Lexine thrashed her body around even more as Thomas rolled with her strike, stealing some insignificant quantity of air in the time it took him to reassert his hold on her throat. Air in her lungs didn't mean anything, being choked as she was, but Thomas surprised her when he opted to go for her trachea. Agony, muffled by the ice in her veins, shot through her neck and down into her limbs. The injury he was making wasn't something she was going to walk away from, but her opponent was greedy. As he reared back to punch her, she reached out with the arm she'd swept with, which would have been perfect to block his strike, and grabbed at the side of Thomas' head in an effort to push it down. Thomas had shifted himself before, giving her a dominant side, and as he motioned to throw his finishing punch into her head she surged beneath him. The woman silently cried out through her stopped throat with exertion and pain as she felt something start to tear in her waist. She pressed her knees, suspended by the seat of the chair, into Thomas' back and kicked her heels into the seat of the chair as she twisted. She wouldn't have managed such a brazen maneuver if she hadn't waited for an opening, and even then every struggling motion her body could make simultaneously was barely enough in her fuel starved state. The two fell to the side as Thomas' punch sailed. Lexine used her newly freed back to pull away from Thomas, stretching his arm out to full length if he kept holding on and angling herself to take his punch cleanly on the forehead. Green eyes glowed with calm, calculated bloodlust underneath the knight's fist as it connected with a thunderous smack. A trickle of blood ran down her face, pooling a little beside her nose. Her mind was gone now, replaced by the cold and pain. Only seconds left. Without missing a beat, she hardly had to move her left hand from where it'd been left to ram it towards the elbow on the arm Thomas was holding her throat with.

Thomas could feel his grip loosening on Lexine. If she had one thing going for her, it was that she was extremely determined individual. As the two fell to the side, Thomas managed to keep himself stood up with one knee, so that'd he'd still be seated above Lexine. The dull pain of his connecting gave Thomas a small feeling of satisfaction. He could see her left hand swinging in to break his grasp on her throat. Due to the angle, and her continued excellent resistance to his choking, Thomas released his hand he was choking with, and attempted to grab the forearm of the left hand she was sweeping with. At the same time, as not to give a moment of reprieve, Thomas reared back with his other hand, punching into the same spot, but aiming the punch slightly down, hoping to break the orbital this time. The fight in Lexine was more than impressive, and Thomas knew full well that if he didn't end it soon, she could probably end up with a better advantage.

"Are you trying to charm me, good sir knight?" Payton asked, in a mock serious voice. After a few moments, she allowed Jezin to take the led, once more, "Are you going to try to make me swoon like one of your Lyokian girls?" She added, laughing as she did. In a moment, the King entered the feasting area, without much fanfare. Payton's mood changed as she became more serious, but her face was still that of a fun-loving woman, "It's about time the King decided to attend his own event." She said, with a short, but audible chuckle.

Gareth gaped at the sword on the king's belt; he presumed it was worth a lump sum of money and land from its appearance and Sophia's description. It was a mighty fine-looking blade. "Ah, I see..." Effortlessly, his hand lifted the pitcher off the table and poured a moderate helping of wine into his goblet, and he took a small sip from the cup, sighing with satisfaction. As he drank small sips, he listened carefully to Sophia's mellifluous voice, and Harker mulled over an answer while she spoke. He hadn't been around for as long as the princess believed, but he wondered anyway; the king didn't leave a strong nor weak impression on him in the few times he'd seen the king in public. "Ah, I've only been around for a month at least... He seems fine and moderate." Out away from the city he'd only heard of the actions of the kings, but never had he talked to one or met one in person. There was only so much he could draw about the kings with little information about them beyond the politics that concerned Gareth and his family.

She felt some tiny gust of life returning through her damaged windpipe, and reflexively drew in a harsh, ragged breath. She needed to keep going, Lexine intuitively understood that and nothing else save violence. Her arm was seized, but she kept thrusting with it, desperate to move it any which way and shake Thomas off or better yet, stop his next punch. No avail. She took the hand that had been beside the man's head and hooked it around his neck. Every part of her was screaming its own reminder of the damage she was incurring to keep up. On an aching shoulder, she pulled herself in close to the man over her. At a shallower angle, Thomas' fist tore into the left side of her skull painfully, but slipped by down the side of her head. She'd probably not be using that eye for a few days. Instead of biting, she looked down at the space between them. Thomas had switched to one knee to keep his high ground as they turned. It was fortunate he had such a big frame, she had just the height she needed to pull her legs in under her. She twisted in the direction they had tilted, and forced with both feet against the ground. She didn't care where Thomas went, she was only concerned with getting up, over, and away.

