Walden smiled at Gareth, turning to look at him, "He's you're Commander to, Gareth. We both take orders from him." Walden replied, before looking back to Sophia, "Thomas wants her to be taken to Bernard's Holdfast, a small keep within the Palace, that's located slightly underground." Walden replied, as he turned to look between Jezin and Gareth, "You're right, it's not safe to be moving around, but something bigger than the Palace Guards and the Order of the Thistle is taking place right now. I'd rather take 1 minute of danger out in the open, than certain danger and conflict by staying in the same place." Walden replied, as he walked back to the door, and took a step out, looking around, "It should be just us in Bernard's Holdfast." He ended, with a friendly smile, looking back to his companions.

"How did someone as dense as you survive so long?" Wallace spat, his head jerked and fell slightly forward, leaving even less distance between the two men. His vision returned, he was done, the letter had shown him enough and he knew judgment lay at the tower. Thomas would sort himself out, as he always did. Worry fluttered away from him. "Look around you. Where is my guard? What's happening while you play the fool and squabble exactly like I made you to? For the moment, this is no longer between us. I've got what I wanted, I can tell just looking at you." Slowly, Canti's expression contorted, a slimy, mocking smile took hold of him. "Let's go to the Tower then. I will watch you kill yourself when we get there." He lifted his hands from the glass, offering them out to Thomas as he eyed him smugly. They were all perfectly safe to veer on the side of reason. He knew what the man in front of him would do, needed it to happen. It was refreshing to have someone he could be open with, but Thomas had no ears for him at the current. It was a shame, because it had been the last chance. Briefly, he wondered what Karl Leid had been planning before his vision refocused on Thomas. He couldn't tell if he loved or hated having someone like him around.

---

As Sir Pyp charged forward, the man's sword came up in one hand. The swift motion flung his short cloak back across his shoulders, revealing the clean cut white shirt and black uniform trousers beneath. He maneuvered the tip deftly, locating his foe's sword mid-swing. He slowed the blade, holding only the slightest contact as he veered to his foe's right side with the rolling steps of a light fighter. The other man's speed was impressive, not the kind of clunky knight he'd come to Keilaudrin expecting but quite like the men he'd fought beside for years. Pyper caught him in his turn, and he was shoved back, having just enough space between him and the battlements to catch on one foot before he careened backwards at the hips over the wall. He turned, desperately stopping himself and managing to straddle the battlements some distance down the line from the knight. He leaned over, giving a reassuring hand-wave to below before looking back at Pyper. "Are all of you backwater knights so jumpy?" He asked, catching his breath from the shock that nearly toppling had been. He brought his wall-side leg up and prepared to dismount the wall the long way in case the knight charged him again. "Send her over before the Yellows get here," he man said with an encouraging nod of his hood-veiled head.

Feril had been slowly creeping up the stairs anyway, peaking her head around the bend sheepishly at each step to figure out what was taking the knight so long. Each step seemed to grow more rickety as she neared the top, and eventually she froze as the first sliver of the walls crept into view through the door frame up ahead. Nothing was visible, but she could hear a commotion and talking and decided to keep well back from whatever was happening on the walls. It did her no good to assume that she was the 'her' being referred to. There was no running, however, she knew she'd made enough noise to be heard and running down the stairs in the dark was out of the question unless things had deteriorated to the point where suicide was her best option. Feril grimaced.

Thomas looked down at Wallace's hands, and shook his hand, reaching out and grabbing Wallace by the scruff of his neck, pulling him somewhat gently along with him as they exited the room. Sure enough, the Order of the Thistle knights were all still in their positions, looking for any threat that may be coming in. Thomas glanced around, examining all of his knights, before speaking up, "Sir Walden, I want you to take Sir Issac, Sir Bull, and Sir Sven and go to the King. Relieve the Palace Guard from their defensive duties, and have them sent here, to guard Wallace's study." Thomas commanded, as he yanked Wallace forward, advancing as he did, "The rest of you, we're heading back to the Tower." Sir Walden had already started to make his exit with the three other knights, as the rest of the knights formed a square around Thomas and Wallace. Thomas made eye contact with the Regent, before advancing "Are you ready to die for your cause?" Thomas asked, gruffly, shoving Wallace forward.

