woman. Pride seemed a quaint reason to fight to her, but it made sense that the dividing line between a person who proved his skill in tournaments and a person who did not was a desire to prove those skills in the first place. Unable to contain it, she started laughing. What a ridiculous question she'd asked. "Sorry," she said as her spell ended, "It wasn't your answer I'm laughing at. I have no pride to fight for, but I think I'm starting to understand the difference between us now." She paused for the moment, looking back at the stands and pointing her green eyes towards where she had met Sophia and another man. Sure enough, they were still there. That was where her questioning lead next. "What about her? The princess, I mean." The woman's speaking slowed, darkened. She was well aware how her next question could be taken by a member of the royalty's own guard. "If they sent me alone with someone like her overseas, I'd think they were trying to have us both killed. What do you get from serving? Pride again?"

Jezin frowned when Lezine spoke about the continent's issues. It made sense, he supposed. People were never content with what they had. He seemed a bit confused when the woman began laughing. He didn't fully understand what she meant by the difference between them. He had always been prideful, as long as he could remember, so the thought of a person having no pride was baffling to the bodyguard. He followed her eyes to the stands when she asked her next question. There she was, the princess he had sworn to protect. He thought over the question. Lexine was right, from an outside perspective the fact that they had no backup of any kind seemed unnecessarily dangerous. His eyes drifted to the ground as he thought. Finally, he spoke, his voice somber. "No, that's not pride. It may have been at first, when I joined the Palace Guard, but my motivations... changed." He scratched his chin. "I always fought for myself, for my pride, but this is different." He took a deep breath. "When I was in the Palace Guard, there was an assassination attempt. We were outnumbered, but still I fought. I didn't know why. I had no idea why I was fighting so hard for a family I barely even knew. I killed all but one of the assassins, but he broke through the door. He ran towards Sophia, but I managed to stop him just before I reached her." His face was blank. "I looked up, beaten and bleeding, and saw her there. That's when I knew. Here she was, a young girl who'd never asked for any of this, terrified and crying. If I hadn't been there she'd have died, through no fault of her own." His eyes glanced up to Lexine. "After that I knew what I had to do. I would be her shield. I would protect her to the farthest extent of my ability, even if that means I have to die for her. Regardless of my mission, she will stay safe."

Sophia looked over to the hand on her shoulder before smiling sweetly, the sunlight glistening on her yellow eyes. "Thank you, Gareth." It seemed they both had a lot of worries. She appreciated Gareth's comfort. The nervousness faded. She saw that Gareth had noticed the bird circling above them. The princess watched it carefully. "I wonder what it's doing?" The fight had started. Thomas seemed to be having difficulties with his heavy armor. Sophia couldn't help but notice that the man seemed uncomfortable in the bulky suit, perhaps he wasn't accustomed to it?

She stood still as Jezin spoke, contemplating his reasoning with the same tired look she'd been wearing most of the day. For an instant, she felt the other man was shortsighted, selfish, even. The obvious question, and its oft repeated answer, always came to mind. Why was a princess' smile worth more than all of the people suffering out in the streets and battlefields? Of course, a princess left alive could do more to protect them than one soldier. She hadn't heard such from Jezin, but part of her thought that a man who could think only about doing his job, in simple terms without the bother of what it meant to the world, was a lucky one. That was an assumption on her part, she didn't know him, and her conscience reminded her of that. "I imagine she's touched. It's a wonder she enjoys herself so, with that sort of incident hanging over her head." Royalty were targets enough as is, those with opposition dedicated enough to break into their palace and nearly bypass the guard were not often seen in public, much less abroad and without a protective detail. If anything, it spoke to the faith placed in Jezin and his skill. Maybe he'd done well to prove it in tournaments, and the thought brought a smile to her face.

Jezin remained blank-faced, looking briefly towards the princess across the field. "Maybe so. I'm glad she's able to." He looked over to the woman beside him. Despite her steady stream of questions, he knew very little about her. He lifted himself up from his leaning position against the post and leaned his spear against it. "Miss..." He tried to remember the name she had said to Thomas as he left. Lexine... Tristan, that was it. "Well Miss Tristan, you seem to have learned a bit about me. Why don't you tell me about yourself?" He was curious as to what the woman's story was. All he knew was that she came from somewhere up north and had traveled a bit. Surely she had a story or two to tell.