As Lexine tried to get up, over and away from Thomas, he kept up his barrage with his free hand. With her one hand around his neck, and the other being held in place, there was nothing to block the two punches he was able to aim at her orbital, before she tilted into the direction they had before, which Thomas allowed her to do, by releasing his grip on her forearm. With one hand, he grabbed her forearm of the hand that was wrapped around his neck, and with a thunderous power, he took his other free hand and aimed it to smash into her arm, right beneath the joint of the elbow, while pushing forward with his hand that had a grip on her forearm, intending to break her arm. It was almost over, Lexine would be dead, and Thomas would be leaving this room. Thomas wondered if she realized yet that she was not going to leave the room alive, and that this was it for her, and her miserable life.

Sophia smiled when the king got to her gift. He acknowledged her when he examined the weapon. She stood and bowed slightly. "Of course, Your Highness. My mother sends her highest regards." Sophia took a seat after speaking, happy that the king had enjoyed his gift. For a moment, she was a bit proud of herself. She had done exactly as her mother asked, and things were going smoothly thus far. She'd always felt a bit useless as the youngest child, but she had finally accomplished something. The smile on her face widened as she took another sip from her glass. She looked back towards Gareth as he answered her question. She was surprised he'd only been in Mullen for a month. "Hmm, he seems it." She looked back towards the king, taking a long drink. "Really, only a month? I took you for a local, where did you live before this?" The princess laughed slightly. Thunder rang out in the distance. Sophia's yellow eyes glanced out to the horizon. She hoped the storm wouldn't come in to ruin the party too quickly.

Jezin smirked when Payton asked her questions. "Hmm... maybe. On both counts." He chuckled slightly, continuing to dance, now that he had the lead. He attempted to twirl Payton, a lofty goal for a woman in armor. She seemed to have been doing well so far though. The Lyoki man looked back towards the king's table. "Royalty tend to take their time." He laughed, still keeping an eye on Sophia, and noticing that the king acknowledged her when he opened the sword. "Well, it seems he likes our gift. Did you bring him anything, my lady?" He kept up his smirk and calm demeanor. Over the music, he heard a rumble of thunder.

Lexine realized nothing. Thought nothing but the sensation of ice and a continuous dictation of movement. She was surprised by the ease with which he surrendered her freedom, without an attempt to stop her movement. She rolled over the man even as he seized her arm, pressing on through the daze of the twin strikes made against her head. She'd been ready to give her left arm for the maneuver when he still had hold of it, her right was nothing more. The angle was precarious, but she was behind or at least had a better angle on the man. With compact, mechanical precision she rolled to plant her feet as she came down on the other side, twisting her arm in his hold and taking full advantage of the awkward angles of their fight to force momentum and leverage against his fingers. His strike landed on her elbow, albeit far out of the intended angle, and she simultaneously leaned back and kicked off the ground with both feet. Her elbow strained, especially under impact, and her vision flashed in pain as she felt it begin to disjoint. Only under the propulsion of both legs and the keen balance of her weight, she broke free and was sent tumbling end over end the short distance across the floor to the wall. She snarled as her back struck the wall, garbling some unintelligible curse through her ruined neck as she strained to dig her feet in and press her way up the wall. Standing, if one ventured to call it that. The room spun in her vision, but actually did shake hard at that moment. Dust wafted down from the ceiling and the ancient stone structure groaned around them. The torches themselves flickered, but their flames continued to burn strong.

