[center][img] https://i.imgur.com/5ILCycx.png[/img][/center]
[hr]

Éliane’s expression darkened as she passed by the dead in the passageways, noting the presence of both Edrenian and Valheimian fallen. How had such a strike force penetrated this deeply into a castle this fortified? Although she hadn’t been the part of the Household Guards that actually guarded the Overseer, she knew enough about castle defense to know that there were precious few ways to reach the protected sections of a keep this easily. Treachery was usually the culprit, and considering how she had been surprised, she had to assume it was so. 

What irritated her, though, was that it was clear that she had missed most of the fighting where she could have made a difference. Moving through the empty corridors, she was merely a witness to the dead and dying. There was no aid that she could render there.

Battle still continued elsewhere, though, and the gunbreaker broke into a sprint in the direction of the telltale report of gunfire. From the way the cracks and pops of bullets began to die out, however, it was clear that she would be coming into a fight that was at its end. 

Bursting into the courtyard of the royal garden, Éliane took a split second to process the scene in front of her. The Edrenian king and knights had obviously been pitted against a significant enemy force, and from the way the men stood, had been assisted by a party of men with familiar uniforms. They were obviously her countrymen from one of the other teams. There was also another group she identified as Team Kirin. From the way the smoke still hung in the air, and the manner in which the knights and gunbreakers swept their weapons over the fallen Valheimians, the fight for the courtyard had ended mere moments ago. 

A bit disappointing, really, even if Jacques and Anne had been avenged by Skaelans. 

For a moment, it looked like her countrymen were talking to those from Kirin when the short exchange suddenly erupted into bared arms. Éliane didn’t know what had happened, but she would always trust her countrymen over the dubious word of a foreigner.

She grinned. Perhaps there would still be a fight after all.

She still had her gunblade out, so with a wind-assisted sprint and a jump, she appeared and pointed the tip of blade at the swordswoman from Osprey that was threatening her countryman in the same manner she had done. It was still coated with the blood from running one of the Valheimians through.

[b]“If you so much as move, I’ll shoot,”[/b] she warned. [b]“I thought everybody was supposed to be allies here?”[/b]

If she wasn’t recognized, then the obvious Skaelan guards’ uniform made it obvious why she had suddenly intervened.