[center][h3][b]Zakroti Unalim[/b][/h3]
[sub]Husband of Aymiria Cassiel and Kasari Liesma[/sub][/center]

Kzaar nodded and reached up to his helmet, lowering the visor over his face before turning in place and storming off towards the two guards. He tool his warhammer from his belt and held his shield tightly in the other hand. 

The first of the guards, the shorter of the two, noticed Kzaars approach when he was some 8 meters away and jabbed the other, motioning to him. The guard turned to view the hulking Blackguard and took an involuntary step backwards.

"Is something the matter?" The guardsmen asked, glancing to the warhammer in the Blackguard's hand cautiously, sliding his own hand to his sword.

"On behalf of my Lord Zakroti and his Lady Kasari, I have been sent to speak with you about your mishandling of Lady Kasari." Kzaar replied in a tone that made it quite clear that it would be an extremely unpleasant conversation. The two guards, having regained their wits, were not to be so easily frightened however.

"She was resisting." He commented simply as his friend placed his own hand onto his sword, both ready to draw.

"Runs in her family, her brother tried to stop us too." The second commented as he glanced over to Kasari "She's the one you should be having conversations with." 

"Are you calling her a liar? Do you think my lord would be so easily taken in?" Kzaar questioned, his grip tightening around the hilt of his hammer. The two guards caught the motion and went to draw their swords; Kzaar was quicker however and launched forwards his hammer, catching the first Drakken in the stomach and causing him to double over before smacking him on the back of the head with the hilt of the weapon, sending him sprawling onto the floor.

The second guard had drawn his blade and lunged forwards towards Kzaar, bringing the blade down in a chopping motion. Kzaar dashed to the side to avoid it, ascending several of the steps; The warrior advanced up them towards the Blackguard, bringing his sword in for a slash. Kzaar moved his shield quickly, knocking the blade away before smashing the shield against the guard's face, sending him stumbling backwards against the banister of the stairs. Kzaar seized the opportunity and advanced quickly, flipping the warhammer around and using the hook on the back of the head to smash through the warriors armour and pin his arm against the railing. He brought his hand under the Drakken's groin swiftly and tossed him over the banister, causing his arm to contort at an unnatural angle as the weight of his own body and armour pulled down on it.

"I yield, I yield!" The warrior yelled between cries of agony. Kzaar lifted the hammer away and slid it back onto his belt, causing the warrior to collapse onto the floor below with a clatter, cradling his broken arm. His comrade had managed to clamour to his feet and after taking one look at the Blackguard and his injured ally turned and stumbled away as fast as he could. Kzaar growled and charged down the staircase but was too slow to stop the fleeing Drakken. Instead he turned to the downed guard who was slowly bringing himself to his feet and seized him by the throat, dragging the wounded Drakken back towards Zakroti and his family, coming to a halt in front of them with his arm still clamped around the warriors neck.

"I have brought one of them my liege, the other has given flight." Kzaar said as he forced the warrior to his knees, the man still clutching his arm and moaning in pain whenever he could catch his breath to do so "What would you have me do?"

"I'm sorry! Please, have mercy my lord! My family relies on my wage, I didn't mean to harm your bride!" The warrior begged in between gasps for breath. Zakroti glanced down to him with a cocked brow before looking back towards Kzaar. Zakroti certainly wasn't going to kill the man for making a bruise but he certainly wasn't against dragging out the mans fear for a little longer and giving him a lasting embarrassment that he would have to carry for the rest of his time stationed at the Wroth. Perhaps if he made him beg for forgiveness from Kasari; He'd become a joke in the eyes of his colleagues, thats for certain.

"I don't believe I am the one you should be begging forgiveness of." He said as he turned away again. The guardsmen looked up towards Kasari with begging eyes 

"Please have mercy." He choked from within Kzaar's armoured grasp, terror filling his eyes as he looked up towards Kasari. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry... just let me go! I'll never lay a hand on one of the brides again, I swear, just please don't kill me!"

Ayltam was apparently too interested in what Aymiria was saying to take note of what was occurring only few meters away from her. 