---

The small, unmarked box was finally brought before the king, having passed a glossing over by the guard. A passing girl in a red riding jacket stood shocked at the sidelines to see her parcel brought before the king, and slowly waded her way into the crowd to watch. Bard Urien attempted to conceal his confusion with the unmarked gift. Such things never boded well and he briefly wondered by which mechanism it had been allowed before him. Slowly, he opened the top of the box and visibly paled. Even the practiced politician couldn't hold his smile at what he saw. Sitting on a tiny, drenched, velvet pillow, was a decayed finger bearing a signet ring very familiar to him. Why wasn't there a letter? Was there no message accompanying what would otherwise be an act of war? He closed the box, forcing a smile as if he'd found some particularly well hidden punchline and hoping that nobody standing behind him had been able to look. Apparently they had, because one of his knights accompanied by a gaunt faced adviser to the king immediately disappeared to the palace, and the Order of the Thistle members immediately by him seemed to gravitate closer. The king nodded his head gently, setting the box down at the table. "A gesture between old friends," he said, unable to perform his usual address to the sender. If not for the glaringly uncomfortable smile on his face, he'd almost played it off. Then, without a flash in the sky, lightning seemed to shake the palace and the ground itself. The sound of grinding metal could be heard faintly in the distance, but any attention to the noises in the night was quickly stolen when a man fell through one of the tables near the king. A large, rotund object clad in a long coat, that for a second bore a resemblance to one Karl Leid, fell from the Tower of the Thistle. He disappeared in a rain of splinters and blood practically within arm's reach of the king, and silence fell on the crowd.

Gareth was about to honor Sophia's question with a response, but the bolt in the sky interrupted before he could speak. A loud crash was heard next to the breaking of wood, and he broke his stare at Sophia to look at the king's table, where the king stood looking grim and guards closed in. Karl Leid had fallen from the Tower of the Thistle. "Karl Leid!" He screamed and broke the silence among the crowd, him standing up from his chair and knocking it over. "Oh my gods!" He looked up to the top of the tower, and then he looked around him at the edges of the area, and finally Harker brought his blue eyes to look at Sophia's, himself frowning and appearing distressed, his face pallid and his body shaking. The half-elf balled up his fists until his knuckles turned white.

Thomas stared down Lexine, as he rose to his feet. Thomas wasn't too winded, but he was enough so to cause him to start sweating. Without a word, and seemingly in conjunction with the loud burst of lightning, which shook the very foundation of the room, he charged forward, attempting to to grab Lexine's face, palm first. Thomas' plan was to slam Lexine's head into the stone wall behind her, multiple times if he could. Thomas' other hand aimed a punch directly for the woman's side, hoping to catch her slightly off-guard. This left Thomas extremely unprotected, but he hedged all bets on that the woman was far too weakened, and injured, to think fast enough to do much about his violent attack. Thomas had been trained for years and years in the finer parts of swordplay, but nothing quiet matched up to unarmed fighting. There was never much thinking, just acting. As Thomas charged forward, his entire mind was an absolute blank, thinking about nothing other than how he was going to slam Lexine's head as many times as possible into the stone wall.

---

Redwyne Cole was standing at the end of the King's table when it happened. A tremendous bolt of lightning, followed by a crack of a breaking table. In a moment, Redwyne was covered in blood. In that same moment, everything Redwyne had learned over the course of his experienced life, came to life. In a instant, Redwyne drew his sword, and began yelling orders to other Order of the Thistle guards, but Redwyne had no idea what he was saying. He was a passenger to the events transpiring, his body seemingly acting on it's on instinct. Most formed a half box around the King, swords drawn and ready for any type of threat that might emerge from the confusion. Every Order of the Thistle knight had his sword drawn. Redwyne quickly made his way over to King Bard II, grabbing him by his expensive collar of his shirt, and yanking him from his chair. Everything every member of the Order of the Thistle had trained for was kicking in for them. It was likely a attack could be made any second on the King, due to the confusion that just occurred. Redwyne had seen it before with Arduin. Cause a distraction in one area, and watch as the sheep herd directly where you want them. Redwyne , still having a hold of the king, and surrounded in a neat box formation, made a quick pace to the Palace, in order to get the King to safety.

Payton seemed to ignore Jezin for the moment, as out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Bard opened up her special little 'gift'. She had seen his face a hundred times. The face of the panicked acting calm. As her eyes focused back on Jezin, she began to open her mouth before a bolt of lightning broke the air, followed by a quick and bloody drop of a body into the stone floor. Payton froze in place, all fun and warmth drained from her face, replaced with instead iron indifference. It was the same face she made anytime adrenaline coursed through her body like a stream. In a moment, her hands were shaking, now gripping Jezin's chest, as if in subtle fear. Payton was not fearful, however, she was confused. Confusion was more scary to her than any amount of fear could bring.

