Fanilly found her trembling fists shaking. For a few moments she said nothing, glaring at the offending knights. This glare was now directed at Klaus, as well. Torture? Torturing a girl who knew nothing? Torture was not an act of the Iron Roses. Fanilly would [i]not[/i] accept torture. Never had the Iron Rose Knights accepted it before, and they would not under her. In a strange way, her confidence was briefly bolstered simply by how angry she felt in this moment.

"Gillian. Umbra. Klaus," she said, flatly, "We'll be having a talk once we return to Candaeln."

Trying to choke her anger back down, Fanilly turned to the rest of her knights. Tiral had scried the location of the meeting, and handed the note back to her. Therefore, that meant that they likely had to work quickly in order to had any chance of success.

"Iron Roses, there's no time to waste. We'll need to make our way to the Shrine immediately," she said, simply. "And we'll be keeping Lady Cal close in order to protect her from any possible kidnapping attempts."

Veileena immediately frowned.

"Hmph. As long as I have Haelstadt, there's no way I'm going to be escorted like that," she complained, "I don't need it. As long as my heart beats, Haelstadt will make sure no-one can do me any harm."

The bandit sat in the cart in silence. This was one of the most confusing, terrifying, and painful days in her entire like. When someone had mentioned she attempted murder, she weakly shook her head. She hadn't! She really hadn't! When she saw people were actually trying to kill one another she panicked and stayed back. She didn't even know that killing anyone had been on the menu, let alone so much death. Okay, the kidnapping was a valid accusation but... but she hadn't tried to kill anyone!

[hr]

It didn't take too long to reach the shrine. There, it was apparent that age and distance from any city or village rendered it difficult to care for it. The venerable structure was old and worn, and moss clung to it. Carvings of the moon were frequent across its surface, and a simple pool of water laid beneath the small roof.

Wild roses grew in abundance around it.