With that Ophelia received Farren's message, and she, Gerlinde and Torquil went to join him at the Black Church Workshop through the Yharnam Headstone marker. Reunited, they started walking south toward the Industrial Ward.

Things had been quiet as they walked and had it not been a night of the Hunt, it could have been a rather pleasant stroll through the city. Sadly, such a thing was not to be, a fact which was occasionally punctuated by the far off call of a beast or the faint scream of some poor citizen or Hunter. Aside from that there was only the sound of their steady footsteps and the faint breath of the wind. The quiet however, was not entirely a comfortable sort of silence, it felt heavy, and while it certainly could have been from the many burdens set upon their shoulders that night, but to Farren it felt distinctly like something else.
Distance and tension.
Lingering consequences of his argument with Ophelia, consequences he couldn’t address. The fact that she’d not replied to his original message and that they hadn’t spoken since all of them had reunited spoke volumes. Farren sighed and altered his gait slightly until he came in line with Gerlinde.
He’d not break the peace, but perhaps ridding them of this weighty silence would begin to do some good. [color=#1A1A3B][b]“Gerlinde…”[/b][/color] he started, looking thoughtful, his eyes on the road at his feet as they walked, [color=#1A1A3B][b]“...you were held for quite some time. What…what did they do to you?”[/b][/color]
He raised his eyes, turning to meet her gaze, or at least to look at her, taking in any subtle tells he could.

“Hm? Oh, you mean the Byrgenwerth scholars?” Gerlinde said with her usual ceaseless smile, only to then start speaking very quickly and eagerly: “At first they didn't do much, actually, they mostly just came in every few days and examined me and my baby in extreme detail. Did you know that I was pregnant at the time? Anyway, for the first few months they just kept examining me over and over again until I gave birth. Then they examined me [I]really[/I] carefully. They gave me an injection of some kind, and suddenly I was pregnant again! From an injection in my arm! It was really weird and scary, especially because this pregnancy progressed [I]way[/I] faster than it should. Like, I started showing after just three days! And a couple of weeks later I gave birth to something that wasn't really a baby, but rather... some kind of weird blue, sort of baby-like slug-thing?” She giggled. “And then they did that over and over again, so many times I lost count. They kept examining me and giving me injections, and making me give birth to those strange creatures, right up until they stopped visiting. It was only later that I learned they had left me alone because everyone disappeared during the Night of the Blood Moon, and in the meantime I was just in there, with my only company being the last slug-thing I gave birth to.”