---

Sir Pyper judged the man, taking a moment to judge the situation, before looking back at Feril at motioning with his hand for her to follow up to him. Sword still drawn, Pyper reached behind him, and grabbed a rope he had attached to the back of his belt, and dropping it on the ground. sword still raised to the guard. Pyper didn't exactly like how easily the guard had given up, but now wasn't the time to worry about semantics. He had a clear way to get Feril out, before leaving himself.

"No, I am not ready to die," Wallace stated as the procession marched out. He kept his eyes to the floor, watching each tile go by beneath them as the group made fair pace to the Tower of the Thistle. Their path was clear, each group of guards seeming to have sloughed off to some duty or another. As they paced the empty corridors, he couldn't help but whistle a merry little sea-tune, one he'd heard only that day. With each step they grew closer, he found himself excited. For all he knew, all he saw, Thomas had in fact put out one of his eyes. Poetic justice had ensued but he thought Thomas was doing very well for one of his condition. What lay beyond the walls was a mystery, and of course the Tower was the place Thomas had chosen. Slowly, his whistling died, he couldn't keep the pace. He doubted there would even be words for him to say when they got there, he certainly didn't intend to talk to Thomas out of bounds. It wasn't out of spite or a need to withhold information: that was what would make the man do what needed to be done.

---

Feril slowly emerged from the stairwell as she was bid walking out to see that Sir Pyper had found a rope and a peculiar stranger had joined them on the walls, quite on the battlements. He stood there simply watching and waiting with an expectant look on his face like the actors were moving too slowly on the stage. "What do you expect me to do with that?" Feril asked, looking between the rope and the battlements with a slowly growing dismay. It wasn't as if there was much more she could go through that day, but scaling the palace walls wasn't something she particularly wanted to do. Waiting until the long way became available was a much more attractive action, but she wasn't in a position to argue. Decided on at least hearing him out, her eyes settled on Pyper, who seemed more than at odds with their new guest. The danger didn't quite register, even though they were both armed. The other man looked harmless, postured up on the stones.

The procession of knights eventually made it to the Tower, without any problems, which actually surprised Thomas. One of the knights unlocked the door, and the entire duty of knights filed in. Some knights bore faces of self-congratulation, others stayed stone faced, and still others seemed still slightly confused on why they arrested the Regent, "Sir Jason, Sir Lewyn. You'll accompany me to the study in order to interogate Wallace. The rest of you stay prepared." Thomas ordered, as he yanked Wallace up the stairs to the top of the Tower, his grip growing tighter, and more stern. Sir Jason, and Sir Lewyn filed in behind up, ascending the stairs slightly behind Thomas. Once they made it to the top, Thomas shoved Wallace through the door, which Thomas had left slightly opened, with enough force to cause Wallace either to crash into something, or fall down.

---

"Take the rope and find a way out of the Palace, but not right here." Pyper explained, as he still held the sword towards the guard, "Don't trust any of the Palace Guardsmen you see, and don't tell anyone where you're going. Make sure you find a empty place to leave, they can't watch everywhere." Pyper further went on, as he looked back at Feril for a moment, "Remember, food, water, and a horse." He reminded her, before looking back at the guard, making sure to stand firmly between him and Feril Tatchet, "Why is the Palace Guard out here? The bells came from the Tower of the Thistle. That always mean internal issue, not external." He asked, slightly lowering his sword as he did so.

Wallace crashed through the door, losing his balance and rolling sloppily over the floor. He finally came to rest in a heap on the floor. Trembling, the man brought himself to set up, and could only stare at what he was seeing. On top of the segment of the circular table furthest from the door, the seat reserved for the commander, a black bag lay across the desk. It was as large as a person, and the association immediately brought into his mind what the bag was. From where he sat, the unmistakeable toe segments of two black boots were visible propped upon the bag. Instinctively, he knew who it was. As the door wobbled and eventually settled fully open, it revealed somebody setting in the chair of the commander, ungraciously propped back and resting their legs. As the Knights of the Thistle appeared in the doorway, one of the legs drew back and kicked the bag, turning it on the table and letting its contents spill. Lexine Tristan fell from the bag, legs first. The corpse fell and stuck its back against the desk, the dead woman's head limply faced to the door. Even from across the room, with the damaged state of Lexine's head, the resemblance was immediately apparent when the girl in the chair stood up. The same sharp face, the only difference the thin white line of a scar crossing the living Lexine's face, under both eyes and across the bridge of the nose like some macabre artist had taken the time to get the mark right.

