Skurr stares at Cassius’s hand for a long moment before recognizing what it means and reaching up to grasp it.  His grip is firm, though his hand seems to tremble. Cassius pulls Skurr up, helping him up from the ground where he sat. The captain offers an attempted smile of reassurance, but it looks and feels more like a forced smile or a grimace. “Rough morning, huh?” The captain’s tone is curt, to the point. 

Skurr doesn’t respond for another long moment while he reaches down and picks up his spear, wiping a little of the mess off of the unusual weapon as he does.  “... Yes.”  The fisherman answers, leaving the air heavy with the weight of what he doesn’t say as his gaze shifts from the man he had tried to help to the newcomer who seems to lack the ability to speak quietly.

Meanwhile, the towering Praelean seems surprised that someone had ignored him. “Excuse me?” he said as he walks over, armor clanking. Cassius’s head turned to him, and he then observes the sword-spear on his back with a mild curiosity - you don’t see that every day. Axes, halberds, warhammers even, sure, but a sword-spear? It’s an oddity, at least for around here.

“As I was saying,” the heavily-armored individual continued, “I see that you have lost men during this battle.” The Praelean pulls his spear from his back holster, and Cassius’s hand had gone to his dagger for just a moment until his rational mind kicked in and realized there was no threat - he was merely showing off his weapon. Cassius cooly pretends he was merely scratching an itch on his side.

“I have a unique set of skill. I know reputation of my nation may have been tainted by the usual visitors you receive. They are criminals. I however, am holy knight of my nation. I have been sent to deliver retribution to such criminals. I will show them the flaming glo-”

“Alright,” Cassius interjects swiftly, raising a hand to silence him. “Alright. We don’t need to hear the rest of your speech.. and we don’t need fighters as of this minute.” He pauses, thinking for a moment. “We could use someone to help the citizens who may be wounded or trapped, though. My men are currently resting, healing, or I would have sent for them to do it.”

The Praelean removes his helmet, gazing down and spending an odd amount of time making eye contact with Cassius. The captain doesn’t avert his gaze, though, even if it is uncomfortable - since he was a child, he’s been told that if you look away when someone looks you in the eye, it means you’re of the unsavory sort, be it a liar or a thief or any other sort of bad or evil. After the long few seconds, however, the Praelean seems satisfied. “You are good man.” The Praelean reached out his hand. “I am Dmitri, knight of Order of Chemjir.”

Cassius takes Dmitri’s hand, mentally shaking the discomfort off his shoulders. “And I, Cassius, a captain of Walcher’s Knights.” He ends that sentence like he’s thinking of adding some other title but... No. No, this stranger can’t know he’s the bodyguard of Lady Maren. Not yet, at least. Not until Dmitri’s proven himself as trustworthy, anyway. He shakes Dmitri’s hand firmly, then lets go with a nod.

Dmitri grinned from ear to ear. “And who is the other?” 

“Skurr Nippled-Bottom… Fisherman.”  Skurr answers softly, straightening his posture and nodding before taking a few steps past the two men.  The lack of company stops him and he turns to look at them, a vague question in his eyes.  “Ready for work?”  Whether he was referring to the same thing that they had been discussing could be guessed at endlessly.

Dmitri nodded sagely. “The people need us!” he pulls on his helm, then performing a salute in which he touches his clenched fist to his chest. “I cannot wait to serve under you, Captain Cassius.” Dmitri says, his voice slightly muffled from the helm. Cassius nods slowly, looking back to the chapel as the two walk away together. 

While the captain was sure that Lady Maren would be safe within those walls, his stomach turned in knots. Why it did so so violently, he didn’t know. Despite his inclination to stay and uphold his duty to Maren, he followed the eager Praelean and the fisherman. It wouldn’t be but an hour, at most. Even if it did take longer, Cassius would leave the two and return to Maren... and have to apologize for such an absence, if he didn’t want to lose his position altogether.