She stopped when the man posed a question to her, staring out at the crowd and considering for a time the faces in it. Well, coming up with a story was just as easy as a name, right? It wasn't right, though. She crossed her arms and simply stood for a moment before managing to speak. "That's a broad question, I'm not quite sure I know how to approach it." Obviously uncomfortable either way, she fidgeted with her tie, loosening the knot. "I'm a little like you, but I wish I had such a specific motivation. There isn't much I can say right now that's the truth. I'm here in this country retaining and tailing a man I've never met who wishes he never met me, and my presence in the country itself is only questionably legal. Nonetheless, in a roundabout way, what I'm doing here is for the protection of others. I figure if anyone understands it's the other foreign bodyguard here," at that, she motioned to Jezin, indicating who she was talking about. "And I owe you that much." But she didn't often let obligation get in the way of objective, and it was mostly a sense of kinship doing the talking.

"You are very much welcome." Gareth took his hand off, eyes back to the skies. "They say hawks only hover where there is dead prey." Whether it was a dead animal or a dead man, Harker knew not, but something had fallen. He took his eyes off the bird and focused on the fight, Gareth biting his lip, and in his mind he scolded Thomas and the Order for wearing such thick armor in a fight of agility. Certainly they knew such weight would inhibit performance... The half-elf only hoped Thomas could dodge enough hits to win and not tire early. His opponent was quick, and not only quick, but crafty. Winning the fight seemed a gamble now.

Jezin immediately noticed Lexine's nervousness when he asked the question. He listened when she gave up what information she could, but quietly wondered what exactly was keeping her from telling more. He understood her reasoning, though. Sometimes one's obligations had to be kept a secret for the sake of the objective. Regardless, whatever it was she was trying to do seemed to be in the best interest of someone, if not the population at large. The bodyguard nodded, pondering her reply. "I understand what you mean. I wouldn't have you compromise your mission for my sake." He pulled his helmet off, brushing the sweaty hair off of his face. The sunlight had been beating down fairly hard against his brightly polished armor. Though Lyok had been quite hot, it was also significantly more arid than Keilaudrin. He wasn't used to sweating so much. The bodyguard mentally checked off what he had learned about the woman. She was foreign, she was trying to follow someone, allegedly for their own good, and she was in the country under questionable circumstances. Still, she had a great many secrets to keep. "I imagine this man you're retaining is the Karl Leid you mentioned earlier?" He had put two and two together rather quickly, but hoped to learn a bit more about the nature of the woman's business here, if not anything more specific.

Sophia nodded when Gareth made his observation about the bird. "That's right, I wonder what it could be?" She watched as the combatants fought below them, hoping the bird wasn't a sign of something to come. The princess glanced over to Gareth, who seemed to have his eyes locked on Thomas. She could see the concern for the man in his eyes, and hoped somehow he could come out victorious. She noticed that the knight had removed his helm. Maybe her observation about the armor was true. It seemed to be more of a hindrance than anything. She folded her hands in her lap. "He doesn't seem very used to that heavy suit of armor." She thought Gareth had probably noticed the detail as well.

"Correct. He's been ejected from more courts than some lords can name. I doubt the man could afford or find a retainer, but he's the kind of person that needs one." By that point she was craning her neck to see above the crowd, although she was tall enough to stand even with most of the men there. It might have just been the boots, barely distinguishable from more casual footwear under the cuffs of her trousers. The other man hadn't turned up from within the castle yet, and immediately her mind went to the assumption that something had gone wrong. She sighed and lowered back to the ground from her tiptoed stance. "I'm compromising, but in the other sense of the word. Bard Urien's court has a target painted on it, there's a Lyoki royal in town, and every name in Estovetian politics has somebody worth killing under that roof. It's good to have people you can trust at a time like this." In truth, she was more concerned with what Lyok's interest in the country was because if there was one entity that could truly make her life miserable, it was any of the ones that happened to drag an entirely different continent's problems into hers. But, having friends never hurt.

Payton stood by idly, slightly away from the bustle and uproar of the stands, preferring to stand and watch the tournament. She had never been a fan of such hopeless hobbies, but it was always nice to witness two warriors testing their might against each other. Payton had very little knowledge of the battlefield, but it was easy to assume that tournament battles were nowhere near to the actual thing. That's why there were more knights renowned for their prowess in tournaments than knights renowned for their prowess on the battlefield. Payton shuffled slightly in her armor. She had taken to wearing the suit of armor when she first joined the House of Affairs, as it added more of a aura of authority than a dress ever would, although it did wear on her nerves sometimes. There was no easy way out of the armor, without spending more than a fair share of time taking it off, and it was never easy to be relaxed inside it. Payton scanned over the crowd, as she brushed the hair out of her pale face. She had only arrived a few hours early, but it was not by accident. She had planned on arriving slightly late, and planned on arriving alone. As far as she was concerned, no official in Mullen yet knew she was here.

