[h2]Tyaethe[/h2]

Sitting around here was making one thing clear, even if it hadn't answered any of the other questions plaguing the vampire: a certain name was coming up [i]far[/i] too often to be reassuring. It wasn't one that the current knights ever had much reason to bring up, and the last time... well, it had been only about a year ago, but that was enough to raise concerns.

But to assuage those concerns, she'd need to find someone involved in administrative work. Who would be responsible for locking up inconvenient items after cataloguing their existence to at least keep track of them. So, either go and get Liliana's attention--she still hadn't returned to front-line duties--on the off chance that she'd opted to go package collecting first thing in the morning and [i]not[/i] spending time with her family... or go find Steffen. He really seemed like the better bet, on top of not being one of the knights she was always faintly annoyed by. Even more, since the duellist had become a mother...

A look around the [i]inside[/i] of Candaeln didn't find her target, so, with a sigh, Tyaethe took a detour to collect something before heading outside.

A few minutes later, there was a cough from behind the Ingvarr. The source? One diminutive vampire, of course, stood under a rather frilly, very pink parasol, eyes occasionally flicking an annoyed glance up at where the fabric blocked the sun.

"Sorry to interrupt your gardening, but did we get [i]another[/i] painting we can't display anywhere?"

It was the first thing that came to mind if it came to Merilia causing trouble [i]now.[/i] Oh, she'd certainly played no end of tricks on people before she stopped hanging around the order, but that stopped being a thing nearly a hundred years ago. Almost all the contact since then had been the occasional painting randomly deposited in a hallway, adding to the ever-growing collection that had started with the portraits of many of the original knights. The pigments had changed over the years, but the shockingly realistic style, the use of protective enchantments in the frames that removed any need for varnish or the like, and the uncanny feeling of depth--honestly, some of the landscapes seemed more like windows, but they were definitely paint on canvas (another clue, rather than wood; she'd always been particular about that)--all spoke of the mage being the source.

Which made getting a lifesized portrait of some extremely foreign girl a [i]very[/i] awkward experience. For one, it had just been sat there most of a day before anyone reported it, and it was a wonder there hadn't been any visitors at the time. Secondly... well, it had been [i]far[/i] beyond the bounds of artistic. Tyaethe honestly couldn't tell if the intent had been to cause trouble, or if Merilia had just sent the thing over by accident... if it had happened [i]again,[/i] that would probably answer the question. And they'd have to stash [i]that[/i] away, too; the amount of effort needed to damage one of them due to the enchantments just wasn't worth it.

[@Conscripts]