It didn’t take but maybe ten or so minutes of walking before they heard a shrill scream, rushing through the alleyway they were currently in. The trio shot each other a look before breaking into a brisk run in the direction of said scream. Cassius glances back over his shoulder and is pleasantly surprised that, despite that heavy armor, Dmitri is able to keep up.

            In no time, they arrived at a door set into a stone arch. Several bridges, alleys, and a ladder lay behind them, small wonder no raiders had made it here. Over the doorway hung a painted wooden sign of a small cross with steam rising around it, the symbol of an alchemist. The screaming had stopped, unsteady, gut-wrenching sobs taking that place.

    Cassius took to the front of the trio, turning the handle of the door only to find it locked. He turns it again just to be sure it wasn’t simply sticking, or purposefully difficult to open, before he knocks on the door loudly. “Hello?”
[hr][hr]
[b][center]Monika [/center][/b]

   She hit the desk, note crumpled in her hand. Enough. Screaming about this could only be so helpful. Instead, she forced herself to shut up, and got to finding the books that Georges had told her to find.

   She had collected three when she heard a knock at the door. “Nonono, don't open the door, wait a mo-” she dropped her books, causing a short sob to erupt, “wait just a moment!” she called, hurriedly stacking the dropped books in a pile. She stands, and walks to the window just above the doorway, which had been angled so cleverly to allow one to see visitors. 

Warriors. Whose? She didn't know and didn't care to find out without some form of defense. Oil of Vitriol. One vial, placed carefully in her pocket.
   
   She opened the door with an attempt of a smile, but her eyes were puffy, and she still felt horrible. She opened her mouth to say something, but couldn't think of anything to  say.

“Are you alright, ma’am?” asks the soldier in front of the other two, “Are you Injured?”

“I… I don't know. No, no injuries,” she responds, “I just… I don't know what's going on. Who are you three?” 

“I am Cassius,” says the front soldier, “this is Dmitri,” he gestures to his left, and the soldier there took off his helmet, smiling gently, “and this is Skurr,” to his right, “We..” the way he pauses and the amount of time it takes for him to speak again, while short, makes her uneasy. “We’re walking around the city, helping whoever is in need get back on their feet after the attempted raid. We heard a scream, we thought something was wrong.”

She looks down. She had hoped people would come to her aid, but was entirely unsure what to do once they had. “Thank you… yes, it's all okay, just…” she let out a sob, “just nothing,”, she said, hesitantly. She didn't yet know who these people followed, and that could mean death.

Cassius went to take a step back, but he doesn’t walk away. He cups his face with one hand and has a look of deep and concerned thought on his face, standing there in silence for a long, uncomfortable few seconds before he speaks again, “If you wouldn’t mind it, ma’am, we could perhaps keep you company until you feel less tearful?” He tries to smile, but it doesn’t come off right. It looks forced.

She looked up at Cassius, searching his face.  All things considered, he didn't look like he'd hurt her. She took a moment to wipe the tears from her eyes. “Yes, alright. If you wanted to hurt me you could have done it by now. Just give me a minute, I need to gather my things,” she said, before disappearing up the stairs.

She opens her box to pull out her stock list to check what needed refilling, and, refills all the appropriate vials and containers. She sneakily pinches a few extras of the rare ones, thinking [i]Who knows when I'll be back here? [/i]

Slinging the box by its strap over her shoulder and hoisting the small stack of books on top, she potters down the stairs once more. “Thank you kindly for waiting,” The one called Dmitri had been impatiently pacing in the street beyond, but he quickly stood to attention, muttering something in his native language.

“You’re welcome,” Cassius says to her - when she had come down, he stopped leaning against the doorframe. 

She smiled a taut and forced smile, “So where are we going?” she asked, starting out the door and waiting for the others to lead the way. She was hunched and reserved, trying to make herself look small.

Cassius seems to look confused for a moment, but he seems to mentally shrug it off fairly quick, “To the chapel - they have beds, and food, and medicine, if you’re in need of it.”

A collab between [@Ladypug][@YeetMeister][@Haeo], and myself