"I would love to hear you play sometime, if I may. I can't play anything, I used to have lessons in playing a lute but I was just hopeless at it. My tutor was no Liiren, I honestly don't think he really wanted to teach anyone anything unless it involved downing ale and pocketing their money."

Her face lit up when Miry had mentioned that she had heard of a Jaelyn Simmerson, only for it to quickly drop when she noted the young girls expression

"What is it? What do you know of Jaelyn?" She asked with a concerned look. Miry proceeded onto another topic and for the time being Ayltam let the issue drop

"My elements? Water and air; Its what my name means to, I was named after my elements. I was strong with them when I was born, the drapes had been badly fitted and I blew them up into the air and drew water from the nearby vase across the room, splashing it across the floor. The midwife had never seen anything like it with any of the other children, most of the time it doesn't even become apparent for the first few years. There are exceptions of course and I was one of them. It made no end of trouble for my nanny, she used to joke that it was a good thing I wasn't fire, lest I set fire to the manger." Ayltam replied with a small smile before continuing into something of a ramble "Of course, its very rare you'll find someone named after their elements today; 'Bal' is still used because its usually easier to tell whether a child has fire as one of its elements because the air may get hotter once its born but even then, more often than not, it is not related to the element at all and is just used for traditions sake.  Everyone got tired of being wrong I suppose and nobody really wanted to wait four or five years to name their child but it was really when Kastaki adopted the more Kalderan naming system but in our language and it became far more common to use names like Silnor and Sancrete. Practically every name is set up on this manner now; Two words joined together are used as a name and so almost every name has meaning to it, usually lets you know what their parents ambitions for them were. It poses other problems too of course, how do you decide which way around to put the elements? If I was born fifteen hundred years ago I would probably be Tamayl and not Ayltam."

"My families estate? Well, I assume you mean specifically my uncles. Its rather nice; There are four major holdings in it, two of which are large towns or cities; Sancreayl and Laloriayl. The former is very beautiful in spring when all the trees blossom. It's Lord is Oiste Paslim; He's always too busy inspecting the new new blades or trying to raise the mining quote but his family is nice. Lady Paslim bakes the best pies this side of the spine. You'll probably spend most of your time with us in Mu'Jupostat; The gardens are beautiful, there are even plants from your lands in there and one of the statues was taken back when the first Reaping happened. There is a library in the keep and the castles archives are hold there as well, save for those entries which were lost or destroyed. I'm afraid I don't know what an orchestra is so I cant tell you. As for your pet I think it will be alright. There have been rabbits there before, I remember when I was about ten we had been eating rabbit for days and I wondered why. Apparently there had been a dramatic increase in their numbers and many had to be culled to stop them from eating all the county crops. So I assume your Bunny will be alright; Just don't let her loose near any of the farms or let her stray into the hounds and she should be fine."

"But really, I want to hear some more about Jaelyn Simmerson; what do you know about her? Did you ever meet her? Is she still alive? Ayltam asked in a serious tone. Then she watched bewildered as the young girl decided that insulting her grandfather was a good way to go. From the look on her face it was obvious that Ayltam wanted to pull Aymiria away and apologise for her behavior but remained rooted to the spot despite her best efforts. Zakroti paused and opened his mouth slightly in shock; What was Miry thinking? This couldn't end well...

"Aymiria, you're talking to a very dangerous man." Zakroti whispered quietly as she turned to face him. She appeared to be- happy that she had said that, as if she was expecting something good to come of it. Zakroti swallowed and glanced over to his grandfather; Nastaki gave a glare that could melt ice to the short Gem before him. He remained completely silent for several seconds before raising his voice to speak in his powerful voice that seemed to fill the air around him with electricity; Zakroti knew it all to well. It was the kind of voice that commanded your attention, the voice that belonged to a leader whose desires were inexorable and whose words could fill men with inspiration- or with dread.

"Zuth Tyrlal; sep geheiz vefia." Nastaki ordered. One of the knights stepped forwards behind the ground girl ans drew his dagger from its sheath. Two other knights stepped forwards and seized her to prevent her from running. Tyrlal placed the blade against Miry's back and slashed down through the fabric of her dress before tearing the cloth from her. "Zuth Norka e Zuth Varlaste, kros geh. Zuth Tyrlal, jusla geh postat." The knights backed away from her save for Tyrlal who turned her to face Nastaki before forcing her to kneel

"She doesn't know what she's saying." Ayltam piped up at last in the young girls defence, but her protests were being promptly ignored by Nastaki. "She's had a long rode and is tired, scared and famished."