Jezin's face curled into a frown as Lexine commented about the danger to the court, and by association Sophia, was currently facing. He brushed his hair from his eyes, wondering for a moment just what kind of threat lay in waiting. Politics were not his forte, but if they placed the princess in danger he'd need to make an effort to pay more attention. The bodyguard placed one hand on the hilt of his sword. He quietly regretted his registration in the tournament. If he was wounded he'd be far less capable of doing what he actually was here to do. He shook his head. It was too late to back out, so he'd have to make an effort to be careful in the upcoming matches. He looked over at Lexine, a certain seriousness in his eyes. "If anything happens, Sophia is my first priority, but if I can do anything mutually beneficial to our goals... I will." He looked over the stands, now more distrusting of the faces that dotted them than he had been before.

The battle on the runway dragged on for quite some time as the others in the stands watched. One opponent, light and airy enough to drift around his more heavily clad counterpart's blows, the other, trained and calculating to compensate for the armor he was loathe to fight in. Few significant blows landed, and it became apparent after a time that the match had become more complicated than simply speed versus armor. Instead, a tense test of stamina and planning unfolded on the field. As time went on, the senior fighter began to overcome his initial disadvantage, and there could be only one winner. Before Thomas' growing offensive could become decisive, however, Hadryn was declared defeated. A strange move that drew surprise and disdain from the crowd, but official nonetheless. It was doubtful that any party involved considered true sport done. Trumpets were sounded for the nth time that day, signifying the end of combat, and both parties were allowed to leave the field, either to seek care for whatever wounds they sustained or to rest for what came next. The announcer promised that the melee would resume, but not much else before he and several others began to converse around the king. The sun had dipped considerably and while broad daylight was still with them, there seemed to be some concern among those in the royal stand about whether or not the tournament would require a second day, with the melee still going strong, a whole bracket of the jousting undone, and the entire archery portion not yet started. Bard II in particular seemed troubled by the discussion, obvious to anyone watching the central stands. Though few within his court could even guess the issue it was truthfully because splitting the tournament would mean a longer night feast, and surely more time in the spotlight. Exactly what the royal did not want while he was still unprepared.

---

The woman didn't quite care for the man's offer. The time for errand boys was long past and the most important thing in this phase was ascertaining where the others' interests were. Jezin seemed quite happy to put everything about his mission on the table, which was fitting for a guard but exceedingly convenient. She did, however, recognize the look he was now giving to the stands, and felt it would have been fair to be just as open with him. Unfortunately, she'd just been on a rant about trust and she wasn't so far gone as to think that him know she couldn't be trusted was a way of building trust. At any rate, they both didn't want to see a foreign noble die while conducting diplomacy. Their goals and reasons may conflict, but why spoil it? "Keep her safe, then. Farewell for now." She said, her low voice barely distinct against the rising din of the crowd, who now no longer had a battle to distract them. The blue-tie disappeared off into the crowd, occasionally becoming visible among the people as she made her way towards the palace where her partner had yet to emerge from.

---

Something had just concluded, if the trumpets were any indication, but she hadn't had a clue what was going on in the country since she'd arrived in it a few days ago. The reason being she hadn't stopped riding since she hit the border. The poor horse had practically been ran down, a terrible tragedy considering how sparse the damn things were, but it was now stabled outside of the palace. The builders at the entrance had been particularly short with her, and like some plebeian messenger she was hunting down anybody who looked like an authority figure. The stands and tent city seemed to imply a tournament, but from what she saw the runway was cleared. Standing apart from the mess, a woman in full armor. A knight! Somebody from the court would surely know what was going on. But also probably a noble! The woman stopped in her tracks, straightening the bright red riding jacket she wore and flicking the trail dust off of the patch sewn over its left breast, the winged bugle of Sharpe & Millsworth's Courier Co. As she approached Payton, she cleared her throat nervously and spoke in her best affected polite tone. "Excuse me milady, do you have a moment?"

Gareth stared at Sophia with a raised brow. "How in the Spirits do they consider that a match?" Although he found himself happy with the results and stood to clap with the others in the crowd, Harker was in disbelief for the decision to call the match a victory for Thomas even though there was no true sport in it beyond a flat-out draw. He looked towards Thomas, Gareth leaning against the edge of the stands and looking for the knight. "Oh dear... I say, he won, my lady, and I am glad, but... that was an oddity." A weak smile crossed his face to greet Sir Morgan nonetheless, despite his intrigue around the decision. He supposed that perhaps the match was a little lengthy and dragged out for too long, but he would've thought that in the King's tournament fairness would've been priority.

