My immediate answer to that question: poor stairs... :(

heh. I thought it was a nice blend of angry and sad and whoops, not always perfect that makes for a nice read. There was a wee bit of repetition with the word blood though. Hard to fix without going for metaphor or getting a bit less prosaic. Repetition is my bane with writing. I like that Lin'Lise is feeling less than happy with herself, but also thinking that Erasmus wasn't the strength or power she thought he was. Which is a nice contrast to everyone else getting angry about him being killed.