"I want you to treat this as a learning experience; You will afford people the respect of their station." Nastaki nodded to Tyrlal who released his grasp on her and seized the ruins of her dress before burning it to a cinder in his hand. The spectacle had drawn the attention of a number of nearby Drakken nobles and guardsmen who were now sniggering at the girls predicament; A few of them had begun making rude comments towards her, some of which ran along the lines of how it was good to see that at least 'some parts of her were reasonably sized', which inevitably drew the counter cries that even those parts were too small.

Zakroti bit his bottom lip as he watched the scene unfold; He daren't intervene as it would likely only incite his grandfather to do something more severe. At the same time, he couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor girl; He doubted she had expected to be stripped and placed on display before a room full of Drakken for making one somewhat insulting remark towards his grandfather. Bit then what had she expected, exactly? Surely there was no way she could have possibly expected this to end well! And here he had thought he might have more trouble with Kasari, at least she wasn't trying to make an enemy of his grandfather.

Nastaki turned away again, this time heading off with his small group of knights and leaving the poor girl to be laughed at and humiliated. Zakroti waited until his grandfather was out of an earshot before speaking

"Ayltam, give her your cloak." He said, causing the young Drakken girl to nod and take the wolfskin travelling cloak from her shoulders, offering it to Aymiria. "I believe the guards will have your belongings in the storeroom by now. I am afraid we must spend more time among the folk of quality later, let us not drag this on too long. Miry, I will escort you up to the room where they keep the brides belongings and we you will meet the others in the banquet hall." Zakroti said as he for Aymiria to follow before heading into the hallway off the side of the claiming chamber; Vain and Gaikus followed after them. Ayltam and the rest of the blackguard turned their attention back towards Kzaar and Kasari to watch the scene unfold.

He knew that a few doors down the corridor was a staircase that led up to the floor where the Drakken kept the Gems belongings before moving them to their husband's room. The Lord began to climb it, leading the young bride into a dark room. A single figure was inside, leaning over the luggage and going through it for any valuables. The moment he noticed the pair in the doorway, he stood up and stuffed the necklace he was carrying into his pocket before approaching the door and trying to pass. 

A looter; Of course. The guards of the Wroth could usually be certain that anything they took wouldn't be noticed until far later, by which point it would be unlikely that they would be caught. It made sense that they would occasionally lift valuables from the luggage of unfortunate Gem Brides. He imagined plenty of young girls found almost all their belongings had been taken once they had arrived back at their husbands holdings.


It became apparent as he approached that while he was armed with a sword, he wasn't armoured in any manner. Zakroti blocked his path, confident that he could intimidate the Drakken.

"Put all you have taken back." He commanded; At first the Drakken appeared inclined to disobey but after a few seconds in which he had likely registered his disadvantage or sighted the two armour clad figures in the hallway behind Zakroti, grudgingly complied with the order and tossed a set of jewels back into the bag he had through rummaging through, muttering as he left. "See if you can find your belongings and get something to wear from them; I'm sorry for my grandfather, I should have warned you that he doesn't take insults lightly. I'm surprised he let you off so easily. What in the world possessed you to say that?" Zakroti asked, leaning against the doorframe and waiting patiently "I'll look away while you change, don't worry." He turned his head to face the wall across from him, able to see the doorway out of the corner of his eye.

[hider Summary]
Kzaar beats up two of the Drakken guardsmen, giving one of them a very nasty broken arm before dragging him back to Zakroti. Zakroti makes the guard beg Kasari for mercy.
Ayltam inquires about Jaelyn Simmerson and talks about home. She also rambles about names.
Nastaki is really pissed and decides to humiliate Aymiria by stripping her naked. Zakroti takes her to get another set of clothes, lest she attend the banquet naked...[/hider]
[@WeepingLiberty][@RomanAria]