[center][h2]Anne Mayer[/h2][h3]Aventon[/h3][/center]
A brother and sister, reunited at last. No matter what else Anne had failed to save, she had at least helped accomplish this much.

The Knight wisely kept her mouth shut as the children fell into each other's arms, and took a step back to give them some space. The sight of their joy and relief warmed her heart, and even drew out a brief smile, though she knew better than to linger too long. By the time she turned away Anne's eyes had already become murky and unreadable, and a visible tremor shot through her left arm. She blinked hard and clutched at her left wrist, as though shrugging off the grasp of a ghost that had begun to possess her.

Even after all this time, her thoughts kept straying back to her own sister, who had loved her just as Alvin and Millie so deeply cared for one another. Of course, Pray was dead now, and every memory of their time together seemed tainted by the echoes of that loss. Rather than think on it, and let grief and regret bring her to her knees, the tired woman hardened her heart again and threw herself into a sober discussion with Kendrick.

She had plenty to share. Millie's dreams, the barriers between worlds, the warning about the capital. When the other Strangers returned from the forest Anne would tell them all as well, starting with Joker and Sanae. Those two were the ones she saw as being the most reliable and trustworthy, but she gave a general summary to Lewa and Rayne as well, along with the white-haired swordswoman Youmu. Mokou might be able to glean some details off her if she asked directly, but the Knight seemed to view Frankenstein with barely masked suspicion from the moment she laid eyes on the horned girl. She never acted on it or said anything openly, but always seemed to tense up when the Servant was in the vicinity, as though prepared to cut her down at a moment's notice.

The days passed, and Anne did what she could to assist. Watching over Millie, mainly, and doting on the girl where she could. Making sure Alvin was okay. She tried her hand at some of the manual labor, but proved clumsy and quick to tire, hardly any more useful than the ordinary villagers in that respect. Instead, she focused more on making use of her experience and going over battle plans with Kendrick, plotting out defensive tactics and evacuation routes in the event of a second attack. Her health seemed to be gradually improving as well, with the surface-level injuries from just before her summoning all but vanished now. Only the deeper issues remained, and so long as the peace held those weren't an immediate problem.

So, when the caravan arrived, the Knight was right there in the middle of the village along with just about everyone else in town. One eye kept watch over the children, who were doubtless caught up in the all the excitement surrounding the event as well, but things seemed safe enough for Anne to idly browse over the wares on display and look for anything that could be useful. Mainly she was searching for books or scrolls, anything that contained written information, as well as strange and out-of-place items that might have unique properties like that Herald necklace. In general, though, just glancing over what they had would give her a firmer idea of this nation's level of technology, and whether it really was all as rudimentary as what she'd come to know in Aventon.