[centre][h3][color=coral]Lucca the Redeemer[/color][/h3][/centre]

Well...she hadn’t been attacked. That was a plus. Lucca breathed a sigh of relief hearing Katherine  introduce herself...and…Lucca turned her head. Number...thirteen? What was she…

…

Lucca simply gazed at the doll in the girl’s arms. The doll thing that had been moving...that was rather unsettling. Mages were known to be rather eccentric in their ways, and magic itself was said to be fantastical, but Lucca hadn’t much experience around either. Seeing one up close was...odd. She seemed to be no different than any other person on the streets, but there was an underlying discomfort that Lucca felt urging her to perhaps keep her distance. Or at the very least, she’d try not to cross the woman.

…

Alright, to be honest, that had nothing to do with the woman or her status as a mage. Magic didn’t quite bother the young Saint. The dolls on the other hand...creepy. Just...creepy. Lucca had noticed them throughout the caravan, but she hadn’t thought much of them. She dismissed them as some mage’s tools but... for something to move like that, something with no life of its own...it was unnatural. And actually placing a face to the dolls’ master somehow changed things. In some way, she was more of a Master than any whom Lucca had met before: her control over her slaves was absolute. Perhaps it had something to do with the appearance of the dolls. Were they faceless golems or shapeless elementals, Lucca could probably shake it off a bit easier but these...things...they resembled people. In a way.

...oh. Lucca shook her head and shifted her eyes from the doll to Katherine. Did she...oh. Oh no. Lucca had been so preoccupied with the dolls that she had forgotten what she was going to say. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She had completely blanked. Danger. Danger danger. She had nothing and she was just wasting Katherine’s time. Great. She floundered for a bit before finally words came together.

[color=coral]“Err...well…uh...n-no. Terribly s-sorry, ma’am. This one seems to h-have forgotten her place. Apologies.”[/color] she stuttered nervously. Her steed had picked up one her discomfort and was getting a bit antsy herself. Lucca had caught that and worried that should the horse lose its footing, she could potentially injure both herself and the puppetmaster. Lucca offered the woman an uneasy grin and a dismissive nod as she urged her mount to break away from the main wagon. She needed to compose herself and regain control over the beast. 

Well...it hadn’t turned out even remotely like she had hoped, and she might have learned that she was significantly less smooth than she had originally thought, but she had taken baby steps towards her goal. That was at least something, right?

So why did she feel so embarrassed?

…

Lucca soothed the horse as best she could and continued forward. Hopefully they would reach the edge of the forest soon. She would give anything to just build camp and throw herself into her studies right about now...