---

Feril had no trouble processing what the man was saying to her, the problem was that none of it made any sense. What could have possibly happened in the span of a few hours that made the entire palace guard the enemy and the Knights of the Thistle suddenly her sympathetic allies? Whatever, she was being told to run and she wanted that. Her tenure as a foot courier had been short but it'd been a lot more fun than the horse beat. The red-clad girl snatched up the rope in both hands and with only a timid not to Sir Pyper started running away down the wall away from the two men. No longer her problem. The girl quickly disappeared into the night down the wall, in search of a place she could fix the rope and climb down. Finding her horse and making use of a free paycheck would come next.

The man the wall smiled as he watched Feril run away down the wall. It wasn't an explanation the Letty would be particularly happy with but finding a courier in a city wasn't something beyond his section. Satisfied with the outcome, he sheathed his sword and was about to slip down the wall when Pyper began to talk to him again. A couple questions. He was utterly surprised to still be being called a guard but decided to make the most of it. "An internal issue means securing the perimeter all the same. Nobody gets in or out without the blessing of the King. A lot of people got called inside recently, so as you can see the perimeter guard is stretched pretty thin. Didn't even get regulation armor," he said, chuckling at the circumstances.

Thomas marched in, as soon as Wallace bursted through the wall, making eye contact with the black bag the same time Wallace locked eyes with it. Thomas froze in place, although he could hear Sir Jason and Sir Lewyn pull their swords, and step up on his flank, but Thomas dare not break eye contact with the now revealed body of one Lexine Tristan. He knew someone was in the commander's seat, but that didn't change his gaze from the body. After a moment, he pulled his gaze away from the body, and stared at the almost identical-copy of Lexine, with a cadre of scars along her face. Thomas couldn't find his words at first, almost too surprised to react. So many questions that flew through his mind all at once, but the only question he could find the words for was a relatively simple one, "Why?" Thomas managed to croak out, searching to find his motivation and cross the floor, to run his sword through her gut, but all the harder he tried, the harder it was to find. Confusion. The first time Thomas had felt such a sudden surge of confusion that it left him nearly reactionless. It seemed that Jason and Lewyn were in the same predicament, as Thomas heard no signs of protest of the current situation beside him.

Wallace slowly stood up, wobbling uncertainly on his feet. The jostles of the night were getting to him already, frail as he was. The corpse still hurt to look at, and he turned his back on Lexine and the newcomer to stare back at Thomas and his assistants. "You can murder her too right? This time, we can sweep it under the rug without Cole and his theatrics," he smiled broadly even as he accused Thomas. His voice didn't have a hint of pleading in it as he suggested darkness to the man. The actual results of covering things up further were hazy, even to him, but that was the way he liked it. "The truth is, you're the one with secrets to keep, Morgan." Ones he hadn't quite found for himself yet. As he raced through his bluff, he thought over to the palace and wondered what was happening there. Gareth hadn't come running along like he half hoped and the nosey Lyoki who'd found the body the first night was absentee as well. It only suggested that the Order had beat him on both punches.

As he spoke, the girl at the far end of the table started to make her way around. Slow, heavy footsteps as she left Lexine's body behind. Her hands came up to her throat unfastening the buckle at the neck of her gray-blue cloak. The cloak was tossed aside, flying with the arc of a much heavier garment and crashing down on the table's surface with a series of vaguely metallic thuds. Underneath, she was apparently unarmed, sporting a buttoned shirt and pants worn over her boots, the same styling as the set that had accompanied Lexine. Silence prevailed for the stranger, and she stopped halfway down the room to continue watching the quartet of men entering the room with a quizzical, evaluating glare. Something far more important than her business was happening, that alone was clear.

