Hilde crashed into a man as she rounded the corner. He was built like a tree trunk and she staggered back, raising her pistol instinctively. In her panic she nearly didn’t recognise Cedric. At the last second she jerked the weapon down and let out a ragged breath.
 
“Cedric,” she gasped, with evident relief.
 
Lowering the weapon she quickly pulled the trousers she had been carrying in her offhand up over her legs and then tied them awkwardly with her belt. She cast a worried glance over her shoulder, though there was no sign of pursuit.
 
“That scribe and one of the nights burst into my room while I was bathing and tried to grab me,” she said by way of explanation. The sight of Cedric’s face jogged her out of the shocked state she had been in.
 
“They wanted to know what your name was.” She didn’t give any particular emotional loading to the words. It was hardly uncommon for mercenaries to use false names for a variety of very good reasons.
 
“What is going on here?” she asked, glancing back down the hallway.
 
 
Isolde stared defiantly up at Gilbrecht. The knight’s aristocratic face wa set in a expression of cold fury. They were in her… room was to strong a word, cell in one of the western towers.
 
“You will dine with him,” Gilbrecht instructed, pacing back and forth as he spoke.
 
“I warn you witch, you may think you are too important for us to kill but I would rather you die than our work be imperilled. There are other wizards we could find,” Gilbrecht declared angrily.
 
“I think this is a desperate trick and that this fool is bewitched by a pretty face,” Gilbrecht expounded. He thought of Hilde and wondered if he too had been bewitched. Perhaps it would have been better just to let the pair die in the forest rather than risk the great work they were about. At the time he had felt Sigmar would not look kindly on abandoning his people to the beasts. He turned and glowered at Isolde.
 
“And remember, there are Templars here who have hunted the Empire for the likes of you. They can make your dying take days.”

[@POOHEAD189]