Sophia watched the king's face as he opened the last gift, wondering why he seemed uneasy. Her pondering was cut short by the unearthly rumble and the crash of Karl Leid plummeting through a nearby table. As the body struck the ground, a single drop of blood landed on Sophia's cheek. Her eyes widened with horror at the scene that had just unfolded before her. All the color drained from the princess' face. Her hands shook and the glass fell from her hand, shattering on the stone floor of the courtyard. She was frozen, unable to move from terror. She had never expected something so dramatic to happen, especially at the feast. Everything had been routine, they were just here on a diplomatic mission, why was all this happening now?

Jezin froze when he heard the crash. Lexine suspicions had been correct. Something was terribly wrong. He slowly turned his head to see a mangled body had landed feet from the king, and in an instant his training kicked in.He glanced to Payton, who seemed baffled by the calamity that had just befallen them. In an instant, he bolted, his coat slipping from the woman's hands. He ran headlong toward Sophia and Gareth, grabbing the princess around the waist and throwing her over his shoulder. He slight frame made her easy to carry. The girl seemed paralyzed by fear, and he couldn't blame her. A man had just fallen from the sky. He looked towards the king, who was now surrounded by his knights. For a moment he cursed the loss of his weapon, but now wasn't the time. He had to get the princess to safety. He'd be damned if anything happened to her on his watch. He rushed off, knocking people over as he ran, the princess still over his shoulder.

Sophia couldn't even register that Jezin picked her up. She watched as the scene before her grew smaller and smaller, feeling a few bumps every time Jezin ran into someone. She outreached one hand as they fled back towards Gareth. She couldn't manage to speak, but her eyes seemed to bear some kind of warning, perhaps a request to follow them, perhaps a warning to get far away as quickly as possible.

Jezin's mind raced. He had to get the princess to safety immediately. He struggled to think of a safe place, when an epiphany struck him. The interrogation room. It had seemed nearly impenetrable when Redwyne took him back there. He turned sharply and darted towards the palace, quickly rushing through the outer door towards the room. As he reached the door, he noticed a few weapons lying outside. It didn't register immediately that this probably meant an interrogation was going on. He wrapped his hand around the doorknob, but it wouldn't budge. "Damn it!" He shouted, slamming his fist into the door three times. "What the fuck is going on here?!" He struck the heavy metal door once more. He felt the princess shivering on his shoulder. It was clear the girl was terrified.

She swayed uneasily on her feet, trying to pick a direction as Thomas charged at her. Outside, it had already begun, and she could feel the cold comfort slipping away from her body in response. Pain returned in full and despite willing the sense away with all of her might, that particular control was long gone. Time was up, her seconds had gone by so fast. Learned doctrine flashed back to her as her mind returned. Her left, good arm, dropped down to sink Thomas' blow to her side on her forearm but his hand took her head and forced it back into the wall. Her vision spun, memories turned in her eyes where Thomas' hand should have been. She could hardly right her legs, but she had to do something. The woman's left arm, still better off than the right, reached out to the side. She floundered around as her head crashed against the wall once more, and found fire in her hand. The torches that lit the small room. That warmth, so much more familiar than the coldness that took her mind. She gripped the burning rag within the flame, ignoring what the heat did to her hand with the last discipline she had left, and as her spinning, starstruck vision faded away she struck out at Thomas' head with the burning torch-cloth. It was her last effort, as she completed her writhing attempt at combat, her mind finally gave up and she collapsed.

---

The king was swept up in his guard and pulled away like a child holding his hand out to a fire. Chaos ensued on the feast grounds as diplomats and representatives scrambled about the grounds, unsure of what exactly was occurring and what would come next. The loud drone of the party was replaced by the erratic shrieking of a frenzied crowd. Large swathes headed to the gates, but the cry came back from two weary looking guardsmen running into the feast grounds and declaring, "The gates have been brought down!" So explaining the noises in the distance. They had been severed from their guide chains and let to sink into the ground. It wasn't about to stop anyone from getting out, the palace had other exits, but none so broad. It would take hours to clear the grounds and the majority of guests had given up on that angle, instead scurrying for shelter in the castle. Indeed, what remained of the regular guard was in the process of corralling the guests into the great hall for their joint detainment and safety. Organized people were safe. Feril found herself swept up in the crowd, jostled towards the great hall with the rest of them. More thunder could be heard, distant on the horizon, and she was unsure herself if it was real or not. More importantly, what had been in that box and why had she trusted a woman in armor?