Thomas kept his eye locked with the stranger, the entire time Wallace spoke, until Wallace implied Thomas had secrets to hide. A look on instant fury took Thomas' face, as he reached out to slap the man across the face, trying to knock some sense into the old man, or just knock him enough to get him to shut up. After he had made the slap, Thomas turned his gaze back to the woman, his indifferent look back on his face. Thomas gripped Harmony, tightly, clearing his throat as he did so, "You won't be leaving this room without chains." Thomas said, simply, yet made no movement to attack, or any movement to raise Harmony, "I'll ask one more time; Why are you here?" Thomas asked, shrugging his shoulders as he did so, indicating his frustrated confusion with the matter before him.

Jezin looked back and forth between Gareth and Walden. The half-elf seemed to agree with him that moving from their current position was dangerous. Something didn't feel right. When he had spoken to Thomas, the Commander had mentioned returning to their quarters, not coming to Gareth's, and certainly not going to Bernard's Holdfast. Jezin looked at Gareth with a look that seemed to indicate some kind of mutual agreement that things were awry. He cautiously took a few steps forward, placing himself behind Walden. His grip on the hand-and-a-half sword tightened, but he made no motion to raise it. "Sir Walden, I spoke to Thomas earlier, and he made no mention of this place. Shouldn't we have fled there in the first place if it was safer?" His voice was slightly less friendly now, his eyes locked with Walden's. He hoped desperately that his gut feeling was wrong.

Sophia looked confusedly between Gareth and Jezin. They seemed to think something was wrong. She felt a hand grip her around the arm. Looking to her right, she saw Eva's hand, which had previously been patting her, wrapped tightly around her forearm. The woman had stopped tapping the dagger in her other hand on the ground, and now held it tightly. The Tauran looked towards Sophia quickly, before turning her eyes back to the situation at hand. The princess couldn't find words. She saw nothing wrong with Sir Walden's proposition, but both Jezin and Gareth didn't like the idea.

Wallace was ready to continue with Thomas before the man struck him across the face. Reflexively, he staggered backwards, locking eyes on the offender with a look of more disappointment than anger. He began to back away from the trio, slowly approaching one of the walls of the room where he would at least have some buffer space between the two parties. Holding his sore jaw, he resigned to simply watching the festivities as he'd promised Thomas. He'd use that time to find his way out of the Tower. There was always one, it really only depended on how much he was willing to give up.

Attention had shifted over to her. She watched the older man disengaged from the conversation, and followed his creep towards the wall out of the corner of her eye. Thomas' remark fell on deaf ears, but his question caused her eyes to snap back over to the knight and his compatriots, where they danced between the three waiting for some untoward movement. It took a moment to gather the words, for a while it might have even looked like she opted not to reply, but eventually the girl spoke up. "I am here to investigate the death of Maria Trinan." She started walking forwards again, closing on the three with slow, calculated steps and watching for a reaction. The investigator halted, still far from the men but no longer needing to raise her voice to be heard. "I have questions too, Thomas Morgan. How much time can you spare?" She nodded her head towards Wallace as she asked. That man was also on the shortlist but what little diplomacy she understood was telling her that Canti was not coming with them at the current.

Thomas half-smirked to himself at her question, before following her gaze to Wallace, "Grab Wallace and hold him, would you Lewyn?" Thomas said, watching as Lewyn marched over to Wallace, sword drawn and attempted to grab the regent's arm. Thomas then turned back to the woman. She had called Lexine Tristan by a different name. 'Maria Trinan'. Thomas wasn't about to split hairs and play guessing games, who play cat and mouse with his new guest, "Depends on how well you convince me not to arrest you, and throw you in a cell." Thomas replied. The woman was obviously some sort of foreign authority, which did not bother Thomas in the least. The woman had some connection with Lexine Tristan, a known enemy of the state, "Start talking." Thomas said, as he walked up to the table, and placed Harmony on the top, hilt facing him. Thomas glanced back at Jason, whom had sheathed his sword, and exchanged an indifference glance with Thomas, before turning his attention back to the woman.

"This doesn't feel right. Are you really Walden?" Gareth was now questioning the man. Anything was possible. Sophia was in danger, and the enemy could be doing anything they could to get their hands on her. "Walden should be wherever the rest of the Order is." Jezin was right, it didn't seem like Thomas would order them to go to Bernard's Holdfast, and moreover, a secluded location without anybody that could help them seemed suspicious. His voice turned venomous and questioning. This didn't feel like the Walden he trusted, and a sinking premonition in his heart nagged at him.

