Aleksandra was almost immediately surrounded by huge men in silly outfits. Where she might have been frightened a few weeks earlier, now she had the urge to laugh. She quelled it and pretended to be indifferent, listening to their praise and admiration with a quickly growing ego. She could certainly get used to such treatment.

She finished wiping off her daggers and slipped them back into their previously hidden sheaths, which were strapped to her thighs. The motion brought some attention to her legs, probably more bare than some of these men had ever seen on a woman who wasn't a whore. Feeling a bit playful, she leaned back and crossed them, one over the other, feeling almost drunk on the admiring stares as they took in her scars and tattoos. She felt powerful in a way she never thought she would. She could probably ask some of these men to bray like horses and strip to their underclothes and they'd do it.

One man, apparently feeling brave after all he'd seen, was reaching for her leg. She let him, until his fingertips brushed her skin. Then she reached out and casually bent back his little finger, causing him to cry out and yank his hand away. Another man apparently found this amusing, because he threw back his head and gave a bear-like laugh that she'd come to learn meant Noxan approval. The laugh had attracted the attention of Aulfr, because he was walking towards her now.

She rose to her feet and took his arm, much to the disappointment of her many male admirers. "I'm feeling a bit faint," she admitted to him in a soft voice, making sure only he could hear it. "And things are a bit grey around the edges. It might be best if we retire for the evening." And so they did. They made a round of the room, Aulfr doing just about all of the talking, and then they were out of the hall. They passed by her mess on the way. Someone had removed the body, but there was still a puddle of blood on the floor and large spatters of it on the wall. She'd pretty much torn his throat out with her daggers. A stunt like that tended to make a mess.