Gareth shook his head and began to cry; he was too weary to think coherently, but he knew he had to think about what he needed to do. Harker didn't have his bow, and in this sort of situation he needed it to defend himself from the chaos. Redwyne had given the bow to another Order knight, and the weapons of most all the guests were confiscated. He was left almost completely all alone as the largest of crowds swept by, leaving a ravaged courtyard in its wake and dwindling numbers of people that were just coming to their senses and fleeing the scene, Gareth among those people. His head ached, and his cheeks were wet as he slowly realized the growing need to get away from that place, his mind forcing his legs to walk to the front doors of the palace leading into the throne room. He was so startled as to hinder his ability to run, he could only walk in his shocked state, and quietly he begged the powers that were for safety.

Thomas felt the burn and pain before he knew what happened, He managed to get one final slam in, feeling her skull splinter into many pieces under her skin as he did so. He let out a pained groan, loud, and then a few very audible curses. She had struck him with the burning cloth wrapped around a torch. As he back up, he realized he could not see through his left eye. Raising a hand up, he felt the eye, crusted over and dried. Nerves were gone from that one little bit. He could feel marks around his eye, and there was no hair left to his left brow. Thomas cursed, as he looked down at the dead Lexine, blood pouring from her eardrums from her smashed skull. Thomas took care of the important things first. He tore off a few strips of her shirt's sleeve, and began the process of wrapping it around his head, covering the eye enough to hide it well enough. Thomas then began the next process. He tore off Lexine's shirt, with a large yank, prying the cloth apart. Inside, a neat billfold laid inside her shirt, but that was not the first thing he noticed. Under her clothes, Lexine wore a field uniform, with a large knife also inside the shirt. Thomas had no idea what type of military unit such plain clothes, but he was confused for a moment. Thomas then began the long process, and stripped the dead body down to it's skivvies. Dumping everything he found in a pile. A billfold with several documents in it, and three knives, that appeared to be fairly well made. Thomas looked down at the dead body, whispering, "Just who in the world were you?" Thomas was shook from his own thoughts by a violent banging on the metal door of the interrogation room, and yelling from outside. Thomas looked at the absolute mess he had made. There would be no hiding this action, but Thomas was lucky. He had possible evidence to support that this woman was a member of another nation's military, and was hiding it. Thomas pocketed the billfold, and let the three knives rest on the pile of ripped off clothing. Thomas took the key out of his shirt, and stood there in the middle of the room, a little too stunned to act for now.

Jezin cursed again, looking back down the hallway leading to the interrogation room. He slip Sophia off of his shoulder, placing her gently on her feet. She looked extremely shaken up, but otherwise unharmed. The bodyguard looked at his charge, his face serious. "Everything will be fine princess, just stay close to me." Sophia nodded, still struggling to speak. The bodyguard took another look at the weapons outside the door. Whoever they belonged to, he would be borrowing them. He had no intention of leaving Sophia unprotected, and he needed a weapon. He grabbed the longsword that lay nearby. Something about the hilt looked familiar. It was only when he drew the blade that he realized who the weapon belonged to. Harmony's milk-white blade shimmered before the Lyoki. It was Thomas' sword. He looked at the weapon with confusion for a brief moment before striking the door with his free hand again. Thomas had been off duty, what was he doing in the interrogation room? Jezin's fist slammed into the metal door again, this time harder. "Thomas! Open this door now!" Hearing no response from the other side, Jezin slammed his fist into the door twice, now yelling with all his might. "Thomas open the fucking door now!" He gritted his teeth, gripping Harmony's hilt in his right hand and repeatedly glancing towards the hallway, hoping the chaos outside had not turned into a bloodbath.

Thomas froze as another gang rang out, and yelling assaulted his ears. Yelling from a man Thomas knew. Jezin. Thomas stood for a another moment, weighing his options, before gripping his key tightly and walking up to the door. Thomas looked back at the mess behind him. Blood on the ground, blood on the wall, chair overturned, a dead body with a obviously crushed skull, with blood pooled around her, not to mention she was stripped down to her under clothes. Thomas wanted to smirk to himself, he wanted to find some type of irony in this situation, but he didn't have the energy to commit to it. After another moment, Thomas unlocked the door, and opened it slowly, seeing Jezin, Harmony in his hand, along with a frightened Sophia beside him. Thomas went along, and opened the door it's full length, before speaking one single word, "Jezin." Thomas spoke, as his hands fell to his side. A man with a wrap around his face, hiding his burnt eye, and covered in specks of blood, along with one of his hands, which possessed it's own fair amount.