Walden nodded, "Aye, he wished for you to hole up in Sophia's quarters, but that was before Bernard's Holdfast was locked down. I found Bernard's Holdfast empty, and knew it would be safer to move you lot there." Walden admitted to his lie that Thomas had commanded him, "Thomas and I had found the place, but had decided to save it for the King. The King is safe in his quarters, however, and Sophia's safety is of utmost importance. I knew if I asked Thomas he wouldn't of allowed it. He cares too much for his King." Walden replied to Jezin, still glancing out into the hallway. At Gareth's question, Walden bursted out into a contained laughter, before turning back to the young squire, "Are you feeling alright, Mister Harker? Of course I'm Walden. Sir Walden 'The Wild' Corenhall." He replied, as he saw that Gareth was serious, turning his own visage serious, "Why would I be with the rest of the Order? I'm in the administrative branch, not the armed branch. I haven't wielded my axe in combat for nearly 8 years now." Walden replied, with a concerned look on his face. Walden bristled for a moment, before speaking next, "Now listen, boy. You can be suspicious all you want, but I am Sir Walden. Sir Walden 'The Wild'. I didn't crawl through blood and guts for more than half my life, and earn the respect I did to be questioned. I told you the only people we two can trust is each other." Walden said, his puffed out chest making him appear almost twice as large, "Now, I would appreciate some cooperation, so we can better protect the princ-" Walden paused, as their was a sound of fabric ripping. In the middle of Walden's chest was the pointed end of what appeared to be a longsword. Walden gripped the pointed end with one end, staring down at the growing pool of blood on his leather jerkin, before looking back up at his fellow compatriots. The pointed end of the sword soon disappeared back out of Walden, followed by Walden collapsing to his knees. Behind Walden stood a shadow of a man, wrapped in black shredded robe, revealing a slightly armored body underneath. The face of the man was covered with a bandanna which was tied around the base of his neck, only allowing green eyes, and his blonde cropped hair to show. The man was wielding a longsword in one hand, a dirk in the other. Walden collapsed forward from his knees, falling onto the floor, grunting through a mouthful of blood as he did so. The man looked from Walden's corpse, to the rest of the congregation of the room, "Hand over the princess." The man's words could only be described as windy, and free-flowing. The man eyed Gareth's bow closely, waiting for him to make a move first.

Jezin's eyes widened as Walden dropped to the ground. A flaming glare crossed his face as he saw the man standing behind Walden's body, bloodied sword in hand. The sword in his own hand flashed to the ready as he took a step forward. Damn it all, of all the times for something like this to happen, it had to be when he was without a spear. His eyes locked with the intruder's. "Not a fucking chance." His fist clenched tightly around the hilt of the weapon as he took a step forward. He didn't bother to question the man. The time for that had been bypassed entirely. He glanced over to Sophia. They were blocked in the room unless he could get the man out of the way or kill him. He took another step forward, sword raised. He darted forward, making a sharp jab towards the man's chest.

Sophia shrieked when the blade pierced Walden's chest. In the same instant, she felt herself jerked to her feet. Eva still gripped her arm, but had placed herself between the intruder and the Princess. The Tauran woman's face was surprisingly calm for what she had just witnessed. She yanked the princess to the far corner of the room, gripping the dagger in her hand til her knuckles shone white. A tear ran down Sophia's cheek as she realized what had just happened.

Nothing changed as Thomas delivered his threat. For only a moment, she considered outright ignoring Thomas' demands but a cursory glare around at the other two knights revealed to her that she did not have enough rope on her to detain everyone in the room securely. The investigator watched the man set his sword on the table with a blank stare. The sword was still within arm's reach, but she wasn't particularly off put by the knight's caution. She sighed, looking glumly to the floor before locking eyes with Thomas. There wasn't much she felt would convince them to keep their hands on their side of the room, but she'd start what what she actually knew. "Sure, here," she said, reaching behind her back into a bag clipped onto her belt and producing a circular emblem, woven of fine fabric and black. She tossed her emblem with a flick of the wrist, and it fluttered onto the table closer to Thomas, revealed the icon on its face side. Eight simplified, white stitched swords, arranged in an arc across the top and all pointing straight down. "I am Maria Trinan," she said, unable to stop herself from chuckling at the corpse's expense, "And I am alive." The summation of her peaceful reasons, but making threats wasn't appropriate.