Thomas smiled to himself as he was declared the winner, picking up his helmet as he did so. In honesty, the fight would of been won handedly by himself had he not been tied down with his heavy armor. Still, Hadyrn had not managed to land many hits on Thomas, which was a result of Thomas' Light-Fighting style. Thomas himself had not managed many hits, but the hits he did manage were impressive ones. Thomas didn't honestly want the victory the way he received it, finding it weird and odd that the tournament directors wouldn't allow the melee to play out, as it was the normal thing to do, and violated the honor of the contestants. Thomas made a note to refuse wearing the armor for the rest of the melee, as he would then be able to fight as he had been trained. The armor acted as more of a handicap than anything, and that match proved that through and through. Thomas' hair was matted to his head from sweat, and dirt speckled his face. Due to his dodging and armor, Thomas had managed to not take a single wounding hit, a feat considering the speed of his opponent. Thomas stood off from the arena for a moment, to catch his breath. It was obvious that the tournament directors had called the fight due to the length, and less because of the probability it would end in a draw. Harmony still remained in Thomas' hand, blood still marking a few places where he had found his mark on his opponent. While the opponent proved to have speed on his side, it was proven throughout the fight that Thomas had had the benefit of much more training, which showed through swordplay with his opponent.

Sophia stood up and clapped when Thomas was declared the winner, but Gareth was right, it was odd for them to call the fight, even if it had drug on for some time. Still, she was glad the knight had avoided serious injury. "Yes, he did. But you're right, I don't recall them mentioning a time limit... oh well." She looked across the field towards Thomas and smiled. Her yellow eyes drifted over the fairgrounds until she found Jezin. She still worried he'd get hurt. The thought then hit her. What if he had to fight Sir Thomas? Her heart sank at the thought. She was shaken from her train of thought by a hand on her shoulder. "My lady, I've been looking for you." She turned to see a woman with grey hair and bright orange eyes; one of her servants. "Oh, Eva, what's wrong?" "Nothing, nothing milady. Just thought you might like some food." The woman smiled and held out a loaf of bread. Sophia took the bread with a smile. "Hey Gareth, are you hungry?"

Jezin had started to speak, but before he could Lexine had walked into the crowd nearby. Something was different about her. Exactly what that was wasn't plainly obvious yet. The fight had drug on for a while, but Thomas had been declared the winner. He was impressed by the man's skill, though a bit disappointed that the match had been called off prematurely. Still, he understood why it had. If they took too long it'd be nightfall before long. He gave the knight a congratulatory nod.

Thomas glanced over the field, and caught eye of Jezin, who gave him a slight nod. Thomas smiled, and made his way over to the warrior, "Let's hope our fight doesn't carry on that way." Thomas said, as he walked over to stand beside the warrior, "It looks like they might go ahead with the midnight feast, and postpone the tournament for tomorrow." Thomas added, as he sheathed Harmony, carefully, and placed his helmet under his arm, "I assume you and Lady Sophia will be attending the event?" Thomas asked, as he finally calmed his breathing, and started to relax. The long, drawn out fight had taken a lot out of Thomas, considering his heavy load he had to carry with him for the entirety of the fight.

Jezin smiled when the knight made his way over to him. "Yeah, let's hope not." He looked around the stands. He could hear murmuring, even where he stood, about drawing the tournament out for another day. The mention of the feast reminded him of Lexine's warning. His fist clenched by his side. Surely no one would try anything... He shook the thought, looking up towards Thomas. "Yes, I imagine the princess will want to attend, she's been trying to deliver her mother's gift since we got here." Jezin forced a laugh. "I imagine you and the rest of the Order of the Thistle will be in attendance?" He threw a glance back to the spear he had left leaning against the post behind him.

Thomas adjusted his sheath as he stood next to his friend, "Of course. I'll be the only one not on duty, though. Since I'm the champion of the Order, they'll be giving me the night off." Thomas replied, with a slight smirk, "Gotta give your dog a treat once in a while." He added, with a short chuckle, "Where is your charge at, by the way?" Thomas asked, referring to Sophia. Thomas was surprised that Jezin wasn't by her side at this moment, but it was likely less a shirking of duty, and more of a trust in Keilaudrin, which Thomas could appreciate. Thomas turned his head to the stands, and began to gaze around, scanning for Sophia, and Gareth as well.