For Gertrude's honesty in regards to her status as apprentice to a Witch, which she'd surmised would catch the Moonlit Queen's interest but still agonized over speaking for the repercussions it might have, she had received... a stick. The Moonlit Queen was not forthcoming in telling her what it meant, and while Gertrude wasn't so dull as to think it could be an ordinary stick, it wasn't exactly a covenant. Or was it? She would have to look into it.

She supposed it was never going to be as easy as a simple question and response.

After casting her vote for keeping the cute frog, and not much caring what was given to the Queen's sister, Gertrude spent the rest of her time in the domain examining the stick. She had heard about the masked figure in question, but only second hand from the rest of the knights. Still, the shards of Angroron posed something of an existentially horrifying threat, even to her. Anyone collecting them was most likely up to [i]some[/i] wicked bullshite, but had to be smart and well-connected enough to know of and locate them.

And, perplexingly enough, they had to know of the Duke's history with the Moonlit Queen in order to take advantage of it. Something even the knights hadn't been able to find out from the man's closest confidants. It was a strange intersection of knowledge, to say the least.

---

Once Gertrude returned, she had decided to go back to napping around Candaeln until something bothered her. Gretchen was in the library, doing research in regards to what the stick she had been gifted might be. Gretchen had become somewhat comfortable there, having practically made the place her residence while Gertrude was away. Without her other half's influence, she'd actually become somewhat cordial with the rest of the staff.

Though Gertrude had gotten the message that Arken wanted to speak with her, she didn't want to meet with him at the moment. The man wasn't stupid. He'd probably been able to pick out some weirdness in her magic, and now that he was at Candaeln and knew of Gretchen, his suspicions were probably complete. It wasn't a conversation she particularly wanted to have, but it was probably more dangerous for her to leave it unaddressed. Still...

Was it too much to ask to be left alone?