Gareth squinted his eyes as they broke the lie. It wasn't Thomas's word. But Harker highly doubted Walden would actually go against Thomas's word however wrong it was, given the conversation they had earlier. His eyes almost bulged with surprise at the sight of the sword through the chest, but this time, he held his composure, telling himself to calm down and that it wasn't really Walden who died. Almost immediately at the sight of the other man, Gareth loosed his arrow into the man's head, with such tension held in the momentum of the arrowhead, that if it were to hit, the man would likely die of a shot through the eye. And after that, through the corner of his eye, he spotted Jezin's charge.

"Alright then." Thomas responded, as he picked Harmony back up, and glanced down at the symbol, "Jason, go fetch five more knights." Thomas commanded, prompting Jason to pause for a moment, before quickly making his way out of the door, "There." Thomas said with some finality, as he looked back to the woman, "I'm still not convinced to not jail you. Ask your questions, and be done." Thomas said, glancing over to Wallace for a moment. For a second, Wallace's desperate pleas to kill the woman, and hide the murder, seemed some what appealing, but Thomas quickly shook the thought from his head. He would contain the woman, ask her questions, and allow the situation to play out fully.

---

The man had been lucky he had focused on the young boy, and ducked his head back, the arrow ripping across his cheek and tearing the bandanna off his face. The face under the bandanna revealed an ugly scene. The man's mouth was sewn shut, and burn scars covered the area under his nose, giving the bottom half of his face the appearance of meat layered over it's own skin. The arrow had cut across the cheek, drawing blood, and crossing minimal damage. The man managed to look in time to catch the princesses's bodyguard charging forth, sword at the ready. the sword pierced the thin layer of robe fabric, and piercing the light armor underneath. As it did so, though, it did not feel as though it connected with any flesh, but the man did bare a face of discomfort at the stab. The man quickly raised his dirk, slashing across the face of Jezin, while driving his longsword up, from the position of Jezin's hip, driving up and under the scale armor.

Jezin backstepped an instant after striking, but he still felt as the dagger whizzed by his face. A few strands of hair fell to the ground. It had been close, too close. He had inadvertently managed to dodge the attack from the man's sword. Thankfully, as it would've nearly certainly been fatal. The sword was still gripped tightly in his hand. It hadn't managed to find it's mark it seemed. He looked at the man for a moment, appalled at his ghastly appearance. The bodyguard took another step back, flourishing the blade around in his hands. It was awkward, but not overly so. Even in such a short encounter, Jezin could tell the man was a skilled fighter. He glanced towards the squire, whose attack had also missed it's mark. "Gareth. Listen to me and listen well. If I get him out of the way, you take Sophia and Eva, and you run like your life depends on it. Get the Princess as far away as you can, and I will hold this... thing off." Jezin took a deep breath. This man would not have the princess, not while he was breathing. He rushed forward with great speed, raising his blade, but just before he struck he ducked to the ground, throwing a swift sweeping kick at the man's legs, while holding his own blade between the man and himself to provide some defense while trying to knock him to the floor.

Sophia watched as the scene unfolded before her, her eyes wide and her face pale. Eva's grip tightened on her arm. She was sure it was bruising, but she couldn't even feel it. Her worst nightmares were coming true. She felt her handmaiden pull her forward again, before noticing the woman's orange eyes looking back at her. "If we get a chance, we run. Understood?" Sophia shivered. "But... but Jezin." Eva shook her head. "He knows what to do. If we get an opening we run. Do you understand?" Sophia nodded, still shaking. Eva gripped her dagger tightly in her hand.

Gareth fired one last shot, before he looked down at the women. "We're on the ground floor, Sophia," he whispered. "Where we run afterwards I know not, all I can say is we need to run." Harker grabbed Sophia by the hand and pulled her to her feet. "Come with me." His eyes gazed about, finding that through the door would not be their safest option. They had to go elsewhere, and his questions about escape were answered when he locked eyes with the window. Swiftly he charged at the thin window pane, and with a jump backwards and a tuck in, he rolled through, hearing the shattering of glass and breaking of wood and feeling shards cut his face in some places.