In a normal situation, Tyaethe would have been busy organising burials and pulling the bodies down. Normal circumstances meant that you only got around to burying the dead once the fighting was over, however, and they hadn't even gotten a good idea of what was going on. Normal circumstances would afford time to help the newcomers--captain or knight--cope with how wrong the world could be. But someone had gone and attacked their kingdom's forces to move some item or other and mercenaries had been dispatched to stop [i]them[/i]... there was too much at play to walk off right now. All she could do was keep being a pillar.

"You just killed the last witness that could tell us where your goal went," the paladin said, sword levelling itself at the cooling corpse, "Whatever they were smuggling was important enough to justify assaulting the King's men and impersonating the garrison of this fortress. Unless you have decided to lower yourself to treason, we are the [i]Iron Roses[/i] and able to negotiate it as a completed mission even if the item is confiscated. I, personally, should have the ability to pay any lost cost, as a duchess." [i]And I need to find someone who could accept the title, soon.[/i]

The red eyes looked into Alette's again, growling "Now, unless you still claim the item is harmless despite the three forces involved in this, could you please tell us [i]what it is?"[/i]