Jezin felt the tension ease as the door opened. "Thomas, finally. Things outs-" He cut himself off mid-sentence. Thomas had a piece of cloth wrapped around his eye, and blood clearly visible on his hands. The bodyguard's eyes scanned the room. He noticed signs of a struggle, overturned furniture and the like. He froze when his eyes drifted to the wall. A female body lay crumbled at it's base. Despite the state of her skull, he quickly made out the identity of the corpse. Lexine. His eyes came back to Thomas. The bodyguard's fist clenched around Harmony's hilt. "Sophia, get back. Now."

The princess backed away to the far wall, collapsing to the ground and shaking. She had just managed to see the mangled body within the room before Jezin warned her. She looked up at Thomas, a single tear rolling down her cheek, her eyes filled with fear. It had taken all of ten minutes for the world to fall to pieces around her. The girl had seen too many grisly sights for one day. She shook, unable to cry audibly, as more tears rolled down her face. Why had all this happened? Why now?

Jezin took a step back, raising the straight, white blade towards Thomas, his face iron-like. "Thomas, what did you do? What the fuck did you do?" He didn't shout, but his voice was as serious as death itself. He gripped the hilt of the weapon tighter, scanning Thomas' face for any clues as to what had transpired. "What happened here? I suggest you start talking. Now." Jezin's eyes were narrowed, his teeth clenched tightly beneath his lips. He glanced at the other weapons outside the door. He imagined they had been Lexine's. The woman's words of caution came flooding back to him. Maybe Thomas wasn't who everyone seemed to think he was. "Well, Thomas? Why did you kill her?"

Thomas stood in the doorway, silent for a moment, as Jezin steeled himself with Thomas' own blade, and the traumatized Sophia sat against a wall, distraught. Thomas locked his eyes with Jezin's, staying silent. After a moment of staring, Thomas turned back into the room, taking in the scene once more, before turning back around, "She was an enemy of the state." Thomas said, his voice level, and his expression one of indifference. Thomas, eyes locked with Jezin, with his level voice, spoke once more, "I stand in front of the One True God to take up guard of the King of Keilaudrin. My guard shall not end until my death. I shall remain celibate and chaste, hold no lands, and renounce any claims I hold. I win no glory, except for the king. I shall live and die at my post. I am the dawn of the morning, and the dusk of night. I am the Sword in the Palace. I am the Shield that protects the King. I pledge my life and honor to the King of Keilaudrin, for his is of royal and true blood." Thomas spoke, reciting his oath he had taken the day he joined the Order of the Thistle, capping off the recital with a sharp salute, with his right hand. The closed fist over his heart. The entire time, Thomas remained unblinking, his voice remained at it's even pace. If one were to guess, Thomas had just been going about his daily business, rather than just got done murdering a woman.

A fire surged behind Jezin's eyes as he took a step forward, kicking the stack of knives by the door and sending them sliding a few feet away. He raised Harmony's tip to Thomas' throat. He glanced at the battered corpse again, and then towards the pile of clothing nearby. He noticed three knives sitting on top of the pile, but none of them seemed bloodied. As a matter of fact, Thomas didn't seem to have any cuts or punctures that could've been caused by a blade. It seemed the woman had likely had no chance of getting to them during the struggle. "And tell me, Sir Thomas, is the usual method of execution in Keilaudrin smashing someone's head in? I hardly find that believable." Jezin turned the blade in his hand, still holding it next to it's owner's throat. A surge of anger overcame the bodyguard when Thomas recited his oath. "No man of any honor would do something like this. No knight deserving of their title would take a woman to a secluded room and beat her to death while off duty. Tell me Sir Thomas Morgan, was THAT in service of your king?! The king you abandoned while he was attacked outside?! I don't think I can believe that." He took a deep breath, his eyes locked on Thomas. "And if it was... then I'm sure Sir Redwyne and the other Knights of the Thistle will praise you for your good work here, don't you think? Why don't you and I pay them a little visit?"