Any opinion Fanilly could have shared on the proposed courses of action was quite delayed, when she saw Marianne slap the guard captain. Swiftly, she broke away and went right for her.

"D-Dame Marianne!" she called. While... perhaps the guards had not been conducting themselves well in this case, that did not mean this was the time to take up such an action. The guard captain himself looked stunned for a few moments, unsure of how to react after having been slapped in the face. "Whatever they may have done wrong, now isn't the time!"

Doing the first thing that came to mind, she reached out and grasped the older girl's wrist... and winced in pain as she felt an electrical shock travel up her arm. She flinched, and her grip loosened. The older girl was so angry that her body was pouring off mana in the form of her favored attack spell... but still...

"W-we have to focus, Dame Marianne..." Fanilly insisted, as firmly as she could. In spite of the tingling sensation up and down her arm, she tried her hardest to bear it. She didn't want to show that something like that had hurt. She couldn't. "Iron Rose Knights, if you need to prepare do it as quickly as possible. We'll be destroying these conspirators tonight, as soon as we can. Those who desire to can stay behind to guard the Princess."

"W-we... checked every guest," the guard captain said, staring down at his feet in humiliation.

The assassin was writing again.

[i]I don't care what you do with me. Please save Kyphi. I'll accept any punishment you want, please save her.[/i]

The assassin's hands were shaking. Her handwriting reflected this, shaky and muddled. Tears were in her large, crimson eyes once more.

Fanilly wasn't certain how to respond. The Nem had attempted to kill the Princess, and yet it appeared to be due to blackmail... Blackmail by a group that including a creator of abominations. Any believer of the two Goddesses knew that a Necromancer was an enemy of life, that the raising of the dead to be used as mindless slaves was an abomination. Oh, in the past there had been truly repentant former practitioners of necromancy, but those were few and far between.

But the punishment of the diminutive assassin was something the young blonde couldn't begin to think of. Should she even be punished, given the circumstances of her attempt on the Princess's life...?

"... Before... before any of that," Fanilly began, shaking her head to focus her thoughts, "How did you get in here?"

After a moment's pause, the Nem wiped away her tears and wrote again.

[i]Breathing while Walking.[/i]

Fanilly stared in blank incomprehension. Wasn't that something... everyone did?

Anyone more well-versed in the culture and habits of Nem, however, would recognize this. Breathing while Walking was the name of a specific stealth tactic devised by the desert dwelling race. In a land with low amounts of cover, a specific method of breathing and moving one's body had been created to effectively erase the presence of the practitioner. In entering the party, the assassin had become effectively invisible until the hat-wearing figure had specifically drawn attention to her presence from the corner of Fanilly's eye.

[hr]

"... Let's... let's go up to my room," the Princess said, finally, looking away from the ongoing interrogation. She was still scared. She felt her heart hammering in her chest. No-one had ever made an attempt on her life before. Never once had she been in danger of dying. To put it simply Eliabelle was deeply shaken by the experience. And so, returning to her quarters, somewhere she could relax, was all she could think of at the moment.

"They're upstairs. Please, let's hurry, I... I need to take a moment," she continued, looking plaintively at the Iron Roses who had volunteered to guard her as she started towards the back of the room.

[hr]

The barrier, no longer needing to be maintained, collapsed. Court Mage Bethany Ravenwood lowered her staff. In the rapid casting of the barrier spell, she hadn't even broken a sweat. Instead, she turned to face Tiral.

"Borrow whatever notes you like," she said, her tone short and to the point, somewhat jarring with the nervous, shy image she had projected before, "I must make sure the her highness is safe. I have to. My notes are in the desk in the large room to the right of the entrance hall."

With that, the mage turned and hurried(as fast as she could, she was hardly the athletic sort) to accompany the knights and the Princess.